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Farm Happenings at Mhonpaj's Garden
Happy First Day of School!
Hello Members for those of you who are students starting school or families starting school. We are all doing some form of distance learning, hybrid or working from home.
Easy ideas for excess produce is I just freeze or blanch. Tomatoes I just wash and freeze.
San Marzano are really go1 read more »
Farm Happenings for September 5, 2020
Hello All!
We are hoping the squashes and second picking of lettuce is coming back and radishes! Some of you have had positive feedback on the veggies and thank you for continuing this effort. We are excited to introduce Ground Cherry last week and this week. It taste very sweet like candy.
T1 read more »
Farm Happenings for August 29, 2020
As you are preparing for starting school again and thinking about freezing vegetables for the winter. I have added two links storing Winter Vegetables and this weeks feature is Carmen Peppers they are award winning peppers great for paste roasting and frying.
We are out of Sweet Bananas peppers so1 read more »
Farm Happenings for August 22, 2020
Senator Tina Smith Visited our Farm!
Thank you U.S. Senator Tina Smith for visiting The Food Group and Land Stewardship Project at Big River Farms yesterday afternoon!
We covered a lot of ground and a lot of topics including USDA funding, climate change, land1 read more »
Farm Happenings for August 15, 2020
Hello !Thank you for being patient with our Tuesday Delivery. Here are some logistics. We ask that you have your box or cooler ready so the drivers can deliver on time if its Tuesday Delivery. The drivers recommend that you have a 10 gallon cooler because the are having to squeeze some of the produ1 read more »
Farm Happenings for August 8, 2020
Thank you for being patient with us this season. There are a lot of moving parts. But Excitingly enough potatoes and water melon are in and Tomatoes are grown inside the high tunnels and look beautiful. We spend hours trellising, planting and making sure our soil is in mint condition for you to hav1 read more »
Farm Happenings for August 1, 2020
Hello Members!
Its been a great week! We had Harvie had a little mishap with the swapping this last week. For Tuesday deliveries let us know if you saw any changes where you made changes to your swapping and did not see it. Please do let us know. For some reason it did not get swapped out. Th1 read more »
Farm Happenings for July 25, 2020
Hello!
Hope everyone is having a dynamite Summer! Our drivers have requested for those of you have delivery that they will not be picking up boxes because of the rise of COVID we are taking precautions for our drivers to do contactless delivery. Ideally we would like to reuse boxes but becaus1 read more »
Farm Happenings for July 18, 2020
This week's feature article is Mhonpaj who owns and operates the farm. This is the article Profile from Moses(Midwest Organic Sustainable Education Services)
Mhonpaj Lee profile for MOSES Organic Broadcaster 6/29/20I caught up with Mhonpaj Lee, MOSES’ newest contract organic specialist1 read more »
About the farm
Mhonpaj’s Garden is a 9-acre certified organic vegetable farm owned by May Lee and her daughter Mhonpaj. With 5 acres in Stillwater and 4 acres in Marine on St. Crox, May and her family grow a variety of vegetables, bedding plants and herbs.
In 1980, May, her husband Chue, their children and May’s mother immigrated to the United States from Loas as refugees. They found work farming conventionally, but when May’s mother was diagnosed with cancer after working with pesticides in the United States, May knew she needed to start farming organically.
May’s daughter Mhonpaj was connected with the Minnesota Food Association (MFA) and learned about their New Immigrant Agriculture Program (now called the Farmer Education Program). The Lee’s were accepted into the three-year program, which gave them access to the MFA’s 60-acre certified organic incubator farm, Big River Farm, and connected them with a Hmong-speaking coordinator who helped them find resources and answer questions about organic farming. Together they resolved issues ranging from drip irrigation setup to product liability insurance to insect control.
In 2010, the Lee’s “graduated” from the MFA program and went on to become the first Hmong-owned certified-organic farm in Minnesota. May and her family now farm leased land along the St. Croix River.
In addition to farming, May spends lots of time educating other growers about organic practices through the MFA and as a Master Gardener volunteer for Ramsey County. She and her family also share their culinary heritage through cooking demonstrations and classes.
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In 1980, May, her husband Chue, their children and May’s mother immigrated to the United States from Loas as refugees. They found work farming conventionally, but when May’s mother was diagnosed with cancer after working with pesticides in the United States, May knew she needed to start farming organically.
May’s daughter Mhonpaj was connected with the Minnesota Food Association (MFA) and learned about their New Immigrant Agriculture Program (now called the Farmer Education Program). The Lee’s were accepted into the three-year program, which gave them access to the MFA’s 60-acre certified organic incubator farm, Big River Farm, and connected them with a Hmong-speaking coordinator who helped them find resources and answer questions about organic farming. Together they resolved issues ranging from drip irrigation setup to product liability insurance to insect control.
In 2010, the Lee’s “graduated” from the MFA program and went on to become the first Hmong-owned certified-organic farm in Minnesota. May and her family now farm leased land along the St. Croix River.
In addition to farming, May spends lots of time educating other growers about organic practices through the MFA and as a Master Gardener volunteer for Ramsey County. She and her family also share their culinary heritage through cooking demonstrations and classes.