Great Scene at Mill City Market- Mpls

[faith]

Hi hounds-

Not being an early riser, I hadn't gotten myself over to Mill City Market this year until today- only had an hour and was wishing I had more time- there is SO MUCH cool stuff there! Had to run into the Guthrie to get a supply of cash. I love all the great artisan products and organic food court offerings as well as the gorgeous organic produce. There were people selling meat and veggie momos (not from any restaurant but they looked good), dim sum! including some veggie bao and veggie tempura (I know tempura isn't officially dim sum but it was there), Chef Shack with the best bison burger I have had in some time, and homemade vanilla goat milk ice cream that was excellent- I asked for a little sample of coffee from another place and put that on the ice cream--- yum-o. Black Cat was selling some plates of juicy looking ribs,and veggie burgers, Lucille's jams had ritz crackers with samples of about 5 homemade jams, all outrageous- like strawberry basil, garlic pepper, weird sounding but amazing... Several artisan cheese makers offering samples....really you could have lunch just on the samples. I tasted some incredible goat cheese called 'Cedar' and by the time I got back to buy some they had sold out of it, this was Love Tree Farmstead- they have won numerous awards for their goat sheep and cow's milk cheeses.
I was kind of hoping to see Rising Sun Farms there so I could joke about the recent heavy table story on their....uninhibited...farming practices. But they weren't at the market.
I have only scratched the surface....just get down there, Sat. 8-1 - oh yeah there was a little petting farm with some very cooperative goats who allowed cute little kids to pet them.

website for the market: http://www.millcityfarmersmarket.org

[Foureyes137]

We were also there Saturday morning to pickup discounted herb plants (which we found in abundance and in terrific shape) and grocery as well as the Red White & Blue Danish popover things....and to listen to a rooster crow as well.

Did anyone else pickup the under-60 day cheese being sold as "fish-bait"? Goodness it is terrific. We also picked-up their raw cow's milk aged offering but I cannot recall the name of the dairy! And of course we couldn't leave without Shepard's Way bleu.

One stand staffed by hunky fellows (my wife insisted we go to this stand) had super-spicy/fresh arugula and beets that we've been eating the last few days.

Also, cheers to these guys for asking for feedback, The two girls administering the survey were very nice and patient with my inability to think of an improvement.

[tex.s.toast]

The raw milk cheeses labeled fish bait were from Love Tree Dairy mentioned upthread. judging by the tastes we got they were good, but that extra-aged cheddar was superlative.

[cheeseguysgirl]

They also cloth-wrap their cheddar (I believe Mary does not make it, but rather ages it in her caves), more in the English style, which is why the taste is so different from American cheddars, closer to a parm in its sharpness and crumbly texture.

[faith]

To anyone who finds this market unpleasant for any reason, please take your business elsewhere, leaves more for me! And I don't understand the criticism about there needing to be more produce than other stuff--exactly how much kale do you think everyone needs? I love the diversity and find it much more pleasant and fun than Cub or even the Wedge....

[kevin47]

Wife and I went this morning. I thought the balance of produce/prepared foods/crafts was spot on. Everyone sharing samples was generous and ready to explain their stuff, which is the way it should be if you are offering samples.

The Shepherd's Way cheese was delicious. I got some great looking kohlrabi and carrots. And yeah, if you want kale, um, there's plenty.

It's not a great spot to buy in bulk (for pies, salsas etc...), and the prices a bit steep on certain items. I'm willing to pay, though, for the assurance that everything is locally grown.

[tex.s.toast]

And todays chef demo's were pretty fun, informative and tasty as well. Plus during Tim McKee's he passed around the new Sea Change menu and talked about the concept, overall a lovely (and very busy) morning.

Chef Shack was busy (and delicious) as ever, finally got around to trying the beet ice cream which i thought was good but probably not worth spending another 5 dollars on again- some bites were beetier than others and it had a delicious, unctuous fatty mouth feel, but ill be saving my calories for more of their delicious savory treats.

[AnneInMpls]

I was at the Mill City Farmer's Market yesterday, too! Like faith, I don't usually get up early enough (and I hate battling the mid-day crowds), but visiting family was our excuse to get up and scurry to the market.

I thought there were too far many artsy-craftsy stands and prepared food stands - only about 1/4 or 1/3 of the stands had "raw ingredients" (produce or meat), but there was a decent selection/variety considering the small size. The produce is expensive - oh, so expensive! - but I like that it's organic, local, and of very high quality.

We bought some fabulous strawberries, lovely kale from the loon people, sugar snap peas from a mom-and-pop stand, bread from BC2 (they make the best whole-wheat cinnamon-raisin bread!) and creamy fresh sheep cheese from Love Tree Farmstead.

I had a nice chat with the Ames Honey person, and tasted plenty of samples, but I have 5 jars of the stuff at home, so I didn't buy any more yesterday. I will, however, pick up some of the Alfalfa honey as soon as I have room in my cupboard.

And I was glad to see the stand with the fabulous Birchberry wild rice (I have tons of this, too, else I would have bought some).

Of course, we succumbed to various treats, like the spiced mini doughnuts (love that touch of salt!) some FABU macaroons from Sweets Bakeshop, a lovely berry pie from an unlabeled booth, and a bunch of lavender from the charming chocolate-trianges guy. And our visitors bought a flour-sack apron (sigh....).

So I think it's a great place to take visitors - after the market, you can visit the Guthrie's Endless Bridge, tour the Mill City Museum, explore the mill ruins park, and walk across the Stone Arch Bridge - but I wouldn't shop there on a regular basis (unless I could get up early enough to score a flank steak from the beef stand).

Anne

[tex.s.toast]

Couldn't agree with you more, Anne (and faith and sk). As part of our weekend of hosting/exceptional eating we stopped off at mill city two weeks ago.

as mentioned, the love tree folks are super nice, and we picked up a 10 dollar piece of their extra-old cave-aged raw-milk goat cheddar (personally, if they were to increase production to the point of needing to name this cheese id say they should call it the extra-modifier or something) but it was GOOD, super deep and salty way closer to most parms than cheddar but totally delicious.

I thought the prices were high compared to local farmers markets for produce but the quality and connection was there to back it up (i love buying greens from the hmong farmers at university and dale, but its not a place id ask detailed questions about farming practicies).

that loon kale anne mentions was really good and came in very large 2 dollar bunches.

on the prepared food front the abelskivers people were making strawberry ones in addition to the apple and they were amazing.
mini donuts were great as well, everyone loved the humongous condiment bar and friendly attitude (and awesome food) at chef shack - we got the tongue tacos, pork nachos, a hot dog and the donuts, and everything was great.

on the way out my dad insisted on an order of veggie momos and i was very glad he did- they were very tasty and light but complex at the same time, and street dumplings are such a brilliant idea.

we also picked up a 15 dollar whole blueberry crumb cake for later which was good, with a nice, thick streussel topping, but the cake beneath was the tiniest bit dry, easily fixed with some sauce and ice cream.

[kevin47]

Wife and I will be paying a visit, and were thinking of making an early morning trip of it. Is everything generally available between 9-10 that is available during peak timing?

Also, with farmer's markets around here, how significant is the official "Minnesota Grown" label? Are the Hmong farmers pulling one over on us by selling regurgitated goods from Rainbow and Cub (I realize that many booths display their resale licenses to make it obvious), or are they just not integrated into the system?

What do you guys look for when deciding whether you can trust a produce vendor?

[Foureyes137]

Dirt under their fingernails. In all honesty, we ask, "did you grow this?" So far everyone is very forthcoming, at least at the MPLS Farmers Market and Mill City.

[faith]

I am fairly certain that at this particular market the vendors are carefully screened to be either organic, local,and/or sustainable, and that the people selling the fresh produce are indeed the growers of said produce. Not so sure I'd count on that at the regular Mpls market.

[Foureyes137]

There was a stand selling strawberries out of boxes quite clearly marked "California" last weekend (at the stand right next to the info booth no less), so I wouldn't bet on that screening process being too stringent.

On the bright side, the local strawberries being sold at about 4 other vendors looked and smelled FAR better than the carpet-bagging berries.

[karykat]

Really?! California?

I think I'll stick to the St. Paul farmers market, where -- I understand -- vendors have to produce food from within a certain (not that large) radius of the city.

(Except maybe to check out some of those prepared food vendors at Mill City.)

[getgot211]

they could just be re-using boxes. many of the vendors in St.Paul use egg cartons from all sorts of brands.

[Foureyes137]

Feh, considering there were 5 booths selling strawberries and one had non-locals, I wouldn't punish the rest of the great farms that sell there.

[millcity]

Thanks everyone for their posts about Mill City! Our market does require all produce vendors to be local and all vendors selling prepared foods to be sourcing ingredients locally. We also focus on organic and sustainable. The strawberry stand near the info booth was Svihel Vegetable Farm located in Foley, MN and they grow their own produce here in Minnesota- just like all of our produce vendors. Please reference our website for vendor information under the "growers and vendors" link or refer to our contact information, I welcome any questions at our info@ address. Feel free to come talk to the farmers themselves any Saturday! -Mill City Market Mgr.

[jim n]

When I used to work in produce at a big box store, people always wanted strawberry cases to store and carry there own homegrown produce. Sounds to me like they got a good hookup so they don't have to purchase boxes.

[karykat]

This is all good to know. So I will not judge and be misled by the boxes.

[soupkitten]

one of the newer products there is the salmon. had some grill-seared last night before the fireworks and it was stellar, worth the $14.99/lb.

gardens of eagen is also selling at their own booth this year, the loon organics farmers bought a bigger farm. yay! yesterday i bought new potatoes, beautiful spring onions, basil, spearmint, snap peas, daikon, organic red cabbage. seems like everyone else was buying strawberries. there's a lot of artsy/craftsy, yeah. but the produce that is there is *very* good and there is good variety, and i love talking with the farmers. if they have time to talk to you, you can learn a lot about food.

[cheeseguysgirl]

So nice to hear about all the diversity. We stopped going last year because they had so many non-food offerings, like hand-made jumpers, purses, etc. For us, there should be much more food than crafts. Good to hear about the growth-- I will try to drag CG over there soon. Our favorite vendor is Shepherd's Way Farms. They consistently win awards at the American Cheese Society Conference for their sheep milk cheeses (my favorites are their Big Woods Blue and Friesago, which btw was the cheese that CG brought me on our first date), and they are working SO hard to rebuild their farm after the arson several years ago.