Frequently Asked Questions:

General Questions:

  • Yes! Volunteers play an important role in advancing SOR's mission, and we greatly appreciate community connections and support. The best way to stay up to date on volunteer opportunities is to check out our Volunteer page and subscribe to our newsletter.

  • Sharing Our Roots has a diversified stream of funding sources:

    • Individuals donate their hard-earned dollars.

    • Family and private foundations provide us with grants.

    • We have support from county, state, and federal governments.

    • Our farm produces products like garlic and elderflower that provide farm income.

    • We have patient financing from firms eager to see perennial agriculture models succeed.

  • Sign up for our newsletter mailing list and follow us on Facebook & Instagram!

Farm Questions:

  • We hold regular events throughout the year, including workshops focused on a variety of topics, from coppicing elderberries to to sequestering carbon on-farm.

    We also provide regular public farm tours throughout the growing season.

    Event details and registration info can be found on our Events Calendar.

    If you’d like to schedule a private tour, please email: info@sharing-our-roots.org.

  • Yes! Our community orchard is available for public foraging.

    If you have not already connected with a staff member, please call the Farm number (507-323-5587) or check in at the Farm Office before heading to the orchard.

  • Sharing Our Roots, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, and Sharing Our Roots Farm, an LLC, support each other through a variety of programs and funding sources. The nonprofit provides education and outreach, food security programming, and much more to local and regional farmers and community members. Sharing Our Roots Farm is demonstrating innovative models needed to provide income and ecological services using a perennial agriculture system.

    In 2016, Sharing Our Roots acquired 100 acres of degraded corn-on-corn farmland and is working to restore it to health by keeping the soil covered, planting perennials, cleaning up waterways, and adding wetlands. We also are working to improve production and developing markets for elderflower, asparagus, garlic and more.

  • Our farm is a public-facing farm; we exist to share with others.

    As an emergent commons-based farm, we recognize our shared responsibility to steward and protect communal resources such as land and water, while building resilient and supportive farmer communities.

    Sharing Our Roots Farm exists as a place to foster the growth of new farm operations, improve food sovereignty, and to model how conservation and agriculture can coexist. At the SOR Farm, we model a biodiverse system of symbiotically connected livestock and perennials, with no chemical inputs, that builds soil, retains and cleans water and delivers economic benefits to our community.

    In addition, in partnership with Dakota County, our farm is demonstrating innovative conservation easements to help restore native ecosystems. Learn more about the SOR Farm here.