Squash Delivery #1 – A Big Surprise

This morning I took the first six pallets from Saturday’s harvest up the The Food Group who will distribute the squash to Food Banks around the metro area. They weighed each pallet. Based on last year’s harvest I was guessing about 500 pounds a pallet or about 3,00o pounds total. The total: 3,979 – almost…

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Squash 2021 – Great Crew and a Huge Harvest

This was one amazing year for squash. With the help of a huge volunteer crew we gathered north of 9,000 pounds of delicata, butternut and acorn squash. Over the next few days I’ll be bringing these to The Food Group (in New Hope) and Channel One (in Rochester) for distribution to food banks across the…

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Half a Ton of Beets!

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 harvests. If I could get a crew to wash and pack them we could get them to The Food Group for distribution to Food…

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Big Crew, Big Harvest

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. For perspective, Matthew Ayres, director of the Joyce…

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Pickin’ in the Rain

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…

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2021 First Corn Harvest

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 .…

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Berm 1 Trees and Shrubs, September 2015

Most are doing well, a few have failed. Also in the mix are chives and daffodils, but exact locations not noted. At the moment it looks like another 19 trees and 13 shrubs to complete the berm next spring . . . Here’s the current listing, east to west. Shrubs in italics. [Planted 2015] Rhubarb Apple: Roxbury…

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Farm Finance and Resilience – Musharakah part 1

I keep hearing that “Access to Land” is a key challenge for folks who want to do well by the soil. That the high cost of farmland and the consolidation of farms into mega-operations over the last few decades make it really difficult for younger farmers especially, to get onto the land and employ practices…

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Keyline Path Phase I – Complete!

Thanks to awesome efforts by Lolo and his friend Joey, the first phase of the Keyline path project is complete (they did the section in blue show in this post). Doris (the UTV) can now run the entire length of the path providing access for managing the woods and upper prairie area, mushroom hunting and…

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Berm’s Progress

It’s fun to watch the berm on the near west field mature – even in a short time the difference is noticeable. Here’s a brief gallery of images from the initial forming of the berm (October 2013), the addition of first fruit trees (Spring 2014), daffodils blooming (Spring 2015) and additional fruit trees. It’s coming…

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