Sampling local food at Homegrown Experience

I sampled some delicious locally produced food, wine and coffee today at The Homegrown Experience at the Nicollet Island Pavilion.

The event was run by Minneapolis’ park board and focused on  ”connecting people to the land and providing healthy and enjoyable experiences.” I spent two hours working for Simple, Good and Tasty, which aims to connect people with food that is good both ethically and taste-wise.

Wine: I sampled five wines and enjoyed two of them: Gold from Stillwater’s Northern Vineyards Winery is a sweet apple-tasting wine, and Relativity from New Ulm’s Morgan Creek Vineyards is a crisp semi-sweet white wine. Morgan Creek has a delicious-sounding farm-to-table dinner coming up in September.

Tomatoes: OK, I don’t like tomatoes. But they are kind of hard to avoid at food events in August. So I had a few bites. I’m trying to like them. But I still don’t. I did like what they were served on at two places. Common Roots Cafe had theirs on a nice homemade focaccia bread with basil pesto (among other options). Another offering was a collaboration from some Midtown Global Market vendors: tomatoes from Produce Exchange, baguette from Salty Tart, Donnay Goat Cheese and Prairie Pride bacon.

Sweets: I had some good baklava from Safaa’s Desserts in Minneapolis, a delicious caramel and dark chocolate apple from Groveland Confections, and several AMAZING chocolate sauces from River Chocolate Company, which is based in River Falls, Wis., but sells at many Twin Cities farmers’ markets.

Rhubarb: I love rhubarb. I’d eat it every day if I could. I sampled a rhubarb wine that I didn’t care for. And I sampled a rhubarb ginger jelly that I liked so much I forked over $7 for a jar. It was from HealthGlen’s Farm Kitchen, based on a Forest Lake farm but sold at farmers’ markets.

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I never got around to blogging about the Real Food MN event I went to in Lowertown St. Paul in July. It fits in with today’s event, so here are a few things I learned there during a farmers’ market tour with caterer Molly Hermann of Tastebud Tart:

• Simply Gelato has wonderful lemon sorbet and salted caramel gelato, and I’m sure the other flavors are great too. It’s made by a mother-daughter team in Oakdale and is  only available at farmers markets.
• I like raw beets, which Molly mixed with raw corn and a yogurt pesto dressing! Who would have guessed?
• Eichten’s Hidden Acres has tons of flavored Goudas and even cheese spreads. The milk is from a nearby farm’s grassfed cows. Check Eichten’s out on Unwrapped.
• Prairie Pride Farm of Mankato has pork with no nitrates, nitrites or MSG. They ship nationwide and sell in St. Paul, Lakeville and Burnsville. I’m a big fan of them as I have MSG sensitivities. I’ve had their cinnamon bacon, chorizo, wild rice sausage and old-fashioned wieners. All were delicious.
• I really enjoyed a giant fresh raspberry muffin from St. Paul Classic Cookie and the Twin Cities blend coffee from Peace Coffee with  fresh cream from Cedar Summit Farm.

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