Archive for October 2022
Dirt Rich: Enchanted Meadows – In Transition
Chad Crowley firmly believes that for those who want to get into dairy or farming in general, grazing is the way to go. That route has certainly gone well for him. He was told many times that he couldn’t find success in farming because he didn’t grow up on one. But today he and his…
Read MoreDirt Rich: Old Farm, New Visions
A new episode of Dirt Rich features farmer and SFA board member Scott Haase of Blue Earth, Minnesota. Haase grows crops with his brother Brent and raises pasture and woodland pork on Blue Dirt Farm. Their German ancestors “walked here from Wisconsin back in the 1860’s,” and they still farm some of the land where…
Read MorePaddockTrac Draws a Crowd
We hosted a pasture walk with the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) and NRCS Cooperative Agreement at Walter Organic Family Farms on September 22. This event featured the PaddockTrac technology that was developed at the University of Missouri and is being tested on DGA farms around the country. The PaddockTrac is a unit that mounts onto…
Read MoreComing Soon to Vergas: a Seed House
Earlier this year, Zachary Paige of North Circle Seeds and the Lake Agassiz Chapter got a lead from a friend on a grant opportunity from Ceres Trust. The deadline was coming up quickly, but he took a crack at a proposal. $25,000 could get the seed collective pretty close to covering the construction of a much…
Read MoreOrganic Pioneer: Carmen Fernholz
Carmen Fernholz, a pillar of Minnesota’s farming community, was recently honored with the Rodale Institute’s 2022 Organic Pioneer Award. Recognized for his leadership in “changing the landscape of regenerative organic agriculture for the better,” he is one of four recipients this year. Fernholz has long been a member of SFA, and even laid groundwork for the organization…
Read MoreTour Plum Creek Garlic in New Video
Check out our new video that chronicles a garlic field day of one of our stalwart members! We visited Plum Creek Garlic near St. Cloud, Minnesota on June, 2022. Now in their 14th year of growing garlic, they are active members of the Sustainable Farming Association and follow best practices including rotation and building soil capacity…
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