Featherstone Fruits and Vegetables started in 1995 as Jack Hedin and Jenni McHugh’s five-acre garden at the Zephyr Valley Land Co-op near Winona, Minn. Since then, the farm has relocated to land near the town of Rushford, Minn., and now employs nearly 50 people working on over 250 acres of optimal vegetable-growing ground. Beginning in late May with leaf lettuce, through a summer’s harvest of zucchini and cherry tomatoes, into winter squash and carrots in the winter, there’s hardly a month that Featherstone isn’t represented in the co-op’s Produce department. The farm is certified organic and is dedicated to creating a truly sustainable agriculture system. That includes geothermal heating and cooling for the packing shed, as well as a solar array that generates about 60 percent of the farm’s energy. Featherstone Farm was the featured Know Our Grower Sept. 18 – Oct. 1. Meet the Grower: Sunday, Sept. 29.

Grower: Jack Hedin

When did you begin farming and what inspired you to pursue farming as a profession?
In 1987, the summer between my junior and senior year at college, I started an internship at New Morning Farm in Pennsylvania. I hoped to get applicable, real life skills for the community development work I was planning to do in developing nations. Instead, I fell in love with vegetable farming, and I never looked back.

Can you describe your approach to farming? Are there any unique components to your farm that may be different from other local farms?
We’re trying to be as sustainable as possible. With climate change right here and now, this should be first and foremost in our minds. We do this with our solar panels, our geothermal heating system, our cover cropping and rotational systems, and in general looking toward how we can work more toward a closed loop ecosystem on our farm.

What distinguishes your products from other local produce?
Our 17 years of farming experience shows in the high quality of our produce; over the years, we’ve selected crops that we grow well. If you ask our customers, our carrots are certainly a standout crop for their incredible sweetness and flavor.

What is your favorite way to enjoy your own produce?
I absolutely love winter squash, which is why we grow so many great varieties. There’s nothing better than popping a kabocha squash in the oven on a chilly winter day and letting it warm you up. Kale is also a favorite of mine.

The co-op welcomes LaDonna Sanders-Redmond as the Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Friendship site. LaDonna comes to the co-op with a wealth of experience in building fair food systems and food access for communities. She staffed the food and justice program at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and she was a 2003 W.K. Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Policy Fellow. As Education and Outreach Coordinator, LaDonna will reach out to residents and organizations in the neighborhoods surrounding our potential second store site. She also will act as the point person for questions, concerns and ideas about the proposed project.

Visit Seward Co-op on Saturday, Sept. 7 from noon – 4 p.m. for our Back to School Sampler. Taste a number of kid-friendly, lunch box-ready foods and supplements from:

Five Friends Food fresh bar
Grass Run Farms snack sticks
Nordic Naturals supplements
Wendel’s Bread
Wisconsin Growers Cooperative produce

Fill your backpacks and boost your family’s energy this school year with fun and nutritious lunch box goodies from area producers, available at the co-op.

Heartbeet Farm, outside of Lake City, Minn., is a relatively new producer for Seward Co-op. Owned by Joe and Rebecca Schwen, Heartbeet uses a combination of draft horses, small tractors and other technologies to grow a wide variety of vegetables. In coordination with Earthen Path, a farm long owned and managed by Steven Schwen (Joe’s father), they bring us green-top onions, Hakurei turnips, shiso, salad mix, beets, heirloom tomatoes, eggplant and many other items throughout the growing season. Heartbeet Farm was the featured Know Our Grower Sept. 4 – 17. Meet the Grower: Sunday, Sept. 8.

Growers: Joe & Rebecca Schwen

When did you begin farming and what inspired you to pursue farming as a profession?
For Joe, he grew up doing it. It came as a natural progression in his life, and he always really enjoyed it. He says he liked watching things grow (still true!). For me, Rebecca, it came out of my love for food, and my desire to live a handmade life. The irony now is that I have no time to cook, despite being surrounded by spectacular veggies and other farm fare. My passion for food led me to work on a farm, which I found immensely fulfilling in a direct, hands on way. I pursued it as a “career” as I pursued it as one of my life’s passions.

Can you describe your approach to farming?
Our approach focuses on a few things. The appropriate scale is important, which for us is a human scale. What can we do and how can we do it in a way that allows us direct interaction with our plants, soil, animals, and farm ecosystem, while still being productive and efficient, and sustainable on many levels. We don’t pursue organic certification partly due to this practicality of scale issue and also because our goal is to do not only what is required for certification, but to go beyond that and focus on building soil and curbing erosion.

What distinguishes your products from other local growers?
Our farm and its health and vitality are very important to us. Farming is not only how we support ourselves financially, it’s what we do, as a lifestyle! We try to approach farming with craft and make our farm sustainable on many different levels. We involve our kids on the farm and raising them in this environment is important to us as we are a completely family owned and operated business.
On the more technical side, we decided last year to dedicate the time and finances toward long term soil balancing. We are working field by field to return the trace minerals to our soil so that our plants are healthier and our produce is sweeter, tastier, and more nutritious. In this way, we focus big time on the quality of our product, and the quantity will always take second place. Another practice that sets our farm apart is our use of draft horses. We have a team of Percherons that do many of the field work tasks on our farm.

What is your favorite way to enjoy your own produce?
We wait all year for heirloom tomato season and enjoy them in great quantity every day when they are around. Tomato, egg and cheese sandwich (raw sharp cheddar from Organic Valley); tomato on top of a bagel & cream cheese; with slices of fresh sweet onion and mayonnaise in a sandwich; and especially the classic Italian caprese salad – tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, whole fresh basil leaves, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, all soaked up with some crusty bread. We fry thick slices of eggplant in plenty of olive oil, salt and eat them as is or added to some kind of tomato sandwich! Many of our favorite ways to eat cole crops (vegetables in the mustard family, including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale and kohlrabi) and root veggies is in fermented form – cortido, kimchi, ginger carrots, fermented turnips & radishes too!

Wheatfield Hill Organics, a fifth-generation family farm located in the rolling hills outside of Durand, Wis., has been supplying Seward Co-op with bins of sweet corn and melons for the past few years. The farmers, Helen and Bob, along with their daughter and her family, tend to their land and crops with the highest environmental standards in mind. That practice pays off with some of the tastiest high-summer produce around. It’s always a great day when those bins of sweetness show up on the Produce shelves. Check out their Facebook page for updates on harvest and other farm stories. Wheatfield Hill Organics was the featured Know Our Grower Aug. 21 – Sept. 3. Meet the Grower: Sunday, Aug. 25.

Grower: Helen and Bob Kees

When did you begin farming and what inspired you to pursue farming as a profession?
I was born and raised on this farm. It’s in our blood to care for this piece of land.

Can you describe your approach to farming?
Sustainable, inter-generational, and circular.

What distinguishes your products from other local growers?
Certified organic since 1997. Permaculture (asparagus, blueberries, raspberries, fruit trees) interspersed with annuals (sweet corn, melons, tomatoes, peppers, barley, forages). Rearing the fifth generation of farmers in our family!

What is your favorite way to enjoy your own produce?
WITH OTHERS!!!

August means the last stretch of summer and peak season for fresh fruit. How best to bring that to breakfast? Try a Swiss-soak breakfast made using Seven Sundays Bircher muesli and fresh peach puree.

Seward Co-op’s version uses creamy Cedar Summit milk, a dollop of tangy Rochdale Farms yogurt, and fresh peach puree made from Barnard Orchards peaches. Simply combine equal parts muesli and milk, mix, and refrigerate for an hour or up to overnight. Add a scoop of yogurt and a drizzle of blended peach puree when you’re ready to eat, and enjoy!

Are you a member-owner of Seward Co-op interested in thinking big about:

• the future of the cooperative;
• creating policy; and
• representing the broader membership?

Then, please consider running for the board of directors!

Being a member of the board is a fulfilling, interesting and challenging role. It is a wonderful opportunity to bring your perspective as an owner to the board table, to learn about the power of the cooperative business model and to lend your expertise to our thriving, member-owned enterprise.

If you are interested in being a candidate, please pick up a packet in-person at the Customer Service desk and come to a mandatory candidate training and information session on Aug. 14 at 6:15 p.m. Packets must be turned in by Monday, Aug. 19.

Hoch Orchard and Gardens is owned and run by Harry and Jackie Hoch. Located near La Crescent, Minn., Hoch has a long tradition of growing fresh fruit. A handful of the farm’s original trees, planted in the 1940s, are still on the farm, though production is concentrated on newer varieties. Besides 50 varieties of apples, Hoch Orchard also grows grapes, plums, apricots (cold-tolerant varieties they have developed right on the farm), cherries and berries. It is a testament to Harry and Jackie’s farming ability that they are able to grow such high-quality fruit organically, as apples are very vulnerable to pests and disease. Hoch Orchard and Gardens was the featured Know Our Grower July 31 – August 20. Meet the Grower: Sunday, Aug. 4.

Grower: Jackie Hoch

When did you begin farming and what inspired you to pursue farming as a profession?
Harry has been involved with fruit farming most of his life; I began farming 26 years ago when Harry and I met. Producing good food for our family and sharing the bounty with others are motivating reasons we farm. Developing a sound system that respects the environment and brings diversity to the farm is one of the many reasons we continue to farm.

Can you describe your approach to farming?
We are trying to become a closed loop system and the integration of animals to the farm is essential to meet that goal. Nowhere in nature is there a system that doesn’t include animals. The pigs and chickens are strategically rotated to help us with disease and pest control. The pigs eating the apples in the fall after harvest removes the potential insects that could have been in the fallen fruit. The pigs also help us be eating the pumice (apple waste like skins and seeds) we produce when making cider.

What distinguishes your products from other local growers?
The fruit and products we have are both local and certified organic. The sauce, juices and jellies are made from the fruit we produce. Our fruit is harvested and delivered directly to the store so the time from harvest to the consumer is not very long. Sometimes we have apples that are picked and packed one day and to the store the next day. It can’t get much fresher than that.

What is your favorite way to enjoy your own produce?
For fruit, the best way to enjoy it is fresh picked! The peak flavor and textures make the fruit fantastic!

Thank you everyone who submitted comments and questions during the meeting at the Sabathani Community Center on July 9, 2013. We have categorized the questions into several broad topics, as many of the questions are similar in nature. We have done our best to provide a comprehensive response to each category of questions and comments that we received. Read through the questions and our responses here, or click on the link “Sabathani July 9 Q & A” under the Resources tab on the left.

Saturday, Aug. 3 | 11 a.m.–4 p.m.

Product Samples and Demos
from Equal Exchange, Grass Run Farms, Peace Coffee, Sunleaf Naturals, Salad Girl and other P6 farmers/producers.

Free Groceries
Purchase at least $20 in P6 products for the chance to WIN YOUR ENTIRE SHOPPING CART FOR FREE! Winners will be randomly selected at checkout every Saturday in August from 11 a.m.–4 p.m.

On weekends throughout August, look for samples and demos from P6 producers. (And see someone in a banana suit!)