Category Archives: Uncategorized

Driftless region group on LinkedIn

There is a new group on LinkedIn for Driftless innovators entitled ” Upper Mississippi Valley Rural Partners”.

This group grew out of a convening of upper midwest rural partners organized by Partners for Rural America and the USDA, hosted by Wisconsin Rural Partners, to connect the region to a common vision. We want a place to stay connected, connect with others of similar mind and keep the momentum of our convening moving forward. This group is a way to share information about cross-state collaborations that are occurring throughout the region. The region is larger than the Driftless – it includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.
Please consider joining this group!

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Upper-Mississippi-Valley-Rural-Partners-3020144

Organic fruit growers: pls weigh in

Organic fruit growers:

The Organic Tree Fruit Association invites you to complete our 2012 Grower Survey. Thank you for your consideration and for sharing with your members and networks.

OTFA is a professional association dedicated to serving the interests of organic tree fruit growers and advancing the organic tree fruit industry through education, research, and advocacy.

      You can access the link here:

2012 OTFA Grower Survey

This survey is part of an Organic Tree Fruit Association (OTFA) Specialty Crop Block Grant award received through the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Your feedback helps OTFA learn about the needs, challenges, and opportunities Midwest Organic Tree Fruit Growers face and help us better address, respond to, and serve the needs your needs, plan future educational events and seminars and identify potential collaborators in on-farm research projects.
info@organictreefruit.org

www.organictreefruit.org

Transportation Costs and Considerations

Mark your calendar for a Workshop on transportation costs, the evening of May 2, 2012 in Dubuque. This event is targeted to farmers who want to assess what their transportation costs are and consider alternate ways to get their products to market. The event is free, but we need an RSVP to ensure adequate refreshments. Please spread the word throughout the region.

Land Stewardship Project and Iowa Extension is offering the workshop, in conjunction with the UW-Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems and the National Center on Freight Infrastructure, Research and Education.

Growing hazelnuts in the Driftless

Are you growing hazelnuts in the Drifltess? Are you thinking about it? CIAS is working with the University of Minnesota, UW-Extension, Rural Advantage, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Superior and the UW-Horticulture department on a hazelnut project. Hazelnuts are native to our region and have the potential to hold soil in place, withstand drought, and provide a high-quality food source. The project has three primary components: select native bushes that show potential for good nut bearing and evaluate the native/european crosses that are already growing on farms in the three states; work on developing processing equipment that is appropriate scale for small to mid-size operations; and help farmers organize their processing and marketing efforts to make the most of rural economic opportunities. Check out the Midwest Hazelnut Initiative web site if you want to learn more. http://www.midwesthazelnuts.org/

Attached are two documents. The first Hazelnut Wiki gives an overview of hazelnuts. The second is a GIS analysis of hazelnut production in Wisconsin, with some suggestions for where to place a processing facility.    Hazelnut_PDF_GIS_Analysis 

 

Welcome back!

Nearly a year has passed since our eloquent blogger, Mark Sieffert, and his gifted wife CeCe,  graduated and left Madison for further Adventures in Sustainability. We’ve missed their good works on behalf of the Driftless Region and our broader community, yet much has happened in the months following their departure.

We’ve made considerable progress on our work investigating transportation systems for regional and local food markets working with Alfonso Morales (Urban and Regional Planning).  Rosa Kozub took the lead on a first set of cases detailing some of the issues embedded in regional food transportation. Check out the report. David Nelson joined our staff and began where Rosa left off – investigating ways that farmers interested in regional markets could make use of transportation and logistics tools created for national scale distribution. We also started partnering with the Land Stewardship Project to help farmers determine their cost of transportation. David and I have since given numerous presentations on this topic to diverse audiences. We look forward to another year’s work on this project.

Brady Williams, with his faculty advisor Sam Dennis (Landscape Architecture)  joined us this year to work with hazelnut growers and informing the development of  a  processing industry for their product. As you may know, the Driftless is home to the most diverse pool of wild hazelnut genetics. It is also home to many farmers interested in agroforestry and dabbling in hazelnut production. Brady is currently developing case studies of other similar businesses to guide growers in starting this new industry off on solid footing.

Caitlin Henning, advised by Jane Collins (Community and Environmental Sociology),  joined our team in pursuit of artisan meat. She is organizing a meeting in the Driftless with farmers and processors to discuss issues of concern in raising, finishing, and processing. This summer she plans to spend time with farmers in Spain to learn about the Black Iberian pig and hazelnut finishing. She will then be making an interlocal connection between artisan producers in Spain and the Driftless.

The Driftless Food and Farming Project was featured in the Fall 2011 issue of Edible Madison, thanks to our friend, Jessica Luhning. Check it out.

We’ve made some great connections in Illinois, with the Driftless Area Initiative, and in Dubuque. We’ve added more than 100 people to our list of food system creators in the Region. I gave some variation of this presentation to a number of new audiences.

Plans for this summer include 4 workshops in the Region to develop the Driftless story, artisan meat opportunities, and transportation options.

Partner with us on your pet project. Invite us to participate at your up-coming events. Commit to creative, authentic innovation.

And tell us your stories. Let’s learn together.

Valley Stewardship Network Benefit with Fred Kirschenmann

You are cordially invited to Cultivate on July 29th in La Farge, WI  for a summer evening filled with delicious food and drink, and to celebrate our shared vision of our food and water shed.


Dr. Fred Kirschenmann will serve up his thoughts about building a more just and sustainable food system. Kirschenmann is Distinguished Fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and the president of his family’s 3,500-acre certified organic farm in south central North Dakota.


Cultivate_Final Ad.jpg

This lovely event will be held on the eve of the Kickapoo Country Fair  and is sponsored by Organic Valley and Edible Madison. Proceeds from the dinner benefit the good works of the Valley Stewardship Network.

Please share this invite with others and help us spread the word!

July 21 in Rochester: “Moving Local Foods To the Next Level”

“Moving Local Foods To the Next Level”

An Educational & Inspirational Evening for Local Leaders
about SE MN Local Food Aggregation & Distribution Strategies

Thursday, July 21, 6:30 PM – 9:15 PM

University Center Rochester - 851 30th Avenue SE, Rochester
Coffman Hall section of the main campus building; Rooms CF 206-208

RSVP by July 18 to: Greg Schweser - schwe233@umn.edu – 612-625-9706

On Thursday, July 21, the Experiment in Rural Cooperation (University of Minnesota SE Regional Sustainable Development Partnership) will host a panel of project leaders from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa who have been working to expand the capacity of local farmers to grow, produce and sell food in their own regions. Come hear the stories of these local food pioneers, participate in small group discussions, and network with your neighbors to be part of the movement to strengthen the regional food system of Southeast Minnesota.


Directions: http://www.roch.edu/html-spectrum/getting_to_ucr.html

Building map: http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/maps/buildingmaps.html#ucr

Parking is available in lots around the main campus building. West lots are closest to the room.

June 16 Meeting Documents and Resources

Here’s some information that came out of our June 16 joint meeting with the La Crosse Farm-to-Institution network.

Erin Meier’s presentation: DriftlessFFLaCross061611EMeier

Rosa Kozub and Lindsey Day Farnsworth’s presentation: Driftless Meeting Presentation-LDF-RIK

Food hub links:

Minnesota state-level resources and collaborative efforts:

Next Meeting: June 16 in LaCrosse

Driftless Food and Farm Network-

Please save the date for our next meeting on June 16 from 10 to noon at Western Technical College in LaCrosse, WI.  We are jointly sponsoring this gathering with the LaCrosse Farm-to-Institution network, a group that has been working closely with Fifth Season Co-op in Viroqua and others to bring locally sourced food to institutional buyers.

We have scheduled the following presenters and will leave plenty of time for discussion and networking:

  • Lindsey Day Farnsworth and Rosa Kozub of UW-Madison will talk about their research on efficiencies in local freight and distribution.
  • Erin Meier of University of MN’s SE Regional Sustainable Development Partnership will address innovative regional distribution options currently being explored in SE MN.
  • Terry VanDerPol, Land Stewardship Project’s food systems director, will lead a discussion related to LSP’s transportation/distribution work.

More information will follow shortly, but please save the date.  Please let me know if you have questions.

Many thanks,
Mark

driftlessfoodandfarm@gmail.com