Podcast

I hope you’ll enjoy this second conversation with herbalist Eagle Song Gardener about the many ways we can use the thorny Hawthorn in foods and herbal medicines.

Eagle Song has traveled the world to learn about the adaptable and ever-helpful hawthorn tree. In this Deep Roots Radio interview, we chat about the many, many ways the very thorny Hawthorn can find its way to our tables, salads, lunch boxes and remedies.

In case you missed it, please enjoy our first chat in which Eagle Song introduced us the the hawthorn, a tree with many hundreds of species.

Sylvia

Eagle Song Gardener and hawthorn fruit

This podcast is the third in a series of three with EagleSong about hawthorn. The first focused on how to identify this hedgerow plant, and the second looked into ways to use it in the kitchen and in your apothecary.

You can find out lots more about EagleSong’s work, lessons and products on her website, at herbal medicine conferences all across the US, and on her Youtube channel, @eaglesonggardener1893.

I hope you enjoy this interview.

Sylvia

Winter’s a perfect time to enjoy great food, family activities and adventure on Wisconsin family farms. In this Deep Roots Radio interview, Sheila Everhart, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association, describes just how easy it can be to have fun and create lasting memories on any one of the scores of farms that regularly welcome visitors to their operations.

Find your next ag-adventure

I hope you enjoy this interview, and I urge you to visit the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association website to find your next ag-adventure, www.wiagtourism.com.

PS. You’re invited to visit my farm, Bull Brook Keep, for an afternoon of snowshoeing or cross-country skiing. Just give me a call, 651-238-8525.

Sylvia

Buelingos and hawthorn

I came to recognize hawthorn – which on my farm grows as a tall, scraggly shrub – as I rotated my beef herd from field to field throughout the grazing season. My Buelingo cows shaded themselves under the scruffy trees and sometimes browsed on the lower leaves.  I simply enjoyed their lovely pale pink flowers, but eventually became curious about the small red fruit – the size of a small crab apple. As it turns out, they are in the larger apple family.

Thorns from 1-2″ long

As I continue my herbal studies, I’ve came to learn hawthorn flowers and fruit have been used in herbal remedies and tonics for hundreds of years. And here there were, growing all across my farm! Yippee! Since then, I’ve gathered hawthorn for making tinctures and teas that support heart health, and lots more.

Eagle Song

EagleSong Gardener is an herbalist who has come to know and use hawthorn deeply for decades. She’s a lovely woman I met at a Wisconsin herbalists’ conference in September 2022. EagleSong has traveled the world visiting hawthorn hedges and conversing with the many men and women who have come to appreciate this amazing woody gift on our landscape. Fortunately for me, she visited Bull Brook Keep on her way back to her home state of Washington.

I hope you enjoy this interview, the first in a three-part series with this knowledgeable and enthusiastic teacher. You can also find EagleSong’s lessons on her website, Facebook, and many helpful videos on Youtube.

Sylvia

Kevin McAnnany and one of his Dexters

Standing a bit more than a yard high at the hip, the Dexter is originally from Kerry, Ireland. Today, Dexters are increasing in popularity, especially among small landholders — and with good reason.  The Dexter is thrifty, docile and able to take the weather extremes of the Upper Midwest with nary a flick of the tail.

I hope you enjoy this Deep Roots Radio conversation.

Sylvia

Autumn colors are on display all across the country. Kids are running through corn mazes and families are enjoying hay rides, picking apples and sipping cider at farms throughout Wisconsin. Wrap a scarf around your neck and you can still savor wine outdoors at a local vineyard or hard cider at one of the many thriving orchards now offering the best of local.

Pretty soon it’ll be sleigh rides or snowshoeing across pastures. And then there’s the cutting of your very own yule log.

All of these activities are parts of agricultural tourism — relaxation, education, adventure, a meal or overnight stay at a farm that welcomes visitors.

This Deep Roots Radio chat with Sheila Everhart takes a look at this growing form of tourism, and celebrates Wisconsin’s recognition of agricultural adventures. Sheila is the Executive Director of Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association.

Enjoy!

Sylvia

Bull Brook Keep is once again part of this Saturday’s Eat Local Co-op Farm Tour.

Save the date and time:  Saturday, July 16, 10AM to 4PM

It’s a high point of our summer and you’re invited to visit our cows and pigs, as well as the livestock and festivities at nearby farms. Make a day of it! At our farm, you’ll get a chance to meet the moos, sample our beef (and buy ground beef and delicious summer sausage), and learn about upcoming herb-hunting tours called Herbal Safaris.

21 farms from around the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area and western Wisconsin are part of this annual event sponsored and organized by a collaboration of natural food coops. These are many of the sustainable and organic growers who provide food for co-ops, farmers markets, CSAs, and direct sales in our region.

In this Deep Roots Radio interview, organizer Jennifer Dean describes why the coops launched this event a dozen years ago, and how its gained in popularity.

Go to coopfarmtour.com for a downloadable guide and colorful map you can use for your self-guided tour.

I hope to greet you on the farm this Saturday.

Sylvia

If it fits on your lap, we’ll help you hold it.

Is there anything cuter than a new lamb? Or softer than a day-old chick? Well, maybe it’s the curly tail of a tiny piglet, or the agile jumps of a week-old kid.

All will be on display, and ready for a cuddle, beginning this weekend on John and Julie Govin’s farm in Menomonie, Wisconsin. It’s their annual Lambing Barn and Farm Babies event . “Our motto is – If it fits in your lap, we’ll help you hold it,” said John during our Deep Roots Radio chat. An easy drive from the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota metro area, the Govins have welcomed thousands of visitors – young and old – to this event for the last 16 years.

The Lambing Barn runs four weekends in 2021:  March 20-21; March 27-28; April 2-3, and April 10-11.  This spring, he’s taken extra COVID-19 measures to promote wellness and fun on the farm.  If you’re into agritourism, the Govin’s farm offers many activities through the summer and fall.

I hope you enjoy this interview  with John, and go online to purchase tickets to this spring time event.  I’m going Saturday, March 20th, and hope to see your there!

Sylvia

COVID 2020 – a year of pandemic, illness and isolation. We all learned about social distancing, working from home, and how to make sourdough bread. We clocked hundreds of hours on Zoom for professional meetings and family gatherings.

Lots of us dusted off our sewing machines and made face masks.  Our hearts broke as we learned about the hundreds of thousands brought down by the coronavirus. Businesses shuttered, and schools closed, and opened and closed again. Home-schooling was redefined.

Vaccines are on their way, but it appears distribution may take many months, and lots of political haggling.

It was in this chaotic context that Tessa Ingham purchased the local natural foods store, changed its name to Wildfour Market and set to work for the health of her community – Amery, Wisconsin, population 2,902.

Wildflour joins the steadily growing movement of agriculturally-based businesses in this small city just 70 miles east of the Minneapolis/St.Paul, Minnesota metro area. In the last 10 years, numbers of organic farmers have moved to the area to grow and market produce, meats, eggs, artisanal cheeses, mushrooms, fleece and fibers, and certified organic herbs and medicinal herb products.  The Amery area is also home to farm-to-table restaurant, microbrews, wineries, coffee roasters and distilleries using many locally-grown ingredients.   

I hope you enjoy this Deep Roots Radio interview with Tessa Ingham about hope and imagination, investment and grit in the time of COVID.

Sylvia Burgos Toftness

The snow’s flying and temperatures are plummeting, but northern growers will gear up for summer at the January 25, 2021 Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Conference.

Normally held over a three-day period and attended by over 700 producers and marketers, researchers from across the Upper Midwest, the 2021 conference will be held in-person and, for the first time, virtually due to COVID 19.

COVID presented numbers of challenges during the 2020 growing season. Interestingly, in many instances, these yielded increased sales and tourism visits. How to sustain the trend? Other conference topics will include pest control, marketing, and technical issues, said Anna Maenner, a leader in the Wisconsin fresh fruit and vegetable sector and organizer of this year’s one-day event. She stresses that this event can be very valuable for growers exploring commercial scale or agricultural tourism activities at their farms, vineyards, or orchards.

I hope you enjoy this interview and will join me at the conference. I’m scheduled to make a one-hour presentation on regional agricultural tourism efforts.. For more information and to register go to www.freshfruitvegetable.org  

Sylvia Burgos Toftness