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A Sense of Where You Are: The Quickening

Part 6 in a Series

By Brian DeVore
January 16, 2025

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Note: This is the 6th installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series. 

When your context is farming in the city, everything is a little faster, denser, and louder.

“We grow everything very intensively,” said Elyssa Eull on a warm evening in early September while she stood near the entrance to California Street Farm, an urban vegetable operation that grows food on a third-of-an-acre. As she said this, a BNSF train engine rolled by a few yards away.

“Because it’s such a small area, the challenges I’m experiencing with soil health are quickened,” says Elyssa Eull, shown leading a field day on her vegetable operation in Northeast Minneapolis.

Aspiring and newbie farmers had gathered here on this particular day to see how this Northeast Minneapolis operation was able to make a go of it on land tucked between a set of railroad tracks and an open lot, just across the street from a collection of artist spaces called the California Building. The event was being put on by the Twin Cities Metro Growers Network, which is an initiative of the Sustainable Farming Association.

During the field day, staffers with the University of Minnesota’s Extension Service, as well as the local office of the NRCS and the USDA’s Farm Service Agency, were on-hand to share information on resources available to farmers raising food in urban areas. As she provided a tour of the well-tended vegetable plots and two hoop houses she uses to raise over 50 varieties of vegetables, Eull fielded questions about soil health, fertility issues, government cost-share funding that’s available, and the economics of producing food in the city. It was clear the field day participants were here to learn how to make a go of it in agriculture, even if the setting was concrete and curbs, rather than fields and fencelines.

During the 2024 growing season, the farm had 37 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares and marketed produce through a farmstand set up next to the plots, as well as via the Northeast Minneapolis Farmers’ Market. Eull, who’s 30, makes enough during the growing season to pay two part-time employees and to support herself. But she didn’t sugarcoat it: urban agriculture comes with plenty of potholes, particularly when it comes to soil health.

“Because it’s such a small area, the challenges I’m experiencing with soil health are quickened,” she said. “It’s like in one year I have three years of accumulation of disease, or stress, or using up those nutrients.”

The farmer has responded by focusing on utilizing cover crops and low-till methods to build the soil’s resiliency. Eull also removes the plastic from the hoop houses periodically so that natural precipitation can dilute salts that tend to accumulate in the soil.

Eull, who is a graduate of LSP’s Farm Beginnings course, feels she has the confidence to tackle such problems because raising food in the city on a commercial basis is starting to be taken more seriously. She’s benefited greatly from U of M Extension research and NRCS conservation cost-share programs that have in the past been mostly directed at bigger row crop farmers in rural areas. For example, one of her hoop houses was funded by the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), an initiative of the NRCS.

“I think  there’s a real awareness of urban farming being real farming,” said Eull as she headed over to California Street’s farmstand on a nearby street corner, brimming with late-summer bounty.

Brian DeVore edits the Land Stewardship Letter and produces the Ear to the Ground podcast.

Give it a Listen

  • Ear to the Ground 348: Urban Agrarian (Elyssa Eull)

Installments in the ‘A Sense of Where You Are’ Series:

  1. Introduction to the Series: A Sense of Where You Are
  2. Red Dresses & Magic Management
  3. In the Blood
  4. Seeking Signs of Life
  5. Forest for the Trees
  6. The Quickening
  7. Food Bank Booster
  8. First Things First
  9. The Big Picture
  10. The Snowball Effect
  11. 7 Years Later
  12. Against the Grain

 

Category: Blog
Tags: A Sense of Where You Are • California Street Farm • CSA • Elyssa Eull • Farm Beginnings • soil health • urban agriculture • vegetable production

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May 2025

Saturday May 31

10:00 am – 12:30 pm
Multi-species Pasture Walk
Saturday May 31
10:00 am – 12:30 pm
Multi-species Pasture Walk
872 320th Ave, Frederic, WI 54837, USA

The NW Wisconsin Graziers Network, River Country RC&Dand UW-Madison Extension invite you to a multi-species pasture walk hosted by JohnsonFamily Pastures LLC. The farm is located five miles east of Frederic in PolkCounty. This educational event willemphasize direct marketing, multi-species grazing, part-time family agricultureand silvopasture development. Light snacks and refreshments will be provided.

TheJohnson Family Pastures farm is home to Chris and Tamara Johnson and their twochildren. They raise grass-fed beef, silvopastured goats, and recently raised anumber of other species. The farm consists of about 160 acres of gently rollingpastures, silvopasture, and forest. Use of both temporary polybraid fencing andhigh tensile permanent fences allow for rotational grazing of small ruminants andout-wintering of beef cattle. Use of long-term farm transition strategies, cost-shareprograms, silvopasture development with goats, regenerative grazing, cattlehandling facility and bale grazing will be discussed along with answering anyand all questions from pasture walk participants.

An extensive and diversified direct marketing programhas been developed by Tamara and Chris that has included farmer markets, e-maillists, newsletters, website ordering, on-farm freezer storage, and other strategiesand tools to support direct sales and services for their customers.  Come and learn all about their successfulapproach.

For more information,contact Chris Johnson at 920-960-4475 or Lynn Johnson 715-225-9882 at NW Graziers.

June 2025

Saturday June 21

1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Farm-Scale Deep Winter Greenhouse Tour
Saturday June 21
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Farm-Scale Deep Winter Greenhouse Tour
Owl Bluff Farm, 12314 County Road 4 Houston, MN 55943

The University of Minnesota Extension Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (RSDP) and Owl Bluff Farm will co-host an open house to celebrate the completion of the state’s first farm-scale deep winter greenhouse. The event, held on the farm about 45 minutes east of Rochester, is free and open to the public. RSVPs are required at z.umn.edu/OwlBluffOpenHouse.

Wednesday June 25

2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
LSP-PFI Grazing Field Day at Hoosier Ridge Ranch
Wednesday June 25
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
LSP-PFI Grazing Field Day at Hoosier Ridge Ranch
Hoosier Ridge Ranch, 15998 Wabasha County Rd 26, Altura, MN 55910, USA

Over the last 50 years, livestock have left many farms. Eric Heins is doing the reverse: bringing cattle – and their poop, pee and hooves – back to his land. Come see how Eric is using his Normande-shorthorn crosses in a variety of grazing situations. During this Land Stewardship Project-Practical Farmers of Iowa field day, you can view permanent pasture, where Eric (like everyone) is battling the cool-season grass takeover. You’ll also learn how Eric is using his cattle in cover crop mixes, prairie and woodlands.

Since purchasing the farm in 2020, Eric has converted the cropland to pasture. He also custom-farms a diverse rotation of crops, covers and small grains on neighboring farms, including an established prairie on Iowa Department of Natural Resources land. A possible bonus: Eric is hoping to have virtual fence collars by the time of the field day, but no guarantees!

A meal featuring Hoosier Ridge Ranch burgers will follow the field day.

See & Discuss

  • Cash-flowing the conversion to pasture on owned versus rented cropland
  • Stockpiling pasture for winter grazing
  • Mechanical buckthorn clearing for silvopasture
  • Grazing agreements on DNR prairie and neighboring cropland
  • A sudangrass mix after a canning pea crop
  • An extended rotation with oats, barley and Kernza

For details and to register, click here.

Saturday June 28

4:00 pm – 8:00 pm
LSP's Boots & Roots: A Celebration of Land & People
Saturday June 28
4:00 pm – 8:00 pm
LSP's Boots & Roots: A Celebration of Land & People
Dream Acres, Co Hwy 8, Spring Valley, MN 55975, USA

Join Land Stewardship Project members and supporters to kick-start the Driftless summer with an evening of good food, good music, and good times. We’ll have activities for all ages that will get you out in nature, exploring the connection between our region’s farms and your community’s food, land, and water. Bring a side or dessert to share for dinner, and the Dream Acres wood-fired oven will provide locally-sourced pizzas and flat breads. Dinner will be followed by live music and contra dancing by the Crater City String Band.  

To reserve a spot, click here.

Camping sites are available at nearby Masonic Park and Forestville Mystery Cave and Lake Louise State Parks. Camping at Masonic is rustic,first-come-first-serve, free, and does not require a reservation. Fillmore County, who manages the park, only asks that you call the dispatchers at507-765-3874 when you arrive with your vehicle information and phone number in case of emergency. State Park reservations cost $25 a night and can be made online.

July 2025

Tuesday July 15

5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Organic Fruit & Vegetable Field Day
Tuesday July 15
5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Organic Fruit & Vegetable Field Day
1805 Dudley Ave, Falcon Heights, MN 55113, USA

Join U of M researchers and Extension for updates on organic fruit and vegetable research and tour the Student Organic Farm and the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station in Saint Paul. Topics include: organic insect management, integrating livestock into vegetable farms, new crops for Minnesota, irrigation strategies, and more. Free to the public.
 
For details and to register, click here.

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