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

The post Tamarack Nature Center and Teaching Gardens appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

*Last Updated in 2018*

WBAEFS Staff at the 2016 Community Roots Garden Party

Andréa Kish-Bailey (just left of the bear) Executive Director of the White Bear Area Emergency Food Shelf (WBAEFS) in 2016, stated as a central goal of the organization to “Increase access to healthy food to our neighbors.”  And they’ve been doing just that since Andrea came on board.

Partnering with generous groups and companies like Bear Power, Costa’s Greenhouse and Farm , Heinel Farms, Tamarak Nature Center, and the Vadnais Heights Farmers Market has made a big difference in the kind of food available. Healthier food offerings coupled with the promotion of healthy eating practices are making a difference in our neighbors’ overall health.

Neighborhood Hub
Even before you walk in the doors of this food shelf, you’re greeted with one of the town’s signature white bear statues, so it feels more like a neighbor’s home than a Food Shelf. The genuine smiles from volunteers welcomed visitors at the front desk. When I visited, there were neighbors waiting to shop at their appointed time, all chatting it up together.

And volunteers they have, Lee Bailey-Seiler, volunteer coordinator at WBAEFS, mentioned many times how “we’re so fortunate to be in this community where people are so willing to help out. We’ve got great volunteers that, if we need help, we know we can count on them.”

One recent example of some serious volunteer work hours was during the Stamp Out Hunger food drive that the Postal Workers coordinate.

The food starting pouring in – EIGHT TONS of it in two days. (Umm, that’s 16,000 pounds!) Lee wasn’t sure of the total number of volunteers for that massive food drop- but over the course of last year they had over 221 volunteers that give 9,722 hours of their time to help neighbors. Way to go White Bear lake!

Growing Their Own
Another tangible way WBAEFS is working hard to get local, healthy foods to their neighbors is growing food in their own on-site garden. Love this! The garden began as a project of two long devoted volunteers that looked at the old rock pile behind the food shelf building and envisioned a vegetable garden. They cleared it out, put in drain tile (it sits close to the bog level out back) and added truck-loads of good soil. For the last few years this garden has been adding fresh produce to our neighbor’s kitchens. They take advantage of the summer growing season by adding healthy recipes for neighbors to use; if its tomato season they’ll have a salsa recipe on hand. Way to go Garden Volunteers!

Lee scoping out the early season garden (I promise there’s lots more green now)!

Cummins proudly sponsored the Community Roots Garden which has harvested over 400 pounds of fresh veggies for families utilizing the food shelf. The garden sponsorship includes a shed which will allow volunteers to tend to the garden on evenings and weekends when the food shelf is closed.

Community Roots Garden Party!
The garden is (obviously) the focal point of the upcoming 2^nd Annual Community Roots Garden Party they’re hosting on June 25^th from 2-5pm. A family friendly event celebrating the community the food shelf serves. Do some Yoga with Yoga devotions, the kids can high five “Sprout” the Bear Power mascot, jump in the bouncy house…and you guys, Uptown Girl Cupcakes will be there in their Cupake Chariot! University of Minnesota Extension Master Gardeners will also be on site to offer demonstrations on Salad container gardening, straw bale gardening, and composting techniques. Follow the Garden Party’s Facebook Event to stay up to date!

Bring in your Beans!
As more and more people are growing (at least a little) food of their own, food shelves are starting to receive produce donations from backyard gardeners! Did you know that you can bring your extra beans, potatoes and tomatoes to the food shelf!? Just check when they are open and drop them off.
*But, if they aren’t open for a few days, please remember you can freeze most vegetables to use later – just saying

Chris Harms of Giving Gardens

Volunteer crew with Anna & Jesse’s Urban Farming for Food Shelf initiative

Some people are taking this sharing of homegrown goodness idea to a (slightly – ha) larger scale – like Chris Harms of Growing Gardens. He has coordinated the acquisition and giving away of fifty 4’ X 8’ raised garden beds to locals with the goal of getting more people growing local food. The families that received the raised beds to grow food are asked to give a majority (51%) of the food they grow back to their local food shelf. Follow Giving Gardens on Facebook  and read my article Grass Rooting for Good Food on this White Bear Lake local food initiative.  Chris Harms jumped into this project after reading a book that’s now on my “to read” list called ‘Confronting Suburban Poverty in America’  , any of you guys read this?

And then there’s Anna and Jesse who love farming on urban plots of land and sending the produce along to the Merrick Food Shelf! I got to find out about them and shared it in my Farming for a Food Shelf post.

Lee mentioned that hunger in White Bear Lake looks different than what you might expect. The neighbors that use the Food Shelf may live in a nice home or drive up in a nice car, but because of circumstances like someone losing their job, getting injured, or sick (hello medical bills) they suddenly have to choose between paying the mortgage or buying food; making the car payment or buying food.

Which leads to another surprise of my interview with Lee, that
“often, we’re their first stop, the first time a person needs any kind of assistance. You can fake a lot of things, but you can’t ignore hunger.”

Because of this understanding that this may well be a new visitors first encounter with any kind of assistance, the initial check in is usually quick and gets them the food they need. If a neighbor comes back a second time, they may talk about other resources available. This is a beautiful secondary function of food shelves; last year WBAEFS referred 370 families to resources like energy assistance, WIC (Women, Infant, Child), Food assistance and medical assistance.

Another surprise was Lee sharing that “for us at WBAEFS, hunger is a short-term problem unless we’re talking about a senior or someone receiving disability. The average number of food shelf visits is 4.5-5. That number made me face some of my stereotypes about who uses food shelves (and I volunteer at one).

So how do they do what they do?

Lee stated multiple times how lucky the WBAEFS is to have such great community partners; like how they ‘rent’ the building from the City of White Bear Lake for $1 per year. Its the old city works building and thought this was a great use of their space.

Straight from Andrea, “The Cummins Foundation provided a grant supporting the work of Katie Roessler, a Six Sigma Black Belt, to update the food shelf warehouse to one that maximizes safety and efficiency.  The warehouse is now complete with a first in first out process, a roomy food sorting station for volunteers, rolling stairs, fans in the market area and more! Additionally, the grant provided new freezers and coolers to triple the food shelf’s capacity to accept and distribute food rescue product from local grocery stores.  This includes additional meat, dairy and produce items allowing healthier choices for our neighbors at the food shelf.”

This food shelf supplies its neighbors with food by buying, food banks, and donations.

Food Buy the Numbers:

1/3 is bought – 1/3 comes from Food Banks – 1/3 comes from Food Drives

They’re also adding new ways to reach clients that may not be able to make it out to them with their Mobile Markets, going to 4 locations in the area (mostly senior apartments). They received a Mobile Market grant from Hunger Solutions for the truck.  The refrigeration was purchased with the money raised at this year’s Feed the Bear 40^th Anniversary Event.  And with some coordination magic, they are offering Free Summer Farmer’s Markets (produce only drops) at the senior center and Willow Lane elementary school. More ways this group of staff, volunteers and committed community are showing up for their neighbors. Man I love White Bear Lake!

Let’s keep the good vibes going at the Community Roots Garden Party this Saturday!

There are so many other communities in need of Food Shelf love, let’s spread the word and start digging in together!

Michelle

The post Fresh at the Food Shelf appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.