Growing Good Caretakers
At Midwest Food Connection we inspire kids to eat well. On the surface that looks like preparing spring salads and wild rice in the classroom. Tasting global fruits and discovering new flavors. Hearing a story about grains around the world and learning about their...
2017-2018 by the Numbers and Photos
As we look forward to another year of teaching, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on our past year. During the 2017-2018 school year, we taught: 862 lessons in 54 schools in 7 school districts. We taught about 7,200 students in total, about half of whom we taught...
Connecting To Our Roots: Farm Trips with MFC
In early May, 71 kindergarteners from Christina Huddleston Elementary visited My MN Farmer, a family run farm in Montgomery, MN. This farm grows produce for CSA members and the Minneapolis Public Schools, raises chickens and bunnies and cows and sheep, and always has...
Our Top Five Tips for Gardening with Kids
As garden educators, we MFC staff have the opportunity to work with students in their school gardens every fall and spring. Here are some of our thoughts about getting kids involved in gardening! 1. Let them choose! Even as an adult, gardening is all about...
What We’re Reading: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
As you come out of hibernation this spring, Braiding Sweetgrass is the book to read to reawaken your relationship with the land. Through delicious sentences and a slow reverence for the natural world, Robin Wall Kimmerer shares indigenous wisdom about ecology in this...
Climate Conscious Cuisine: What Our Kids Know
What happens when you ask kids to think about climate change? They're instincts are always on. Show a classroom of 2nd graders a picture of pesticide run-off from farms, the resulting algae blooms in our great lakes, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico -- and the room...
Haruko Ruggiero Leaves Midwest Food Connection
Uli Koester, Executive Director I was teaching an MFC class at Barton Open School in 2002 or so when the student teacher in the class approached me with great intent. She loved the lessons I was...
An Intern’s Take on MFC
By Carter D'Angelo, fall semester intern from Macalester College I have spent the past few months talking to teachers and administrators about Midwest Food Connection. I am from a small town in Massachusetts and grew up surrounded by small family farms. I have always...
Reflections from Ruthie, our Carleton College Winter Break Extern
Kindergarteners at Lake Harriet showing connections during Emily’s Organic Farming lesson “If you have a connection, you can make two connected circles with your fingers,” said Midwest Food Connection Educator, Emily Houser, to a group of kindergarteners at Thomas...
Beyond the Store: Bringing Kids to the Farm
We had the privilege of bringing four classes of third graders from Brimhall Elementary to two different farms this fall: Common Harvest, a family farm and CSA just east of the St. Croix River, and Big River Farms, a local food hub just west of the St. Croix River...
Testimonial for Wild Rice
Last week, I found myself talking about my students to a judge. "My name is Molly Sowash. I teach elementary school students about local food and sustainable farming,” I told her, “Tomorrow I'm going into the second-grade classrooms at EXPO Elementary and teaching...
2016-17 School Year in Review
As we begin another school year, we like to pause to reflect on the school year that has just passed. Here are some notable numbers from 2016-17: Total lessons taught: 772 Lessons in the garden: 59 Middle school lessons: 27 Number of schools: 52 Number of districts: 8...
Fruit Smoothie
INGREDIENTS: Apple Juice Banana (bruised or brown is OK!) Strawberries (saved and frozen or fresh). Peaches (soft or mushy is OK!) INSTRUCTIONS: Blend all ingredients together. Add any other fruits you like. Smoothies are especially great for using up bruised or...
Maple Sumac Popcorn
From the Local Long Ago Lesson INGREDIENTS: 1/2 cup of popcorn seeds A tablespoon of Sumac A tablespoon of Maple syrup INSTRUCTIONS: Pop the popcorn. Drizzle on the maple syrup. Sprinkle on the sumac. Mix with a spoon. Serve and Enjoy!
Herb Butter
INGREDIENTS: A few leaves of your favorite fresh herbs. Herb Choices Include: basil, chives, dill, mint, parsley, rosemary, thyme, oregano or your favorite Butter – Salted or Unsalted. At room temperature. Your favorite bread or cracker. INSTRUCTIONS: Cut or tear the...
Seaweed Salad
INGREDIENTS: ½ to ¼ oz. dried wakame or dried mixed seaweed 1 small cucumber (or ½ a large cucumber) 1 Tablespoon (Tbsp) soy sauce such as tamari 1 Tbsp rice vinegar 1 Teaspoon (tsp) real maple syrup 1 tsp sesame oil 1 small piece of ginger, grated (enough to make 1...
The WHY of our Work
In the fall, we walk into the classroom with a tall cornstalk in tow. The next week we hide root vegetables around the room for students to discover in an imaginary root cellar. In the winter, we paste beans to a map of the world and look at potatoes full of eyes. As...
Gifts from Many Cultures
“Raise your hand if your grandparents were born in a different country,” I ask a classroom of 4th graders at Bruce Vento Elementary. “Raise your hand if your parents were born in a different country,” I continue, encouraging students to look around the room at their...