Land Stewardship LIVE-WIRE, August 26, 2004
Hello:
This is the 14th issue of "Land Stewardship LIVE-WIRE," the Land
Stewardship Project's e-mail update. We send this out periodically to provide an update on activities and information related to LSP's work. We hope you enjoy this service, and are looking for feedback. Please send your comments to Brian DeVore at bdevore@landstewardshipproject.org. If you prefer not to receive this newsletter, please e-mail lspwbl@landstewardshipproject.org and write, "remove LIVE-WIRE" in the subject line.
IN THIS ISSUE
1) Taste of Tuesday Aug. 31 at the Fair
2) Promote Sustainable Farming at the Fair
3) Slow Food Fundraiser Sept. 7
4) Grazing Field Day on Winter Feeding Sept. 8
5) Hog Nutrition Workshop Sept. 16
6) Flour Milling, Goat Production Sept. 25
7) Chili Cookoff Oct. 2
8) Farm Beginnings™ Deadline Oct. 5
9) Dine Fresh Dine Local Oct. 5
10) What’s Happening in Your Area?
11) Organic Ag Mentors
12) LSP Gallery is Open
13) Worth Repeating
14) Worth Repeating II
15) Picture This
1) TASTE OF TUESDAY AUG. 31 AT THE FAIR
The State Fair is off and rolling, and a good time to attend the Great Minnesota Get Together would be Tuesday, Aug. 31. That’s when the 2nd Annual Taste of Tuesday-Minnesota Cooks! event will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Minnesota State Fair’s Carousel Park (near the Grandstand). This event will showcase local farmers and feature Twin Cities chefs preparing Food Alliance-certified products. For more information, contact Jean Andreasen at jean@foodalliance.org or 651-265-3682.
2) PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE FARMING AT THE FAIR
Food Alliance Midwest, a joint initiative of LSP and Cooperative Development Services, is looking for enthusiastic volunteers to staff an information booth in the Farmers Union building at the 2004 Minnesota State Fair. Volunteers are needed from today until Sept. 6 in three shifts (9 a.m.-1p.m., 1-5 p.m., 5-9 p.m.). Your presence at the Food Alliance information booth is a very direct and interactive form of consumer education. By helping people identify and connect to farmers who use the Food Alliance certification seal, you help to promote the farmers’ fine products and their environmental stewardship, while educating people about the benefits of sustainable agricultural practices. All volunteers will receive one free entry pass to the Fair, an information packet about Food Alliance Midwest, and a map of the fairgrounds. While Food Alliance Midwest can cover the cost of your admission to the Fair, you will be on your own for transportation to and from the fair (and for parking should you decide to drive). To volunteer, contact Jean at jean@foodalliance.org or 651-265-3682.
For more on Food Alliance Midwest, including where to buy certified products, visit http://www.foodalliance.org/producers/fa_midwest/midwest.html. For information on how to buy food directly from local farmers who use sustainable methods, check out http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/foodfarm-main.html.
top
3) SLOW FOOD FUNDRAISER SEPT. 7
LSP members Audrey Arner and Richard Handeen have been selected as delegates to Terra Madre, an international conference on “slow food” being held in Italy Oct. 20-23. The event is a forum for those who “seek to grow, raise, catch, create, distribute and promote food in ways that respect the environment, defend human dignity and protect the health of consumers,” according to the sponsors. Arner and Handeen produce beef on grass near Montevideo and are involved with Pride of the Prairie, an initiative that is promoting the production and consumption of local food in the Upper Minnesota River Valley.
A LSP event to help them raise travel funds will be held Tuesday, Sept. 7, from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at Watson Lions Park in Watson, Minn. In case of inclement weather, the fundraiser will be at the Watson Town Hall. There will be a potluck salad bar, silent auction and music. Roast pork will be provided. For more information on the fundraiser, contact LSP’s western Minnesota office at 320-269-2105 or lspwest@landstewardshipproject.org. For more information on Terra Madre, including a profile of Arner and Handeen, see http://www.slowfoodusa.org/events/terramadre.html.
4) GRAZING FIELD DAY ON WINTER FEEDING SEPT. 8
Planning winter feeding for a grazing dairy herd will be the topic at the monthly pasture walk on Wednesday, Sept. 8, at the West Central Research and Outreach Center (WCROC) in Morris, Minn. The working session will include feed inventory evaluation for quality and quantity, allocation of feed, balancing rations for animal groups with different nutrient requirements, estimating feed disappearance, and utilizing corn silage damaged by early frost. The walking session will include hay and silage storage sites. The program starts in the WROC office building meeting room at 12:30 p.m. and will conclude by 2:30 p.m.
For more information, contact Dennis Johnson at 320-589-1711 or dairydgj@mrs.umn.edu. To read more about grazing research being conducted at WCROC, check out the July/August/September 2003 issue of the Land Stewardship Letter.
5) HOG NUTRITION WORKSHOP SEPT. 16
“Hog Nutrition for Nutritious Pork,” a Land Stewardship Project workshop on alternative swine feeding methods, will be held in Montevideo, Minn., on Sept. 16. For details, contact Terry VanDerPol at 320-269-2105 or tlvdp@landstewardshipproject.org. For more on alternative swine production, check out http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/pr/03/newsr_031124.html.
top
6) FLOUR MILLING, GOAT PRODUCTION SEPT. 25
LSP members Mark and Wendy Lange will host a farm tour featuring on-farm flour milling and goat production on Saturday, Sept. 25. Call 320-269-2105 or 320-269-9617 for details. For more on the Langes, see http://www.agriculture.com/future/advice/040611devorelange.html.
7) CHILI COOKOFF OCT. 2
Java River’s Local Foods Chili Cookoff will be Saturday, Oct. 2 at the Granite Falls (Minn.) Memorial Park. This is being held in conjunction with the CURE River Revival and a local art crawl, so it should be well worth the drive. For details, contact Patrick Moore at 320-269-9042 or 320-269-7106, or log onto http://www.javarivercafe.com or http://www.prairiewaters.com.
8) FARM BEGINNINGS™ DEADLINE OCT. 5
The application deadline for the 2004-2005 edition of LSP’s Farm Beginnings™ program is Tuesday, Oct. 5. Classes will begin Saturday, Oct. 23, and will run twice a month until the middle of March. After March, course participants will have the opportunity to attend a series of on-farm educational field days. The course fee is $400, which covers 34 hours of class time, on-farm education
including farm tours, and one-on-one mentoring. The class usually fills by early fall, so those interested should apply soon. More information on Farm Beginnings™ is available at http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/programs_farmbeginnings.html. A new pdf format fact sheet on Farm Beginnings is at http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/fb/fb_factsheet16.pdf.
For a free paper copy, contact Louise Arbuckle at 651-653-0618 or lspwbl@landstewardshipproject.org.
9) DINE FRESH DINE LOCAL OCT. 5
Want to patronize a restaurant that shares your commitment to local producers and sustainable agriculture? The Blue Sky Guide’s new Dining Guide can help you put “your money where your mouth is.” Sponsored by Food Alliance Midwest, the Dining Guide lists over 40 Twin Cities area restaurants and cafes that support local agriculture. For more information, visit http://www.findbluesky.com or call 651-698-5586. To launch this guide, Land Stewardship Project, Food Alliance Midwest, Blue Sky Guide, and Twin Cities area restaurants will celebrate at the first annual “Dine Fresh Dine Local” event on Tuesday, Oct. 5. For details, call our Twin Cities office at 651-653-0618, or e-mail lspwbl@landstewardshipproject.org.
top
10) WHAT’S HAPPENING IN YOUR AREA?
For the latest on field days and other events, check LSP’s on-line calendar at http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/index-calendar.html.
11) ORGANIC AG MENTORS
The Minnesota Organic Farmers’ Information Exchange (MOFIE) links producers who want to farm organically with established organic farmers. The program consists of a group of 21 certified organic producers from all across Minnesota who have agreed to serve as mentors. Their expertise covers many areas of organic production, including cash grains, livestock and dairy, vegetables, fruits and maple syrup. Each mentor has agreed to answer questions via the telephone or e-mail. To keep the volume of information calls and e-mails manageable for these volunteers, they are only able to take questions from Minnesota residents. For a listing of these mentors, visit http://mofie.coafes.umn.edu or call 507-752-7372.
12) LSP GALLERY IS OPEN
LSP’s online art gallery is up and running. The Stewardship Gallery provides a showcase for images that reflect efforts to foster and support stewardship of our food and farming system. The theme of the first gallery show is “The Farm as Natural Habitat.” Last year we asked LSP members to send photos, illustrations or paintings they felt reflected that theme. You responded with some excellent entries, getting the gallery off to a smashing start. To see the show, check out http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/index-gallery.html. Now, it’s time to expand the gallery. The theme of the next show is “Abundant Harvest.” We’d love to be on the receiving end of how you interpret that theme artistically. Late summer and early fall should provide plenty of inspiration.
The entries should:
--Celebrate the bounty of food that we receive from the land.
--For photos, candid shots work well, black and white or color are fine.
Entry guidelines:
Please do not send originals.
--Send entries as digitals or scanned files. If you are using pictures from your digital camera, they will work just fine if they are JPEG files. If you are scanning the images yourself from photographs or artwork, it is better to save them in either TIFF or EPS format. When scanning, use a 150 PPI (“pixels per inch”) setting.
--Please title your photo, telling us when and where you took it.
Send entries by Dec. 1 to:
--Louise Arbuckle at lspwbl@landstewardshipproject.org. If you have any questions, you can e-mail Arbuckle or call her at 651-653-0618.
top
13) WORTH REPEATING
"We've grown accustomed to becoming more patient. That's part of perennialization."—LSP member & farmer Audrey Arner, quoted on the Slow Food USA Web site (http://www.slowfoodusa.org/events/terramadre.html)
14) WORTH REPEATING II
“For a well-managed family-sized farm, manure is a source of fertilizer; for a factory farm it's a waste product to be gotten rid of.”—LSP member & farmer Brad Trom, writing in Agri News (http://webstar.postbulletin.com/agrinews/281294569744254.bsp)
15) PICTURE THIS
Southeast Minnesota’s Root River is considered a blue ribbon trout stream and is a favorite of canoeing enthusiasts. But intensive production of corn and soybeans in the river’s watershed has taken its toll on water quality. For a graphic look at the effects of soil erosion, as well as a commentary by soil scientist Gyles Randall that describes why he thinks our row cropping system is unsustainable, visit http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/pr/newsr_010927.html.
top
|
