Underneath all that snow, bouquets await.

It's not to early to start dreaming of fragrant, locally grown bouquets from Earthworks Gardens.
We will again be offering our bouquet subscriptions that can be picked up at either the field (on a designated day) or at the Saturday Farmers Market in Mankato. More details on this later.

We also have a pick your own for weddings/showers etc., minimum of $100. I am adding a minimum this year for good reason. By the time a person has come to actually 'pick' their flowers, I have usually met with them 1-2 times. Then I also have to develop a price list and map for them or walk them through it all, once, twice sometimes more. Usually during the 'pick' the 'pickers' have one, two, three questions again or more. In other words, I could just 'pick' what they want in about 1/10 the time (or less) then it takes to walk thru all the steps with them. I occasionally do wedding flowers all, or in part. I am also charging a $25 for 1/2 hour consultation on wedding flowers. This I hope will curb the number of people that just want to steal my ideas & suggestions and run off! If a bride wants perfect roses, and plastic looking flowers, I am not your girl. For fresh, local, never sprayed with anything flowers, that would be me.
So please pass on to anyone that might be looking for our products!

Baking Class Openings

Want to learn to make tasty yeast products like breads and sweet rolls? I have 3-4 openings in a potential Feb 5 class. For more details click right hand link. LAST yeast class until fall 2011. If interested, don't delay, call or email and send your check asap.

Hodge Podge about plants.

It's interesting to think that plants have all these parts: roots, stems/vines, leaves, flowers, fruits & seeds. Normally we only eat one portion of any one kind of plant. Aren't we glad all of the food testers of long ago figured out whats good to eat? In a recent post, I listed some for 'fruits' that we eat.

When we eat broccoli or cauliflower, we are eating the flower still in the bud form. When the flower buds open up on the broccoli, in the form of little yellow flowers, it is past it's prime and becomes bitter. Broccoli is an example of the few times we eat 2 parts of the plant, stem & bud.
Beets are another example, greens (leaves) and root.

What part of the kohlrabi do we eat? Not the bulb, although it looks like one, it is actually a 'modified stem.'

How about potatoes? They are tubers which are 'storage organs' for the plant, not the roots.

Many plants are harvested before you see them produce their seeds like lettuce & cabbage.

Plants only purpose in life is to reproduce seeds. We as humans, interrupt their process and grab the part of the plant we like for our dinner table. Aren't plants wonderful?