[Community_garden] Minnesota: Mt St Benedict Community Garden

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A very big first year for Mount's Community Garden
By Natalie J. Ostgaard, City Editor
Published: Monday, October 16, 2006 2:02 PM CDT
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Michael Klawitter discusses the Mount Community Garden Saturday at the Golden Link. (Natalie Ostgaard, photographer) 
The 11th District Horticultural Society of Minnesota's general meeting Saturday featured a program with Michael Klawitter, project manager of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Garden at the Mount St. Benedict, Garden Manager Rachel Hextell and staff member Holly Schmidt. The trio presented an overview of the project's first year, noting that it greatly exceeded expectations.

"Even with the dry conditions earlier in the season and other problems we experienced, I would say it was fairly successful," Klawitter said. "It got bigger than we planned real quick, but we're off to a good start."

CSA involves selling shares of the totally organic garden to consumers. In return, they are guaranteed a minimum amount of produce deliveries throughout the season. In the case of the Mount garden, shareholders were guaranteed 15 deliveries of about a bushel per full share. The project garnered about 10 more shareholders than they had originally planned for, said Hextell, with 15 full memberships and 19 half memberships.

"We've made about 23 deliveries so far and shareholders received much more bushels of fruits and vegetables than they expected. With such a buffer of veggies we even opened it to the public to come and get some," she explained.

Each share took in a whopping 150 to 200 pounds of tomatoes, Klawitter added. "That's beside all the tomatoes we sold to others. It was just a phenomenal crop."

The garden encompassed 13.2 acres this year, but Hextell said they are looking to expand next year due to high demand. About 20 families are currently on a waiting list.


A large variety of fruits and vegetables filled the plots including melons; 23 tomato varieties; nine kinds of peppers; red, white and blue potatoes; "Easter egg" carrots in red, white and purple as well as orange; onions; radishes; lettuce; cucumbers; and other traditional garden fare. They also planted some "different, fun stuff people don't usually include in their own gardens" such as kale, Swiss chard and brussels sprouts, Hexsell said.

In addition to selling produce to Hugo's stores, the garden has an agreement with Amazing Grains, a health-food store in Grand Forks, to provide carrots and potatoes until they run out, probably until February, said Klawitter.

"This fits right in with our local foods initiative. Food isn't traveling a couple thousand miles to get here or there, racking up transportation costs," he explained. "There are a lot of benefits to keeping foods sold locally."


Klawitter is an experienced organic gardener whose family has operated a successful CSA garden near Euclid for several years, which his wife and son are currently running. The Mount CSA Garden is very much a community partnership, he stressed, that has had the support of many organizations including the Sisters of St. Benedict, Northwest Regional Partnership, University of Minnesota, Crookston, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and individuals from around the area.

"I must say the community really pitched in and backed this project," he stressed. "We couldn't have done it without that support."

CAP


UMC Student Katie Becker worked on a Community Assistance Program (CAP) funded project at the garden, Klawitter explained. Her project involved mixing Diatomaceous Earth, an organic pesticide made up of sea creature shells, with water.

"It's very simple, yet it worked wonders," he said. "The problem with Diatomaceous Earth is that when sprinkled in its powder form, it tends to move, defeating the purpose."

Diatomaceous Earth is also non-discriminatory, meaning that it kills anything that chews on it, Klawitter added, a similar problem with non-organic pesticides. "We don't like to use these things if we can help it, but we do need to at times."


The experiment will need to be replicated at least three more years before being widely published, he explained, to confirm its efficacy.
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