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!

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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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Harvest Festivals can be the culmination of a good growing season- or a feel like a bland mix of pumpkin spice and everything nice. Lucky for us, our vibrant local food scene is bursting with phenomenal farms of all flavors. They each celebrate their love of local food and drink in unique ways. Family friendly and full of fall fun, find the hip harvest party of your dreams below…

Urban Roots 20th Anniversary Party

20 years of awesomesauce. Urban Roots is one of those groups that’s just got it going on. Through their Market Garden Program they work with inner city youth interns that purchase, grow, maintain, harvest and sell- sometimes even  serve- the produce they raise on their urban farm plot. Cook St Paul is one of the local restaurants that carry their produce. The Chef + Owner of that fine establishment, Eddie Wu, is the emcee for the night’s festivities. *See Cook St. Paul’s listing below too* Live auction items for foodies and farmers alike to drool over. Featuring BANG Brewing and Chowgirls Killer Catering. If you want to have fun and support changing our food systems at the same time, this is your ticket. Those tickets are available Through Wednesday (that’s tomorrow!!) evening.  Get ‘em while they’re hot!

Thursday, Oct 12, 6pm- 9pm
Tickets $75 and up Available through Wed
Harriet Island Pavilion, 200 Doctor Justus Ohage Boulevard Saint Paul, MN 55107

Harvest Days at Oliver Kelley Farm

We love the way they make historical farming come alive here! Help bring in the harvest at the Kelley Farm by helping out with field work, playing 19th-century games, making corn husk dolls and more. They had their grand re-opening this spring and if you haven’t seen all the ways they make the old new again this is so worth your time!

Thursday, Oct. 19, through Sunday, Oct. 22, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
$6-$12, free for Minnesota Historical Society members and children 4 and under
Oliver Kelley Farm, 15788 Kelley Farm Road, Elk River; 763-441-6896; mnhs.org.

Apple Fest at Carpenter Nature Center 

Photo courtesy of Laurie Schneider

The Carpenter Nature Center is one of those unique places that grounds you to the past while looking towards the future. Celebrate the harvest at Carpenter Nature Center with hayrides, live animal programs in between the live music sets, apple brats, caramel apples, pumpkin decorating, bake sale, cider-making demonstrations and more. Jams, jellies, squash, honey, maple syrup, salad dressings and more volunteer crafted goodness for sale at the Apple Shack.

The orchard was started by the original land owners, and with good management including integrated pest management system using minimal spraying and planting new trees every year (like 300 this Spring!) they maintain about 2,000 apple trees! These are the varieties ready this weekend; Honey Crisp, Haralson, Regent, Macintosh, Cortland, Connell Red.
PYO – Pick Your Own is only available during the Apple Fest!

10 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 14-15
FREE
Carpenter St. Croix Valley Nature Center, 12805 St. Croix Trail S., Hastings

Stillwater Harvest Fest

Two Words: Pumpkin Regatta. That’s right, those crazy huge gourds are hollowed out and paddled down the old St. Croix…and it is hilarious. Along with the giant pumpkin weigh-off (serious food growing skills on display) a pie eating contest, this feels like enough of an off the wall festival to make the list. Also not to miss; a chili cook-off, microbrew tasting, food trucks, kids tractor pull, costume parade and live music. But those pumpkins! Totally family friendly event except parking, bc: Stillwater. Full schedule of events HERE 

Oct 14-15, 10 am – 6 pm
FREE
Stillwater Riverfront, 101 Water St. S. Stillwater; harvestfeststillwater.com.

Oktober Wine Festival

Chateau St Croix is hosting an afternoon of German fun paired with beautiful fall colors in the Saint Croix Valley. The reason this event made the list: Federweisser wine tastings! Federweisser is the product of fermented freshly pressed grape juice (from the 2017 harvest) known as must. It is semi-sweet and refreshing. This is a German tradition that you will love, or at least be able to say you’ve tried   The festival includes live German Music 1-4pm, German Food by Adventures Food Truck, a Hammerschlagen, Local Oktoberfest Beer and amazing scenery.

October 14^th – 15^th, Noon – 5pm
FREE
Chateau St Croix, 1998 Hwy 87 St. Croix Falls, WI 54024

Oktoberfest “Friends in Need Food Shelf” Event

The Historic Hope Glen Farm is a stunner, with 130 years of stories that adds to its charm. This is their big annual event, and the only way to get to see the farm without being at a private event. With around 1,000 people expected to visit during the 4^th annual open house style event, it’s a good thing they have the support of the police for parking, the Lions for cooking and the all the other festival trappings; a silent auction, music, food, games, a petting zoo and henna tattoos. All proceeds benefit the Friends in Need Food Shelf located in Hastings. The $10 ticket gets you lunch and a chance to enjoy this once a year community event. This land looks amazing!

Oct. 15, noon – 4pm
$10 for adults, $5 for ages 4-12,  free for children 3 and under
Historic Hope Glen Farm, 10276 E. Point Douglas Road S., Cottage Grove

Bail Out Houston: From the Eastside to Sunnyside

This makes the list because Cook St. Paul is one of those places that walks the talk; they buy local, create out of this world meals, and have a collective heart that beats for ALL…
Plus Bi Bim bop. And Peterson Craftsman Meats hot dogs with Koritos. Love how the food world is coming together to make this happen. This is a fund and item raiser to help send Eddie Wu back down to Houston and cook meals out of Fire Station 55 in order to feed the first responders, and the people in the Sunnyside neighborhood. Eddie was barely back in the city from his first trip down right after Hurricane Harvey when he decided he needed to go back. He can’t stop, won’t stop until the people are fed! They are working with Mayor Sandra Massie Hines to coordinate how to best support Sunnyside, a neighborhood similar to The Eastside of St Paul. Food + Music, I can support that bailout.

Sunday Oct 15^th, 4-10pm
$20 cover
MN Music Café: 501 Payne Ave, St Paul, MN 55130

Harvest Potluck

This event elevates the term ‘melting pot’ to another level! Big River Farms http://www.mnfoodassociation.org/  is a teaching farm that works with immigrant farmers, so asking everyone to bring a dish to share to a potluck…well, you’ll have to taste it to believe it! Along with the amazing array of global dishes, (of course cooked with locally grown food) there will be beer, wine and cider, wagon rides, live music, a raffle and crop art. Very family friendly. A great time to try out that new recipe you’ve wanted to make… This is the perfect opportunity to enjoy this peaceful farm, eat great food and meet some amazing new farmers. Link to Details. http://mnfoodassociation.org/events

Sunday, Oct 15 4-7pm Free – Bring a dish to share
Big River Farms – MN Food Association
14220-B Ostlund Trl. N, Marine on St. Croix, MN 55047

Farm Day at Natura Farms

First Time Farm Day! As some of you might remember, Natura was one of the farms in the direct path of that nasty hail storm this June. They weren’t able to open up for their typical PYO strawberries or raspberries, but did have their farm stand open and now, after a season of healing, have invited us all to come down to the farm. There will be  a Pizza Truck, Raffles, Vendors with handmade Quilts, Art, Honey, Veggies and more!  As a Farm Day treat, they’ll have horse drawn wagon rides available for the first time EVER! There may even be (weather permitting) the possibility of some Fall raspberry picking. Please check out the Facebook Event Page to stay up to date.

Oct 21,  12pm-5pm
Free
Natura Farms 19060 Manning Trail North

Wheee! What a ride this weekend could be! My bushels and packed. My baskets are bursting and I couldn’t be happier to get in all that this Fall has to offer.

Go get your Forks into some new farms this weekend, and let me know where you went and what you ate!!

Dig In!

Michelle

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