Farm Tour

Earlier this spring my friend Amanda invited me to join a community education group for a day of learning about local organic farming. We are both interested in healthy eating and want to know where our food is coming from. Our first stop was at a private farm near Detroit Lakes. A retired man and his wife have a beautiful spot with many acres. The man said he likely works more hours in a day now than when he was officially working, but it is clear he is passionate about keeping his farm running smoothly.

This is a wood-fired stove, similar to what the Navajo tribe uses.

It sounds like he received some good bread-baking tips from a Navajo woman!

A place to grow mushrooms!

I was impressed with his mushroom operation, I hadn't seen one in person before.

Inside one of the high tunnels - similar to a green house where they can start growing fruits and vegetables long before it is warm enough outside to grow plants.

When we were there in March, the temp of the high tunnel inside was around 80 degrees!

Fruit tree inside the high tunnel

They have their own cattle on the farm - I wish I remembered the type of cattle, but the name escapes me now (that is what happens when you wait 2 months to catch up on blog posts!)

Then we travelled to the reservation and ate a traditional meal at a local cafe. The soup was a meat & potato stew and was made from locally-grown ingredients. We also had artisan bread, local apples, and coffee ground on the reservation. It was a lovely meal and a nice spot to eat lunch!

There were about 20 people in our group that day and we had such a fun time learning! Amanda gave me a list of local contacts where I can get organic chickens, meat, etc. We are so excited to get into the habit of buying meat locally in addition to getting our fresh produce from a local farm (can't wait for that to start up in a few weeks!).

Here is to healthy eating and knowing where your food comes from!