Hope Community, a development organization in the Phillips neighborhood of South Minneapolis, owns a community garden in the center of what they call the “Hope Block.” Hope owns 176 units of affordable housing, almost all of which are on one block of the corner of Portland Avenue and Franklin Avenue. In the center of this… Read More →
On April 13, Hope Community intern Taya Shultz lead a cooking class at Hope’s community kitchen. “The topic was breakfast. We made almond milk, vegetable breakfast smoothies and buckwheat muesli pancakes,” Taya told me. Hope Community is a place-based community development organization that is entrenched in the Phillips Neighborhood, one of the most economically challenged… Read More →
Near the end of Will Allen’s inspiring book, The Good Food Revolution, DeShell Parker talks about what Growing Power means to her: “It means integrity. It means strong thinking. It means willpower. It means confidence. It means assertiveness. It’s so far beyond dirt and worms.” Allen’s book, which he wrote with Charles Wilson, is extremely… Read More →
The sustainable agriculture community lost a true friend this week when Bud Markhart passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. I had the opportunity to interview Markhart last fall for an LSP podcast. He was a professor of horticultural science at the U of M, and so it’s no surprise that he made his… Read More →
The U.S. Senate passed its version of the 2012 Farm Bill this week. While it’s far from perfect, specific amendments related to conservation and accountability that were passed during the floor vote give one hope that the voices of average citizens can be heard inside the Beltway. Let’s hope this is a sign of things… Read More →
When it comes to farming, oftentimes things don’t work out as planned—and sometimes that’s a good thing. Take for example Greg and Nancy Rasmussen, who on a recent fall afternoon are checking on some newly arrived chicks gathered under heat lamps in their barn. When the Rasmussens enrolled in the Land Stewardship Project’s Farm Beginnings course… Read More →
A three-hour drive separates the rolling hills of Minnesota’s Douglas County from the front steps of the Bell Museum of Natural History. But a year after the controversy over Troubled Waters—the Bell’s Emmy award-winning film on farmland pollution in the Mississippi River basin—brought words like “dead zone,” hypoxia” and “nitrogen fertilizer” to the attention of… Read More →
What do you do when a resource becomes increasingly scarce? One option is to use it more efficiently. That’s a key point livestock producer Greg Judy is going to make Sept. 9-10 in Alexandria during what promises to be a fascinating set of workshops. In this case, the resource that’s becoming harder to come by… Read More →
When raising crops, tissue and soil sampling are important practices to be used together to determine your nutrient management protocol. Soil testing reveals what nutrients are available in the soil while tissue testing shows a snapshot of nutrients in the plant part at the time of sampling. It is important to utilize both soil and… Read More →
We currently have an important opportunity to support state policy that bolsters family farmers, clean water, healthy soil, and thriving rural communities. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) has officially opened its 2027 Legislative Ideas Portal. Between now and Sept. 18, the MDA is gathering policy, program, and funding proposals from the community to help… Read More →
