Riverbend Farm

About

The soil is mostly a sandy loam that was deposited by the Des Moines lobe of the Wisconsin Glacier and created by 10,000 years of trees and grass. The topography is slightly rolling. Originally, this was part of the Big Woods, an oak basswood savannah. In the late 1850s the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad was granted the odd numbered sections along the a right of way. The land surrounding the rail line was to be sold off to pay for the construction of the railroad. Cassels purchased a large tract north of the line. Eventually, they split off this farm and sold it to John Siebel.

To everyone around here, this is known as ‘Grams’ Farm’. Bill and Marie Grams bought this farm in the early 1930s and farmed here until 1966 when Bill died. The Grams had a very diversified farm. They raised some corn, small grains, hay, had a large garden, 22 dairy cows, a few pigs, some chickens. Originally they used six horses to do the field work. Ice was cut out of the river and stored for use in the summer. This was one of the first farms in the area to have electricity.

After Bill died, Marie rented the land to a neighbor, Norman Duske. Norman still farms next door. He has about 60 dairy cows, raises corn, beans, oats, and alfalfa. Norman cut hay and raised corn on this land for about 25 years before we bought it. In between Marie and us, there were a succession of owners who did not do much farming themselves.

Raising corn for all those years was hard on the soil. The soil is fairly sandy and has a low organic matter content. Conventional farming does not replace organic matter lost to tillage, cultivation, and crop harvests. Even though Norman spread cow manure back on the fields, the soil was getting run down. In addition, chemical fertilizers and pesticides kill off or disable the soil bacteria that fix nitrogen and break down organic matter to release nutrients.

When Mary and I purchased this farm in 1992, about half of the farm was CRP (grass) and half was corn. We asked Norman to plant alfalfa on the part that had been in corn. The alfalfa would help rebuild the soil while we were in transition to becoming certified organic. It took several years for the soil biology to recover and come back to life.

The first year we plowed up some of the grass and planted sorghum sudan grass and soybeans to improve to the soil. Our first crops were tomatoes and summer squash that we sold to a small coop in Buffalo. Soon we started a small CSA. We had four members and offered home delivery. We also started growing arugula and radishes to sell to Lakewinds Natural Foods in Minnetonka. After about five years of organic management, it seemed like the soil came back to life and become more vital and productive.

Each year the area under cultivation grew until there were about 30 acres in a four year rotation. A crop rotation has several important functions: 1) produce a saleable crop 2) prevent weed, disease, and insect problems, 3) feeds the soil microbes, and 4) Allows the soil to recover some of it’s natural structure. We have about 50 acres of land that is woods and river bottom. This provides habitat for all manner of birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and mosquitos.

Products

Zucchini, Cucumbers, Watermelons, Muskmelons, Winter Squash, Red Cabbage, Green Cabbage, Chinese Cabbage, Savoy Cabbage, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts, Kohlrabi, Heirloom Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Orange Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Yellow Peppers, Red Sweet Peppers, Hot Peppers, Purple Egglpant, White Eggplant, Japanese Eggplant, Red Potatoes, Purple Potatoes, Arugula, Mustard Greens, Bok Choy, Spinach, Lettuce, Kale, Collards, Chard, Radishes, Sweet Corn, Field Corn, Pop Corn, Green Beans, Yellow Beans, Purple Beans, Edemame, Snow Peas, Snap Peas, Yellow Onions, Red Onions, Scallions, Cipollini, Shallots, Turnips, Beets, Carrots, Herbs, Celery, Fennel, Wheat, Barley, Oats, Rye, Field Peas

Farming Practices

Organic agriculture is a way of farming that relies on good soil, clean water, sunlight, and the wit and wisdom of the centuries to grow crops year after year. Organic methods have been used successfully for the past 5,000 years. In the last 70 years or so, traditional inputs have been largely replaced by synthetic chemicals. Early on there were questions about the ability of synthetic manures to produce the same quality of crops as traditional manure and compost based systems. Sir Albert Howard, Lady Eve Balfour and J.I. Rodale were some of the high profile early naysayers. It the late 1960s and early ‘70s questions of sustainability started to crop up and the current boom in organic production began.

All farmers need to replace nutrients and minerals consumed or lost while producing a crop. Organic farmers use cover crops, green manure crops, compost, and mined minerals as inputs. Organic methods are closer to the way that natural systems work. For example, living plants and compost are much more common in nature than anhydrous ammonia or 10-10-10 fertilizer.

Our soil is teeming with soil microbes that are busy breaking down the compost and plant residues to release nutrients that plants can use. All of our food crops evolved in this system and it works perfectly for them. Nutrients from artificial manure is available all at once and is applied in large doses once or twice a year. Enough has to be applied to last the crops all season. Chemical fertilizers have to be water soluble to be taken up by the plants. And since the plants can’t use that much food all at once, some of the fertilizer washes out of the soil and into the ground or surface water. Herbicides and pesticides suffer from some of these same defects.

Our weeds are killed through cultivation, crop rotation, and competition. Conventional agriculture has tried to use chemicals to kill weeds, forgetting that weeds are weeds because they are adaptable to adverse conditions. The weeds have responded by becoming resistant to herbicides. If chemical herbicides were really effective, we would not have found any weeds growing here. But, there were plenty. No weed has figured out how to become resistant to being uprooted and left to dry out in the sun.

Insects are usually controlled by letting the predator bugs do their job. For Colorado Potato Beetles and cabbage worms we use specific strains of soil bacteria to control them. We try not to kill all the insects. There are only a handful that eat vegetable crops. There are thousands of bugs that eat other bugs. Some insects like bees neither damage plants nor eat insects, instead they pollinate many of our food crops. They are very susceptible to insecticides. We go as far as leaving strips of the field untilled to provide habitat for beneficial insects. Some research shows that organic produce with insect damage has more antioxidants than conventional crops. Plants produce polyphenol antioxidants in response in insect damage. Agricultural insecticides have been a bust. Every year the use of pesticides increases along with crop losses due to insects. How herbicides and pesticides interact with our endochrine system is another topic entirely. Most results indicate that it is not a positive interaction for us.

Genetically modified seeds (GMOs) are not allowed in organic agriculture. They too are a hoax perpetrated on farmers and consumers. Problems in the field range from yield loss to spreading herbicide resistance to weedy relatives. They are completely untested for safety. They were approved for human consumption on the basis of a philosophical argument – if it looks like corn, it is corn. If it looks like a soybean, it is a soybean. That’s it. Bon appétit ! Results from feeding studies are not exactly positive here either. The EU is currently considering a ban on GMO corn based on Monsanto’s own data. Anecdotally, the deer seem to prefer our corn and soybeans to the neighbor’s GMO varieties. GMO sweet corn tastes foul.

We are farming in a cycle, there is no real beginning or end. Our growing season is from about the middle of April, when the soil is warm enough for some seeds to sprout, until the end of September, when the days are so short, nothing grows anymore. Planting begins in the greenhouse in March. Onions and eggplant are the first crops seeded because they take so long to grow to transplant size and the onions can be set out quite early. Field work usually starts in early to mid April. Once the snow is off the fields, the ground thaws and dries out very quickly.

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