Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Agronomic: potatoes, sugarbeets, sunflower
- Fruits: melons
- Vegetables: beans, beets, broccoli, cabbages, carrots, cauliflower, cucurbits, eggplant, garlic, greens (leafy), onions, peas (culinary), peppers, radishes (culinary), tomatoes
- Additional Plants: tobacco, herbs
Practices
- Crop Production: irrigation
- Education and Training: demonstration, focus group, mentoring, youth education
- Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns, marketing management, agricultural finance, market study
- Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity, habitat enhancement
- Production Systems: holistic management, organic agriculture
- Soil Management: organic matter, soil quality/health
- Sustainable Communities: leadership development, local and regional food systems, new business opportunities, partnerships, public participation, urban/rural integration, community services, social capital, social networks, community development
Proposal summary:
Each week throughout July and August the participants in our Garden Warriors program (ages 13-18) provide a weekly Farmers Market at a location convenient to the urban Native population in Minneapolis. Freshly picked produce is offered at low cost, with the understanding that many in our community cannot afford to buy fresh vegetables. We print flyers that the kids bring home to their families and promote the market on the Indian List Serve, an e-mail list that is widely used. The market not only provides produce to our target audience, it also has the potential for providing a source of earned income for the farm.
The problem we were addressing was the overall low participation from the Native community in buying produce from our market, even though Dream of Wild Health is a Native-owned and operated farm. Our market lacked visibility, Native people often did not have transportation to get to the market, especially from St. Paul, and in general there was a lack of knowledge about the importance of fresh, organic and locally grown food in a nutritious diet.
Our goal was to increase our outreach efforts, support youth in teaching the urban Native community about the importance of fresh, organic produce as part of a healthy diet, and encourage participation and support for our Farmers Markets.
Project objectives from proposal:
Our goal was to increase our outreach efforts, support youth in teaching the urban Native community about the importance of fresh, organic produce as part of a healthy diet, and encourage participation and support for our Farmers Markets.