Farm Beginnings

Ear to the Ground 306: Tough Choices

‘Land Access: Are You Ready?’ Workshop April 29 in Rosemount

ROSEMOUNT, Minn. — Figuring out how to access land is one of the most complex financial decisions a farmer will make. A “Land Access: Are You Ready” workshop will be held Saturday, April 29, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at the Robert Trail Library in Rosemount (14395 S. Robert Trail). The cost of this Land Stewardship…  Read More →

Ear to the Ground 302: Thinking Like a Tree

Beginning farmers Abbie Baldwin and Mitch Hawes are playing the long game when it comes to launching their permaculture operation. More Information • LSP’s Farm Beginnings Course • Ear to the Ground 262: A Silvo Secondary Enterprise • Midwest Permaculture You can find LSP Ear to the Ground podcast episodes on Spotify, Stitcher, iTunes, and other podcast…  Read More →

Solar Powered Land Access

Proving Energy & Food Production Can Co-Exist — 1 Megawatt at a Time

On an overcast day in late June, Arlo Hark drives a semi into a gravel parking lot near the southeastern Minnesota community of Rushford pulling a trailer adorned with an “Eat Lamb: 10,000 Coyotes Can’t be Wrong” bumper sticker. He opens two doors on the side of the trailer and 120 lambs and ewes explode…  Read More →

In the Middle of Somewhere

Carrie Calvo's Long Journey to the Heart of Farming & Local Food

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 →

Ear to the Ground 294: Rootless Regeneration

These beginning farmers are accessing land without owning it — one megawatt at a time. More Information • LSP’s Farm Beginnings Course • Farm Beginnings in other Regions: the Farm Beginnings Collaborative • Land Stewardship Letter article on Josie Trople & Arlo Hark • Fresh Voices: the Ear to the Ground podcast series on beginning farmers You can find…  Read More →

Ear to the Ground 293: Middle of Somewhere

Carrie Calvo’s 7,000-mile journey to the heart of farming and local food. More Information • LSP’s Farm Beginnings Course • Farm Beginnings in other Regions: the Farm Beginnings Collaborative • Land Stewardship Letter article on Owl Bluff Farm • Fresh Voices: the Ear to the Ground podcast series on beginning farmers You can find LSP Ear…  Read More →

Beginning Farmer Program for MN, WI & IA Accepting Applications for 2022-2023 Course

Farm Beginnings Marks a Quarter Century of Training Ag’s Next Generation

LEWISTON, Minn. — One of the most successful beginning farmer training programs in the country is now accepting applications for its 2022-2023 course session serving the Minnesota, western Wisconsin and northern Iowa region. The Land Stewardship Project’s (LSP) Farm Beginnings initiative is a year-long training program that focuses on the goal-setting, marketing and financial skills needed to…  Read More →

Small, Complex & Focused

Not Doing Everything Makes Minding the Little Things Even More Crucial

Smaller doesn’t always mean simpler. Consider Cella Langer and Emmet Fisher’s foray into being a Grade A micro-dairy — one that produces, processes, packages, markets, and sells pasteurized milk and yogurt. In a state that has lost 40,000 dairy farms in the past four decades, they are a tiny push in the opposite direction. How…  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 →