HOW DID THIS FANTASTIC EVENT HAPPEN?

In 2000, Martin and I started to think about the future of the Gardens of Eagan. What would we do with the farm when it was time to pass it on? We were reaching a point in our lives where we wanted to expand beyond production and have more time and energy for education, research, policy change and personal interests. We knew that our children have passions of their own and didn’t want to take over the farm.

We started by looking at traditional transfer models and quickly saw challenges for GOE. Transferring our specialized organic vegetable operation wasn’t limited to transferring the land and infrastructure, we also needed to transfer the knowledge and experience to operate the organic farm systems and market the product. Each time the transfer process would occur in the future the farm would go through a period of increased vulnerability. Because of close proximity to the Twin Cities and development pressures, rising land values would increase this vulnerability. We realized that if we were going to pass the Gardens of Eagan on for future generations we needed to come up with a different transfer plan. 

Questions we asked to guide our search for a solution:

• What can we do to ensure Gardens of Eagan keeps its tradition of growing organically?

• How can we ensure the area co-ops will have a consistent, quality supply of local, organic produce from Gardens of Eagan and be treated fairly?

• How can we expand educational, research and policy change work here at GOE?

• How can we structure management of production beyond our life times?

• How can we protect our soil and land from future urban sprawl?

• How do we free ourselves from the responsibility of full-time production to do “next step work” (education, writing, political work) while continuing a strong and healthy farm?

• How do we create a farm system that is stable and allows people to come into it and be a part of it without needing to make a life long commitment?

These questions led to goals:

• Create a system capable of producing quality organic vegetables to serve the Twin Cities Co-op Community indefinitely, which is not dependant on our family’s involvement for survival.

• Move ourselves out of responsibility for full time production and into education, research and political work.

• Move from a Ma and Pa management system to a bench management system, which interfaces efficiently and transfers smoothly.

• Documentation of GOE farming systems - knowledge – experience - for a succession system capable of orderly management indefinitely.      

• Develop an educational program at GOE to train beginning farmers, educate the public and policy makers.

• Expand research at GOE.

• Develop a farming system that employees can enter and work as valuable participants without committing an entire lifetime to the development of the farm’s markets, systems and assets.

• Develop a prototype farm management structure, which address problems of rising land and start-up costs.

• Transfer the farm’s financial assets and management responsibilities to a committed to organics, non-private entity, likely to be financially healthy for a very long time. Having a non-private entity holding the financial assets will eliminate the future need to transfer assets and incur debt and instability between succeeding farmers. Goal: transfer knowledge and experience, not assets.

In this final goal we felt we had found the answer for an indefinitely successful continuation of the Gardens of Eagan. For many farming operations it takes a lifetime of sweat equity and capital investments to build up the necessary infrastructure to be financially viable. By limiting future transfers to knowledge and experience, the farm would minimize its risk during transfer periods.

Now we just had to find the committed to organics, financially stable, non-private entity!

Over the years, as we discussed and wrote these goals, we’ve shared some of them with many in the organic farming world. Other farmers, produce managers, customers: talking about our desire to be able to do more education and change the management system at GOE. When we spoke with Dean at the Wedge about it he said, “We can’t lose Gardens of Eagan. How can we help?” This opened up dialogue between GOE and the Wedge which after 18 months of envisioning and logistics discussions led to the decision that the Wedge is willing and excited to commit to these goals; be the non-private entity to hold the financial assets, manage the production team and develop an organic educational program at GOE.

What’s the next STEP?

• January 1, 2008 Wedge will take responsibility for GOE farm management.
• Atina and Martin will continue to live on the farm.
• January 1, 2008 Linda Halley, formerly co-owner of Harmony Valley Organic Farm, will start as the first general manager.
• Atina and Martin will work with the Wedge and Linda to set up a bench management system and transfer 35 of years of organic farming knowledge and experience into a transferable and flexible form for other’s use.
• Production and direct delivery to local co-ops and natural foods stores will continue as it has for years past, your organic produce needs will continue to be met.
• After a year or two of establishing a secure management system, development of educational programs will begin.
• We will be looking forward to your inputs and ideas: the goal is to serve all the Twin Cities organic Community not just with produce but also with an educational program.

We have many ideas and dreams for education and market support at GOE. We are thrilled that the Wedge is committed to working with us to take Gardens of Eagan to the next level. We hope to be able to train many more farmers and help them develop appropriate markets, expanding existing ones and developing new. We hope to increase the number of people who understand the benefits of organics and commit to supporting organic farming. We look forward to this next adventure of creating a Gardens of Eagan that will stand the test of time and still be serving the Twin Cities with local organic produce hundreds of years from now.