Celebrate with Festival of Farms event
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 07/08/2010 1:51 PM
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On July 10, select farms across Minnesota will welcome visitors as part of the Festival of Farms, a statewide event of the Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota.
Last year, the central chapter hosted a farm tour and called it a Festival of Farms, said SFA executive director John Mesko. This year, the idea is going statewide, giving people a chance to see sustainable agricultural practices up close and personal in several parts of the state.
Thus far, the Cannon River Chapter has organized an afternoon bus tour of three farms and an evening hoe-down with supper at a fourth farm. There's a CSA, sheep dairy and a diversified livestock and vegetable farm.
The Crow River Chapter is offering "three opportunities to tour three farms in one day." There's two vegetable farms and an on-farm natural foods store.
The South Central Chapter is offering tours of Hope Creamery, SunOpta Elevator in Hope and Wencl Family organic dairy near Blooming Prairie.
In the Walnut Grove area, the Coteau Ridge Chapter is hosting tours of Merryweather Gardens and Evergreen Angus. In the evening, there will be a tour of Don DeWeed's organic crop farm near Pipestone.
"I'm real pleased with how it's shaping up," Mesko said.
Five of the state's nine SFA chapters have thus far organized tours with updated event information posted at the organization's web site, http://www.sfa-mn.org/festival_of_farms.php.
The chapters are developing programs to demonstrate what's going on in the sustainable farming arena in their part of the state, he said.
Bruce Johnson, who lives near Walnut Grove and raises purebred registered Angus, will have an open house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. He's a member and officer of the Coteau Ridge Chapter. His neighbor, Sunny Ruthchild, will also have an open house during the same time.
The idea is that people can come to one or both, Johnson said, depending on what they're interested in. Ruthchild raises organic garlic, vegetables and poultry.
Johnson has a 30-cow herd, with pedigrees from the 1960s and 1970s that tend to be well-suited to grazing. At his farm, people can see the cattle and rotational grazing management.
"We just want to show people some of the examples of local food production, how good it is, how it's produced," Johnson said.
The events will be geared to visitors, with a large number of people coming to town for the Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant that weekend, Johnson said. The museum in town will give tourists a list of things to do in the area, including the farm tours.
In the evening, there will be a potluck at Don DeWeed's farm near Pipestone. It will be geared to people already involved in sustainable agriculture, but visitors are welcome, Johnson said.
There's a growing demand for information about small farms, Mesko said, and the Festival of Farms is one way to share information with a curious public. It's also a way for folks with a dream of farming to see firsthand what's involved in producing food.
Mesko has no idea how many people to expect, but he expects the farm tours to be well-attended. They've already received lots of inquires from the web site and there seems to be a tremendous amount of interest in getting out to farms.
There is no charge to tour the farms, but there may be a meal charge. Check out the Sustainable Farming Association website for more information. People may also call 763-260-0209 for general information.