Small digs, big plans

Another CSA hits county

Tilling up hayfields, enriching soil, building a greenhouse and capturing rainwater off its roof, erecting a tiny house to live in, planting, weeding, harvesting and selling dozens of varieties of vegetables, and engaging community members in farm work. That's how Heather-Marie Bloom, and now her partner, University of Minnesota Duluth journalism professor John Hatcher, farm on the west side of Prairie Lake.

Bloom's parents cultivated flowers and some vegetables in their Twin Cities-area garden. When friends from college started a Catholic Worker Farm in Dubuque, Iowa, she loved watching them grow their own food.

"I loved the community part of it, people working together," she said.

Living in Ely after college, she planted and harvested a garden of her own. Moving on to Duluth, "a city that welcomes and supports local farmers and growers," she became a community-supported agriculture (CSA) member, volunteering and interning, taking classes and learning from others. After a 2010 internship with Northern Harvest, via the Lake Superior Sustainable Farming Association, her mentors said she was ready.

In 2011, Bloom farmed at rented property near Esko.

"I had to clear the land, plow it up - a quarter-acre of grass," she said

Since then, she's farmed in five locations, leasing land from Wrenshall to Saginaw, and now on Prairie Lake, between Cromwell and Floodwood. She has found land via word of mouth, and says the thickly (and informally) networked community of farmers in our region is invisible to most residents of Carlton County, but a godsend for its members.

"First, we ran a test to determine what the soil is made up of, amending its deficits with minerals and adding organic fertilizer," Bloom said. "Then we tilled it and put up a fence to keep critters out."

Bloom and Hatcher found a pop-up garage online, wrapping the frame in heavy plastic. They call it their germination chamber.

"We start seeds in a dark steam closet comprised of a heating element wired to a thermostat," Bloom said. They buy seeds from companies like Johnny's, High Mowing, Fedco and Seed Savers. "Then, depending on the heat tolerance of each species, we germinate in stages, moving them from chamber onto racks that are all lights, then to tables in the greenhouse, then outside onto tables, and then into the ground."

They distribute most of their produce through their CSA.

Once a year, all the CSAs surrounding Duluth hold a spring open house where people come, shop and sign up for a CSA. A share is usually for one or two families. As the vegetables ripen, Bloom distributes them from her sister's Duluth porch. From June to October, she supplies to about 60 people every Tuesday.

"Whatever I have that week is what they get," she said. "They're really eating seasonally. The advantage to them is that they know their farmer and know where their food is coming from. The farm also has a core group of supporters who get together a couple of times a year to monitor the farm's progress and challenges and do activities together."

She also gives people a $50 discount for working on the farm for six hours, preferably before July 1. Bloom and Hatcher are planning to diversify in the future, maybe eggs, maybe perennials such as asparagus and fruit trees. Maybe some agritourism.

The farmers are living in a tiny house that Bloom and her dad built in 2013. She searched online for patterns and consulted an architect friend.

"We have no running water: we haul it in 5-gallon amounts from my parents' or my sister's home. And we have the lake. Having a tiny house encourages you to use the space wisely," she said.

From December to March, Bloom works full-time as a naturalist for Friends of the Sax-Zim Bog, and supplements her income working part-time for a bookstore.

The couple is looking for land - 20 to 40 acres - that has tillable land, forest, and sources of electricity and water. They are currently farming an acre, but six to eight acres would allow them to rotate crops.

"If you aren't lucky enough to be born into a farm, it's hard to find land," Bloom said. There are organizations such as the Sustainable Farm Association trying to match experienced farmers with beginning farmers.

The couple welcome customers to their farm stand at 3863 Prairie Lake Road on Fridays,

4-7 p.m., starting Aug. 2.