Empowering Farmers, Nourishing Communities
Supporting Emerging Farmers through Local Market Opportunities
Elkanah Abobo sells his SOR-grown produce at the first Emerging Farmers’ Market (Aug 2022)
Sharing Our Roots’ work is centered in just and equitable access to land for emerging farmers. By sharing our resources - 163 acres of land and critical farming infrastructure, equipment, knowledge, and connections - we work towards building a more resilient agricultural system.
Our land sharing efforts began as a collaborative process with community growers who were seeking spaces to grow food for home consumption. Through time, feedback, and relationship, we heard again and again that what was most needed was reliable access to land and farming infrastructure. Since 2019, the Sharing Our Roots Farm has been home to the Commons Cohort (fka Community Landshare), made up of local emerging farmers who want to farm in community, sharing land and infrastructure with each other.
Sharing Our Roots provides three-year rolling land agreements and farmers cooperatively develop shared agreements and systems. With support from SOR staff, Cohort members organize themselves through shared community norms and meet regularly throughout the season to provide feedback.
Araceli, Ana, and Arturo, three of the first members of our Farmer Cohort, with a garlic harvest (July 2021)
In line with our mission and the need we see in our current agricultural system, we prioritize land access for farmers from communities who have been excluded from farmland access due to systemic oppression and generational wealth gaps, including immigrant, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ farmers. In 2024, our farm will be home to 14 emerging farming operations, with more than 40 farmers onsite during the growing season. This is in addition to the 160+ families who grow food in one of our 7 community gardens across Northfield & Faribault!
Following the 2023 growing season, we received feedback from Commons Cohort farmers that access to local markets continues to be a barrier for their operations. Wholesale accounts and farmers’ markets can have barriers to entry for emerging farmers, such as wholesale packaging requirements, market fees, understanding complex regulations, and language accessibility.
Farmer Cohort and SOR team members pose (photo courtesy of the MN Cooks calendar).
Although Sharing Our Roots is not a formal farmer training program, we believe that setting farmers up for success includes providing holistic support and community connections to local markets and regional resources. Without market opportunities, farmers are left scrambling to find buyers for their produce, and in worst case scenarios, creating more food waste.
As an organization that centers food justice and sustainability, we are working to provide farmers with on-ramps to local markets and connections, with both grant-funded and farmers’ market options available.
Community Action Center Partnership
Erika walks through rows of peppers and tomatillos in her plot at the SOR Farm (July 2023)
As a partner in the 2023 Local Food Purchasing Assistance grant through the USDA and Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the Northfield and Faribault Community Action Center will be purchasing produce and meat from Sharing Our Roots farmers to be distributed at one of their three food shelves across Rice County. These food shelves serve 7,500 neighbors annually and have a need for culturally-significant food.
Traditional food shelf products can be unfamiliar and not relevant to the diets of many neighbors, particularly recent immigrants. To ensure neighbors have access to a full range of cultural staples, our farmers will grow and distribute culturally-relevant foods such as tomatillos, peppers, chinsaga, African white corn, and other staples to low-income families.
In preparation, SOR farmers will have opportunities for wholesale training this spring, including how to package food orders, accurately invoice, and keep business records.
Monthly Emerging Farmers Markets
Tessa from W.T. Farms at our first Emerging Farmers’ Market (August 2023)
Starting this June, Sharing Our Roots will host a monthly farmers’ market at the SOR Farm! We are excited to welcome the community onto the farm monthly and to offer Cohort members a regular market, without stall fees, to provide a safe space to practice their direct to consumer marketing skills . We plan on offering farm land walks during the farmers’ market and hosting additional entertainment.
Farmers will receive additional training ahead of markets in partnership with the Minnesota Farmers Market Association, including how to keep a cash register, track sales, and preserve food safety during markets.
The Good Acre’s LEAFF Program
Helen preparing onions for a wholesale order in the pack shed on a hot summer day (July 2023)
Some Commons Cohort members participate in Good Acre’s LEAFF program, a model that purchases produce from emerging farmers for local hunger relief organizations. Since 2020, LEAFF has distributed over 635,000 pounds of fresh produce to food shelves, grown by 120 emerging farmers, including SOR Farmer Cohort members!
LEAFF acts as an on-ramp to wholesale market access by providing opportunities for beginning farmers to establish their first wholesale account, while gaining experience and training along the way.
Through market opportunities like these and our commitment to supporting local emerging farmers, Sharing Our Roots is dedicated to building a more equitable and sustainable food system for all.