Blue Barrel Produce
Blue Barrel Produce is a Certified Organic operation based outside of Dickeyville, WI. We strive to have a wide variety of products, and are happy to be your 'one stop' vendor at Dubuque Farmers Market on Saturdays. Our products are in the Organic section at Hy-Vee's in Dubuque, sold direct to the customer from the farm, and are also in select restaurants in Dubuque, Iowa.
Who is hungry?
Sorry we have neglected you. From our previous post you might have read life was a little busy this summer. I have to admit, moving is not the greatest 'life experience'. Helping others move, now I could do that any day of the week. Moving myself-its awful. On top of that fixing a house-especially a kitchen, not fun either. With that being said, its time to cook- and eat (in a clean kitchen of course)!
The next few weeks we will be putting out some of our new favorite recipes. Because of our vegetable neglect, we don't have the variety we would like to have, but we make do with what we have abundance of, Brussels Sprouts, potatoes, onions, leeks, celery, squash, chard, kale and parsley. All products which should be bountiful through mid November!
The necessity to eat clean in our household is a priority. Most of the recipes I will put out should be easily tailored to a few popular diet plans. It also takes into consideration the 'kid factor'. Will my kids eat these? At first no, but after a couple bites, yes and then its gone.
So here's to eating this fall! I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as our family does!
Hold on!
Well every week we have more and more produce ready. We just discovered tonight our romaine lettuce is ready for harvesting. We picked one, then two, then 15! The kale is also sneaking up on us. We harvested 10lbs of baby Russian kale for a customer on Thursday. Tonight we had 3 really cute bunches of curly kale harvested, and we could have done more.
Next up will be kohlrabis and flat leaf parsley. Yes we have cillantro but it's not looking so great.
Plans for the weekend, plant new strawberries, hill the potatoes for a second time, tackle the weeds, and trellis tomatoes, and if the rain holds off, plant cover crop. A task needed for soil health which has been neglected by extensive rain.
Next week we move into our new residence. Blue Barrel Produce will be moving next year, 15 miles up the road. We will still be certified organic, only on land that we own! Hold on life is happening fast, but with much excitement!
It's 2019
Here at Blue Barrel Produce we like to take a couple months to focus on self health. After a busy summer in the field and a busy fall in the woods the quietness of January and February gives us some time to reflect on ourselves and focus on our goals for the next year. One of the goals that we always have is to lose the weight we put on from stress the previous year. We try to develop the healthy lifestyle we know we should have. Being a vegetable producer, you think that would be an easy task! Fresh vegetables all the time however, it gets to be hard to prepare and cook them with late nights and early mornings. Making a hot vegetable meal when it's 9:00pm and driving home isn't the easiest or fastest meal.
Recently we've been working on reducing our portion sizes and trying some new recipes that have been better for you. We aren't exactly soup people however with the kids being sick this winter we've developed a knack for chicken noodle soup. We've also been utilizing the ugly produce from last year into better-for-you recipes this winter. Our frozen beans and carrots and frozen bell peppers have been in strong supply, but almost out so we're excited to have our own fresh produce again come June!
In January we started herbs for our customers, but quickly found we were using all the product! There's nothing like fresh oregano, fresh basil, fresh parsley or fresh cilantro to add to any soup or dish. We ended up starting more, and will have ample supply for starter plants this spring.
We also took a little trip to Florida in March. While we were there we observed how commercial growers grow and how we could bring what they do back to our operation. We didn't notice much differences just the scale! seeing acres and acres of strawberry, onion and pepper fields is quite amazing! Even ranching in Florida was similar, only with different breeds on cattle.
This year Blue Barrel Produce will be at Millwork Night Market in Dubuque, the Dubuque Farmers Market and of course, JDLF. Our propagation chamber is full of seedlings for starter plants. We are anxious to bring all our customers fresh Certified Organic locally grown produce!
October Update
Hi everyone I've been pretty poor on updating the blog on here. I just wanted to give everyone an update of what we might have coming towards the end of October and into November!
We have three farmers markets left in Dubuque. After that we will be selling exclusively to restaurants and JDLF!
We have had a great time being able to provide certified organic vegetables to Jo Daviess County! Although we aren't and Illinois, we are only about a mile from Menomonie.
After October 28th, we will will have available on JDLF purple top turnips, rainbow carrots, and possibly green onions (I just found these little guys in the morning weeds this morning)! Rainbow carrots are purple skinned carrots that are orange on the inside. We pair these with a traditional orange carrot. They are great for snacking and add color to every dish! We will increase our inventory of Brussel sprouts after this day. We will also continue to have curly and Russian kale. If it doesn't continue to get too cold we may possibly even have some romaine available for you!
We look forward to meeting everyone at the banquet in a few weeks. Thank you for your support!
Potato soup recipe
Potato Leek Soup
4 medium leeks (dark green stems removed)
1/2 large yellow or white onion (chopped)
2 medium potatoes (peeled and cut into cubes)
1 tablespoon flour (use AP gluten free flour for GF)
1 tbsp butter
4 cups chicken stock (use vegetable broth for vegetarians)
1/2 cup 2% milk
salt and fresh pepper
Instructions
Wash leeks very carefully to remove all grit. I usually cut them horizontally and separate the rings to make sure no dirt remains. Coarsely chop them when washed.
In a medium soup pot, melt butter and add flour on low flame.
Using a wooden spoon, mix well. This will thicken your soup and give it a wonderful flavor.
Add chicken stock, leeks, onion, potatoes and bring to a boil.
Cover and simmer on low for about 20-25 minutes, until potatoes are soft.
Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth adding the milk and adjusting salt and pepper to taste.
Serve immediately.
For additional texture and taste, add broccoli, or ham or bacon from Arnold's Farm.