What everyone can agree on is that spending time in Nature is good for our bodies and our minds.

From gardens and nature play areas to bird watching, maple sugaring and preschool- Tamarack Nature Center (TNC) is a true gem for the Twin Cities nature lover. There are roughly five miles of trails meandering through the 320 acres of widely varied landscapes. You can walk through old growth maple stands, skirt a swamp, round a lake and parade through lots of prairie.

There is also one of the Twin Cities’ largest and most engaging nature play areas, “Discovery Hollow” including a natural waterscape, a log and stick play area, hobbit house and a huge climbing wall with built in caves and sand pit.

Nature Center vs. Park

Nature centers differ from county parks in a few ways. Their main purpose is to preserve or protect natural landscapes and provide habitat for the wildlife that have always called it home.

People use nature centers differently than parks as well. While people gather at parks for the baseball fields or playgrounds, people come to nature centers to hike or birdwatch.

At TNC, the staff care for frogs, snakes, turtles and even owls, and share these animals as part of the programming. The visitor center also has nature displays and classrooms for both adults and preschoolers.

I am lucky enough to live close enough to this nature center to have it become an integral part of our lives. Both my kids have gone through the Nature Preschool here, we’ve had birthday parties here, attended their ‘drop in’ sessions, hiked the trails more times than I can count, even had family photos taken here.

White Bear Lake Winter Farmers Markets

Going on 5 seasons now, I’ve also worked with the staff to hold the White Bear Lake Winter Farmers Markets here! This has been a great way to bring the community together over local food, something I’m very passionate about!

Growing with the Community

Tamarack first opened it’s ‘doors’ with a trailer on the land circa 1978. The main building was built in 1989 with additions for classrooms, parking, outdoor play and gardens taking place throughout the years. The space has grown with alongside the community’s interest in nature. And the community is a big part of keeping it running. In a typical year the nature center sees around 150 volunteers who give over 6,500 hours of time. And that high level of community involvement shows in the grounds and gardens.

Digging Into the Garden

Tamarack’s Teaching Garden is one of a kind. With a whimsical hardscape design and plenty of changes in crops and uses each year the gardens as a whole integrate native perennial plantings to bring in the pollinators with a wide array of annual vegetable crops, herbs and a small orchard. Centered around a flower spiral both raised and in-ground beds radiate outward, drawing you in.

There’s been some sort of garden on site since 1999, but the current garden with fencing (this is a nature center with LOTS of deer pressure) was added in 2011. The Garden Building was added then as well, which later got a major overhaul to make it even more functional.

Planting in annual vegetables, many started from seed each year takes a lot of hands in the dirt!  As Marcie Oltman, Director of TNC explained, “Ramsey County Parks and Rec partnered with Minnesota/Iowa Conservation Corps soon after the garden was constructed. The level of involvement changes every year, but usually a crew of four Conservation Corps workers are on site roughly 20 hours per week throughout the growing season”. That’s a whole lot of garden love and makes these gardens flourish. 

Growing For Good

The garden is a Teaching Garden and Demonstration Garden which means they focus on growing a wide variety of crops in hopes of spurring interest, sparking joy and collecting a good harvest. Making those planting decisions is Amy Jo, the Garden Manager.

I asked Amy Jo all about how she decides how to plant all this space. There is a lot that goes into the process, in some ways its a lot like your home garden, just many times the size. But overall there are so many other people to take into consideration.

Amy Jo’s Guides to Deciding
What to Grow:

•  Garden maps of previous years to do crop rotations
  
• Talking with summer camp teachers about what the want to see growing
  
• Consult the Conservation Corp volunteers
  
• Try at least one a new crop each season (this year they grew artichokes)
  
• When there’s a garden fail (maybe pumpkins did poorly) she researches to decide if that plant should be taken out of rotation for the next season
  
• Reacting to wildlife- if they get greedy with one crop, deciding if that gets planted again, or try a new approach like straw bale gardens.
  And sometimes its just random 

Teaching + Demonstration Garden

Amy Jo works to plant a wide variety of produce that will have different harvest times. But also larger amounts of good produces like bush beans that will be useful in teaching programs plus be wonderful for the food shelf donations.

The garden is also a demonstration garden meaning that it is for the public to enjoy the beauty of the plantings and to see how different produce grows. Amy Jo explains, “So that is why there is ‘a little bit of this and that’ in the garden. We try to incorporate a good deal of signage for the public and program participants like the summer campers to learn from”.

This extensive garden is also for the local wildlife, hopefully mostly just pollinators. Amy Jo says, “I put in lots of flowers not only for people’s enjoyment but for the pollinators”.

The gardens donate to the White Bear Area Food Shelf to the tune of 1,000+ pounds of fresh, locally grown organic produce a year.

this # varies each year

Get Involved

I volunteered a few Wednesdays this summer and it was so fun to be in another garden, working alongside other gardeners. The garden volunteer time is led by Amy Jo, and often includes other locals, some Ramsey County Master Gardeners and a naturalist or two. The garden is massive, and there’s always something to do- from planting seedlings, the never-ending weeding (which is a lot more fun done in groups) and of course harvesting! The gardening days are

Get involved with some of the many different volunteer opportunities; from caring for the center’s animals (like native turtles, frogs and snakes), removing buckthorn, tending the garden or the beehives and so much more. You can check their volunteer page for opportunities – they’ve got both in person options, and other socially distanced ways to help.

Volunteer Spotlight

Maple Volunteer Training

Saturday, February 5^th 
10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
11:45 to 1:00: Evaporator Training

FREE!Pre-registration required.

Attend this training to learn all about the maple season at Tamarack and how you can contribute as a volunteer. We utilize volunteers in sap collecting, evaporating, canning and programming. This is a great volunteer opportunity for individuals, couples and families!

TO REGISTER email volunteertamarack@co.ramsey.mn.us

Connect with Nature

For me, gardening and plants are the way I best connect with Nature. But TNC understands that for some it’s animals, bird watching or working together with others in the woods… Whether a family hike or snowshoe, volunteering or a visit to the Winter Farmers Market (hint, hint), or just hanging out on the climbing wall… make sure you visit Tamarack Nature Center each season. Your body and mind will thank you. Who knows, you might even end up in a deeper relationship with nature.

Dig into Nature Centers,

Michelle

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As you drive up the country lane you can’t help but feel the at home arriving to this teaching farm. This unique farm combines a quaint country landscape with wagon loads of knowledge and passion to empower people with developmental disabilities.

This is one of those magical places where time stands still, and you get to simply BE in the moment; whether you are visiting the apple orchard, chickens, cats, goats, donkeys, cows, bee hives, gardens or meandering wildflower paths.

But there is a lot more than wondering and wandering happening on these 21 acres. just north east of the Twin Cities.

Teaching Farm

As a teaching farm, the space is specifically designed for adults and children with disabilities. They offer seasonal day programming and special events throughout the year as a way to “foster inclusive connections that are rooted in real life.”

What a gift to the community the three main staff have cultivated with sweat equity – and a guardian angel who wishes to remain anonymous.

I first met up with the team on a frigid + snowy day in January, and like all good farm folks, they were deep into dream mode! Even in the snow they shared their vision of hands-on activities giving those with disabilities a chance to commune with nature and each other.

That dreaming and planning paid off this summer. Even with Covid, they continued with programming for most of their farmers, a huge feat considering the current situation. I see it as more evidence of the commitment to their vocation, the farmers and animals who know this teaching farm as home.

It certainly takes a deep commitment to keep a farm like this up and running. Three highly trained and passionate staff keep things sprouting and running.

Meet the FarmHers

Meet the brains, brawn and heart of 21 Roots. Like any great team they create a synergy together that is inspiring to watch.

Amy – Co founder and Farm Operations
Brittany– Co founder and Program Manager
Laura – Farm Manager

The Origin Story

Amy and Brittany were college friends and the dream to open something like 21 Roots Farms took hold shortly after they graduated. After gathering ideas and experiences, they are living the dream! They purchased the farm (with the help of a guardian angel) in October of 2018, have now gained 501(c)3 status and are offering the nature-based programming they’ve dreamed of.

The Farm Land

A variety of hands-on experiences center around sustainable farming practices. They have an orchard full of fruit trees; cherry trees that produce enough to be used by Sarah’s Tipsy Pies, and apple trees heavy with fruit every fall! The chickens also hang out up in the orchard and are much loved (read chased!) by all the visiting farmers!

The larger animals; their cows, donkeys and goats are kept in the big red barn seem to be the real stars…They have an adorable page dedicated to their animals, I highly recommend visiting the “Meet the Animals” page on 21 Roots to get in your daily does of cute!

They have a few different field and garden spaces where they’re growing food crops as well. Raised beds with square foot gardening grids sit next to wide open rows of crops.

The garden area even has a fun potato growing bin- my kids thought this was the coolest potato plant they’ve ever seen- because they could actually SEE it! I mean really, how cool is that!

The underground worm bin and hot compost in the chicken area are other working experiments that show the love of learning from real life that the farm provides.

The wildflower fields are thanks to the previous owners’ prairie restoration project that was started a few years back and is flourishing now.

The Programs

The farm offers day programs, which were able to continue even during Covid as all activities are held outside and were capped at 10 ‘farmers’. Different days focus on slightly different facets of the farm, but all days include time to love on the animals and appreciate nature doing her thing. The personal attention and innovative farming and teaching techniques make for a bit of learning magic!

The Popular ‘Farm to Home’ videos cover bite size pieces of information while up close and personal with animals. Sometimes reading children’s books, sometimes just hanging with the cast of animal characters on the farm. Another gift they freely give to us all.

I joined in the fun this summer during one of their “Wednesday Explorers” sessions. We talked about seed saving, walked their wildflower fields and made pollinator seed bombs. What a fun way to spread my love of gardening!

We’re planning a seed saving event of a larger scale this fall as well- if you’re interested in saving seed from this farm’s prairie restoration area for use in local Seed Libraries, please contact me directly by commenting on this post, or messaging me on social media!

Get Involved

Like any nonprofit 21 Roots always benefits from both volunteers and donations. They have a volunteer interest form you can fill out online and a link to donate as well.

Your time and efforts will reap more than you sow – it’s just that kind of place. Every time I visit I leave feeling good knowing this farm is out there, ready and waiting to serve as inspiration to keep adults and children with disabilities learning from and connecting with nature.

Simply being at 21 Roots Farm helps your spirit roam wild, while cultivating a sense of community. Choose to volunteer or donate and be part of living out the motto “it’s not the destination it’s the journey”.

Go to 21rootsfarm.org for more information on programming and how you can help today.

Find a way to dig in to this local teaching farm and you’ll be happy as a Kid again

– Michelle

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The second annual BearPower Harvest Party will feature FREE small bites crafted by local chefs from local food. We’re pairing delicious food with family activities and eco-friendly information.

This is your chance to celebrate community grown food! Join us 12-3pm on Sunday, September 22, 2019. The event will take place at the White Bear Area YMCA Community Gardens, at 2100 Orchard Lane behind the YMCA building. We’ll be serving food until we run out, so join the party early. We’ll be inside the YMCA if the weather is really bad, so this is a rain or shine event!

Follow the Harvest Party
Facebook Event
for Updates and Fun!

Local Food 

Much of the produce was grown in local community Gardens. Our own WBL School District (Central, Lakeaires, Matoska and Oneka) the WBL Health Partners Clinic Garden, Tamarack Nature Center Garden and the YMCA Community Gardens are all sharing produce for the event. Local organic farm, All Good Organics, will again be donating lots of organic grown goodness to round out our garden harvests.

Local Chefs

Chefs Matt Ellison of Bonfire Restaurants and Peggy Doran of Margaux’s Table are donating their time and talents to turn the food into tasty meals. They’ere even inviting a few lucky kids to help them prep food before the party starts! Contact me directly if you are interested in helping the chefs too. Local fall veggies will delight your taste buds; think Fall soup + rustic salad… but the exact recipes will have to wait as the chefs see what produce rolls in the day before!

In addition to the veggies, BearPower has brought more community goodness together. Pine Tree Apple Orchard and the White Bear Area Emergency Food Shelf are teaming up again to hand out apples and raise awareness of local hunger issues and how you can help. Farmers Market favorite, Great Harvest Bread Company, is donating bread to use in the small bites that will be served. All Good Organics will be on site to talk about organic farming and will likely have something delicious to give away!

Activities

The YMCA will be holding a few Kids’ Fitness classes in the garden. The White Bear Lake Seed Library will be giving seed saving demonstrations and information on their organization, housed in our downtown public library. BearPower is bringing family fun with giant yard games and ways to make healthy eating and activities a part of your routine. Everyone’s favorite carrot, Chomp, will be on site to get kids pumped about living healthy.

The WBL schools will have a table about their gardens, and teachers on site to talk about schoolyard gardens. Ramsey County Master Gardeners will be available for your gardening Q&A. Forks in the Dirt will have a table about the impact of eating local, getting kids in the garden and gardening tips. Our local WBL PD will be there as well with ideas for staying safe while out and about.

Event Grew from Love

This event grew from long-time Health Partners physician, Dr. Elsa Keeler, and her commitment to growing healthy families. Dr. Keeler is taking a leave of absence while working hard to fight cancer.

Let’s take some time to celebrate all we’ve grown this season! Hope to see you there… you don’t get to vote unless you sample

Can. Not. Wait. to Dig In to this!!
Michelle

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Local Info to Get You Growing

More Americans are growing their own food – the numbers have been rising and were bumped up with the pandemic last spring, and the trend is here to stay!

Let’s take a tour of the places and faces of our local gardening scene!

Minnesota Garden Organizations

We’re so lucky our state values agriculture in all it’s forms!

The Minnesota State Horticultural Society has a long history of being at the forefront of helping northern gardeners thrive! Their resources include classes, Magazine The Northern Gardener, blogs, Seed collecting and distribution and bringing ‘Garden in a Box’ kits to communities across the state.

Part of the University of Minnesota extension services, the Master Gardener program educates volunteers. These volunteers educate residents in proven, eco-friendly gardening techniques to improve our environment. The Master Gardeners also accept questions via email via the “Ask a Master Gardener” link on the site. This site goes from soil sampling and seed sowing, to preserving the harvest.

The U of MN BEE LAB is another amazing resource for gardeners looking to work with nature and her ultimate pollinating machines. Resources on plant options, City Beekeeping rules and native pollinator trends abound.

Wild Ones is all about Native Plants + Natural Landscapes. They teach people about the importance of native plants, for the health of the environment and everything living in it. Our goal is to get more native plants in the ground in all landscapes — homes, businesses, schools, and more. They have a few different MN chapters so be sure to find the best fit for your area!

Local Plant Sales for 2023

These plant sales will start your garden off right! Good for your garden, the pollinators, your harvests and the community. Plants grown for these sales are never treated with Neonicotinoid pesticides, are non-GMO, locally raised by experts- and the sales directly benefit some great gardening programs.

Friends School Plant Sale
May 12th-14th, at the State Fair Grounds

With 1,000’s of plant varieties this may be the largest single plant sale in the U.S. It is a fundraising event for the Friends School of Minnesota, a small Quaker K-8 school in St. Paul. Plants are grown as naturally as possible, 80% from local growers.

Ramsey County Master Gardeners Plant Sale
May 20th, 2022 – 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.​

Church of the Holy Childhood
1435 Midway Pkwy, St Paul

Over 300 varieties of plants grown by local master gardeners. The proceeds from this sale benefit the University of Minnesota Extension Master Gardener programs in Ramsey County. 

Garden Clubs

Garden Clubs are a great way to get involved with your group of local gardeners. Most hold monthly meetings with speakers during the off season (Sept-April) with plant sales, community garden and other causes they support. Many towns and counties have their own clubs, here are a few I know and love.

Wild Ones

Mahtomedi Garden Club

Dakota County Garden Club

Northfield Garden Club

Community Gardens

Our town boasts some fabulous community gardens. I’ve got an article about community gardens and why they matter. These are places where all levels of gardeners grow together. Some of these have classes, and ‘in service’ times when a more experienced gardener will be on site.

Seed Libraries

A seed library is just what it sounds like, a place where you can “check out” a packet of seeds to grow, enjoy the fruits or flowers of your labor. Then, bring back enough seeds to replenish and hopefully increase the seed stock for the next season, for FREE! More info in the article Seed Saving Starts Now !

Our very own White Bear Lake Public Library houses the volunteer run WBL Seed Library. Join their email list at the website above to stay in the know about packing and class events

The Minnesota Horticultural Society runs the MN SEED project and the pop up Como Community Seed Library are also great resources for local seed.

Many Paths to Eating Local

If you love fresh and local food but not gardening, you can support our local farmers by signing up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and I have a blog post all about some great local CSA options in the CSA’s So Many Ways Blog Post. Or if you’re like me and grow a lot, but not everything your family eats, try shopping our very own White Bear Lake Farmers Markets, starting up the last Friday in June. I have some Farmers Market Shopping Tips for you too. If you’d like to check out more on some specific farmers, dig into my Farmers page, which links to interviews with local small farms.

For more “How To” info, you can always check out the Forks in the Dirt Blog, or Instagram feed where I sift through lots of local food info and have full blog posts on CSA’s, gardening tips, upcoming garden events and recipes for using your harvest.

Whichever way you choose to eat locally, I hope you Dig Your Food!
Michelle

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This Harvest Party grew from the BearPower organization. White Bear Lake is lucky to have the efforts and talents of this group of dedicated people. They’re working to bring healthy living to our community in so many different ways.

I’ve been digging into coordinating this BearPower Harvest Party with the BearPower team and loving finding the best of the best to help celebrate community grown food. We’ve brought together the cream of the crop local chefs to prepare all that lovingly grown food. Add to that a great mix of activities to take over our White Bear Area YMCA gardens for the day and you’ve got a can’t miss event! We’ve got FREE food,  games,  information, samples and activities to get you growing your love of good food!

More Information by clicking on the -> Facebook Event Page

The Details:

Sunday Sept 23rd @12:00-3:00PM
White Bear Area YMCA Community Garden
2100 Orchard Lane, White Bear Lake, MN 55110
Indoors @ the YMCA if raining

Harvest Party Food

Tamarack Nature Center Gardens

All the food at the harvest Party was grown in local community gardens, including WBL district schools, HealthPartners White Bear Lake Clinic, Tamarack Nature Center, and the YMCA community gardens! 5 of the beds growing food for the event are part of the awesome local initiative, “Giving Gardens“. Making sure we have enough food to fill in the gaps, All Good Organics local farm has pledged to donate from their recent harvests as well!

Chef Challenge

A chef challenge meal, created from all the locally grown food will be served starting at noon. We’ll keep serving until every last veggie has been eaten. If there’s simply too much food, extras will go the White Bear Area Food Shelf.

The food service will include some freshly made soups and grilled veggies. Huge thanks to  local chefs, Ben Pratt of Ingredients Café + The Burger Bar and Matt Ellison of Bonfire Restaurants, who will be creating tasty creations with all the veggies we throw at them! I can’t wait to see what they come up with

Vote for your favorite food on your way out!

Glen Oliphant of United Methodist Church, WBL with freshly harvested potatoes and herbs to go into the breads!

Bread baked by White Bear Lake United Methodist Church in their Community Bread Oven during a community bread bake on Saturday will also be donated. Ciabatta and Focaccia were mentioned when I was talking with one of the bakers! Our garden-grown herbs and potatoes will be used in making the breads.

Nancy Jacobson with some freshly harvested apples!

Pine Tree Apple Orchard is donating crates of freshly picked apples for the event as well. The apples will be handed out by volunteers from the White Bear Area Emergency Food Shelf. Please think about making a monetary donation to the food shelf to help make sure all our neighbors have access to good food!

It is so amazing to be able to say that ALL the veggies were grown and/or donated by community members!

Harvest Party Activities

We’ve got a little something for everyone during the Harvest Party!

Chomp at an earlier YMCA Garden Event

BearPower ‘larger than life’ games and the famous carrot mascot, “Chomp” will be perusing the party ready for photos.

Insect Hotel We will be group building a “beneficial bug hotel” Stop by to add your mark and help pollinate our YMCA gardens!

Beets from the YMCA gardens

White Bear Lake Schools will have a table, highlighting the gardens and gardeners (mostly kids) that grew food for the event!

The YMCA will have information on renting a garden bed in the gardens next season. We will also be handing out a limited number of strawberry plants that YMCA Summer Power kids helped propagate!

Sunflowers in the YMCA garden

White Bear Lake Seed Library will be doing Seed Saving Demos with plants growing in the gardens. Take home Seeds to get your garden growing next year! We’ll be working with sunflower and marigold seeds to name a few!

Ramsey County Master Gardeners will be onsite ready for your questions, and info on getting the most out of your Fall garden, and how to prepare it for Winter.

Health Partners Health Club will be onsite with info on eating healthy and demos.

All Good Organics farmer will be onsite with info on growing organic and a few surprises. This farm has dedicated to fill in produce that we need to round out the harvest party meal.

Butch and Kris from All Good Organics

Keeping it Local

As YMCA Community Garden coordinator, I’m wearing a few hats during this event, I’ll be onsite with a Forks in the Dirt information table about the impact of eating local and samples to share!

I LOVE how this whole event began; a well-loved local doctor, Elsa Keeler, had a vision to bring families together over locally grown healthy food. Just look what that one well rooted idea has become!

Staying True to Doing Good

Hanging with some of the YMCA garden Club kids

One of the reasons I started blogging was to highlight all the good that is happening around us.

Forks in the Dirt’s motto is “Crossing paths with Farmers, Food and Doing Good”

And with this event, I got to be part of making that good happen. I have learned so much about our community and how strongly we believe in AND follow through with showing up for one another. It makes me proud to be part of this community

The amount and diversity of Community Gardens in our area truly amazes me. It really is a testament to people wanting to be more connected to the food they eat, and the land they inhabit. If you are interested in joining any of the local community gardens, read my earlier blog post all about our local gardens!

Can’t wait to Dig into some good food and good conversations- hope to see you there!

Michelle

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Seed are life.

Yet many seeds and plants that have populated the planet for eons are at risk of disappearing because they don’t fit the corporate farming model. It is estimated that 75% of plant diversity has been lost over the last century. That’s where Seed Savers Exchange comes in.

Seed Savers Exchange

First- I want to give a shout out to the Seed Savers Exchange for their 2018 Summer Conference at Heritage Farm. I’m still buzzing with all the new information I brought home. I had to share some of what I learned with you all!

They’ve built a vibrant community of dedicated volunteers and staff, all starting with co-founders Diane Ott Whealy and Kent Whealy in 1975. I was lucky enough to meander through Diane’s gardens with her at the beginning of the weekend.

Today, the 890-acre Heritage Farm in Decorah, Iowa grows over 20,000 plant species and has 13,000 members. Meeting some of these wonderful members and staff at their annual conference has increased both my understanding of seed saving and my excitement for it.  I mean with an onsite Seed Swap with people from all over- how could I not get more excited!?!

Plus, plant people are the best people!

If you garden, you’ve likely already benefited from the work of Seed Savers Exchange staff, volunteers and members. There are treasure troves of information on their site and at the store- visit online or in person, often!

Heirloom vs Hybrid Seeds

Patience with Nature

One thing to keep in mind when starting to save seeds is the at we’re really just helping nature along. Waiting long enough for Mother Nature to do her work is a big part of the initial learning curve. …Both waiting for the seed to be ripe enough on the plant and waiting long enough for the seed to be dry enough to put into storage!

In general, plants will tell you when their seeds are ready. They give you signs, like color changes or simply starting to fall off the plant.

Not all seeds are as showy with their seed ripeness, which brings me to Heritage Farm Field crew Leader, Rochelle’s advice, “spend a little time learning about the plant you are saving seeds from. Each crop has some specific information on how to work with it- but don’t be afraid to mess up. There are so many easy plants to start with.”

Wise words from a wise woman (who also really likes driving the farm)!

 Should we save our Own
or Buy from Seed Savers Exchange?

BOTH!

Yes, we can all save the Easy To Save Seeds at home. There are many beautiful books on seed saving, and I’ve got an article on the easiest to save for home gardeners.

Seed Savers Exchange also has a great person-to-person way to keep these home saved seed lines open. They call it “The Exchange” and it is a community of gardeners and seed stewards, sharing and swapping unique varieties you might not find anywhere else. The Yearbook is the printed edition of the Exchange, the gardener-to-gardener seed swap. Printed annually since 1975, the Yearbook is an unrivaled source of unique seeds, grown by home gardeners across the world. The SSE houses around 20,000 varieties at their headquarters.

Participants in the Exchange have saved thousands of rare heirlooms from extinction by connecting with new seed stewards to carry on seed saving traditions to the next generation. Many of the heirlooms that have entered the marketplace in recent years were shared here first, and many more heirlooms are still only found in the gardens of this community.

The Exchange works to keep biodiversity strong and garden traditions thriving. To give you an idea, they have over 8,400 listing for tomatoes. So this is a true non-profit. Actually, as one of the staff said, “we’re one of the few groups who actually want to go out of business. If enough people save enough seed and replant it- we won’t need to exist.”

And that spirit runs through everything they do. They even invite other seed companies to their events, talk about true community.

If you’re looking for a more local and small-scale way to start seed swapping check out you local Seed Library!

 Seed Storage

This is one place I could get MUCH better as I am saving way more seed varieties this year. It is recommended to store seeds in a cool dark place. And usually in a glass jar or plastic bag. Air tight containers will hold seeds viable for longer, you just need to make sure they are fully dried out before sealing it to avoid growing mold instead of more food

For the last decade or so, I mostly keep my home saved seeds in paper bags or paper envelopes in a cool dark area. Sometimes clear glass jars too.

Seed Saving Next Steps

• Check out the Seed Savers Exchange website for more online tips.  
• Look into MN SEED project for native plant seeds
• Read my other seed saving blogs:
  Seed Saving : Annual Flowers
  Seed Saving: Vegetables
• Our local White Bear Lake Seed Library, is housed in the downtown library and gives ‘seed saving talks’ quite frequently.

Once you get the hang of it, Lee Buttala, former ED of SSE suggested, “try to grow a few plants dedicated for seeds. Many plants grow in such a way that you can’t use them for both eating and seed saving.”

I hope I’ve inspired you to start saving your own seeds!  Like most things in life getting started is the hardest part- so please ask for help! Ask me- or find another local seed saver, there is such a great community of people working to ensure diversity in seeds.

Off to collect some calendula seeds… and dig into some of the amazing food ripening in my gardens!

Dig In!
Michelle

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Community Garden workday. This plot in-between a parking lot and a street grows food for a food shelf and was one of my first blogs.

Community Gardens

These gardens have the ability to take a single piece of land, work its soil collectively and deepen our growth both as individuals and part of our local community. With more people living in housing with limited or yard space, these kinds gardens are rapidly growing.

Like most things that develop organically, community gardens are as varied as the communities they take root in. The one thing all community gardens offer is garden space for gardeners to grow. It’s the ‘who, what, where, when, why and how’ that makes each garden unique.

These gardens find their homes on city, county, school district, faith based and privately owned land. Just like the kinds of produce grown, there are an infinite number of combinations and variations of garden structures limited only by the organizers’ imaginations.

The University of Minnesota’s horticultural department recently published a guide to starting a community garden and wanted to share it HERE!

Minneapolis Community Gardens

The City of Minneapolis runs eight community gardens, and has land set aside for double that in the upcoming years! Follow the link to find out more about getting  a plot at one of these maintained community gardens!
Minneapolis Community Garden Link 

Ramsey County Community Gardens

Ramsey County’s List of current Community Gardens includes 8 locations, plus a link to find the many housed within the city of St. Paul- in general these are pretty well scattered throughout the county. Find a LISTING of gardens or click on the:
Ramsey County Community  Garden MAP

Local Community Gardens

Below are a few favorite Metro community gardens where you’ll learn from others and grow so much more than food.

Edgerton Community Gardens

New gardener registration is available online if you want to nab a plot or a raised bed here. You can rent either a 12’ x 15’ plot or 4’ x 8’ raised bed (eighteen inches height, priority for raised beds will be given to those with self-reporting mobility issues, though not wheelchair accessible) for $25-35. Their season runs April 27-October 24. 

Oasis Park in Roseville

This is the largest rentable community garden I found, with 120 garden plots measuring 15’X20’. The single plots are rented for between $20-$30. Registration opens to all Roseville residents on April 2 and opens to all on April 16. Garden is open for planting May 1- October 31. Mark your calendars!

Tatum Park Community Garden

Tatum Park Community Garden is on Taylor Ave in the Hamline Midway neighborhood of St. Paul, just west of Newell Park. There are 20 plots and about 3/4 of the members are returning.  There’s a Facebook page too! Or email to grab the last of those garden plots! Their annual meeting is usually scheduled for late April. You can also email tatumparkgarden@gmail.com directly.

White Bear Area YMCA Community Garden

YMCA Gardeners grew a beautiful variety of flowers and vegetables last season!

Set on the grounds of an old skate park, the garden is greening up this piece of black top.

You can contact the YMCA front desk at 651-777-8103 or message me directly to reserve a plot.

Mahtomedi Community Gardens

The Mahtomedi Community Garden on the first day of Spring, 2018

These gardens sit behind the District Education Center building on a sunny expanse of land. These are popular garden beds, measuring in at 9’X11.5’ go for $40 each. To register, follow this LINK. These gardens were lovingly started by a couple of dedicated teachers over a decade ago- thank you teachers! At least one plot is always reserved for the Mahtomedi Food Shelf. Way to grow Mahtomedi!

Health Partners Community Garden

Health Partners WBL Clinic garden all prepped and spring planted!

It just seems right that a health clinic should have access to fresh vegetables, right?!

Well some visionary Doctors and staff decided to make it happen a few years ago and the garden has been growing, and sharing its produce with the White Bear Food Shelf ever since. They have a great space and good workplace involvement, and are considering expanding this season again. This garden is maintained by the staff at the Health Partners clinic as a way to build their own community, and ‘be the change’.

Sumner Park Community Garden

Community gardens are inspiring people to get growing all across this beautiful land of ours, hopefully I’ve inspired you to look into a way you can get involved in a community garden near you!

If you happen to have space on your own lot for another garden bed, and you want to grow more food FOR your community, consider starting a giving garden of your own!

I’ve got serious Spring Fever and can’t wait to Dig In!

Michelle

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