Hannah Bernhardt and Jason Misik couldn’t afford prime farmland brimming with infrastructure. But sweat equity and soil health are helping them transform a marginal piece of ground far from Corn Country.
NORTHFIELD, Minn. — A “Finding Farmland: Strategies and Tools for Accessing Affordable Land” workshop will be held Saturday, March 30, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Northfield Public Library (210 Washington St.). There is no charge for this Land Stewardship Project (LSP) event. Please RSVP by Tuesday, March 26, by contacting LSP’s Karen… Read More →
*This blog contains new information as of Nov. 1* The individual health insurance market, the place where many self-employed individuals purchase medical insurance is — candidly — a mess. Many Land Stewardship Project members are adversely affected by the current state of this market: premiums exploding, coverage choices dwindling, provider networks shrinking. What are the… Read More →
Pack-shed or people? That’s the question Les Macare and Els Dobrick are grappling with on a dank day in mid-March as they brave a biting wind to inspect the garden plots, cover crops, and outbuildings on Racing Heart Farm in western Wisconsin. With the exception of some onions sprouting in one of the hoop houses,… Read More →
In a win for the people and the land of southeastern Minnesota’s Winona County, the Minnesota Court of Appeals has declined to take up an appeal case that was brought forward by a large dairy attempting to expand well beyond an existing animal unit cap. This comes after years of neighbor-to-neighbor action and public engagement… Read More →
Sometimes one has to lose something to gain an appreciation for just how valuable an asset it was. That thought came to mind during the last hearing of the 48-year-old Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Citizens’ Board, which was held June 23 in Saint Paul. It was the last hearing because just a few weeks prior… Read More →
It’s that age-old struggle: accepting a little short-term disturbance in the name of long-term stability. Dave Trauba regularly faces the challenge of explaining that tradeoff to hunters who visit the Lac Qui Parle Wildlife Refuge in western Minnesota only to find their favorite spot for shooting pheasants has recently been grazed by cattle from a… Read More →
At the Minnesota State Fair yesterday, Governor Mark Dayton made it clear that he supports a ban on frac sand mining and processing in southeast Minnesota. During an appearance at Minnesota Public Radio’s fair booth, the Governor brought the issue up in response to a question about fracking and energy policy. During his State Fair… Read More →
The temperature hovers a few degrees above zero and fresh snow swirls around their feet as Bryan Crigler and Katelyn Foerster bend into a fierce wind and head into a stand of walnut trees on a recent January day. In contrast to the wild woods, neat rows of ironwood logs are leaning on wires amidst… Read More →
ALBERT LEA, Minn. — Corn and soybeans may dominate the agricultural landscape in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa, but reintroducing small grains such as oats into the rotation could help make farming more economically, agronomically and environmentally sustainable, while serving a growing consumer demand for healthy food, said a panel of national and local experts during… Read More →
