MPR: It’s prime season for mushroom foraging, but you don’t need to risk poison ivy to make the most of it.
You can pick up all kinds of wild mushrooms at your nearest farmers market, said Appetites regular Beth Dooley, author of “The Perennial Kitchen,” and she’s got plenty of tips for how to cook them, too.
From chestnut to lion’s mane, Dooley said mushrooms are a perfect conduit for flavor and can enhance the nutrition of any dish.
• Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
• Pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp. tomato paste
• 1/2 c. halved cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 c. white wine
• 1/2 c. vegetable or chicken stock, more as needed
• 1/4 c. chopped parsley
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Directions
Brush the dirt from the mushrooms with a damp paper towel or cloth. Trim off the tough stems and slice the mushrooms about 1/8-inch thick.
Melt the butter in a wide skillet set over medium heat. When the butter begins to foam, add the mushrooms, and toss with the butter. Cover the pan, reduce the heat, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms release their juices, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Remove the lid and add the onion and garlic. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and add the thyme and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, until the onions become tender and the mushrooms are dark and begin to stick to the pan, about 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and cook until browned, about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Add the tomatoes and then stir in the wine and stock, scraping up any browned bits clinging to the bottom of the pan. Lower the heat and simmer until liquid has thickened and reduced, about 5 minutes. Serve garnished with the chopped parsley.
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Need a mushroom source?
Just because you’re not a forager doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy wild mushrooms. These local companies do the work for you.
Forest Mushrooms: This family-run farm outside of St. Joseph has been growing oyster, shiitake and other specialty mushrooms since 1985. Find them in local grocery stores or buy dried online right from the source.forestmushrooms.com
R & R Cultivation: The urban farm in New Hope run by two friends started small in 2018 and quickly grew in scale and size. Available in many metro-area grocery stores and co-ops, as well as on the menu of local restaurants. Varieties include maitake, black pearl, chestnut, lion’s mane, oyster and more. rrcultivation.com
Northwoods Mushrooms: What started as a small urban farm in the Twin Cities farm is now an expansive farm in Clayton, Wis. Find them at local co-ops and markets, or preorder mushrooms and pick them up at the Mill City Farmers Market. Varieties include chestnut, oyster, black poplar, lion’s mane, shiitake and more. northwoodmushrooms.com
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Rows of Christmas trees awaiting sale are seen at Brewery Hill Christmas Tree Farm on Tuesday in Le Sueur, Minn.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
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Christmas tree growers anticipate healthy demand despite drought challenges.
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MPR: Minnesota’s Christmas tree farms are busier than ever getting ready to sell their harvest to the public. The demand for live trees remains strong despite much of the state suffering repeated droughts during the last several years. With evergreen scent wafting around him, Brewery Hill Christmas Tree Farm owner Scott Wilson prepared his sales lot in rural Le Sueur, Minn. There are piles of handmade wreaths. There’s also some decorated porch pots. Nothing from the trees goes to waste. He points to the trees he expects to be the season’s best sellers. “You have Fraser fir, you have Balsam fir, you have Canaan fir. But fir is the king tree right now,” he says.
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Scott Wilson, owner of the Brewery Hill farm poses for a portrait at Brewery Hill Christmas Tree Farm on Tuesday in Le Sueur, Minn.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
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Wilson unhitched his trailer and hopped into his work truck. Driving through the property, he points out the nearby Minnesota River. The trees stand in orderly rows, stretching across the gentle hillsides. He says they sometimes have problems with deer, munching on the low branches “like candy.”
When Wilson and his father started the farm in 1981, it was all cropland. Back then, they planted Scotch pines during the early start of their Christmas tree venture.
“Now, hardly anybody wants a pine,” he said. “So, that’s how you gotta remember. It’s eight years to a harvest. So you plant something that nobody’s gonna want. That’s kind of a wasted eight years.”
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Rows of Christmas trees awaiting sale are seen at Brewery Hill Christmas Tree Farm on Tuesday in Le Sueur, Minn.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
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Young saplings are especially vulnerable to disease and extreme weather conditions, including drought.
But, Wilson embraces the climate’s unpredictability and challenge as he works his family’s farm.
“It’s all about nature, it’s all about life,” he said. “And you get to enjoy that natural resource as long as you can, while you can. And, it gives back some wealth of income along the way.”
The six inches of rainfall in September helped their trees recover from the most recent drought. Wilson said they experienced much worse during the severe droughts in 1988 and 1989.
“I lost everything,” he said. “Everything died in those years. So, the last two years have been bad, but not as bad as they could be. As far as our trees that we have, and you can see them out here in the lot, the colors are beautiful.”
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Pine and spruce branches are seen at Brewery Hill Christmas Tree Farm on Tuesday in Le Sueur, Minn.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
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Unusual drought conditions, increasing demands
While Minnesota is slowly recovering, the accumulated rain deficits are between eight to 15 inches below normal in the southern parts of the state over the last three years.
Trees take two to four years to recover from droughts. Luigi Romolo, state climatologist with the Minnesota DNR, said it’s unclear why droughts are developing more often and more severely. He also said that a slow spring melt in March and April will be needed in order to recharge soils for planting season.
“We’ve just had a little bit of bad luck these last few years,” Romolo said. “We’re hoping that things will turn around and we’ll get back into a normal pattern. But, until that happens, we’re just going to have to endure with what we’re experiencing.”
The drought hit the agricultural industry especially hard. Farmers spent more on irrigation. Romolo said it’s possible that Christmas tree prices might increase and inventory might vary.
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Rows of Christmas trees awaiting sale are seen at Brewery Hill Christmas Tree Farm on Tuesday in Le Sueur, Minn.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
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“Drought is a natural part of our climate,” he said. “But, there’s nothing natural about what we’ve been experiencing in the last three years.”
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for live Christmas trees outpaced the supply. Ben Wolcyn, president of the Minnesota Christmas Tree Association, said he and many other farms dipped into their inventories during those years.
He said Wolcyn Tree Farms and Nursery in Cambridge, Minn., plants two to three trees for every tree they harvest. Wolcyn said in order to restock they’re ramping up production. This season, they’ll harvest around 25,000 Christmas trees, and next spring, they’ll plant about 80,000.
“We had to do a lot of managing, but it’s been a good thing for our industry,” Wolcyn said. “For a lot of families to experience having a real tree for the first time, hopefully it’s a tradition that they’ll continue going into the future.”
Woclyn said people wanting to buy a live tree should do some planning and know the tree they pick out at a lot might be a different size or species depending on when and where they go.
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Freshly cut Christmas trees stand awaiting sale at Brewery Hill Christmas Tree Farm on Tuesday in Le Sueur, Minn.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
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“Just be adaptable,” he said. “There’s plenty of trees for everyone. We are very humbled by the fact that we get to provide the centerpiece to a lot of families’ Christmas celebrations. It’s not something we take lightly.”
This demand for live Christmas trees also means the industry also continues to adapt to the changing climate. Whether that’s planting more drought-resilient trees, planting cover crops in between rows, or running programs that rent out trees for a week and replanting them in the spring.
There’s a lot of dialogue happening in the holiday greenery industry, Wolcyn said. Drought is a challenge, but he doesn’t see it entirely as a negative.
“I actually get excited when I hear about drought because that means we’re growing a real product,” he said. “We’re not in a lab or in a manufacturing plant. We’re producing something. We’re out in God’s creation, and experiencing the challenges of that. But with that comes something that’s real. That’s what we have.”
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Rows of Christmas trees awaiting sale are seen at Brewery Hill Christmas Tree Farm on Tuesday in Le Sueur, Minn.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
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Generations of holiday spirit and tradition
Christmas tree farms are often operated by generations of families. That’s how it is at Brewery Hill Christmas Tree Farm in Le Sueur.
Scott Wilson stopped by his late wife Mary’s grave underneath a big oak tree on the property, now called “The Proposal Tree.”
It’s the same spot where Wilson asked her to marry him on her birthday decades ago. It’s become a popular spot for other couple’s proposals in the years since.
Wilson said had no idea the farm would grow into the operation that it is today, with new generations of his family helping during the holidays.
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A proposal space under a Bur Oak tree, where Brewery Hill Christmas Tree Farm owner Scott Wilson proposed to his wife, Mary Jean Haus in 1980, has now become a famous proposal spot.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
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“All my kids are part of the process and without them, I couldn’t do it,” Wilson said. “They give up their time and they have jobs, yet where’s the family? Our family comes together here big time and we’re doing things together … my heart is full with that.”
Meanwhile, it’s business as usual for Brewery Hill. Wilson’s already opening up for business this weekend.
He’s ready for another season of welcoming families into his farm for the holidays and keeping traditions alive.
“Sometimes I have to actually tell myself just how fortunate I am, in the end to grow things and stuff like that and have the beauty of it,” Wilson said. “I am pretty blessed when it comes to a lot of stuff, and I don’t take that for granted.”
Minnesota-based Red Wing Shoes created a pair of the iconic boots worn by Mario; sadly, they are not for sale. In advance of a film based on the popular video game character, Red Wing Shoes produces shoes exactly like those worn by Mario. They are unfortunately not for sale.
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Mario, the mustachioed and red-hatted Italian plumber who first appeared in Donkey Kong in 1981 and has since appeared in over 200 video games, is enjoying another moment in the limelight.
In April, the character will be voiced by Virginia, Minn. native Chris Pratt in an animated movie. In advance of this, Minnesota-based Red Wing Shoes has constructed a pair of the character’s iconic boots.
The company’s website offers a video showing the laborious process of transforming Mario’s somewhat bulbous footwear into a real-world version. Over serene, meditative music, we witness designers and cobblers working out patterns, cutting leather, steaming and carefully stitching together a pair of boots that manages to be both exquisite and ridiculous.
This is not the first pair of once-fictional boots created this year: Brooklyn-based art collective MSCHF created a pair of ballooning red boots based on those worn by Japanese cartoon character Astro Boy. The footwear sold for $350 and has since been spotted on the feet of rappers Lil Wayne, Lil Nas X, Coi Leray and Rich the Kid.
Alas, there’s some bad news for aspiring fashionistas hoping to go viral in Instagram images wearing Red Wing’s version of Mario’s boots: they’re not for sale.
Courtesy of Red Wing Shoes
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Mario is the main character of the Mario franchise and has been entertaining the world for over 40 years.
Fresh sashimi at the Japanese-Peruvian restaurant K’Kinaco.
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MPR: It’s a Friday evening at the newly opened K’kinaco Nikkei and Pisco Bar in downtown Hopkins. The restaurant is packed with families, couples and groups of friends laughing and talking mostly in Spanish. Latin music plays in the background and the umami smell of traditional Nikkei food fills the room.
Behind the sushi bar at K’kinaco is Chef Enrique Salazar, known by his community as “Señor Nikkei.” He proudly wears a black apron with the Peruvian flag on his shoulder and makes sure that each roll, dish, and drink are plated well and taste even better.
Originally from Peru, Salazar grew up in a family with a love for food. His father was a third generation Chinese Peruvian who loved to prepare traditional food for his family. Salazar’s mother was a pastry chef who baked traditional Peruvian desserts.
“I have a lot of knowledge of Peruvian desserts, which are going to be included on the menu,” said Salazar speaking in Spanish.
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Tim Evans for MPR News
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Co-owner Roberto Palma and his wife Dora Palma pose for a portrait at the Peruvian-Japanese restaurant K’kinaco.
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And in fact, K’kinaco’s menu offers two traditional desserts: “crema volteada,” a creamy type of flan, and “suspiro de Limeña,” a Peruvian style caramel pudding.
Salazar came to the U.S from Peru during a difficult political and economic crisis in his home country. The bank where he worked was shut down and Salazar was one of 30,000 employees left unemployed.
Salazar says when he first arrived in the country he was not able to continue working in banking because of the language barrier. He soon met a friend who helped him get his start as a sushi chef in Minneapolis. Still, Salazar remembers how difficult those first years were for his family.
“The adaptation process was very hard. I come from the coast, from a mild weather where there is no rain, where there is no snow, so the first years were very difficult,” he said. “Despite knowing many states, and having traveled a lot around the country, I think Minnesota is definitely the place where I am going to stay. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
As the years went by, Salazar mastered the art of Japanese cooking techniques. He was happy being a sushi chef and running a catering business on the side, but he dreamed of opening his own Nikkei restaurant and highlighting traditional Peruvian food.
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Tim Evans for MPR News
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Head chef and co-owner Enrique Salazar holds plates of ceviche at the Peruvian-Japanese restaurant K’kinaco.
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Tim Evans for MPR News
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Co-owner and head chef Enrique Salazar assembles a plate of causitas at the Peruvian-Japanese restaurant K’kinaco.
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“Nikkei” describes the descendants of Japanese emigrants across the world. Many Nikkei people began arriving in Peru around the turn of the 20th century to work on plantations. Nikkei people have long been one of the largest ethnic groups in Peru and over time the term Nikkei began being used to describe the food that grew out of their presence in the country.
Salazar was able to make his dream a reality with the help of two good friends – Roberto Palma and Charlie Mandile. The first one to join the gastronomic journey was Roberto Palma, a Peruvian businessman.
“Chef Enrique started talking about his dream to bring Peruvian food, Nikkei food maybe eight or ten years ago,” he said. “Just bringing ideas to reality, that’s how we become involved. The three of us bring a special superpower to this project and I love it.”
American Charlie Mandile — the last to join — turned out to bring the missing piece. His finance background helped K’kinaco become a reality.
“I helped them understand potentially the financial opportunities to pursue their dream and about three weeks later, they showed up at my door with a business plan,” he said. “They had started a while back and said, do you want to help us make our dream come true? And how can I say no to that?”
The name K’kinaco is derived from both Peruvian and Japanese cultures. Kinaku is a Quechua and Aymara word meaning “treasure” in Peru. Kinako is a Japanese food product made from soybeans. Salazar says they loved that the name reflected cultural traditions from both countries.
Nikkei food is made with Peruvian ingredients like tropical fish, quinoa and native peppers and herbs, molded by Japanese techniques. It’s becoming popular in the U.S. too and it is a style of cooking that has long been close to Salazar’s heart.
The restaurant’s founders say K’kinaco is the first Nikkei and Pisco bar experience in Minnesota. Pisco is a fine grape distillate declared Cultural Heritage of Peru since 1988 and it is the base of the emblematic cocktail called Pisco Sour.
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Tim Evans for MPR News
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MPR News reporters Nicole Johnson (center) and Simone Cazares (right) speak with diners at the Peruvian-Japanese restaurant K’kinaco.
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“I’ve been living in Minnesota for 27 years and even though there were some Peruvian restaurants, they are all closed now,” said Rosario Bretey while tasting a Pisco sour. “Being here enjoying the food makes me feel like we are in Perú.”
Bretey and other Peruvian members of a non-profit group called Mi Perú gave the restaurant high marks.
K’kinaco’s gastronomic profile not only pleases Peruvian and Japanese palates, but also surprises people like Claudia Knutson, a Colombian living in Minnesota who says she’s a fan of a particular Peruvian dish called ‘lomo saltado.’ “This dish has flavor, its texture is spectacular and the Pisco sour is delicious,” she said.
During his more than twenty years in the U.S., Chef Enrique Salazar has stuck to his roots and opened a restaurant that reminded him of the country that saw him grow up.
“Being in this country does not mean that we have to put aside our culture,” he said. “ I am an admirer of my culture, of my traditions.”
Salazar adds that he is expecting his first granddaughter and says he will teach her about her heritage.
“We are going to teach her everything related to the culture of her grandparents,” said Salazar. The only way to maintain our traditions is through future generations.”
Salazar says he hopes to continue growing K’kinaco, making it a place for the Peruvian community to come together, enjoy the Nikkei style of cooking, and feel like they are in a place that reminds them of home.
Senor Nikkea brings peruvian and japaneese food to Hopkins
Salazar says he hopes to continue growing K’kinaco, making it a place for the Peruvian community to come together, enjoy the Nikkei style of cooking, and feel like they are in a place that reminds them of home.