Kaitlyn O’Connor of Prairie Moon Nursery walks us through the principles of selecting seed mixes for native plantings for pollinator habitat and ecological restoration, then goes over some specific recommendations. Prairie Moon Nursery provides over 700 species of native plants for gardening and restoration. This is part 2 of a 3-part series on pollinator habitat on organic farms. 

Following this series, join us for a Post-Podcast Farmer Chat with all the guests.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Prairie Moon Nursery

Growing Stronger: Collaborative Conference on Organic and Sustainable Farming

Karin Jokela, Xerces Society Wildlife Biologist, talks about pollinator conservation and how these practices mesh with organic standards. Get some tools for assessing habitat, and learn about some of the NRCS programs that offer both financial and technical assistance to help you get started. This is part 1 of a 3-part series on pollinator habitat on organic farms.

Resources mentioned in the presentation:

Farming for Pollinators

Habitat Assessment Guides

Using 2014 Farm Bill Programs for Pollinator Conservation

Organic Site Preparation for Wildflower Establishment

Cover Cropping for Pollinators and Beneficial Insects

Links:

Xerces Society

Growing Stronger: Collaborative Conference on Organic and Sustainable Farming

This is the audio from the monthly meeting of the farmer-led mental health group, Growing Wellness. This month's guest is Monica Kramer McConkey, a licensed professional counselor, Rural Mental Health Specialist, and consultant with Eyes on the Horizon Consulting.

In this session, Monica discusses building personal resilience in 4 areas (Social, Biophysical, Psychological, and Spiritual) to increase your capacity to deal with stress and uncertainty.  Personal resilience is defined as the ability to withstand or recover from difficult situations, and I would add... the ability to grow through that process.  The goal for this session is to learn about yourself and set goals to build your resilience!

Growing Wellness Group meets monthly for a brief presentation followed by discussion. The group also has a listserv. Click to learn more and join in this community.

Check out the Grower Group page on the MOSES website and get connected with other farmers.

Get in touch with Monica:

Watch Monica's presentation on YouTube: Growing Wellness: Nurturing Protective Factors for Mental Health

April Jones and her community were shocked when their two neighborhood grocery stores suddenly closed without warning. She recalled hearing Leah Penniman say, “If you’re looking for someone to save you, I’m here to tell you they’re not coming, and you’re going to have to save yourself.” So, April and a farmer friend founded the Pinehurst Farmers Market in downtown Columbia, South Carolina, to bring healthy food to their community. 

April offered to help others start similar ventures in their communities. You can reach her at [email protected] or find the Pinehurst Farmers Market on Instagram and Facebook @pinehurstfarmersmarket and on Twitter @PinehurstMarket.

In our first Growing Wellness farmer-led mental health support group, guest speaker Lori Cox offers advice to help farmers create plans for resilience, set goals, and make difficult decisions. This season has been a turbulent one for many producers, and farmers will have to continue to work with uncertainty due to climate change and COVID into the future.

Lori is owner/operator of Roots Return Heritage Farm in Carver, Minnesota.  The farm produces u-pick fruits, and plants continual rotation cover crops using no-till. CRP, native pollinator strips, and hedgerows round out the property's 16 acres of holistic habitat. Lori serves as an advisory board member for MN Ag Water Quality Certification program, and Carver County Water Management Org. She also serves as executive board member of MN Ag in the Classroom Foundation, and MN Institute for Sustainable Ag. Prior to farming, Lori worked as a project manager and consultant for financial and technology companies.

Growing Wellness will have monthly meetings with a short presentation followed by a discussion. Join the group to participate in the private discussions. 

Links:

Growing Wellness Group

Growing Wellness: Empowered Decision Making on YouTube

SMART Goal Setting Video

Naima Penniman, Program Director at Soul Fire Farm, talks with Chuck about the Black and Indigenous roots of regenerative agriculture, how Soul Fire provides fresh produce to low-income communities of color, the importance of land, the need for reparations, and agricultural policies that could start to right the injustices faced by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) folks.

Links:

Soul Fire Farm

Sowing the Seeds of Food Justice Manual

Food & Land Sovereignty Resource List for COVID-19 

Calls to action:

(1) Reparations map

(2) Fortifying our Foundation

(3) Action steps

Ariel Pressman with the Real Organic Project explains the Local Food Is Essential campaign. This is a collaborative marketing campaign to promote local foods. Ariel shares the goals of the campaign and how farmers can use it to help their businesses. Then Annalisa Hultberg of the University of Minnesota Extension is back to give us an update on COVID-19 safety on the farm. Let’s get to it.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Local Food Is Essential

Register for Medicinal Herb Production Virtual Field Day

Paul Dietmann from Compeer Financial and Jon Jovaag, a farmer near Austin, MN, help us do the numbers on transitioning to organic grain production. We talk through how to think through cash flow versus profitability during the transition years, what crops to use in your rotation, and why you’d want to do it in the first place.

UPDATE: The Virtual Field Day mentioned in this episode was on July 8th, but it is now available on YouTube.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Turning Grain into Dough

OGRAIN Compass 

Compeer Organic Bridge Loan

Organic dairy graziers Thelma  Heidel-Baker and Ricky Baker join Chuck to talk about what they've done to have a financially viable 60-cow dairy. This episode builds on part 1 with Dr. Jon Winsten from 6/4. UPDATE: Part 3 was a Virtual Field Day with Thelma, Ricky, and Jon where we talked about the economics of grazing as well as production, conservation, and more. It is now available on YouTube.

Listen to Thelma's conservation conversation on the In Her Boots podcast.

You can’t control the price of milk, but you can control how much it costs you to produce it. Dr. Jon Winsten from Winrock International outlines three key metrics to look at when considering a dairy farm’s financial viability: feed efficiency, labor efficiency, and capital efficiency. 

This is part 1 of 3 grazing training installments this month. In two weeks, part 2 will be a podcast episode with organic dairy graziers Thelma Heidel-Baker and Ricky Baker. 

UPDATE: Part 3 was a Virtual Field Day with Thelma, Ricky, and Jon where we talked about the economics of grazing as well as production, conservation, and more. It is now available on YouTube.

Learn more about the Pasture Project.  

Learn about equity efforts for communities of color in the food system in this Civil Eats story.