Local couple named
Ramsey County Farm Family of the Year
by Tesha M. Christensen
The 2013 Ramsey County Farm Family of the Year lives and
farms in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood.
Cherry Flowers and Tim Page of Page & Flowers (formerly
named Holistic Health Farms) are part of the growing movement of urban farmers.
“We were the first people to put up a hoop house in St. Paul,” Flowers said.
The 6.5-foot high hoop house sits alongside their home. It’s one of the many
innovative methods the two have employed in their urban garden plots.
“We push the envelope,” Flowers said.
They believe that urban farms are important and that they
empower the people who contribute. “In neighborhoods that have community
gardens, the crime rates go down,” said Flowers. “Property values go up.
Communities are connected.”
The hoop house enables the farmers to extend the Minnesota
growing season significantly, which gives them an edge at farmer’s markets. In
the winter, they use the hoop house for compost. The compost is used to enrich
their soil, which in turn enables them intensively farm the small plots they
have.
Page and Flowers are actively working with St. Paul and
Minneapolis officials to standardize the requirements on hoop houses. In
Minneapolis, they are considered a temporary structure, Flowers pointed out.
Right now in St. Paul, they are considered a permanent structure, similar to
other outbuildings. The size is limited, and footings are required. Page and
Flowers are working with St. Paul right now regarding their own hoop house.
They’ve had to make it smaller to comply with regulations, and are installing
12-foot-deep concrete footings. St. Paul’s regulations are limiting for the
urban farmer, Flowers noted, many of who are using land that they don’t own.
TECHNIQUES TO MAXIMIZE LAND USE
“We try to use a lot of techniques to maximize the use of the
land,” said Flowers. She added that if they owned 140 acres, they wouldn’t need
to be as conscious of space as they are. But because they have small plots in
the city, they try to cram as many plants together as they can.
With companion planting, Flowers and Page put plants together
that benefit each other, such as mint and cabbage and asparagus and
strawberries.
Within their rows, there is a mixture of vegetables. Between
the tomatoes is basil and at the ends of the lettuce rows are onions.
They don’t walk on the rows where they plant to avoid
compacting the soil.
They use SPIN techniques, planting a lot of items in
two-foot-wide rows that are easier to weed. The staggered rows resemble the
pattern of a dice. Instead of placing carrots three inches apart in rows that
are 15 inches apart, their carrots are merely three inches apart.
Rows that are skinnier cuts down on labor costs because they
are easier to weed. They also lay burlap coffee bags between plants to keep the
weeds down, a product they’ve found works much better than other options. “It allows us to focus more on growing
and less on weeding,” said Flowers.
GARDENING THROUGH EXPERIENCE
Flowers learned about gardening at a boarding school in Iowa
where she lived during her four high school years. The students did everything
there, including butchering pigs and making yogurt. Her passion has most
recently led her to attend the classes to be a Ramsey County Master Gardener;
she has 50 volunteer hours left before earning her certification.
Page picked up his knowledge of gardening through the youth
work he’s done.
The duo met working in an urban garden in North Minneapolis
where teens from low-income families were learning about how to grow their own
food.
In addition to the plot next to their house, Page and Flowers
operate a one-acre market garden at Maryland and Arundel St. in St. Paul’s
North End neighborhood. The land is owned by Sparks Development Corporation and
was initially slated to be a housing development. When the market changed,
Sparks decided to focus on market gardens. Page and Flowers only use about half
the site there, and host a community garden on the other half.
The duo also farm on certified organic land in North Branch
that is owned by the Women’s Environmental Institute. They are involved with
gardens in North Minneapolis, and last year provided a site for a Picnic
Operetta by Mixed Precipitation Theater. Over 150 attended the event in their
garden, which included not just the musical performance but a 5-course sampling
menu.
TRANSFORMING LIVES
Page and Flowers are known for their youth mentoring work
through Boys Totem Town in St. Paul and Emerge Community Development in North
Minneapolis. The look for opportunities to put youth and seniors together. Their
work tends to involve gardening.
They believe it is important to teach young people about where their
food comes from. “I can’t tell you how many kids have no idea that carrots come
from the ground,” said Flowers. “It’s exciting to see the transformation.”
TOUGH TO MAKE A LIVING AS FARMERS
Despite all the effort they put into growing vegetables, the
duo recognizes that they can’t make a living off of just farming. Even rural
farmers often have second jobs, Flowers pointed out.
In addition to working elsewhere, Flowers and Page have begun
focusing on “value-added products” that they sell while at farmer’s markets.
These items include the burlap coffee bags that block weeds, and several food
items: salsa verde, Page’s Cha Cha relish/chutney, zucchini bread and flavored
vinegars. Flowers & Page can be found each Saturday at the Mill City
Farmer’s Market and on Sundays at the Linden Hills Farmer’s Market.
Page teaches classes on how small entrepreneurs can survive
in part by focusing on value-added products. He also manages Market on the
Bluff at 798 E. 7th St., an event on Thursdays from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Why do farmers need an extra job to survive? Why is food in
the United States so cheap? Why can’t a lot of people afford to buy food? Those
questions point to problems with the United States food supply.
“We think that local, sustainable food is part of the
solution,” said Flowers.
