Grandma Stories

Jay, Jeanne, Brad, Brent, Blair, Lynn and Blake of Hansen's Dairy, one of the farms featured at PFI events

At our staff meeting Monday, we went around the room and each staffer told a story about his or her grandma. (Each week, we start by learning a bit about each other before moving on to the work of the week.) Nor surprisingly, many of the “Grandma stories” involved food—Grandma’s less-than-precise recipe for noodles, Grandma rolling out cookies, etc.

Much of Practical Farmers’ work involves food as well. We serve food from our farmers at every event we are in charge of. This is not always easy—it involves extra effort procuring the food and even more preparing it and serving it. It would be easier, to say the least, to just order the food from Hy-Vee.

But then food would not be the celebration that we want it to be. We would not be working toward our vision of “wholesome food that is celebrated for its connections to local farmers, to seasons, to hard work, and good stewardship.”

We are lucky to have on staff Tomoko Ogawa, a great cook and organized procurer of local food. Tomoko reports that so far this fiscal year we have paid farmers almost $6,000 for their food we use at our events. Here is a list of those we have purchased from:
Berry Patch Farm
Blue Gate Farm
Carney Family Farm
Clark Porter
Cory Family Farm
Crooked Gap Farm
Dakota Harvest Farm
Dan Specht
Early Morning Harvest
Ebersole Cattle Co.
Echollective
Genuine Faux Farm
Good Shepherd Grass Farms
Grade A Gardens
Grass Run Farm
Griffieon Family Farm
Grinnell Heritage Farm
Hansen’s Dairy
Heartland Fresh Family Farm
High Hopes Garden
Jumping Bean Farm
Madsen Stock Farms
Middle Way Farm
Mogo Organic
Northwest Greenhouse
One step at a Time Gardens
Onion Creek Farm
Organic Greens
Picket Fence Creamery
Sawyer Beef
Scattergood Friends School
Sharon’s Produce
Small Potatoes Farm
TableTop Farm
TJ Family Farm
Trinity Farms
Wallace Farm