HUTCHINSON, Minn. — How can we get more beginning farmers established on the land and in our communities? That will be the subject of a special Land Stewardship Project (LSP) meeting on Monday, July 24, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at Zellas Restaurant (14 Main Street South) in Hutchinson. For more information, contact Nick… Read More →
The AGRI Farm to School and Early Care Programs have been critical for expanding market access opportunities across the state, especially for beginning farmers and smaller operators, as well as for getting healthy, local food to our kids in both schools and childcare settings. This initiative reimburse schools and early childcare education centers for purchases… Read More →
At a time when rural residents are grappling with high food insecurity, an innovative Wisconsin program is connecting local farmers with local eaters. More Information • Wisconsin Local Food Purchase Assistance Program • LSP’s Community-Based Food Systems Web Page • Latino Economic Development Center • Threshing Table Farm You can find LSP Ear to the Ground podcast… Read More →
Every living thing needs a home — even ginger, tomatoes, and garlic. And southeastern Minnesota farmer Melissa Driscoll sees written contracts as handy and efficient vehicles for getting her produce to their final destination. An extensive use of forward contracts isn’t just good for business — it gives Driscoll the kind of peace of mind… Read More →
In the 1980s, we helped start the Winona Farmers’ Market in Winona, Minn. Today, downtown Winona is buzzing with activity on Saturday mornings, with 40 vendors selling vegetables, fruits, meats, flowers, baked goods, dairy, honey and all sorts of delicious and healthy products, all grown and processed within a 50-mile radius of Winona. The Farmers’… Read More →
On day two of our trip, we visited EDUCA (which stands for the Spanish equivalent of “Services for an Alternative Education”), an NGO located in Oaxaca City. It was housed in a two-story building, with a wall out front and a formidable door. EDUCA was formed in 1994 to promote civil participation, indigenous rights and… Read More →
As last week’s Congressional Research Service report on bee health makes clear, the crisis plaguing pollinators is not a single, big bad bogey man. It’s likely a combination of factors such as habitat loss, pesticide poisoning, introduced diseases and the stress of making domesticated honey bees the insect equivalent of migrant workers. That’s the bad… Read More →
Owl Bluff Farm is tucked away in one of those Driftless Area coulees where cellular signals go to die. In fact, when contractors were constructing a building there recently, they sometimes climbed half-way up an abandoned silo on the farm to use their phones. It has a sense of being an isolated, if beautiful, little… Read More →
Note: Earlier this summer, Land Stewardship Project soil health organizer Alex Romano reached out to one of our soil health steering committee members, Mike Seifert, who farms near Jordan, Minn., with his wife, Dana, and father, Big Mike, to ask for his thoughts on “return on investment” from cover crops. She wanted to know his… Read More →
How one land grant experiment station is helping farmers integrate livestock and crops in a way that creates resilient soils…and a resilient food system.
