Friday, July 17, 2020 - Country Acres • Page 15
Farmers’ Market
Calhoun connects producers with consumers BY SARAH COLBURN | STAFF WRITER
PHOTO BY SARAH COLBURN
From beef, pigs, turkey and chicken to alpacas, like these from Double S Alpaca in Princeton, the Farm Direct Minnesota Facebook page and website allow farmers to offer products, including livestock, to consumers. Many also offer processed meats, and consumers can purchase anything from a half cow to a whole pig.
ries, mealworms, hay and baked goods made from cricket flour – yes, cricket flour. It’s the ultimate farmers’ market, direct to consumers at the click of a button and its membership is growing daily. Sazzy Calhoun lives in East Bethel and was disheartened by stories of Wisconsin farmers dumping milk with no means to get it to the public, and Idaho potato farmers leaving potatoes in a field for people to come take because he had no way to process them. She wanted to help and on May 5 she launched her Facebook page in hopes it would spur people to pick up a few things they needed and support a local farmer. By July 4, she had 46,139 members. “It’s been amazing, and in some ways, it’s given people – it has me, anyway – something positive to look at,” Calhoun said. People on the site are banding together and organizing with one another. Recently, it was a customer purchasing 65-pound turkeys from a farmer who needed to move 1,000 of the birds because he couldn’t get a spot at a processing facility. People from all across the state purchased them in groups until he sold nearly half of them. He moved the others, eventually selling out. The movement has also helped just a single animal in need. A month ago, someone posted that a
PHOTO BY SARAH COLBURN
Sazzy Calhoun shows off her Farm Direct Minnesota website; she began the site after people flocked to the Farm Direct Minnesota Facebook page by the thousands.
little bird had been dropped at her house. The woman turned to the site for help identifying it and to figure out how to care for what was a baby pheasant. “It’s only one little bird, but I always think of the starfish story,” Calhoun
said. “It matters to that one. It just makes me happy, I’m a pretty simple person, little things make me happy.” Some of the most popular posts from folks on the site are for a quarter or
Calhoun page 17
Mora / Knife Lake Area
AUCTION ABSOLUTE REAL ESTATE
8 Bu % Prem yer s ium
Parcel ID # 10.00855.10 Sec / Twp / Rng 13-040-024
SATURDAY, JULY 18th, 2020 11:00 AM ABSOLUTE AUCTION!!!!! Bid your price!!! INSPECTION: Property is open for inspection any time before the auction. yq Call with any questions.
Property has no reserve!!! Come prepared to buy!!! Owner will offer contract for deed!!!
Parcel #1 is the west est halff o off prope property ry ID: 10.00855.10 st h Parcel #2 is the east half of propert property ID: 10.00855.10 Parcel #3 is the total ta parcel arc rcel = 20 0 acres erty ty is b ing ng This parcel of property being c parcels or one offered in two 10-acre 20-acre parcel. Property approxiperty has app proxioxi cktop ro roa ad d mately a 1/4 mile o off bla blacktop road d #19. #19 9. frontage on County Road a Property is also located veryy close to State Highway #65. Property would be good for ag land, building and investment property.
REAL ESTATE TERMS: 8% Buyer s Premium Will Be In Affect 10% non-refundable downpayment day of auction. Balance due at closing. Closing to take place within 30-days of auction. Buyer and seller will enter into a purchase agreement day of auction. Everything sold As Is, Where Is .
CA July17- 1B-MT
Visit our website at www.midwestauctions.com & click on Paul s Auction Service or call for flier. AUCTION TERMS: Usual auction terms. We now accept MasterCard and Visa CAJuly17-1B-BL
MINNESOTA – Farm Direct Minnesota started as a place for farmers to connect with the public in an attempt to offload goods and services as they struggled to adapt in the new COVID-19 world. Today, the online marketplace is a destination where followers can find everything from butchered hogs, live bourbon red turkeys, bred Black Baldy heifers, goats for weed control, microgreens, organic strawber-
Owner: GERALD EVENSON Auction Arranged and Conducted by:
Paul s Auction Service
1541 - 210th Ave., Ogilvie, MN 56358 • 320-679-3377 (Office) • 612-390-0535 (Cell) Auctioneer: Paul Strunge #33-25 Clerk: Paul s Auction Service
