Welcome to Crazy Boy Farm
Family Friendly Farming: For Our Children and Yours.
We believe that healthy farming produces healthy food, healthy people and healthy communities. That is why we are so passionate about our farming practices. It is not just for us and our children but for you and your family.
Our Community Supported Agriculture/CSA includes sustainably grown fruits and veggies as we transition to organic. We are in our 2nd year of transistion. For information go to the CSA tab in the sidebar to the Left. We would love to have you join the Crazy Boy Farm family.
Thank-you for joining us as we share just a little bit about our family and the journey we are taking together and with you. For more information about us read The Legend of Crazy Boy
Thank-you, your growers, Proeun and Amy.
Green!
Anyway here are some pictures of the green just bursting with life.
Strawberries--probably shouldn't have led with this but I am so excited! They survived. Maybe we will have strawberries the first week. I hope so. So tired of frozen berries.
Trays and trays of goodness waiting to go the field. We have started planting finally. Can't wait for these greens and onions. We had a storm yesterday and it was amazing how all that energy in the atmosphere translated to plant growth.
In addition to awesome weather we are blessed with awesome neighbors and friends. This aged manure is from our neighbors donkeys. It is so old it is basically dirt again and will do wonders for our field. We are so excited to see lots of earth worms in the soil again. Last year believe it or not we had hardly any. But with a winter in cover crop and the addition of organic matter and a big ole welcome sign saying "Welcome earthworms!" (not really) they have made themselves right at home. Translates to more green.
Some great new friends who have owned their land since 1944 just gave us this disk since they didn't need it anymore. We have 2 tractors so this will really help. We plan to go no till but there are still instances where we need to break the soil. Just more help. Things are coming together nicely.
Pictures from Up Cafe
See what you missed? Great great food. I ate way to much and know where my Monday lunches will be coming from during the CSA delivery season.
It was more then just food though.
Flamenco dancer.
Up Cafe uses Joel's pottery for their service. All are also available for purchase. At the opening Joel demonstrated his craft.
Woodshop, a great local band, just happens to be made up entirely of employees of Upper Midwest Gourmet.
I spoke with David Chall, owner of Upper Midwest Gourmet and Up Cafe. He is passionate about his work. He has owned Upper Midwest Gourmet for 20 years and started right out of college. He opened the Fine Grind in St. Paul and later 128 Cafe. He shared that he actually wanted to be a jeweler but his budget allowed him to open a coffee shop. "For our final project [in school] we had to write a business plan. One of the girls wanted to do a coffee shop so I had a business plan for a coffee shop and $17,000.
He recalled when Chai Tea hit the U.S. market in 1996 and no one knew what it was or how to pronouce it. He said that the cafe was a great testing ground for new products. And so his new offering, Up Cafe is continuing the tradition. In the back warehouse coffee roasters roast amazing fair trade coffees. Allen one of the roasters told me, fair trade is about making sure that the appropriate people get paid a liveable wage. "we pay a premium. . .we pay more to make sure they get paid." While fair trade is an idea it is also a brand, that requires the farms to pay for certification. "We care more about closeness," Allen said, "when we are close to the farm and know what they do we know that some small farms may not be able to afford it [certification]."
So now Up Cafe is a great way to promote an idea of great food and sustainability. It is also an opportunity for other small cafes and coffee shops to learn how to make great sustainable food for their customers to enjoy.
Up Cafe Grand Opening
Here's the invite.
We will have live music (flamenco band and our very own Eric and Pat’s band, Woodshop), free food and drinks (café drinks from UP Café and HammerHeart beer), and a bunch of our vendors (Crazy Boy Farm, Autumnwood Farm, Extraction Coffee Company, Fabbri, Cherrico Pottery, and more) with booths selling and giving stuff away to celebrate the Grand Opening of UP Café. It will also be a release party for one of Flamenco Organic Coffee Company’s newest offerings.
Friday, May 3rd 10-4:00
Up Cafe
1901 Traffic St. NE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55413
Please RSVP to Party@UPcafe.us
We'll be there joining in the celebrations. Stop by and say hello, did I mention Free Food that is oh so so yummy.
Crazy Boy Farm Goat Babies
Here are some teaser pictures.
Rose has the little spot on her forehead and Joey on his leg.
I love how Effie interacts with them, playing with them and cuddling them and letting them chew her hair. Such a great experience for her.
Avril named Rose--I think naming is their favorite part. Both these babies are purebred Nigerian Dwarf Goats and registered with the American Dairy Goat Association. I love having goats but while selling them is neccessary in order to be able to maintain a herd that is always the hard part. So in the next couple of weeks check back for our goat page. There we will have information about our goats and list the ones for sale. While these 2 are the only ones born so far we will likely have 5+ goats available for purchase.
Mother Earth Fest
Proeun and I in a rare moment together at the booth with the children acting as photographers. We had matching shirts made at Great Ideas in town which was by the way a great idea. Everyone knew the children belonged with us and if they wandered off it was easy to pick them out of a crowd.
Avril getting her groove on in one of the dance classes. I even joined her for the fun of it.
Petting zoo.
Spoon making demonstration.
The kids learning about casting and fishing limits. It was a great time.
Sustainabilty for all--EBT and CSA
"We all do better when we all do better." ~Senator Paul Wellstone
I am blessed that I never went to school hungry. In fact all my growing up life I never went hungry. I would get hungry sometimes in between meals but I never missed one.
This was not the case for Proeun. As a child growing up in America he was hungry alot. At 4 he moved from a refugee camp in Thailand to Alabama. A local baptist church sponsored them. They helped them fill out forms, find a place to live and apply for foodstamps. And the family grew. Eventually there would be 6 children in the family and they would share 2-3 eggs among them. My in-laws were masters at stretching food but still sometimes they went out so the children could eat. Proeun told me he loved school--because he got to eat. He even loved it in the summer. He once told me, "Imagine not eating in a couple days then trying to take a Math test, see how good you do."
There is much talk about sustainable agriculture and how it is good for local communities. But we realize that sustainable is only sustainable if it is accessible to everyone.
This weekend we will be at the Mother Earth Festival on St. Paul's westside. I am going to be speaking about CSAs and the future of sustainablity. The coordinator pointed out to me that 50-75% of children of color are living below the poverty line and that for many families CSAs seem an unreachable goal financially much like a new car.
This of course is a concern. In order to be sustainable we also have to have to make money in order to keep doing this work. But with Proeun's background we really wanted to find a way to make it affordable. We were blessed a few years ago to meet a fellow farmer who offered EBT to his customers. We learned how and applied. Last year was our first year accepting EBT. This year we were hoping to expand and reach 25 families but so far only 2 are taking advantage of the opportunity.
We continue to look for ways to make CSA more affordable and strive to keep our quality high and our prices low. If you know anyone who would like to know more about EBT and CSA please pass on our information to them. And stop by this weekend if you have an opportunity. 
creating art
This is not a political blog, this is a blog about farming, living close to the earth and family, creating a life worth living. But I am troubled. In school I honestly idealized the social contructs of Scandinavian nations. They seemed to have it all together. But now after having children of my own and thinking more about the life I want to live I realize there are very real and harsh consequences of those of us who choose to live outside societal norms both there and here. One is that of constant criticism. Whether you want to make your own healthcare decisions or at least demand that your doctors inform you of all your options, or you choose to raise your children at home and educate them there, whether you want to make decisions about the foods your eat based on your personal convictions and many of the decisions we must make on a daily basis that don't jive with common culture all bear much criticism. Sometimes it is hard to focus on the fact that I am crafting a life, I am creating art. Art that some would wish to censor.
There has been much chatter about the quote by MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry, stating, "break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents” and recognize that “kids belong to whole communities.” Her comments were met with outlash by the right and some people who would do well to just stay quiet for once. I must admit I was a little nervous. I make regular decisions that are not supported by my larger community. Later she said, "I believe wholeheartedly, and without apology, that we have a collective responsibility to the children of our communities even if we did not conceive and bear them. Of course, parents can and should raise their children with their own values. But they should be able to do so in a community that provides safe places to play, quality food to eat, terrific schools to attend, and economic opportunities to support them. No individual household can do that alone. We have to build that world together. So those of you who were alarmed by the ad can relax. I have no designs on taking your children…"
I am glad she restated and now we can understand each other better. We must all be careful what we say,
Little ears are listening. And what I hope they are hearing is that their mom believes in raising them in the beauty of the home, the shelter of my arms and that I will fight for that right. I am constantly aware of the fact that art is dangerous, none more so then the lives we lead, the decisions we make.
Circle of Healing Arts and Cloudwalk Chiropractic
As with anything in life great partners make all the difference in the world. We have been blessed in our farming journey with some absolutely fabulous partners. I would like to introduce one of those organizations to you--Circle of Healing Arts in Lino Lakes. This will be our 3rd year working with them as a dropsite and every interaction we have had with them has been fabulous.
I talked with Dr. Carol Jillian-Ohana of Cloudwalk Chiropractic, one of the healing businesses housed at the circle,
Me: What is your mission?
Dr. Carol: Our mission is to improve the health and wellness of our surrounding community using many healing modalities, nutrition, education and outreach.
Me: Tell us about some of the services offered at the Circle of Healing Arts.
Dr. Carol: We offer: chiropractic, yoga, massage, intuitive readings and classes, Pilates, Thai massage, Tuina massage, Hypnotherapy, Brain Gym, Herbs, Kinesiology, Acupuncture, Nutritional coaching, Foot care and more.
Me: Why do you think that local, healthy food is import?
Dr. Carol: We stress food as medicine. Eating well, eating local, eating healthy. And we nurture relationships with farmers to bring produce, milk, eggs, flowers, fruit, fish etc to our patients/clients.
Me: What is your number one wellness tip?
Dr. Carol: Tips: Breathe in, breathe out. Take time to notice. Be grateful. Fix and Eat real food.
For more information about Dr. Carol go to Cloudwalk Chiropractic or the other businesses housed at the
Circle of Healing Arts
Dr Carol Jillian-Ohana
Cloudwalk Chiropractic
at The Wellness Circle
7094 Lake Drive,
Lino Lakes, MN 55014
612-871-5622
The Dust Bowl's Legacy in CSAs
Yes this is in the U.S. I believe this one is the Texas panhandle. Just a few short years before this was productive farm land.
Car trying to escapt a dust storm.
Abandoned farm (for these and more pictures of the dust bowl go here). This is what the dust bowl has to do with CSAs. Let me be clear no farmer intentially harms their land, but all farmers depend on their land to make money. Sometimes with fluctuating market prices, national policies that can do more harm then good and personal issues farmers gamble. During the dust bowl farmers gambled on rain that didn't come. In this age of extreme weather gambling is dangerous. Just last year we were declared a disaster zone for heavy rains followed by drought.
Many farmers we know are gambling again. Giving up hay production (required for animal feed) for less labor intensive crops like corn and soybeans. Finding affordable hay will be much more difficult unless you have the land to produce it. But this isn't about hay, it is about what communities can do to support their local agriculture and hence economy and environment.
Give and Take
In The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein a tree and a boy become best friends. But as the boy grows his wants grow to. He is no longer happy to just be with the tree. The tree just wants the boy and so she keeps giving and keeps giving and keeps giving until she is nothing but a stump. The boy is now an old man and realizes finally that all he really wants to do is sit. The stump is perfect for that and so in the end the tree is once again happy, giving.
There have always been alot of cultural critics. All of them seem to have solutions. One feminist blogger I read recently was decrying a global "rape culture" and said that she felt that the solution was a culture based on relationships versus power. Sadly she missed the point. For relationships (good solid relationships that stand the test of time--think mother, father, etc.) are really all about giving. Mothers rarely think about what they are "getting" from their children. In romantic relationships there is more of a give and take but really what that means is both partners give and give fully.
Isn't that same loving fully why we love dogs, because their world begins and ends in fully loving.
But sadly giving and serving are not popular. Honestly never have been. But that does not make it any less fulfilling.
I am beginning to realize that my role as a farmer does of course require some taking but hopefully so much more giving. Honestly the land doesn't need me to be healthy as I learned in Back To Eden. But when we give in the way of planting, cultivating and harvesting the land gives us nourishment and I am reminded that my relationship with the land is another integral relationship that requires the same care, giving and serving.
