Working at Midheaven Farm
-Sarah Tyler and her friend, Elyse.
Sarah Tyler visited for a week in 2010 and came to work with Elyse wearing rubber boots she brought with her from San Francisco. When Dewane asked why, she said she expected to get wet. We knew right then she would be a good farm worker, and we're happy she's decided to work for the CSA this season.
Sarah Lopes first came to the farm with our daughter, Rachel in the Spring, 2010 from the East Coast. She fell in love with the land and the people and returned in September, 2010 to volunteer for a month. Although she learned how to make kimchee, freeze corn, dry lemon balm and can tomatoes, it just wasn't enough. For the 2012 season she will join the CSA full time. She brings with her Benton Rooks from California. When Sarah told Benton she wanted to go to Northern Minnesota to learn more about biodynamic farming, he not only shocked her with knowing what biodynamic farming is, but he insisted she take him with her.
We are looking to train young farmers and gardeners, especially those who may want to take our farm to its next level. Interns start in the garden with hands-on training in all aspects of vegetable production and CSA management.
Anne manages the CSA garden with three full-time and three part-time co-workers. She also has an on-farm business, The Secret Garden (est. 1985), that creates and markets dehydrated soup, entrée and seasoning mixes.
Dewane runs the farm. He grows hay, oats, barley, and winter wheat, and generates all the feed for our animals with the exception of a small amount of organic soybean meal supplement for poultry. Beef cows and their calves graze from late May until November on rotational warm season native prairie grass and cool season grass pastures. He stirs BD 500 and 501 with a 120-gallon stirring machine and sprays all open acreage every year. Supplemental valerian and equisetum applications are stirred and sprayed by hand.
Further training for co-workers interested in comprehensive farm operation emphasizes time management, application of biodynamic preparations to get tangible results, operation of haying equipment, making and using compost, crop rotations, prescribed burning of prairie pastures and forestland, general maintenance of equipment, soil tillage, the planting, cultivation, harvest and storage of crops, and harmonizing the CSA gardens with the total farm organism in a financially and environmentally responsible way.
Our goals for the next five years are to increase the number of CSA shares to 200, to donate a portion of the garden and cropland to the Yggdrasil Land Foundation, and to form a 308B Cooperative that would allow non-voting members, individuals and businesses to make financial investments in the farm.
Dewane and Anne have accumulated a wealth of knowledge about operating a farm and a CSA on finite resources. “Farming is fun,” Dewane says. “The work is hard. The satisfaction immense.”
The primary requirement for any co-worker is heartfelt interest in, and genuine commitment to, Biodynamic gardening or farming. For more information, please e-mail a written resume with three references. Farm visits are encouraged.
You can also visit the North American Biodynamic Apprenticeship Program (NABDAP) at:
http://www.biolynamic.com/north-american-biodynamic-apprenticeship-programnabdap@biodynamics.com
