Check back with us as we will be updating this. 

Tuesdays
White Bear Lake South (35E & Hway 96)
Mahtomedi (WB Unitarian Church)
Stillwater (Broadway & E Pine)
Big River Farms

Thursdays
Mpls South (Butter Bakery @ Grand & 36th)
Mpls South (Mayflower Church @ 56th-Diamond Lake Rd)
St. Paul (near University & Snelling)
Highland Park (Ford Pkwy & Fairview Ave)
Roseville (Dale St., 1 mi. N of Hwy 36)
Woodbury (Woodwinds Health Center @Hwy 94, 2 miles S. of Hwy 494)

Share Options and Pricing

Gardener’s Special $35
A mixed flat of your favorite herbs and flowers to get your home garden off to a great start! The Special will include a mix of 6-packs, 2” pots & 4” posts of herbs, flowers & specialty variety vegetables to be determined as we move into Spring. The Special is Certified Organic and grown with care in our greenhouse. Flats will be available for pickup at our annual Spring Open House in mid May, just in time for planting out!

Summer’s Best Veggies: farm $540/dropsite $570
18 weekly boxes of Big River Farms’ Certified Organic veggies, delivered to neighborhood sites throughout the Twin Cities and in Stillwater. What’s in the box each week will vary depending on what’s in season and tends to be lighter in the beginning and chock full of goodies come fall. Our Summer’s Best season runs from mid June through mid October - all members receive a CSA Orientation Packet in May detailing everything you’ll need to know about being a CSA member. Members also receive:

* Weekly E-newsletters sharing happenings on the farm, information about what’s in your box, and trusted recipes to try
* Optional MFA Report, a monthly E-newsletter with updates from MFA’s Executive Director, Glen Hill
* Invitations to our all farm events including the Spring Open House, Fall Harvest Party, monthly community workdays, Big River Slow Food Dinner etc.

Fall Harvest Veggies: farm $95/mpls $105
An extension of the Summer’s Best, this share includes 3 boxes of storage vegetables and hardy greens
available for pickup on the farm or delivery to Butter Bakery in Minneapolis. Boxes are packed 10/25, 11/8 & 11/22 - just in time for Thanksgiving.

FruitShare Summer: farm $415/dropsite $425 Fall: farm $123/dropsite $127 - FruitShare offers Organic fresh fruit, picked at its peak, packed carefully and delivered fast - It is NOT LOCAL. Everett Myers, FruitShare founder, grew up on a family farm just a few miles from Big River Farms. After years as a CSA farmer, and then a produce buyer, he developed relationships with organic family farmers throughout the country to bring their best Organic fruit to CSA customers. The Summer FruitShare includes 9 weeks of deliveries of the season’s tastiest Organic fruit, along with an e-newsletter sharing storage tips, recipes and farmer profiles. The Summer FruitShare includes: blueberries, cherries, 2 weeks of mixed fruit that will include pluots and plums and might also include nectarines, avocados, or grapes, 2 weeks of peaches and 2 weeks of apples and pears, some of which may be local. The Summer FruitShares can be picked up at the farm or delivered along with our vegetable shares. The Fall FruitShare will include cranberries, apples,and pears. The Fall FruitShares can be picked up at the farm or delivered along with our Fall Harvest Veggies to limited drop sites.

Barter Shares
Our Barter Shares are filled for the 2012 season.

We have a limited number of Summer’s Best and/or Fall Harvest shares available for work/trade.

We are especially interested in certain skill sets including but not limited to mechanical, foodies who like to create recipes and general office help. Each trade is valued and arranged based on type of work performed. For example, a barter of a mechanic’s services may require fewer hours than a barter of general office help.

Both parties will sign an agreement to the terms of the trade to ensure clear communication regarding expectations on both ends. We’ve had great success with this in the past and look forward to another season of trade relationships in 2012.

Star Tribune - January 18, 2012
Helping farmers to grow skills by Kevin Giles

Pioneer Press - October 13, 2011
At Wilder Forest near Marine on St. Croix, immigrants learn how to be successful organic farmers by Mary Divine

Mpls Star Tribune - October 8, 2011
Immigrant Farmers Plant Seeds for a New Lifeby Kevin Giles

HARVEST FOODSERVICE JOURNAL - JUNE-AUGUST 2011
Training to Meet Demand by Mike Mitchelson
Read about MFA's Farmer Training Program in this summer's issue of Harvest Foodservice Journal.

STAR TRIBUNE - JUNE 22, 2011
"CSAs are a Growing Revolution" by Kim Palmer
"The community-supported agriculture movement is changing the way many Minnesotans shop and eat -- and health professionals are taking notice..."

NEW ROOTS FOR REFUGEES - APRIL 7, 2011
Four farmers from the New Roots for Refugees program traveled to Minnesota to attend the Immigrant and Minority Farmers Conference in February.  Read about their experience here: New Roots for Refugees Article

CBS MINNESOTA - APRIL 3, 2011
Story and video about Minnesota Food Association, featuring May Lee.
Metro Farm Teaches New Farmers to Live Better

THE NEIGHBORHOOD FOOD PROJECT REPORT
ASSESSING FOOD SECURITY AND ACCESS IN SAINT PAUL, MN
The Neighborhood Food Project is pleased to share with you the findings and recommendations of our recent community food assessment.  The assessment was aimed to be a grassroots approach to look at food security and access issues in four communities in Saint Paul, MN.  Our assessment process included designing and piloting resident surveys, surveying neighborhood residents, conducting neighborhood focus groups and obtaining critical feedback on the process and the results from the community. We were pleased to find that the majority of people surveyed and interviewed were highly interested in eating more healthy food. We were not surprised to find that economics (price, living on limited income) tends to be a major limiting factor. The details of the findings and initial recommendations are included in the full report, which can be downloaded here:
Neighborhood Food Project Executive Summary March 2011 final.pdf
Neighborhood Food Project REPORT Nov 2010 final version.pdf

TC.COM (PIONEER PRESS) - MARCH 5, 2011
An Interview with Aaron Blyth, Farm Manager with big River Farms
Washington County Pushes Support for Local Produce Farmers

POEM FROM ALLAN LAVALIER, WRITTEN FOR MFA- JANUARY 29, 2011
I sing to the soil beneath my feet,
but all I have are shoes on the street.

Born to be a farmer on the earth,
is what I was given at my birth.

I see the maize growing high in the mountains near our villages and the collards 
rich with vitamins pumping up.

Don't trick me here with your rich quick trips that end up in a bin.
Just give me some soil I can feel my ancestors in.

'I know what I know' is what I say
Just a little aid is what I ask of the MFA.

Give me a little earth
for a future rebirth!

MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO - JANUARY 2010
"Immigrant Farmers look to move from markets to grocers" by Nancy Lebins
Listen to story or read transcript. 

WCCO - MAY 2009
"Finding Minnesota: Straight from the Farm"
MFA and Big River Farms were featured

KFAI RADIO WITHOUT BOUNDARIES - FEBRUARY 20, 2010
Listen to Glen Hill and others discuss the need for minority and immigrant farmer training. 
Go to KFAI archive page

TWIN CITIES DAILY PLANET INTERVIEWS MFA FARMERS - FEBRUARY 20, 2010
 at 2010 Immigrant and Minority Farmers' Conference
Read article at TCDailyPlanet.net site

MEET THE U OF M EXTENSION'S 2009 FARM FAMILY
of the Year for Ramsey County: 
May Lee & Mhonpaj
Read article at MinnPost.com site. 
Or click here to open PDF of article.

ST. CROIX VALLEY PRESS ARTICLE ABOUT MFA
Writer Ed Day interviews farmer Moses Momanyi & executive director Glen Hill. 
Great pictures of Yia Lee at work. 
Read article on St. Croix Valley Press's site
Or click here to open PDF of article.

Online registration for the conference is no longer available; however, you are welcome to come to the conference and register at the door.

(Click here to view above poster in PDF format)

2012 Planning Committee: Joci Tilsen, Nigatu Tadesse, Wayne Martin, Michele Schermann, Cindy Tong, Hli Xyooj, Amy Bacigalupo, Ly Vang, May Lee, Vince Xiong, John Xiong, Patrice Johnson, Katie Kubovcik, Nan Roberts, See Nay, Cutrina Moreland, Becky Balk, Mike Walzak

2012 Sponsors: Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in MN, Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Land Stewardship Project, Minnesota Dept of Agriculture, Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Services, United States Department of Agriculture- NASS, USDA- Farm Service Agency, USDA – Natural Resources Conservation Service,USDA-Assistant Secretary of  Civil Rights,  USDA - Risk Management Agency,USDA-Aphis, Minnesota Food Association, AgStar Financial Services, Peace Coffee, Sustainable Agriculture Research Education, United FCS, Renewing the Countryside, Hmong American Partnership, Latino Economic Development Center, CHS, Minnesota Farm Bureau, Community Table Cooperative, Minnesota Project, Heifer International, Marbook Foundation, Mississippi Market, University of Minnesota Extension, Minnesota Crop Improvement Association

2012 Inkind donations: Joe Hatch Surisook from Sen Yai Sen Lek is donating a portion of the food for the meals, Abbott Paint, Jordan's Seeds, Peace Coffee, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, High Mowing Seeds, White Harvest Seed Company, Seeds of Change, Territorial Seed Company, Sarah Hustad, Johnny's Seeds, Backyard Poultry Magazine, Intrinsik Farm.

Click Here for 2012 Conference Program and Schedule

All winter classes are at Knox Presbyterian Church at 1536 Minnehaha Ave. St. Paul from 5:45-8:00 (with noted exceptions for ½ day workshops).

Click HERE to view/download the schedule in PDF format. 

2012 Winter Class Schedule 651-433-3676

All winter classes are at Knox Presbyterian Church at 1536 Minnehaha Ave. St. Paul from 5:45-8:00 (with noted exceptions for ½ day workshops).

Rondo Community Outreach Library is located at University Ave and Dale St. in St. Paul. 

For those not enrolled in the BRF Training Program, classes are $20 per class or $60 for a series of 4. Please pre-register by calling Katie Kubovcik at 651-433-3676 or by e-mail at katie@mnfoodassociation.org. 

For farmers and those who work with farmers, it is officially conference season! The growing season ended a few months ago. Hunting season is over. You could go ice fishing. But for farmers, this is mainly the season for learning, sharing, planning and preparing. How can I better get my costs under control? Should I switch varieties of potatoes, broccoli, beans? Is there a better way to rotate or interplant my crops to get better production or decrease my pests? How can find more markets and what do those markets want? What is this “Organic Certification” and how can work towards that?

While there are numerous, excellent conferences coming up in January and February, the Annual Immigrant and Minority Farmers Conference held in St. Paul, MN stands alone as a conference that is planned and geared for immigrant and minority farmers.  Hosted by the Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in Minnesota, Minnesota Food Association, USDA-Farm Service Agency and USDA NRCS, the two-day conference provides education and connections to resources for small farm and beginning growers. The 7th Immigrant and Minority  Farmers Conference will be held on February 3-4, 2012 at the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters Event Hall, 710 Olive Street, St. Paul, MN. The theme of the 2012 Conference is “Planting Seeds for Success on your Farm.”

What makes this conference special?  In February 2011, we had a total of about 240 participants of which 170 were immigrant farmers from 8 different ethnicities from 6 different states. The planning committee is made up of about 15 people from 7 or 8 organizations and 5 – 6 farmers, who work together to determine the program and topics. It is very diverse and inclusive. We have simultaneous interpretation into up to 6 languages through an extensive set of earphones, microphones and transmitters. All workshops are presented, or co-presented, by actual practitioners, meaning farmer market managers, distributors, farmers, chefs, etc. Interpreters accompany the participants as they visit the exhibit tables so to facilitate discussion and exchange. Interpreters and presenters meet before the conference to review the presentations and discuss language and cadence. Workshops and conference evaluations are mainly a brief facilitated verbal question and answer after each session. A highlight the past 3 years has been the lunch time story telling. After everyone gathers up their lunch plates (again catered by Sen Yai Sen Lek Thai Restaurant from Northeast Minneapolis), we gather in the main auditorium and we share stories about where we come from, farming in our native country, farming in our new country, peculiarities of life in America, and life’s wonderful happenings and challenges. It is an amazing collage of perspectives and insights into our burgeoning diverse farming culture.

The highlight for me is the atmosphere. It’s a farmer’s conference. The farmers are foremost and prominent; it’s their conference. While it may start out slow, by the second day, the farmers feel empowered and are very at ease to ask their questions and pursue the knowledge they seek.  Farmers from wide ranging heritages (Kenya, Liberia, Somalia, Laos, Cambodia, Bhutan, Burma, Vietnam, Mexico, Guatemala and so on) are sharing and learning together, and meeting people from other organizations, businesses, universities, the MN Department of Agriculture and USDA agencies. This conference brings together people who would not otherwise meet each other in their normal lives and creates long-lasting bonds and networks.

Registration is on-line at (http://www.mnfoodassociation.org/content/12915 ) or by calling MFA at 651-433-3676, or the Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in Minnesota at 651-222-0475. The conference is free to farmers. The cost for other interested parties is $50 per day.

 Glen

 Glen Hill

Executive Director

Minnesota Food Association

Email: glenhill@mnfoodassociation.org