Minnesota Shepherds Harvest Festival This Weekend

Media Contact: Julie Mackenzie
Email: julie@greatwool.com
Cell: 612.961.9625
www.shepherdsharvestfestival.org

On May 8th and 9th, the Minnesota Shepherds Harvest Festival will paint a pastoral
scene, just minutes from the metro area at the Washington County fairgrounds in Lake Elmo, MN. City dwellers of all ages are invited to enjoy fiber artists, demonstrations and the many breeds of sheep, rabbit, goat, llama and alpaca on display.

This year, the festival is sharing the secrets of animal husbandry and encouraging more people to step into the mysterious world of shepherding. Classes on small flock
ownership, how to measure wool quality, breed displays and discussions with local
shepherds make this the richest all around experience for those longing for a rural
lifestyle. “Every year people come here asking about how to raise sheep and we want to help them make the leap.” says Pat Ryan, a founding member of the planning
committee.

In addition, over 120 vendors sell every type of animal fiber as well as rare handspun yarns, spinning wheels, pottery, horn, lanolin and even vet supplies. Classes run the gamut from beginning spinning to working with natural dyes -nowhere else can you find such a breath-taking range of opportunity.

A Kazakh Yurt, live music, book readings, sheep shearing and dog-herding
demonstrations bring history, art and cultural diversity to the festival. And the Fiber Sandwich, a charity spin-in, attracts hand spinners from around the region to raise money for Heifer International.

Shepherds Harvest has been building the wool community in Minnesota for over a
decade. Pairing with Llama Magic it offers a unique opportunity for families and fiber lovers to shop, learn and enjoy themselves in one fun-filled trip. Now they can be shepherds too.

Festival Hours: Saturday, May 8th 9:00 – 5:00 and Sunday, May 9th 10:00 - 4:00.
Free Admission and Parking.
Travel advice: Wear comfortable shoes and warm sweaters - there’s lots to see!
For more information visit http://www.shepherdsharvestfestival.org

[where: Sustainable Food, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Twin Cities, Minnesota]

Dining Out for Life Tonight

Don't forget to stop at your favorite local restaurant for Dining Out for Life tonight. There are plenty of the restaurants we love that are serving up locally sourced products, including (but not limited to) Birchwood, Town Talk, and Galactic Pizza.

From Dining Out for Life:

This year, over 155 participating restaurants
in the Twin Cities, Duluth, Red Wing and Rochester
have agreed to donate a portion of their proceeds
to The Aliveness Project, a local nonprofit organization
that provides on-site meals, food shelf
& other supportive services
for individuals living with HIV/AIDS and their families.

Last year's Dining Out for Life raised $127,000 in donations from restaurants, sponsors and individual diners!
This year, our goal is $130,000!

For a complete list of restaurants in our area, click here:

http://www.diningoutforlife.com/minneapolis/participating

[where: Sustainable Food, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Twin Cities, Minnesota]

Black Sheep Pizza: Pizza Done Right

We finally had a weekday off in early April, and the first thought that crossed my mind (besides sleeping in) was having lunch at Black Sheep Pizza. Gerg was all for that, as a pizza lover.

Black Sheep makes their pizza in a coal-fired oven, and they're burning Anthracite coal, which burns relatively cleanly with little soot, making it ideal for their purpose. They're making their sausage and meatballs in house. They source their cheese from Wisconsin. Black Sheep founder Jordan Smith was quoted in a piece by Heavy Table:

“I try to buy local ingredients where it’s applicable, and do business with local vendors so that the dollars stay in our local economy. Sometimes it gets overlooked how critical that piece is, in the buy-local movement. I’m not going to get olive oil from Minnesota. But I can buy my olive oil from a local company as opposed to a multinational company like US Foodservice or Sysco.

That's the kind of philosophy I like to support. It makes me wonder if they're aware of Valli dell'Etna Olive Oil, a family-run olive oil business with distribution in Minneapolis?

I digress. Back to the pizza.

We'd heard that the wait can be long at Black Sheep, so we thought a weekday lunch would be the best option. When we arrived at 1:30pm on a Monday, there were two tables of couples enjoying pizza, and a couple of people at the bar. "Huzzah!" thought I, "This plan is going splendidly."

After looking over the menu, recalling recommendations from friends, Heavy Table, and a couple other reviews, we settled on a starter of roasted vegetables.

The roasted vegetables were mighty in flavor. The onions melted in my mouth. The mushrooms were packed with tangy, garlicky flavor. They were served with a surprise dollop of goat cheese. We ordered them with a side of their savory and zesty marinara.

As for our entree, we selected the 12" fennel sausage, hot salami, onion and cracked green olives pizza.
The flavorful crust was chewy and a bit crunchy and handled the ingredients with aplomb. Green olives and hot salami are bold in flavor, but the star of the pizza show was the house made fennel sausage, which brought a balance to the other salty ingredients. With their zesty marinara doing its thing in the middle, we had a winning combination on our hands and in our bellies.

Find your winning combination!
Black Sheep Pizza
600 Washington Ave N
Minneapolis, Minnesota
(612) 342-2625

[where: Sustainable Food, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Twin Cities, Minnesota]

FRESH the Movie Returns to Minneapolis

Source: Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture

FRESH the movie returns to Minneapolis just in time for Earth Day with showings at the Riverview this week! Wed & Thur @ 7pm. Come @ 6:30 to check out info from all of our partner organizations:
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Land Stewardship Project
The Wedge Coop
Organic Valley and much more!

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

*April 21st: Sponsored by Haberman. *

*Post-screening Panel moderated by Tracy Singleton of the Birchwood Cafe featuring: *
Megan O'Hara, Homegrown Minneapolis
Loretta Jaus, Organic Valley
Jeanne Lakso, Linden Hills Co-op
ana Sofia joanes, FRESH

*April 22nd: Sponsored by The Wedge Community Coop. *

*Post-screening Panel ** moderated by Tracy Singleton of the Birchwood Cafe**featuring: *
Jim Harkness, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Linda Halley, Gardens of Eagan/ Wedge Co-op
Susane Moua, City Backyard Farming
Danny Schwartzman, Common Roots
ana Sofia joanes, FRESH


Tickets are $9, $7 with student id. available at www.brownpapertickets.com ; the birchwood cafe counter AND at the door each night of the show on a first come, first serve basis.


[where: Sustainable Food, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Twin Cities, Minnesota]

A New Gig at Minnesota Monthly

After a few phone conversations and a handful of emails with Minnesota Monthly's dining critic and senior editor Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, Elizabeth Dehn, Jason DeRusha, Stephanie Meyer, and I have teamed up with her to write Minnesota Monthly's Dara&Co blog.

My team role: MNMO's sustainable food correspondent.

I'm looking forward to my role, which involves writing about interesting local producers and products and sustainable practices.

You can read my first blog post here: http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/media/Blogs/Dear-Dara/April-2010/Heirloom-Season-Has-Begun/

I intend to continue to write this blog and www.reetsyburger.com, in addition to the work I'll be doing for Minnesota Monthly. So it seems all of my days and many of my nights will be devoted to reading, researching, and writing about sustainable agriculture and sustainable foods, and I'm definitely not complaining about that.

[where: Sustainable Food, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Twin Cities, Minnesota]

Ag Awareness Day at the University of Minnesota

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 marks the first annual Ag Awareness Day on the Minneapolis Campus of the University of Minnesota.

Where: Northrop Mall
When: ALL DAY
What: Booths from campus and industry groups complete with
activities and freebies

Contact Jason Kaare at kaare002@umn.edu for more information on the
event.

For more information, go to www.facebook.com/AgAwareness

[where: Sustainable Food, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Twin Cities, Minnesota]

Twin Cities Sharing Yards and Resources at www.Y2G.org

Are you a Twin Cities gardener looking for a space to garden?
Do you have space in your yard that could be used for a garden?
Did you make too much compost? Do you have extra mulch?
Do you have gardening tools that you could share?

MINNEAPOLIS, MN –
Yards to Gardens (www.y2g.org) is a new website designed to connect eager gardeners with available space. The website was launched in July, 2009. This year, fueled by the unprecedented growth of interest in home and community gardening, Yards to Gardens is reaching critical mass in the Twin Cities, MN and beginning to catch on in other US cities.

"It's a simple concept," states Jesse Eustis, Y2G co-founder and local Minneapolis gardener. "Say you have some extra space in your yard but no time for gardening, you can go to the website and in just a few seconds you can post your yard as a resource for someone to garden. Or say you'd like to be gardening in your neighborhood but you don't have a yard, just go to the website and see if there are any available yards in your area, or post yourself as a gardener."

As of March 18th, Yards to Gardens has launched an expanded version of their website which includes new listing categories. In addition to 'Yard' and 'Gardener', you can now post and search for 'Organic Matter' (compost, mulch, wood chips, etc.) and 'Tools & Stuff'. These new categories make Y2G a resource for sharing and finding all things gardening-related.

The problem is a lack of space for gardening in urban areas. The National Gardening Association estimated a rise in the number of new gardens to seven million in 2009, an increase of 19% over the previous year. Here in the Twin Cities there are over 240 community gardens; however most are already full this season and the waiting lists continue to grow. Gardening Matters, a Twin Cities-based organization that supports community gardens, has partnered with Yards to Gardens to help deal with the rise in demand. This year they have begun referring individuals to the new Y2G website to find space.

The Yards to Gardens website, created by three Minneapolis gardening enthusiasts, grew out of the observation that while our food system ships food an average of 1500 miles from the farm to fork, at the same time we use the vast majority of our cultivatable urban land to grow grass. "If you consider this and the fact that many urban would-be-gardeners can't find space to garden, it's just a matter of connecting the dots," exclaimed Eustis.

Last year the City of Minneapolis also stepped in to support Yards to Gardens, awarding Y2G a Climate Change micro-grant as part of the City's effort to help local neighborhoods and organizations fund creative ways to engage residents in fighting global warming. Y2G may pursue other grant and sponsorship opportunities, but for the time being it is a labor of love. Jonas Goslow, Y2G co-founder and also a Guthrie Theater actor states, "We've invested a lot into this, not just for the love of gardening but because of the way this tool can help build community relationships."

Over the coming year, the Yards to Gardens team plans to promote the site by building partnerships with related organizations, gov't agencies and businesses. Other additions to the website are likely, such as a category for sharing fruit and vegetable surplus. Goslow explains, "Our eventual goal is to have other US cities use Yards to Gardens as a resource for neighbors to connect and share with one another through the act of gardening."

Contact:
Jesse Eustis
jesse@y2g.org
646-244-5058
2319 1st Ave S.
Minneapolis, MN 55404


[where: Sustainable Food, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Twin Cities, Minnesota]