Tis' the Season for Urban Roots Preserves!
At the end of each growing season, interns and staff at Urban Roots develop and process preserves to sell in our Market Garden Program, long into the winter months. It is a great way to utilize surplus, late-season harvests from our gardens with crops such as heirloom tomatoes, poblano peppers, jalapenos, garlic, onions, apples and more. With garden flavors highlighting each recipe, we source-in citrus, vinegars and spices to transform each product into a delicious small-batch preserve. We source organic and sustainable products and this year, in order to increase production of our apple butter beyond the apples grown in our small orchard, we purchased local, tart apples from Hoch Orchards in LaCrescent, MN. Another exciting new product for sale, sourced from our Conservation Program hives……..for the first time ever……Raw Honey! We partner with Pollinate Minnesota to manage urban honeybee hives at our office demonstration site, utilizing the hives as an educational tool across all three programs.
This year’s tasty, small-batch preserves are: Salsa Verde, featuring roasted tomatillos, poblano peppers, garlic, onion and cilantro with a tangy lime and pepper kick. Next up, Spicy Tomato Jam, featuring heirloom tomatoes, serrano peppers and ginger with a spicy, sweet flavor. Our Spiced Apple Butter features tart apples, cardamon, clove and brown sugar for a sweet, fruity, spreadable treat! The Raw Honey has been hand-processed on site and is Grade A for amazing!
The Market Garden crew sells our products at the Mill City Farmers Market Winter Markets through March. If you are interested in purchasing our products, the market would be a festive stop to pick up some Urban Roots preserves and other delicious local foods from a variety of market vendors (full vendor list available on the MCFM website). Winter Market dates are Saturdays, from 10am-1pm on the following 2017 dates: 1/14, 1/28, 2/11, 3/4, 3/11 and 3/25.
For those interested in purchasing preserves before the holidays for gifts and entertaining, we will have two open office dates on December 19 from 9am-1pm & December 21 from 1pm-5pm for you to pop in and shop! Please call our number on the front door when you arrive. We accept cash, checks and all major credit cards for payment. Happy eating this holiday season!
