ountry C cres A
A Supplement to the Star Shopper
Friday, Feb. 16, 2018 • Edition 2
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
A farm to share Powers opens historic property to the public By LAURA HINTZEN Staff Writer HAWICK – Most days, Scott Powers can be found hard at work in his barn. A former banker, he now owns a small, specialty finance company which he runs on his remote property near Hawick. The 280-acre piece of land he calls home was once owned and farmed by his grandparents, Raymond and Melinda, in the 1930s until Melinda passed away in 1996. The farm was handed onto Powers’ uncle, Phil, until he passed away in 2000. “The 30- by 60-foot barn and farm house still remain on the land. It (the barn) was built in 1911,” Powers said. “It has a unique structure. There’s not too many of them around anymore. It also has a hay mow as a big open area.”
PHOTO BY LAURA HINTZEN
Scott Powers stands in front of what was his grandparents’ barn near Hawick. Powers has many childhood memories of the barn, which was built in 1911.
Powers used to play at his grandparents’ farm as a kid and as he got older, eventually brought his three daughters – Annie, Hattie and Maggie – with him on summer trips to the farm. What gives the cabin and the barn a unique touch is that they are just on top of the original homestead from the 1860s. “The homestead would have been a cabin made of oak and a little bit small-
er,” Powers said. “We haven’t seen that. It was already gone when my grandparents purchased it.” Powers’ log home, built in 2014, sits across the road from the home place adjacent to a log cabin he built. He added two bunkhouses alongside the farmhouse. When Powers started building his log home in 2014, he noticed a hole in the ground by the log cabin. Back in the day,
cisterns were placed underneath homes, so people had water to use in the house. Since the farmhouse sat empty for a few years, aside from family trips, Powers knew there was someone who could utilize this space for group gatherings. “We’ve had Bible study groups, a
POWERS continued on page 4
GROWING THROUGH GARDENING
Holdingford FFA students cultivate produce for school lunches By KATELYN ASFELD Staff Writer
HOLDINGFORD - The small town of Holdingford has been growing. Growing produce that is. Their school garden, which is maintained by students, provides nutritious and fresh produce for Holdingford’s school lunch program. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 established a Farm to School Program with the USDA to improve access to local foods in schools. According to the 2015 USDA Farm to School Census, 42,587 schools in the United States participate in the Farm to School program and in Minnesota, 198 schools are growing edible gardens. Holdingford School
lunch program was going to have to serve more fruits and vegetables each day. In addition to this, Farm to School was a new program and we decided to try farming at school.” Holdingford’s garden started in 2011. It is managed by a group of FFA members who take summer ag, a four-credit class for students who are unable to take an agriculture class during the regular school year. Holdingford’s school garden has grown tremendously since 2011. The garden is made up of two large plots comprised of one-and-a-half acres, a 24- by 36-foot high tunnel structure; a 30- by 70-foot raised garden, four 4- by 8-foot raised beds and a four-season greenhouse located next to the ag shop. Vegetables grown include lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, PHOTO SUBMITTED zucchini, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, Students Emily Notsch (left), Sami Young and Hannah Hartung sit with buckets of produce they collected onions, celery and sweetcorn. In 2017, at the Holdingford school’s garden in the summer of 2017. the garden produced 3,000 pounds of processed product and all of it was used for District is one of those schools. dents were unable to get into an ag class the school lunch program. “The program was started to meet that is needed to be eligible for FFA conThe garden is a group effort. Students two needs that our school had,” said John tests. Each FFA member must take at least Roberts, Holdingford’s ag instructor and one ag class per year. The other need was HOLDINGFORD FFA FFA advisor. “One was that too many stu- that with the new USDA guidelines, the continued on page 7