CSA

A Sense of Where You Are: The Quickening

Part 5 in a Series

Note: This is the 5th installment in the 11-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…  Read More

A Sense of Where You Are: Food Bank Booster

Part 6 in a Series

Note: This is the 6th installment in the 11-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series.  Here’s some troubling context in the land of plenty: in 2023, 18 million U.S. households were food insecure at some time during the year, according to the USDA. That figure is up from 17 million in 2022. Food insecurity…  Read More

A Sense of Where You Are: First Things First

Part 7 in a Series

Note: This is the 7th installment in the 11-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series.  So, here’s a chicken or egg situation to ponder: when launching a farming operation, when should you approach the local NRCS office about applying for funding to set up infrastructure such as a high tunnel or a rotational grazing system?…  Read More

Ear to the Ground 329: Weather Whiplash

Climate change may impact a vegetable producer and a livestock farmer in different ways, but the result is the same: uncertainty, stress…and a deeper desire to connect with community. More Information • Ear to the Ground 299: Road to Resilience • LSP’s Soil Health page • Prairie Drifter Farm • Early Boots Farm You can find LSP Ear…  Read More

Ear to the Ground 272: Micro Milk Mentorship

Government regulators may be befuddled by Cella Langer and Emmet Fisher’s tiny dairy, but these Farm Beginnings/Journeyperson grads know exactly where it fits into their business. More information: • Land Stewardship Letter Oxheart Farm profile • Oxheart Farm • LSP’s Farm Beginnings • LSP’s Journeyperson • MOSES Farmer-to-Farmer Mentorship Program You can find LSP Ear to the…  Read More

Spring is Just Around the Corner & That Means it’s CSA Time

LSP Farm Directory Now Available Online

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Spring is just around the corner, which means it’s time to sign-up for a 2022 share in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm. The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) has recently published the 2022 edition of its CSA directory for farms that service the Twin Cities, outstate Minnesota and western Wisconsin region. It’s available at https://landstewardshipproject.org/csa-farm-directory.…  Read More

Making Room for Relationships

How Journeyperson is Helping Racing Heart Pace Itself

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

Ear to the Ground 264: Center of the Universe

Pack-shed or people? LSP’s Journeyperson helped vegetable producers Les Macare and Els Dobrick make a big decision about a recent growing season. More information: • Land Stewardship Letter Racing Heart Farm profile • LSP’s Journeyperson Course • LSP’s Farm Beginnings Course • Racing Heart Farm You can find LSP Ear to the Ground podcast episodes…  Read More

Ear to the Ground 263: Public Investment in Public Goods

Anna Racer and Pete Skold have used state and federal “spark plugs” to build a farm enterprise infrastructure that’s good not just for them, but the community as well. Back in 2012, we interviewed Racer and Skold soon after they graduated from Farm Beginnings and launched Waxwing Farm. Check out that conversation on Ear to…  Read More

Farm Beginnings Profile: The Incubator Acre

A to Z's Mini-Plot is a Vital Link in the Beginning Farmer Chain

When Lauren Barry pulls a weed or harvests a tomato this summer, she’s doing so on a one-acre plot of land steeped in history. Not the ancient, dusty kind that may or may not have relevance to the current situation, but history rooted in recent growing seasons, when other beginning farmers faced the same meteorological,…  Read More