2008 Woodie Awards
Local food brings autumn flavors
Farmers' markets around the area provide fresh and local produce and products to eager customers
Ali Tweten
Issue date: 9/17/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 2 next >
Along with the frigid air and changing leaves comes a desire to bundle up and start baking with the season's produce, but to get the freshest ingredients, a farmers' market is the place to go.
At the farmers' market in the Bremer Bank parking lot in St. Cloud, shoppers can find an assortment of fruits, vegetables and meat every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.
"This is our 24th year of business," said Shirley Klatte, of Eathberry Farms in Kimball, Minn.
Klatte, who started the market, grows vegetables and "a lot of fruit."
Both young and old shop the market, browsing under the colorful tents that are easily seen from Division Street.
Everything from yak meat to flowers, honey and natural beauty products can be found at this particular farmers' market.
Patty Scott, of St. Cloud, has sold caramel and flavored popcorn here for three years.
"I make all my popcorn one batch at a time," Scott said. "I've made it for 20 years, and my kids told me to market it, so I called the owners, and they said I could sell it."
What attracts customers, the merchants say, is the quality food.
"It's fresh. A lot of the growers pick their produce the day before they sell it," Klatte said.
Reasons to shop at a farmers' market include nutrition, supporting the local economy and being environmentally friendly.
"Most of our farmers are biological farmers," Klatte said. "They don't use many herbicides and pesticides."
Pete and Elaine Trutwin shop at farmers' markets often because they said it tastes a lot better than what is at the grocery store.
Both raised on farms, the Trutwins are partial to farm-grown food.
"A lot of what's at the grocery store just tastes blah," Elaine Trutwin said. "The food is so much better when it comes from a farm."
They also come to the market to find items the grocery store doesn't have.
"We bought tomatoes today, but we like to buy yellow beans here because they're hard to find at grocery stores," Pete Trutwin said.
At the farmers' market in the Bremer Bank parking lot in St. Cloud, shoppers can find an assortment of fruits, vegetables and meat every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.
"This is our 24th year of business," said Shirley Klatte, of Eathberry Farms in Kimball, Minn.
Klatte, who started the market, grows vegetables and "a lot of fruit."
Both young and old shop the market, browsing under the colorful tents that are easily seen from Division Street.
Everything from yak meat to flowers, honey and natural beauty products can be found at this particular farmers' market.
Patty Scott, of St. Cloud, has sold caramel and flavored popcorn here for three years.
"I make all my popcorn one batch at a time," Scott said. "I've made it for 20 years, and my kids told me to market it, so I called the owners, and they said I could sell it."
What attracts customers, the merchants say, is the quality food.
"It's fresh. A lot of the growers pick their produce the day before they sell it," Klatte said.
Reasons to shop at a farmers' market include nutrition, supporting the local economy and being environmentally friendly.
"Most of our farmers are biological farmers," Klatte said. "They don't use many herbicides and pesticides."
Pete and Elaine Trutwin shop at farmers' markets often because they said it tastes a lot better than what is at the grocery store.
Both raised on farms, the Trutwins are partial to farm-grown food.
"A lot of what's at the grocery store just tastes blah," Elaine Trutwin said. "The food is so much better when it comes from a farm."
They also come to the market to find items the grocery store doesn't have.
"We bought tomatoes today, but we like to buy yellow beans here because they're hard to find at grocery stores," Pete Trutwin said.