Last Kingfield/Fulton Winter Market at Bachman's Saturday

Farmers markets hosting indoor event at Lyndale Ave. garden center.

The season's final winter market is Saturday, March 23, 2013, 9 a.m.–2 p.m., at Bachman's, featuring a long list of food and other items—brought to you by the Kingfield Farmers Market and Fulton Farmers Market. Winners of a Facebook poll to determine a pair of local beers at the event are Indeed Brewing Company's Daytripper Pale Ale and Moojoos Oatmeal Milk Stout from Brau Brothers Brewing Co. Here is the full list of vendors at the March 23, 2013 Winter Market:

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Locally Grown Dinner Party Benefits Kingfield Community Gardens

Where "passing the salad" almost means reaching into the lettuce patch next to your seat.

A new fundraiser for Kingfield Community Gardens attempts to demonstrate the benefits of eating local in the most literal sense. Garden to Table is a monthly dinner party featuring produce from the Kingfield Community Pleasant Avenue Garden. Each party is held in the garden itself at West 38th Street and Pleasant Avenue. “I think it’s a wonderful gathering space for people,” said Suzie Lillyblad-Larson, who is the Pleasant Avenue garden coordinator. Garden to Table was inspired by a 12-course dinner Lillyblad-Larson hosted on Halloween 2011, which included ingredients from the community garden. “The setting sounded great,” said Lynn Smith, who attended the first Garden to Table event, which was held in July. “It was just really peaceful.” …

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Will New Linden Hills Farmers Markets Hurt Fulton, Kingfield?

Summer will be a key test.

Last week's news that Linden Hills will get its own farmers market, courtesy of Tilia's Steven Brown, brought cheers from neighborhood foodies.  While the Linden Hills and Fulton markets will be on different days of the weekend, will the new market draw off customers from its older neighbor six blocks away? "We hope not. Can't be sure until the season starts," wrote David Brauer, chair of the board that manages the Kingfield and Fulton markets. "We've got a great year under our belts, and we'll have more vendors, activities and sponsors this year, so we have to build off that and our strong community roots." Brown and Brauer both said they think the "pie" of potential farmers market customers is still growing. "Without sounding too …

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Southwest Market Regular Gets Food Truck

Foxy Falafel was a fixture at last year's Kingfield Farmers Market.

With winter gone, many Southwest Minneapolitans are likely chomping at the bit in anticipation of the start of farmers market season—and the warm weather can't be helping anything! However, one of the regular vendors at the Kingfield Farmers Market looks like they're moving up in the world. Foxy Falafel, the falafel-kombucha-smoothie stand announced Sunday that they've just bought a food truck.  "Guess what! Foxy got a food truck and is driving it from Kansas City as we speak! So excited," tweeted Foxy owner and personal chef Erica Strait. Strait, who started her culinary life in her mom's South Dakota farm kitchen and learning to use food as medicine in New York City, hasn't said yet where she hopes to sell this year. No word, either on …

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Could Supermarkets Hold Farmers Markets?

City officials are looking at a nonprofit model.

After years of working with the city's farmers markets, Councilmember Cam Gordon (Ward 2) has rolled out a package of proposed changes to the way such markets are regulated. Southwest's market organizers say they will benefit from the changes, which would require markets to be nonprofit and abide by certain health and safety rules. "This is a good step forward," said Kingfield Farmers Market board chair David Nicholson. "This will raise our profile as important public asests." At their core, the ordinance changes are designed to assuage fears that expanded farmers markets could turn into flea markets and, at the same time, protect local growers from being run out of business by produce wholesalers. Under proposed changes, produce …

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Ever Ordered Honey By Bicycling Delivery Bee?

Delivering local honey, Kristy Allen gives Galactic Pizza's crew a run for their money in creativity.

When walking by Kristy Allen’s booth at Kingfield Farmers Market you can’t help but notice a bicycle painted like a bee. Beside it is a small, and equally striking, chuckwagon-shaped bike trailer that sports a stinger. The trailer goes by the name "the honey buggy" and is used to transport honey around the city to various events. “This whole thing was kind of a happy accident,” Allen said speaking of how her delivery business, The Beez Kneez, got started. After dressing like a bee for Halloween and needing to repaint her bike for winter, Allen came upon the idea of painting her bike like a bee. This inspired Allen to start delivering the honey she harvests from her uncle’s ranch in Squaw Lake, Minnesota dressed in bee costume. “It’s pretty…

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Dispatches: The Changing American Dream

Dispatches: Launching A New (Urban) Farm In A Down Economy

Local growers Karla Pankow and Elizabeth Millard are going after their dream with gusto.

Conventional wisdom holds that flashmobs have few agricultural applications. Useful for protesters, for rioters, or practical jokers, sure, but who'd think that social media-powered organic farming would work? Local urban farmers Karla Pankow and Elizabeth Millard, that's who. They've decided they could use a few flashmobs to help their fledgling organic farm business, called Bossy Acres, get off the ground. So, on Saturday, a few dozen of their farm's friends and supporters will descend on their acreage in Dayton to help weed and generally prep the land for its first planting. Organized through Facebook (and an old-fashioned email listserv), this "crop mobbing" means they will eventually be able to get a much bigger crop in the ground …

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Apple Bake-Off a Hit at Kingfield Farmers Market

This month's bake-off at Kingfield Farmers Market brought a bounty of apple-themed desserts.

As Sunday morning started to heat up, Kingfield Farmers Market volunteers faced a hungry crowd as they waited anxiously for the sixth entrant to arrive at their apple bake-off. Eyeing the five other contestants' goods, amateur judges of all ages were getting impatient for their first bite.  As soon as people saw Kingfield volunteers cutting up the baked goods they moved in, pressing closer to the booth. By 10:30, the designated start time for eating and judging, a line had formed. Each person's $5 judging fees were burning holes in their pockets. The bake-off fundraiser for the market happens every second Sunday. The key ingredient is chosen by seasonality, making apple an obvious choice for September. The rules for bakers are simple: use …

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Local Growers: Yer Yang Produce

Yer Yang Produce offers classic Minnesota vegetables and stunning flowers at Fulton and Kingfield Farmers Markets.

In the early morning when few shoppers are even awake, Yer Yang's Produce stand at Fulton Farmers Market is already busy. A chef from Broder's stops by to pick out leeks for a cooking demonstration and a woman debates whether to buy orange or purple carrots. “Have you tried the purple carrots?” Anna Yang asks, “I hear they're supposed to be sweeter.” Convinced, the woman chooses a rainbow bunch of carrots. Anna Yang, a 15 year old from St. Paul, minds the Yer Yang booth with her family and helps with farming when she is not in school. Yer Yang's Produce does brisk business at both Fulton and Kingfield Farmers Markets. The produce the family grows comes from two plots of rented land in Anoka and Rosemont. Yer Yang's booth is located on the …

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Mastering Any Garden

Gardening experts from the UofM hit Kingfield every Sunday.

This time of year is busy at the Kingfield Farmers Market. Crowds of people fill the market every Sunday to enjoy the weather, shop for vegetables and eat delicious snacks. But what some might not know is that, in addition to buying veggies at the Kingfield Market, you can also get advice on growing them. At the front of the market, to the side of the booth that sells Kingfield Market merchandise, sit two Minnesotans skilled in the ways of the soil and their stacks of reference books. On Sunday, Chip Abernethy and Melinda Ludwiczak manned the booth. Both are Master Gardeners in Hennepin County, and have gone through training at University of Minnesota and numerous hours of volunteer service. They serve as ambassadors and educators to local…

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