02-22-1994 Planning Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

r n/ Sii ii lii lory Card«tiv perrent of Um r»7' %4* im ifiM ^ Vic- ISd^thAi 40 By \Moey L CAftw U\e Stevo Tite fmmily of Wayiau tat down lo dinner and enjoyed new poU- toes, oicumberf and an e|^;plant cas serole, all vrgetablef picked the very day they ale thera. But the Tales didn’t pr>w the vegeubles in their backyard —they don't have the space Nor did they buy them at a roadside stand. The fresh food on their uble came from the Common Haf>efl Farm on Water- town Rd. west of Long Lake. It was plai/.ed. cultivated and cared for by their farmer. Dao Guenthner. The Tates, who have purchased a full share (providing for a family of four) in the crops raised at the Common Harvest Farm, will receive a bag of fres h vegetables once a week for 20 weeks. They are one of 85 hous eholds in Minneapolis who refer to Dan Guenth- iier as “our farmer.” Sixieen other subscriber famiiies re- f ide in the readership area of this news paper. and they are ail beginning lo think abot ’t the food they eat m a different way Thev want to support a program that pro* mises thera fresher food than they could b’ly at any market, at lower pntes. and they want to know the food has been raised organically and locally. Many of the families strongly feel the need to be involved in the production of the food by going to the fields to see what is helping pick and pack their produce, and personally supporting their farmer and hia staff of five They want more 'nan a ’•subtle connection'* to their environment » •• • ,r Although the Common Harv est Farm is the only one in this area (the closest similar farm is in Osceola Wisconsin). Lhe idea of a subsenber farrii not new Japan and Switzerland have been doing this form of agnculture for years. Thirty years ago in Japan, concerned citizens formed " buying groups.** went directly to a farmer, and used this interesting ap proach to consumensm that is new hrp- pemng at Har\esi Farm. Here in the Umied Suies. this t>T)e t f farm is very prevalent m the northeast ern states, where it first began Now it's cropping up on the west coast where Caiifomians refer to the food raised as "yuppy chow.” Farmer Guenthner feels that here m ^^Kihng WoiM Wiint'came'frn those NtmneioU. ■ nch the G^tJen.. -Me beUevea avenge penon i*«oiri|ilHiai^«Mwved ;2|j,ble of trom the food growing procHgPHKiiof 5Bt<e« totloioanh^ ifwepcwene thefoodMinnesounseatispagducetlOut Ubd for Ibod product*|«. of sulev.«d the let^ce yot. j .. u,, > that- has grocery hands six uroea before yog piitjl in yoBff ^ ^ Comm o n Harvest Faqig TbiTbr.tlir^ti piM m yotttf^4 ^ ^refngenilor. 411^ i Seen its lubscnbert double In number, “Thaf 8 average for a piece of pirpdiscc;* ^ [ with 100 people tunied away as ^tential said Guenthner, “and the sam||MJnie/a^ * custpmeraa Asked if bd planned to e*- food produced here vnthiO;th?lbdwt »od put more of the jus|^ travels a shorter distance h1 1 *JjjjjK, i?**^** Watertown Rd. into vegeiablet thdae aia sets of hands.” -pert teaeoiv OuenthM said ^ does plan to''cultivate and^lant more of theWhat Guenthner says he is really try ing lo establish at the Common Harvest Farm is relauons hips—the relationship of people to land, people to food, and people to the food of the land. As Maggie Michaelson. coordinator of the weekljr food packing and diMnbution. explamt IS hard for people to get involved os be concerned about their environment if NtST they have no connecung link.** She feels this chance to see what goes into the ^wtng process —the work In planting and harvesting the dependence on the weather, the sharuigof the bounty —will provide them that Unlt^ge “There are a lot of closet gardeners out there.” Michaelson believes, people who dream of so.meday having that piece of land and growing their own food. They don ’t realue they can have that now. if not in their own backyard, then somewhere else, if they wnll lake the drae to gel in volved in the process. “Were not that far away from our roou,” said Michaelson, "or those days when our grandparents raised most of their own food.” VMien 1 related that my grandparents To Page 17 i ^ ' •• • subscriber list, .w i But Guenthner believes in toe “econo mics of scale ” He would rather see sex'- eral other small subsenpuon farms start up than to make hia own much bigger. By keeping the farm small brogue and limiting the number of subscribers he serves, Guenthner and Michaelson see a chance to make tura^ifs not^yuppy chow ” they arf growing They want their subsenbers to be participanta, not spec tators. About 25 percent of the sub- tenbera how com e our to the fftm and help. They would like to raise that per centagCL They want to make the farm a gaihenrg place (or Sunday picnics or work-day pollucks. They had one such gathering in June and hope to have more soon. ^ Michaelsoa wpukf flie to see a child ren’s plot plantodiMdii^ac.where kids could have a pa|tg|t crops 'such as gourdC'i^uspkiiir^lmd Indian com. Guenthner envisions^ •demon stration gardes^** where folks could learn how to plant their own backyard ploU, f omethuig ho encourages hia subsenb- ers to do so they dpp’tget hooked on toe ^ rii let rav farmer do it all for me” idea About 20 different vegeUble# are grown at Common Harvest rami,”ahd each week 85 bags of fresh produce are picked up at the .six drop-off points by the subsenber families. Each family sends a cloth reusable bag with their name on it to the farm where it is filled by helpers with whaujver produce is available at that Ume Recently, it was summer squish, potatoes, cucumbers, onions, green peppers, eggplant and cabbage. Meanwhile. 17 families in the Lake Minnetonka area who have decided they v%'antto ”get back to the basics ” and relate to the land and the food they eat. are expenencing what it is to be p rt of a "new economic model ” as Michatison puts it—the Common Harvest Farm.