BY CARLA WALDEMAR
Picture a perfect Minnesota meal: a salad of heirloom tomatoes and microgreens dotted with fresh mozzarella; Fisher Farm barbecued pork ribs with mashed potatoes rich with local Hope Creamery butter and cream; grilled and roasted summer vegetables and ears of corn. And pies! Pies celebrating blueberries, strawberries, rhubarb, apples and more, sided with mega-bowls of Hope’s whipped cream.
This is the dream menu offered by Fabulous Catering (612-789-4244), served at picnic tables surrounded by cornfields on the Thalmann family farm, half an hour southwest of the city. This Field to Fork Dinner is the first annual event hosted by CommonGround Minnesota, a consortium of local farm women formed to foster conversations with other people: those who plan school lunches, or write about food, or simply shop and cook for their families—in other words, everybody. They’re passionate, these 30 women who raise everything from corn and soybeans to turkeys and pigs. “We want to let people know what running a family farm is like. It’s where our heart is!” But the biggest take-away is this message, they say: Your. Food. Is. Safe.
The best conversations—anywhere, anytime—happen over sharing food, right? Here, too. But before we are seated, host Brian Thalmann, a fifth-generation farmer, gives us a quick tour to gain a snapshot of his 2,000-acre, two-family farm launched in 1877. “Back then we raised crops and livestock—typical rural America —until the ’60s, when my grandfather decided to specialize in corn and soybeans: Stick to what works best.”
Helping with the endless labor is a huge, green-and-yellow John Deere planter, the T. Rex of machinery—60 feet wide, with GPS director atop it, and inside, where Brian sits, three computer screens that spring into life in the seven-day window in spring where soil conditions are right for planting.
Beside it looms a giant Deere combine used for harvesting corn and soybeans. “China is the number-one soybean buyer in the world,” says Brian. “For agriculture, world trade is huge.” Then there’s the tall corn-dryer structure and three semi-trucks needed to haul those loads. “Our corn all goes to the ethanol plant, which just takes the starch out. The protein is used for animal feed,” he explains. Talk about recycling….
Like all these land stewards, conservation is front-of-mind. As a farm wife testified, “We’re extremely careful with our soil; you have to be. And we all have to deal with whatever climate is dealt us every year. [Those uncontrollable unknowns] are why we have crop insurance.”
Yes, insurance helps. But what’s to insure the future of the anti-agribusiness family farm? The average farmer today is 61 years old, these folks tell me. And younger owners of smaller operations often hold second jobs to make ends meet. “Lots of blood, sweat and tears go into it, and it’s so costly to get started that a young person can’t just buy out a retiree if you’re not taking over your parents’ farm,” they tell me.
Yet, these assembled women (and their spouses) agree there’s nothing else they’d rather do than supply their neighbors’ dinner table, restaurant kitchen or supermarket shelves: “Our kids’ first words were ‘cow’ and ‘tractor.’ It’s in our blood!”
For info visit www.commongroundminnesota.com and join the conversation.
