Half a Ton of Beets!

By Bob | September 14, 2021 |

Last Friday Dana Jokela of Sogn Valley Farm texted that he had about 1000 extra pounds of beets in his cooler and needed to move them to make space for coming

L-R Hans, Bob, David (standing), Adam

harvests. If I could get a crew to wash and pack them we could get them to The Food Group for distribution to Food Banks. On short notice David Robinson, Adam Brainerd and Hans Barkai responded to the call and got wet and muddy washing, packing and then delivering beets. Thanks guys!

You, gentle reader, can help with this project. Raising organic produce requires seed, machine work, fuel and more all of which cost money. Please help fund this project with a contribution on this GiveMN webpage. Funds will be used to reimburse Dana for the direct costs of this project. Thanks!

Showing beets being delivered to The Food Group

20 Totes full of beets delivered to The Food Group

Big Crew, Big Harvest

By Bob | August 31, 2021 |

A perfect morning for harvesting and what a group of friends! Thanks to (L-R) Cara, Barb, Vi, Miles, Samson, Roger, Chuck, Barb, Eric, Robin, Dug and Daisy plus (not pictured) Jo, Julie and Jenny. Today’s harvest supplied three food banks: Sabathani, Joyce Uptown and Pillsbury United Communities.

Eric, Dug, Daisy, Julie and Barb (and Samson in Barb’s shadow!) picking corn for food banks

Delivering corn to Pillsbury United Communities

For perspective, Matthew Ayres, director of the Joyce Uptown Foodshelf, told me they serve about 450 families per month a total of around 36,000 pounds of food. Joyce is the smallest of the three food banks who took corn today. According to the StarTribune  there are about 350 food banks in Minnesota that collectively served 3.8 million people in 2020 (a 7% increase over 2019). Hard to imagine that a state with so much farmland has so much hunger.

Pickin’ in the Rain

By Bob | August 25, 2021 |

It was a soggy Tuesday but our intrepid crew harvested corn for the good folks at the Gethsemane Lutheran Church Food Shelf in the Camden neighborhood (AKA Camden Promise) of North Minneapolis. Thanks to Cara Rodriguez, Sarah McCarthy and Jon Freise who braved downpours, mud and occasional lightening (not too close!), to harvest corn for the food bank.

Gethsemane’s food shelf provides thousands of pounds of food to individuals and families in North Minneapolis with food distributions six days a week. I’ve seen people lined up around the block awaiting their turn and fresh, top-quality sweet corn is welcome indeed.

2021 First Corn Harvest

By Bob | August 19, 2021 |

Wow! What a day, what a crop, what volunteers! Our first corn harvest of 2021 was fabulous. Thanks to Cara, Erika, Julie, Lizette, Sarah M and Sarah P who collectively picked around 1,000 pounds of fresh, plump, organically-grown sweet corn which was promptly delivered to Pillsbury United Communities in the Phillips neighborhood and then . . . the plan was to deliver to Joyce Uptown foodshelf who earlier had said they’d be happy to have it but when I got there a sign on the door said they were closed due to a Covid-19 outbreak. But the sign also suggested calling Groveland Food Bank which I did and they took the remainder of the load (thanks, Jay!).

Would you like to help? We still need hands for next Tuesday, August 24th!