YMCA camp visits the farm

At 9:30 this morning about 35 kids grades kindergarten through 5th hopped out of a big yellow school bus at our farm. The children are enrolled in the Northfield YMCA Navigator Summer Camp. This unique program takes students on lots of field trips in the area, many of which happen to be farms. The kids had already visited a dairy farm and STOGROW before visiting our farm so they arrived well equipped for a morning in the mud.

We started the tour with a walk to the bees and talked about the importance of pollination along the way. The students had lots of interesting bee facts to add to the conversation – Chelsea and I probably learned more from them than they did from us. For example, did you know that it takes 12 bees their entire lifetime (which for honeybees is about two months) two produce just one tablespoon of honey? Neither did we.

Next, we had prepared a vegetable identification game. We split the kids into small groups and gave them funky vegetables like kohlrabi, rutabaga, sunburst pattypan squash, etc and had them try to name the vegetable, identify what part of the plant it comes from (ie. root, flower, leaf, fruit, etc), and how they would eat it. When we finished discussing the vegetables, we traipsed through the garden to see how the vegetables grow in the ground.

Noel was already familiar with the farm - she and her family are community farmers and come out on a weekly basis to help plant, weed and harvest. Noel even taught some of the other students how to hold a chicken.

The chickens were very popular. The kids loved the new game Chelsea and I have been playing lately: smashing up overlarge summer squash and zucchini and feeding it to the chickens. The chickens were surprisingly receptive to all the attention. We spent about a half hour petting, holding and feeding the chickens while we talked about raising poultry.

Kids from the Northfield YMCA Navigator Camp visited the farm this morning and enjoy snacking on some freshly harvested baby carrots.

To end the field trip, we had harvested and washed some tender young carrots thinned from the garden. It was fun sharing a delicious, nutritious snack together. Hopefully we can arrange to have more camps and groups of students like this come out next summer. We really love the inquisitive, enthusiastic energy that they brought to the farm.

Squeaky Wheel the cat showed up this morning. We heard her yowling from the bushes near the compost pile and enticed her out with a can of cat food. She's sweet company, even if her voice is a little whiny! Look for her next time you're out at the farm.

Iowa adventure

This weekend Chelsea and I headed south to Iowa for two of our last farm visits this summer. We stayed at the peaceful Deep Mountain Retreat Center outside of Elkader, Iowa. The Center is surrounded by 300 wooded acres of beautiful land in Northeastern Iowa. Matthew Lang, the on-site care taker of the land, took us on a long walk to the back of the farm to show us some of the long-term projects taking place. We were most intrigued by the government-funded Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) work that Matt has been implementing. Hundreds of bushels of hardwood tree nuts have been drilled and disked into what was previously either cornfield or dairy cattle pastureland over 30 years ago. Matt has also planted hundreds of tree seedlings on the land. Now the land has group up significantly, and we enjoyed hiking through the deep woods. The work is never-ending – Matt spends many hours every week just checking the trees, staking tree tubes, and battling the deer who try to eat the tender young trees. However, the work that he has done is invaluable in that it has created a beautiful space for people and animals to enjoy and the harvestable timber gives the land significant monetary value per acre.

Needless to say, we learned a lot on this farm tour. Neither of us knew much about tree farming before we visited Deep Mountain, but much of what we learned may be applicable to the long term plan for the Carlson Land. Matt taught us about various government programs that provide funding for Timber Stand Improvement projects, even on a smaller scale than the ones he’s working on. The Carlson Land includes about 20 acres of timber which is in dire need of maintenance: buckhorn, mulberry and other trash trees currently dominate the habitat. I hope to contact the county forester to find out exactly how we could go about changing the forest composition to be a more inviting habitat and even a potential source of income for the farm in 50 years or more.

Striped-Leafed Japanese Maize - an unusual variety of corn growing in the Seed Savers Preservation Gardens. This corn grows colorful tassels and brilliant purple- and burgundy-striped leaves.

After our tour of the tree farm, Chelsea and stopped at Seed Savers in Decorah, Iowa. Seed Savers is a non profit organization that aims to collect and propagate a wide variety of flowers and vegetables. The organization started out saving seeds in one of its volunteers’ basement, but quickly grew as more people began sending in their heirloom seed varieties. Many of their seeds were brought by immigrant families, some dating back to the 1800s. Other varieties were selected by Native American groups and sent to Seed Savers.

The Seed Savers garden and Deep Mountain were very different farm tour experiences, but we learned a lot at each site. We’re excited to begin the discussion about developing the Carlson farm’s forested areas, and also to incorporate more heirloom varieties in next years garden.

Buckets of seed line the shelves and walls inside of the Seed Savers climate controlled seed bank. Hundreds of thousands of rare seeds are store in the vault and propagated on a regular basis to collect fresh seeds.

Pollination is an vital component of the work at Seed Savers. Bees are pulling their weight in this photo, but many plants must be isolated from insect pollinators and pollinated by hand to preserve their unique genetic qualities.

According to the Seed Savers catalogue, hollyhock flowers like the ones shown here were traditionally grown near outhouses to indicate their location. This flower's name is particularly fitting: Outhouse Hollyhock.

Strawberries and politics

A neighboring strawberry farmer delivered a kiddie pool full of strawberry plans that he had thinned from his own strawberry patch on Monday. They looked a little beaten up, but I worked with Emily Carlson and Jon Cappelli to plant them all on Tuesday morning. Strawberries are the first perennial crop we’ve planted so far. Hopefully we will add some raspberry cane to the list soon.

When all of my extra Tuesday help left I harvested some zucchini’s for Kathy Zeman at Simple Harvest Farm. I guess her zukes and cukes aren’t doing very well and she needs some for her CSA members. It’s been fun to explore new markets (like the Co-op) to sell our produce through. I think Kathy will be buying another box of zukes from us on Thursday – it’s a good thing too, we have zucchinis coming out of our ears! We harvested several more boxes today, and there will be plenty more for the Co-op tomorrow. Green beans and cilantro are also on our radar – we harvested lots today, but there’s no end in sight!

Chelsea and I met with Representative David Bly this morning to discuss some of the local political issues concerning sustainable agriculture. Bly doesn’t have an extensive background or much hands-on experience in agriculture, but he is involved in a number of efforts to promote more sustainable practices among Minnesota farmers. Bly talked to us about an earlier attempt made by one of his colleagues through the legislature to ban the use of atrazine (an herbicide that affects the endocrine system of vertebrates) and to ban flyby spraying of herbicides in general. Bly also talked about his own efforts to promote a healthy middle class, which he outlines in his booklet called The Middle Class Amendment. We discussed the centrality of small, rural farms to his vision of America’s middle class as opposed to the current model in which small farmers are controlled and bought out by agribusiness corporations like Monsanto. Meeting with David Bly was a wonderful opportunity for Chelsea and I to explore some of the more political aspects of food and farming. While we have had many chances to talk with other producers, consumers, and now, even distributors, David Bly was the first politician we’ve spoken with.

This week is flying by… we’re already starting to think about harvesting for market on Saturday! Before we know our time on the farm will be coming to an end. We have one of our last farm tours scheduled for this Sunday and Monday, but after that it will be all paper writing and scrambling to finish out our Leaders for Social Change program requirements.

Produce for Sale

Saturday was our second experience at the Northfield Riverwalk Market Fair. The morning started off on a stressful note as Chelsea struggled alone to set up our metal frame shade tent. After Chelsea battled with the tent for more than an hour, Julia and I came out to lend a hand. We weren’t much help. Neighboring vendors came to our rescue, both by trying to solve our tent puzzle and by finally advising us to give up and buy a new, pop-up shade tent from Menards. What a relief! With this new addition, life on Saturday mornings will be much less stressful.

This picture captures our failed attempt to construct our old shade tent - we're still not exactly sure what the problem was, but after two hours of playing "How many farmers does it take to set up a tent?" we finally gave up

The new tent is a lot snazzier, more compact, and takes just 5 minutes to set up!

Once the tent was set up, the market itself went very well. We sold more produce than last week (albeit, different kinds of produce – much less lettuce and kale, but more zucchinis) and we made a lot more money! Our profit more than doubled, a statistic we’re proud of, but one we’re not as concerned with compared to the social connections that we are cultivating. An intern with the Northfield News approached us at our booth to see if she could write an article about our project. This is a great opportunity for community outreach and involvement. A professional blogging consultant also came by. He had seen our blog and is interested in giving us some tips about how to make our page more accessible and how to increase our readership.

At the market we also networked with Strider, the produce guy at Just Food Co-op in downtown Northfield. Strider offered to buy veggies from us on Monday and Thursday mornings based upon his needs and the amount of extra produce we have on hand. This is an incredible opportunity for us, something we didn’t think would be possible this year. Today goes down in our farm’s history books as the date of our first sale to the Co-op! We harvested zucchinis anda a big box of our first cucumbers (miniature white and marketmore slicing cucumbers) for the Co-op and experienced the process of selling wholesale to an organization. On Thursday, we’ll be bringing Strider more cucumbers and cilantro.

Chelsea displaying some of the fruits of our labor today: one head each of broccoli and cauliflower, yellow crookneck summer squash, and two different cucumber varieties.

On top of all these business connections, we also had some long conversations with customers about produce on Saturday. Our first week at market, one customer asked that we sell zucchini flowers at the next market. Neither Chelsea nor I had heard of such a thing, but if nothing else, the idea became a great conversation starter. The zucchini flowers we harvested for sale on Saturday sold like wildfire and sparked interest and recipe exchanges. Apparently zucchini flowers are great when stuffed with things like wild rice and mushrooms, fresh mozzarella, tuna fish, and a variety of other ingredients. Many people also suggested battering and frying the flowers or just adding them to vegetable stir fries. We definitely won’t forget the zucchini delicacies next week!

This impressively large red-tailed hawk perched on the remains of our old shade tent and kept watch over the garden this morning.

Hopefully our raptor friend is eating vermin and not the chicks!

The chickens are free!

The chicks are fattening up quickly - it seems like they grow every day

…but don’t worry, they haven’t escaped. We finally finished the fence around their little chicken coop so they get wander freely during the day. Their new favorite pastimes include chasing bugs, tunneling through the barley, and scratching and nibbling at oats and little green grasses. We can already tell that they are much happier now they are not confined in their chicken coop.

Chelsea and Colin pose with our happy chicks

Natasha tries to entice the chicks out of their coop by sprinkling feed in the barley

Colin came out yesterday morning to help us finish the chicken pen. We may have spent more time than necessary playing with the chickens once they were released… The Carlson’s retired neighbor, Lyle, has been checking up on the chickens (and us!!) every morning for the last week. His wife came out to take a look at the garden today, and referred to Lyle as our ‘inspector.’ We enjoy Lyle’s company and the expertise he shares with us from his years of farming. Lyle even brought us fresh picked raspberries from his garden.

After spending too much time with the chickens, we got down to business weeding. We can finally cross weed the winter squash off of our to-do list! Thanks to everyone’s persistence we mowed down what was practically a field of weeds to find the squash. Hooray!

Today we spend a considerable amount of time preparing for the Riverwalk Market Fair tomorrow morning. The Carlsons left on vacation to Canada for two weeks this morning, leaving us completely responsible for the farm in their absence. We’re excited to test this autonomy and push ourselves to function independently of the wonderful help they’ve provided this week. We have keys to the truck, a table to stack our produce on, and a tent to keep it shady. Hopefully that will be enough!

In other news we kept weeding, thinning root crops, trellising tomatoes, and spraying BT today. We’ll be back out bright and early tomorrow morning for some more harvesting. Hope to see you at the market!

Summer abundance

Chelsea and I went out to the farm bright and early this morning to miss the storms and hot muggy weather. Even though we don’t function very well in the heat of the day, it seems like the plants love this weather. Everything is growing fast. Last night we harvested a bucket of zucchinis with the Community Farmers and there’s lots more to come. Last night we even found a couple heads of cauliflower popping through their leaves. How exciting – it won’t be long now until we’re harvesting cauliflower and broccoli by the pound. It will be tough to stay on top of all of the harvesting, so, to all of the Community Farmers: harvest as much as you and your family (and maybe even your neighbors) can use, and enjoy the tasty fruits of your hard labor!!

Yesterday we also delivered fresh produce to the Community Action Center (CAC) food shelf. We harvested pretty, bright yellow sunburst patty pan squash from the Sharing Garden, along with kale, kohlrabi, some zucchinis and LOTS of lettuce. It was a good step forward in our potential partnership with the CAC. We’re hoping to plan some events and maybe even cooking classes at the new community kitchen with help from Signe and Dan at the CAC. We love seeing our vegetables going to good use and to people who really appreciate them. It would great to get these people even more involved with the farm.

Today we worked on building a fence around the chicken coop. There are probably 170 broiler chicks who are chomping at the bit to get outside of their coop and chase some bugs around. If it doesn’t rain, maybe they will be able to get outside later this afternoon. We also continued our efforts to thin some of our root crops that we will be selling to Bon Appetit. The rutabaga and turnips we planted earlier this summer had enormous success in their germination (unlike other crops, like our melons…), so we’ve been spending lots of time thinning out the rows to allow the larger plants to mature without competing with the smaller ones.

Thunder and ominous skies marked the end of our time in the field this morning. As part of our effort to develop marketing strategies and value added products to make our project economically viable and sustainable, we have been bookmarking possible recipes. Today we tested out a recipe for kale chips, something we’d been hearing about but haven’t had the chance to try. The chips turned out delicious – a simple, nutritious snack that you might like to try at home.

Kale Chips

1 bunch kale

olive oil

sea salt (or other seasonings – maybe curry powder? or garlic salt? Pamasan cheese? feel free to experiment with the recipe and let us know what you discover!)

Wash and dry kale leaves, then use a knife to remove the tough rib down the middle of the leaves. Place the strips of kale in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Toss briefly to coat the leaves, then add salt or other seasonings. Lay the strips out on a baking sheet and bake at 300F for about 15 minutes or until crispy.

We’re not quite sure how well these chips store, but we hope to share samples with customers at the Riverwalk Market Fair this Saturday. If you’re skeptical and want to taste one before you invest in a bunch of kale, stop by our booth.

The brassica family (which includes broccoli, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, cabbage, brussels and more) prefers cooler weather. Luckily, our brassicas are still doing well, especially the kale and kohlrabi!

Farmer’s Market

Last week was extremely busy on the farm. Katie (our good friend, advisor, and general cohort) returned to her home in Madison early in the week leaving Chelsea and I scrambling to catch up. Katie stayed on to help us at the farm long after her official position at the St. Olaf Center for Experiential Learning ended. We loved having her expertise and extra set of hands in the garden every day.

Without Katie around we are sorely aware of how much more time it takes to accomplish small tasks with just two people instead of three. Our largest ‘small’ task last week was weeding through an impressively large field of winter squash. Bon Appetit, the food service provider at St. Olaf, has agreed to purchase all the fresh produce we can provide them with after September 1, so we have been gearing our planting towards late-season crops that can even be stored into September. Winter squash is just part of that plan. We also have lots of potatoes, rutabaga and turnips in the ground as well as plans for more beets and carrots.

On top of all the weeding, we spent a considerable amount of time preparing for our Thursday Civic Engagement Seminar, which is an important element of the Leaders for Social Change (LSC) program we are part of. Chelsea and I led the seminar last Thursday, which focused on sustainable food and agriculture issues. In preparation for the seminar, we screened the movie Food, Inc. for the other LSC students. The student farmers from STOGROW and the Americorps Vista volunteer from the Northfield organization Growing Up Healthy also attended our showing of the movie. Additionally, the students read two articles about industrialized agriculture and a realistic, but hopeful outlook on the future of food in America. The first article, Farmer in Chief, written by Michael Pollan, was addressed to the future president of the United States before the results of the 2008 elections. The second article, Street Farmer, explores Will Allen’s urban farm project in Milwaukee.

LSC students and advisors and Rachel, the new Growing Up Healthy Americorps volunteer tour the SEEDS farm

As part of the Thurday seminar, we gave a tour of the SEEDS farm to the other LSC students and faculty advisors. Our tour was followed by a visit to Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin‘s farm, where he empowers Latino individuals to take on entrepreneurial ventures in sustainable farming. Reginaldo is a wonderful community resource – his perspective on growing food is not limited by conventional practices and social norms. He encourages the people he works with to achieve what might seem impossible, including growing free-range chickens to sell at a competitive market price.

After touring Reginaldo's farm we took time to discuss the two farms, their contributions to sustainable agriculture, and the place (or lack thereof) of agriculture in institutes of higher education like St. Olaf

Since we were so busy preparing for the seminar, we were lucky to have lots of help from our fellow LSC students and also from the Carlson clan. Colin, who is interning in Faribault at So How are the Children (SHAC) (an organization that provides free summer programing for Faribault youth) helped with our massive weeding initiative on Friday morning. Julia joined us in the afternoon, and then the Carlson’s grandmother, Carol, pulled her share later in the day.

Becca washing lettuce for market early Saturday morning

We were happy to have so much help in preparation for our first day selling at the River Walk Market Fair on Saturday morning. Julia, Chelsea, Becca and I met at the farm at 6am on Saturday morning to harvest our beautiful swiss chard, kohlrabi, head lettuce, basil, cilantro and kale. Our experience at the market was enhanced because we shared the stand with neighboring farmers from Betsy Allister’s Spring Wind Farm. The booth we shared looked more abundant when the farmers from Spring Wind Farm arrived with their lovely purple carrots, massive zucchinis, and beets. Although we didn’t make much of a profit, we did make a lot of connections in the Northfield community. We shared some recipe ideas and invited lots of people out to visit the farm. Thanks to everyone who supported us at the market, we hope to see you again this Saturday!

The SEEDS Farm collaborated with Betsy Allister's start up project, Spring Wind Farm, at our first Northfield Riverwalk Market Fair last Saturday

In preparation for the Carlson family’s departure for their two-week summer vacation, Chelsea and I have resolved to blog a little bit more frequently. We’ll be checking in on a daily basis to keep you and the Carlson’s in the loop on the farm’s progress and other endeavors.

What’s growing on the farm this week?

Community!!

Part of the Carlson’s land is dedicated to building a community farm. The vision for the community farm is much like that of a CSA, but with more involvement on the part of the shareholders. Unlike a community garden, which is separated into individual family plots, the community farm is a cooperative project. Everyone plants, weeds and harvests the same rows of vegetables. This system not only brings community members together on the farm, but it also facilitates healthy crop rotation.

Last night almost all of the community farmers (about 8 families) and three fellow Leaders for Social Change came out for a work night. After taking a peak at the newly reorganized tool shed, we split into two groups and tackled several different projects. Katie showed one group how to add new layers to the compost pile and taught them how to prune tomatoes. Natasha and Chelsea prioritized weeding for the community farmers and explained how to harvest head lettuce, kale and arugula.

Everyone was excited for this first successful harvest. Kale is a beautiful plant, but sometimes people have a hard time figuring out what to do with this nutritious green. Here’s an adaption of a recipe from the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition‘s cookbook From Asparagus to Zucchini that we prepared for supper last night.

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Healthy Community Kale & Potato Fry-Up

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon chili oil (or substitute vegetable oil with some crushed red pepper)

3 small red potatoes (boiled in salted water until nearly tender and thin-sliced)

1 small onion (finely chopped)

salt and pepper

1 big bunch of kale (or other greens; washed and chopped)

1/2 teaspoon dried ground thyme

3/4 cup cooked sweet corn

1 tablespoon dried oregano (or a few sprigs of fresh oregano)

1/2 teaspoon paprika

grated Parmesan

Heat butter and chili oil in large skillet over medium flame. Add potatoes and onions, then season well with salt and pepper. Let potatoes brown in the pan on one side for several minutes. Toss the potatoes and let them brown lightly again. When potatoes are almost tender, toss in greens and thyme then add 1/4 cup water, cover the pan, and raise to high heat. Let steam until greens are nearly done (1-2 minutes). Uncover, add corn, oregano, and paprika, and allow potatoes to finish cooking and browning. Top with Parmesan and serve!

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Today we’re finally making steady progress on the irrigation front. Hopefully by this afternoon we’ll be measuring out drip tape along the tomato rows so that we can start mulching and trellising the plants tomorrow.

A busy week on (and off!) the farm

Field trips have been the highlight of this week’s work. Tuesday was our first big adventure up to Jordan Seeds in Woodbury, Minnesota. Jordan Seeds is a great local seed and gardening supply distributor that is known throughout the midwest. Katie and I were interested to learn that Jordan Seeds does business with both the farms that we’d worked on previously – Abbe Hills Farm in Mount Vernon, Iowa and Michael Fields Agricultural Institute in East Troy, Wisconsin.

Our mission on Tuesday was irrigation. Even though it has been so rainy lately, we’re worried that we might face drought conditions later in the season. Dan at Jordan Seeds talked with us for two hours on Tuesday morning about implementing a drip irrigation system. After a lot of scheming, we purchased everything we need to water our crops before drought becomes an issue.

After our long conversation with Dan, we headed over to Common Roots Cafe for a delicious lunch in Uptown. Common Roots is a great place to find delicious food made from scratch, using high-quality, local, organic, and fair-trade ingredients. Common Roots is surrounded by beautiful natural landscaping rife with vegetables and flowers.

Our next stop was EggPlant Urban Farm Supply in St. Paul. We met St. Olaf sociology/anthropology professor Tom Williamson and his two adorable daughters at their home and then walked a couple of blocks to EggPlant. EggPlant Urban Farm Supply is not your typical nursery. The store focuses on backyard homesteading on a small, city-friendly scale – they sell everything from seeds, plants, soil and tools to chicks, feed, and even supplies to make homemade cheese! To wrap up our fantastic farmer day-on-the-town, Tom took us out for ice cream at Izzy’s ice cream shop.

Both today and Wednesday we spent at the farm building our new compost pile and mulching with hay in between rows of vegetables to keep the weeds at bay. Katie taught us how to build compost piles using weeds, hay and manure. STOGROW helped us to start our first pile last week, and we’ve been working on it since. The pile we started last week is about four feet tall, so it is almost time to start a new one.

Freshly mulched paths made our veggies look more colorful

Katie and Julia heaping weeds onto our growing compost pile

On Thursday we went on our first farm visit together to Dream Acres farm in Spring Valley, Minnesota. Dream Acres is a picaresque farm south of Rochester that might remind visitors of a 19th century homestead. The farm is completely off the grid – all of their power is either solar, human or animal; much of their water comes from a rainwater catchment system or is hauled out of the nearby river. They even have a handmade icebox that keeps produce cool through the summer! The couple who owns Dream Acres built all of the structures on the farm including a barn, two houses, a meeting house, a theater, and their greenhouse. Needless to say, we were impressed by their commitment to  their values. At the end of their gracious tour, we put in a half hour of weeding with Evie in their lush lower garden.

Next week we hope to go on another farm tour, work out the kinks in our irrigation system, work with the community farm members, and stake the tomato plants. Might not seem like much, but I’m sure it will keep us busy

Muffins for Social Change

We have been baking muffins for breakfast the last two days in the Leaders for Social Change house. The recipe we have fallen in love with is an adaptation of the “Company Muffin” recipe from the cookbook Simply in Season. The recipes in Simply in Season are arranged by the time year so cooks can use local, seasonal produce more effectively in their dishes. The cookbook emphasizes the value of fresh foods from CSA subscriptions, farmers’ markets, your own garden and other local sources — foods that nurture not only the mind, body and spirit, but also the world around us. Enjoy!!

Signe and Julie devouring Muffins for Social Change

Muffins for Social Change

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large tart apples (peeled, cored, and shredded)

1 1/2 cups carrots (finely shredded)

1 cup flax seed meal

1/2 cup raisins

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/4 oil

Preheat oven to 375F

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir well. Next add the shredded apples, carrots, flax seed meal and raisins. Stir to coat. In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, milk and oil. Pour into flour mixture and stir until just moistened. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full and bake 18 – 20 minutes.

Nothing like warm muffins to get you out of bed for a day on the farm!