Farm Direct Minnesota
103 Main St #100, Bethel, MN 55005, USA
Farm Direct Minnesota
Association
About
Farm Direct Minnesota - I started the “Farm Direct Minnesota” on May 5 2020 to; Connect Farmers Direct To Customer, during the Covid Pandemic.
Suddenly food was simply missing in grocery stores! But farmers and growers were having to throw out their produce, euthanize animals, and dump milk all because the supply chain basically shut down.
I was seeing all the news of the farmers having to plow under crops, and of a farmer in Idaho who took all his potatoes and dumped them into a field, TONS of potatoes! Then he posted the location of the potatoes to his Facebook page and said that people should come and get them, and come they did. I do believe he got rid of them all!
There was also the milk dumping in Wisconsin. I grew up in Wisconsin. My parents and their parents were farmers. My aunts and uncles, farmers... I remember going to my Aunt Fran’s and dipping into the bulk tank to get skim out cream so we could take it home and my mom and sister Susan (Sue) and I would make butter. I so loved that.
I did not grow up on a farm, as my parents had already sold their farm when I was born, but my parent did raise chickens for food. And yup, I helped butcher. There is nothing like farm fresh chicken.
With all those memories and seeing all that was happening I though “What can I do to help?" I wondered how I could get all these farmers and customers together? I have had facebook pages before and have an understanding of how they run and I am the administer of a number of sites, so this seemed to be right up my alley.
Change was needed and people needed to eat. I figured a lot of people would love to buy products directly from a farm, but many simply did not know where to start or look to do this. I started Farm Direct Minnesota both on Facebook as a group and page and I built the website. And the rest as they say is history.
I have had this whole concept called a "on-line referral / buying co-op", which is very unique!
We have 700+ farmers/ranchers/vendors- include CSA Farms, Farmers Markets, and Cottage Food Producers on the FB group. I have two moderators to help me with the sheer volume of people coming on the group and posting. I have had a wonderful designer Katie Kovatovich of KKAdvertising.com reach do our amazing logo based on some of my ideas.
The website and map includes: Farmers, Ranchers CSA Farms, Farmers Markets, and Cottage Food Producers, Butchers and more.
Of course, I could not do this without the support of my husband, Oskar Granquist; Oskar works in infrastructure and economic development.
I look forward to what the future of this website will bring.
"Farm Direct Minnesota really restores my faith in humanity." -Sazzy Calhoun