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Meet the market: A market debut for two apple lovers
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By Zoie Glass
Apple season is in full swing and Sweetland Apple Orchard owners Gretchen and Mike Perbix are in their debut season at the Mill City Farmers Market.
They are new to the orchard business and Sweetland Orchard is the new name for the established orchard that they bought, Bob’s Bluebird Orchard in Webster, Minn.
“We became interested in orchard ownership a number of years ago when family friends who run an orchard mentioned their interest in retirement,” said Gretchen Perbix. “We thought for a while that we might be able to buy their orchard but by the time we figured that it wouldn’t work out, we were already committed to the idea. We were interested in how we would be able to make a living while living a rural lifestyle and being as self-sufficient as possible.”
With that in mind the Perbixs set about looking for the right set up to fulfill their dream. “One of the things about Bob’s orchard that was attractive to us is that his approach to apple growing was different than other orchards we’d been to,” she said. “Instead of growing 10–16 varieties, predominantly developed by the U of M, Bob has planted over 50 varieties of apple trees not to mention plums, pears, cherries and apricots.”
This means that the couple have a larger selection of early fall apples then many orchards in the area.
Gretchen shared a story about earlier this season: “At our first market last week, we had eight apple varieties plus pears, which is a lot more than most apple growers have at this time of the year. Folks would approach our table and say, ‘Wow — I’ve never heard of any of these kinds of apples before. In one week, we’ve already been able to introduce so many people to new varieties of apples, and that’s what we’ll be doing all season long. We have everybody’s favorite varieties — Zestar, SweeTango, Honeycrisp — but we have a lot of older varieties, too, that have a lot in their favor.”
Gretchen, who also works as a teacher, and Mike both have backgrounds in education and are excited to add that element to their orchard.
“Besides doing tours at the orchard, we’d like to develop ways of prompting people to think about apples differently,” she said. “We also want to do something educational related to cider. We also believe that an apple orchard can be a great place for family and friends and in addition to the educational things we’d like to do, we’re also hoping to do things like have apple-picking parties.”
Sweetland Orchard products are available each week during the fall at the Mill City Farmers Market. They are a great example of how the market changes as the produce changes during our Minnesota growing season.
Zoie Glass owns the Mill City Farmers Market vendor Lucille’s Kitchen Garden.
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Apple Crisp
Ingredients:
— 6 cups sliced apples
— 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
— 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons white sugar
— 1 tablespoon cornstarch
— 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
— 1/3 cup ground flaxseed
— 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
— 1/3 cup quick cooking oats
Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine apples and lemon juice in a baking dish, coated with nonstick spray, and toss gently to coat.
3. Combine sugar, cornstarch and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Stir with a whisk to blend.
4. Add cornstarch mixture to apple mixture and toss well to coat.
5. Combine flax, remaining cinnamon, brown sugar, and oats in a separate bowl. Sprinkle evenly over apple mixture.
6. Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until apples are tender and topping golden brown.
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Mill City Farmers Market
When: Saturdays, 8 a.m.–1 p.m. (thru mid-October)
Where: Chicago and 2nd Street South (between the Guthrie Theater and the Mill City Museum)
Website: millcityfarmersmarket.org
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Combating cancer
UPDATED August 30, 2010, 11:42am
By Dylan Thomas
Decorated in neutral tones and blond wood flooring, the infusion room at the Hennepin Comprehensive Cancer Center was designed to feel calm and welcoming to the roughly 500 patients who receive chemotherapy treatments there each year. Center Manager Kelly Porter said one session may run up to six hours, so patients — who receive their infusions in recliners in one of 11 small patient bays ringing the room — are made to feel comfortable. They read, watch TV or, like 48-year-old Desiree Jackson of Minneapolis, three months into chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer in March, simply relax as much as possible. “I just try to nod off a little,” Jackson said. “I just like to get it done and over with.” From his desk in the center of
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The poison patrol
UPDATED August 30, 2010, 11:39am
By Dylan Thomas
A typical call to the Hennepin Regional Poison Center begins at a home on laundry day. A parent pours out a cup of bleach, preparing to add it to the wash. The phone rings and the parent leaves to answer it. A child reaches up for cup of the clear liquid. We’ll let poison center Managing Director Debbie Anderson take over from here: “A child takes a swig [and] they immediately throw up. So, what do parents do? They panic; they call 911.” Anderson said that call would be patched through to her call center in HCMC, where a staff of specially trained pharmacists and pharmacy students take calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The staffer would assure the parent vomiting was
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Savvy about sleep
By jake weyer
There’s little question that folks today are hooked on finding ways to stay awake. The massive collection of energy drinks on display in a room at the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center is a testament to that. Voluntary sleep deprivation, not surprisingly, is the most common cause of drowsiness during the day. Neurologist Mark Mahowald, director of the center, sees it all the time. “People always ask, ‘well how do you know if you’re sleep deprived?’ Our first question is, ‘do you use an alarm clock to wake up in the morning?’ If you use an alarm clock, you are by definition sleep deprived because if your brain had collected as much sleep as it needed, you would have awakened before the alarm went off,” he said.
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Triage time
By Sarah McKenzie
No one wants to end up here. But if you do end up in HCMC’s Emergency Department, you’re in place that has a long and successful track record in trauma care. The department, housed in the hospital’s Red Building, 730 S. 8th St., takes up an entire city block and has six specialized team centers. In 1989, HCMC became the first hospital in the state certified as a Level I Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons. The distinction means that the hospital has significant operating room capacity and surgeons available to deliver emergency medical care trained in a variety of specialties. The hospital’s Emergency Department is the busiest in the state with more than 100,000 visits a year, said Michelle Noltimier, director
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Fruit-themed hallways and anti-smoking posters
By Cristof Traudes
Welcome to the part of HCMC that handles severe accidents but also cuts, scrapes and bruises, the part that deals with burn victims and pregnancy but also tonsil trouble and literacy. This is “peeds” — as staffers of pediatrics call it — where health care is only half of the story. Anybody up to age 18 is sent to the department and sometimes 21-year-olds are, too. As a result, peeds is set up much like a tentative parent — to entertain and educate wee ones but steer clear (as much as possible) from stepping on the toes of teens. It’s a department with yellow walls and fruit-themed hallways in one section and sleek grey walls and self esteem-boosting posters in another. Every child that walks through the door is given a
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Politics. Change. Prevention.
By Cristof Traudes
// Art Gonzalez talks about the health care landscape, General Assistance Medical Care and the future //
Art Gonzalez, CEO of Hennepin County Medical Center, sees change on the horizon. More than just health insurance is getting an overhaul; the way hospitals will be graded on success is, too. In the second and final part of his interview with the Downtown Journal, he talks about what that means for HCMC right now and what it will mean down the road.
Downtown Journal: What’s your sense of state leaders’ views of HCMC?
Gonzalez: I get the impression that we’re well known and well regarded. They recognize the impact that we provide in the region.
Obviously, the
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More than one way to give birth
By Sarah McKenzie
Hennepin County Medical Center is home to the state’s first Nurse-Midwife Service. Since 1971, midwives at the hospital have been helping women have natural birth experiences. Rita O’Reilly, director of the hospital’s Nurse Midwife Service, said HCMC practices the “true midwifery philosophy.” “We believe in the normal birth process; keeping birth as natural as possible,” she said. “We discourage elective inductions of labor without a medical indication. We encourage families to be participants in the decision making affecting their pregnancy, labor and births.” The hospital’s nurse midwives deliver more than 800 babies each year. The nine-bed unit’s cesarean section rate is 12.7
Full Article
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