Lessons from the Farm

organic farmer n oreen t H o mas i s a t eac H e r at H e art

IIt’s simply not possible to just pick up some vegetables or milk at Noreen Thomas’ organic farm near Kragnes, Minnesota. As soon as you swing your leg out of the car, she’ll greet you with a warm smile. Before you know it, you’ll be walking side-by-side through her backyard, picking lilacs while she tells you about the new heirloom vegetables she’s growing.

Then it’s time to bottle feed the rescued Brown Swiss calf, so she’ll whip up a bottle and hand it to you for the honors. As Sammy tugs at the bottle, Thomas will tell you all about the breed and the benefits of the milk.

It wouldn’t be surprising if you found your way into her three-story old white farmhouse, seated at her kitchen table while she pulls a loaf of bread out of the oven. She’ll pour you a cup of coffee and happily tell you about how the crops are looking.

That’s the thing about Thomas — she’s a unique blend of gentle soul and inspired educator. A person just can’t help learning about nature, food, and science around her.

Thomas and her husband Lee have worked out the perfect pairing of their talents to operate their 1,200-acre certified organic farm. Lee, a fourthgeneration farmer on the family land, tends to the fields, growing soybeans, barley, wheat and alfalfa for domestic and international sale. Their farm has earned organic certifications from the United States, Japan, the European Union, and, the most stringent, Switzerland.

Thomas, new to farming when she married Lee 25 years ago, leads tours of the farmstead and teaches classes

“There’s always a place for education and there’s a message to convey regardless if we’re talking about organic.” in gardening, cooking, and more. Over the years, she’s enjoyed enthusiastic assistance from their children — Brita, Evan, and Carsten. Each summer, more than 600 people visit the farm.

“There’s always a place for education and there’s a message to convey regardless if we’re talking about organic,” said Thomas, emphasizing the importance of connecting people to nature and their food sources. “I think the public usually just doesn’t know where to go.”

Kids from the Red River Academy in Moorhead hatch eggs from Thomas’s farm each year and make two field trips. Students from Concordia College and Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Moorhead tie farm visits into their college courses. Park Christian School students blend nature and spirituality during visits, and senior citizens at Ecumen Evergreens in Moorhead paint organically grown pumpkins for Halloween and fill their garden beds with plants donated by the Thomas farm. Homeschool kids, Hospice patients, families, Boy Scouts, summer community education classes, young farmers, and anyone else interested in planting, cooking, and farming round out the group of visitors.

“Everyone leaves with hands-on experience,” Thomas said. “They’re feeding or petting the cows, shaking food for the chickens, making butter or bread, or grinding wheat to make flour.”

The education portion of the farm started years ago, as Thomas describes, by accident. She was contacted by a Boy Scout leader seeking a garden badge project for the troop. Thomas, a recent recipient of a NASA grant for satellite image monitoring of riverbank damage, happened to be looking for help to plant 1,000 trees.

The scouts planted, earned their badges, and went on to follow the project for years thanks to monitoring by the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks and the satellite images. As it turns out, their work helped slow the riverbank’s erosion.

“It was a wonderful thing for those young men to work on, meaningful work,” Thomas said.

The project is one of many. It’s a rare moment when Thomas isn’t working on grant-funded research, usually incorporating the help of others. Kids helped her conduct bug counts for her Minnesota Department of Agriculture funded beneficial bug habitat study. They planted wildflowers to attract insects that eat the bugs threatening their crops.

The Thomases continue to use NASA funded technology to monitor their crops with satellite technology, watching weather conditions, flooding, growth, bug threats, and neighboring crops using sprays. With the help of another NASA and UND grant, they will soon use unmanned planes to fly over their crops for additional information.

Noreen’s efforts in organic farming and education were recognized in 2004 with the prestigious Siehl Prize for Excellence in Agriculture from the University of Minnesota. She is the only woman or organic farmer to receive the award.

“My mom has taught me that you have the power to shape into whatever form you want, and if you really believe in something and try, it can happen,” Brita said. “I think what we can learn from her is to take your ideas, pour your energy into them, and they’ll turn into something incredible.”

For Thomas, it’s all about educating herself and those around her to improve farming practices, protect resources, and promote better health. She believes that’s best done by working together.

It’s a message young organic farmers like Ben Kragnes, 25, of rural Felton, are hearing loud and clear.

“Before even meeting face to face, Noreen had worked to organize potential CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) members for Kragnes Family Farm CSA and gave me advice on where to set up drop off locations for members,” Kragnes said. “Noreen is a genuine asset to the local organic farming community and the perfect neighbor for an upstarting CSA.” [AWM]

For more information about or to tour the Thomas farm, contact Noreen at heirloomfarmocy@aol.com or 218.233.8066. To join the local foods purchasing group started by Noreen, My Sisters Farm, visit Yahoo groups at http:// groups.yahoo.com.