Shopping

Bears and otters would like you to drink

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When shopping for classy wine, you might be tempted to shy away from bottles festooned with pictures of otters on them, but otters and bears have made the labels of these wine bottles for a good reason.

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Posted by Jessica Armbruster at May 30, 2008 5:05 PM | Comments (0)

 

The Arboretum's own farmers' market

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If you make a trip to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, be sure to stop by the Summer House, a hybrid (sorry!) farmers' market, garden shop, and gift store that sells plants (lots of fruit trees), seeds, gardening tools, plus local meats and cheeses. Fresh produce, supplied by local farmers (including some from the home gardens of arboretum employees) should arrive next week, starting with rhubarb, and shortly after, greens and asparagus.

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Posted by Rachel Hutton at May 23, 2008 6:16 PM | Comments (1)

 

Mill City Market General Store

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One of the Mill City Farmers Market's newest additions is the General Store, located in the back of the train shed near the music/cooking demonstration stage. The store was designed to offer small producers a way to sell their products at the market without having to staff their own booths.

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Posted by Rachel Hutton at May 18, 2008 3:11 PM | Comments (1)

 

Discount Grocery Shopping

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A recent Star Tribune business story suggested sales have been up 25-30% in recent months at a couple of local "salvage" grocery stores, which cull food that mainstream supermarkets are ready to get rid of (often because it's expired or about to expire, the packages are damaged, or the marketing campaigns are over). I visited the So Low Grocery Outlet in north Minneapolis and Mike's Discount Foods in Hilltop and the Aldi on East Franklin to see how the shopping experience compared.

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Posted by Rachel Hutton at May 14, 2008 8:49 AM | Comments (5)

 

What's New at Mill City Farmers Market

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Here's a list of hot new vendors ripped straight from the virtual pages of the Mill City Farmers Market website in the hopes that it'll drive people out to this week's market:

Brewery Creek Farm — bedding plants and a huge diversity of melons

Café Himalaya — Tibetan momo made with local ingredients

Nistler Farms — Asparagus and natural ornamentals

Omely Food — Handmade dim sum featuring market ingredients

The next market (at Chicago Ave. and 2nd St. South between the Guthrie and Mill City Museum) is this Saturday, May 17, and features a rummage sale, live tango music, a cooking demo by Chef Rachel Rubin and a yarn-spinning demonstration. Sign me up for the dim sum and cooking demo, for starters...

Posted by James Norton at May 12, 2008 5:44 PM | Comments (0)

 

Midtown Farmers' Market: Open for Business

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After a long, cold winter (one that seems to be still in the process of begrudgingly releasing its hold on the state), it's nice to get back to the summer and harvest-time normalcy of a good old outdoor farmer's market. Even if you need to wear a coat to stay warm.

The Midtown Farmers' Market opened up this past Saturday, attracting a healthy and enthusiastic crowd. There wasn't much in the way of produce, but meat, honey, egg, baked good and other vendors were present, making the trip well worth the effort. Most critically, a crepe-selling vendor (Creperie Mala) was present, allowing visitors to purchase delectable ramp, ham and gruyere crepes ($4) such as this one:

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Posted by James Norton at May 6, 2008 1:26 AM | Comments (0)

 

In Praise of Rainbow Foods

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I don't mean to circle back to the running theme of moving house from Uptown to Longfellow, but it's hard to avoid. We eat local whether we like it or not, and restaurants and grocery stores are clear windows into what a given neighborhood is really "like."

Along those lines: There were three grocery stores (that I knew of/frequented) in Uptown. Lunds, which was typically frequented by white, well-to-do older people. Kowalski's, which was typically frequented by white, well-to-do younger people. And the ill-maintained Rainbow on Lake Street, which was frequented by... everybody else.

For various reasons, my wife and I eventually wound up doing most of our non farmer's market shopping at a large Cub Foods about four miles to west. This was not an ideal solution.

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Posted by James Norton at May 1, 2008 1:15 AM | Comments (2)