A side effect of moving around, cutting, retying, and generally being around straw is that we end up with a lot of loose straw everywhere. Seriously. Check out the photos and video below of Katie jumping into a pile of loose straw that is just from a couple days of work on only the second floor - that's a lot of loose straw! So what happens to all of that loose straw?
Since the very first day of the project, we have had big tarps full of loose straw in front of our property with a sandwich board reading "Free Straw" on it. There seemed to be some skepticism at first, but slowly we have had neighbors come take truckloads for their garden beds. Luckily, we are at the right time of the year for people to be winterizing their gardens. Of particular interest, a group showed up to grab some straw to use as insulation for cat houses that they were making for feral cats. We also reached out to a sustainable agriculture listserv that we were on from our compost days and have made some good connections. We had a farmer come to pick up three big bags of loose straw for his strawberry fields and another pick some up for the pig stalls. The University of Minnesota Equine Center and animal barns have shown quite a bit of interest in our leftover full bales at the end of the project. Our favorite connection so far, though, has been with KaZoua Berry and her husband Michael, who own Lifestyle Wok LLC as part of the organic farming incubator at Big River Farms. Big River Farms (formerly the Minnesota Food Association) provides land, education, and market aggregation for emerging farmers on 1/8 to 6 acre fields located in Marine on St. Croix. Big River Farms particularly focuses on immigrants, refugees, people of color, and other group who have historically either been disenfranchised or underrepresented in agriculture. KaZoua and Michael have .6 acres of land through this program, which they use to grow peanuts and garlic (so far). They are focused on regenerative agriculture and are currently cover cropping .4 of their acres to help it build organic matter. This fall, they have planted 30 pounds of organic garlic in mounds and covered it in several bags of our leftover straw! This was a hard year for farmers due to the drought conditions experienced here in Minnesota (and in large swaths of the country overall). There were hay and straw shortages as crops struggled to get enough water to grow. When KaZoua and Michael planted this spring, they didn't have immediate access to irrigation and ended up spending quite a bit of money on straw to keep their soil cool and retain moisture. As part of their regenerative practices, they were determined to avoid plastic mulch, even if straw cost more in the short term. I'm happy that our leftover straw can find another new life to help out the community, particularly a community that is so dedicated to reducing waste, treating the planet well, and creating better accessibility for everyone! KaZoua and Michael are still working on a website for their farm, but be on the lookout in the future. They are a great group to support!
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AuthorKatie Jones and Peter Schmitt chronicle their building adventure. Archives
January 2024
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