The first decade of a farm is full of challenge, sweat, growth, difficult lessons, satisfaction and joy. In order to get more successful farmers on the land, new farmers need to establish their farms in a way that cultivates financial, ecological, personal and relationship sustainability. Land Stewardship Project’s Journeyperson Course wants to help you achieve… Read More →
We have learned that quality produce on our eight-acre vegetable farm starts with the soil—soil that teems with life at both the macro- and micro-level. First, some background: I had grown up on a conventional hay, corn and soybean farm in western Iowa and moved to Rochester, Minn., for work after getting a mechanical engineering… Read More →
A group of prospective farmers gathered recently for a Land Stewardship Project Farm Dreams workshop at Gale Woods Farm in Minnetrista, Minn., to network and identify next steps in their journey into farming. Farm Dreams is a four-hour workshop designed to help people clarify what motivates them to farm, get their vision on paper, inventory… Read More →
Amy Haben and Tom Moore ride a golf cart over a rickety wooden bridge spanning Otter Creek and follow a path to a lush pasture where a couple dozen head of Scottish Highland cattle graze, their shaggy coats luminescent in the late afternoon sun of a June day. “Before they grazed the edge of the… Read More →
As a farmer, sociologist and instructor in the Sustainable Food Production (SFP) diploma program at Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Fergus Falls, I was stunned as I read in Agri-News on Feb. 5 about why the program was abruptly suspended: “ …’people will move on and start their own farms,’ ” said Mary… Read More →
What with ridiculously high land prices and Washington’s inability to focus on agriculture long enough to pass a Farm Bill, it’s easy to get down about the prospects for beginning farmers these days. That’s why a national meeting held in Rochester, Minn., earlier this month was so important—not only because it proved that there are… Read More →
By the time he was 20, Nolan Lenzen had already completed a dairy management course at a local college and launched a farming career in partnership with his father and grandfather. They were milking 90 cows in a tie-stall barn and cropping 300 acres near the south-central Minnesota community of Watertown. Some might say it… 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 →
At a time when we’re all scanning the dark horizon of recession land for any economic spark, local food systems look to be a flare-up that’s got some staying power. The past several weeks have been full of signs that both in Minnesota and nationally producing and consuming food in our own collective backyard isn’t… Read More →
Farm Beginnings graduates adapt to a new geographic region using low-risk techniques.
