CSAs, local food and co-ops oh my!

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What a great weekend. This weekend Proeun and I attended not one but 2 CSAs/Local Food Days at local co-ops. Proeun attended the Seward Co-op’s CSA Fair while I (Amy) attended the City Center Market’s “Meet Your Farmer” Day. While we love farming we don’t get a chance to hang out with other farmer’s and like minded folk that much and so these 2 events were especially rejuvenating. A couple things we learned were that Local Food and CSAs are a thriving, growing field. But still many farms are seeing there numbers down from last year. So if you have not signed up for a CSA yet make sure you do. Click here for our CSA information. Continue Reading

Minnesota’s continuous living groundcover

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Of Minnesota’s 55.6 million acres, 27 million acres are taken up by farmland. Currently, crop production is dominated by summer annuals like corn and soybeans, which need to be replanted each year and grow only in the summer. The consequence of this type of cropping is that for most of the year, no active roots exist in the soil to filter water, reduce runoff, or prevent erosion. Covering the ground with crops for a larger portion of the year by adding winter annuals and perennials to the landscape provides multiple benefits, including diversifying agricultural operations, protecting soils and waterways, and increasing wildlife habitat. Continue Reading

International Year of Family Farming – What it’s about, why it matters

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For Minnesotans the true Rite of Spring is planting season – even if the experience is remembered or vicarious. Planting season with real farmers on real tractors with genetically un-modified seeds, rotated crops and other practices that promote sustainable agricultural systems. Happily, nostalgia is giving way to reality as urban farming, farm to home, and farmers market programs and locavore cuisine raise the profile of family farming and the role that family farmers play in growing nutritious food to feed a hungry world — while protecting the environment and preserving the land. Continue Reading

Leadership, local economy and lunch shape Farm to School curriculum

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Poking around is a persistent addiction. Though the geography and focus shift with time, exploring new terrain simply expands the possibilities. Thus, in my quest to spread the share the message of open government, I have had the privilege to meet with scores of great people who are doing amazing work on issues that include sustainable agriculture, the rural economy, the environment, children’s health, food safety, family farms, ethnic diversity — always looking for the open government thread that runs through just about everything – once you start looking for it. Continue Reading

Move to make farming practices green and greener

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Environmentalists would like Minnesota farmers to plant more cover crops that enrich the soil as alternatives to corn and soy beans. Farmers want to run profitable operations. State funding is being proposed for the University of Minnesota to make those two aims compatible rather than mutually exclusive.

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Farm-to-Food Shelf bill advances in House committee

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A couple summers ago, Apple Valley vegetable grower Gary Pahl had more sweet corn in his fields than grocery stores would buy. But rather than disposing of the excess, he worked with a Twin Cities hunger relief organization to get the food to Minnesotans who struggle to put food on the table. Pahl on Thursday told the House Agriculture Policy Committee that his participation in Second Harvest Heartland’s farm-to-food shelf program has grown so that in 2013 he donated 847,000 pounds of food.

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