14 minute read
The ultimate farmers’ market
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 off er products, including livestock, to consumers. Many also off er processed meats, and consumers can purchase anything from a half cow to a whole pig.
MINNESOTA – Farm Direct Minnesota started as a place for farmers to connect with the public in an attempt to offl oad goods and services as they struggled to adapt in the new COVID-19 world. Today, the online marketplace is a destination where followers can fi nd everything from butchered hogs, live bourbon red turkeys, bred Black Baldy heifers, goats for weed control, microgreens, organic strawber- ries, mealworms, hay and baked goods made from cricket fl our – yes, cricket fl our. 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 fi eld 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 fl ocked 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 fi gure out how to care for what was a baby pheasant. “It’s only one little bird, but I always think of the starfi sh 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
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half of a cow or pig. Readers learn exactly how and who cared for the animal and know what they’re getting, Calhoun said. She has even posted fi les on the site to help consumers understand how much meat they should expect and how much storage space they’ll need for their purchase. She also allows services on the site, from processing capabilities to mobile services including welding. “People will be repeat buyers of these things,” Calhoun said. “It impacts the food chain in a positive way…For people local to Minnesota, it’s defi nitely helping them.” She has had many consumers tell her that between her site and local farmers’ markets, they are skipping the big box stores. Calhoun, who works in the fi lm industry as an assistant director, has had no work due to COVID-19. She is used to organizing, used to putting together lots of moving parts and pieces. When she started the Farm Direct Minnesota page, she didn’t mention it to her husband, Oskar Granquist; she really wasn’t sure if it would take off. But when her page hit 400 members, she couldn’t believe it and said she took a screen shot to capture the moment and told him immediately. He was just as thrilled as she was. Agriculture is in her roots. Calhoun’s par
PHOTO SUBMITTED Harmony Cricket Farm is one of the many unique vendors consumers can fi nd on the Farm Direct Minnesota Facebook page. The cottage baker creates delectable treats using cricket fl our.
ents were farmers in their younger years, and she grew up playing with barn cats and being sprayed in the face with cow milk when she visited the farms of her aunts and uncles. She remembers the joy of dipping into the fresh milk tank with her sister and taking cream home to make butter. Her mom always had a huge garden and canned fresh foods and they had a stock of chickens for most of her life. When they were big enough, they’d butcher them assembly-style in the garage and she helped. Calhoun says her dad’s family threshed oats for people and even after they sold that farm, he was always helping the neighborhood
farmers. Her father identifi ed his whole life as a farmer, long after the cows were gone and he owned an auto parts business. Calhoun carries a bit of her childhood with her and still makes jellies and jams, and has a garden. In June, Calhoun launched a website as a counterpart to the Facebook group. There are 430 farmers/vendors on her Facebook page and she launched the website with 200, and has more signing up every day. While the Facebook page is a good way for consumers to fi nd items and they can sort by region, the website contains a pin drop map o f registrants where consumers can look to see who and what is near them. The project has become a passion for Calhoun, who often takes to her phone just after 6 a.m. checking in on things lik e 1,000 turkeys that need a home. She doesn’t make money from the Facebook group, but has received gifts of wild rice and homemade soaps. She did add a new link to the website where people can buy her a coffee as she likes to say, or make a donation for her efforts. She treats the site and the page like a nine-to-fi ve job; she and two moderators, LindaSue Toth Carter and Amber Sheehan, approve each and every person who requests membership to the group and they approve all the posts. They dig through users and get rid of the spam, delete the bogus users who joined Facebook two days prior, and ensure each posting is complete with the proper information so consumers can fi nd the goods and services offered. More than anything, Calhoun said the site has given her newfound purpose and brings joy and energy to her life. “It makes you fee l good, it restores your faith in humanity,” she said. “The world is kind of crazy now.”
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