Edible Twin Cities, Fall 2009

Edible Twin Cities is a monthly publication that hasn't quite entered the Internet age. (They give the publication away for free on the newsstand, sell subscriptions, and only put a few of the articles from each issue on their website.)

Despite this, it's worth checking out the two articles they do have online for the fall issue, and hopping over to the nearest co-op to get a hard copy of the rest. Or heck, maybe even subscribing! The issue includes:

• A very useful list of every type of winter squash, with explanations of how to cook and use them. Don't know about you, but I can sure use that. It looks better in the magazine than it does on the website, though.
  
• A nice story about the possible effect of changes to the WIC program on neighborhood corner grocery stores.
• My favorite piece in the issue (unfortunately, not on the website), called "City Backyard Farming: Coming to a Backyard Near You?", about a woman named Susane Moua who set up a CSA farm on a city lot in St. Paul. With a grant from the USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education department, Moua rented a large backyard from her neighbors. She plans to grow $5 of produce per square foot in raised beds, and this summer the garden was "so lush and abundant with vegetables and flowers that it's becoming a dense jungle of aromatic greens. The pole beans are winding up the fibrous corn stalks, getting tangled in the ears' tassels; the squashes show off heir vibrant yellows at the base of the tomato plants..." Inspiring!
  
• "My Three Sisters," a gardening journal by a novice gardener who grew the traditional Native American plant triad of beans, squash and corn. She found out some useful tips for Minnesota vegetable gardening.

There's more good stuff in there, but those were the articles I found the most interesting. You might prefer the stories on organic cranberry farming, heritage turkeys or local salsa. Chacun a son gout, as the French say.