Re: co-farming in Midwest
From: Maggi (librarymaggigmail.com)
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:04:31 -0700 (PDT)
Some of our neighbors at Touchstone in Michigan have expressed interest in doing something similar.
-Maggi @ Touchstone

On Oct 29, 2009, at 7:34 PM, Joelyn Malone wrote:


If anybody is interested in co-housing co-farming in the upper Midwest,
there are lots of opportunities close to the Minneapolis-St Paul area.
They are more likely to be listed on the IC.org web directory than
cohousing.org however, as many are set up like cohousing but call
themselves co-op farms or other such things. I'm constantly approached
by people who have land or have identified a particular property and
would love to have others come join them.

There are two such possibilities that have generated quite a bit of
interest prior to the housing bust - one at the edge of Northfield MN,
(see the Buffalo Commons listing) that got so far as to bring Chuck and
Katie out for a weekend workshop before they went dormant due to the
economy, and another one just outside of Buffalo MN where the owner is
interested in selling to would-be cohousers and has just recently put
the land up for sale. (This one may be described on the
CohousingAdvocates.com web site, I'm not sure.) Both already have
generated publicity, have an interested group of people who could become
core group members, and folks have done a lot of the early research
needed for determining initial feasibility.  Both are within an hour's
drive from the Twin Cities and very near the amenities of smaller,
progressive towns.

We also have three going concerns close by - Zephyr Valley Community
Co-op and Wiscoy Valley Land Cooperative (already mentioned by Craig)
and River Haven, located on the Hay River in Wisconsin (also an easy
drive from the Twin Cities), which is listed as "forming" only because
it's being done as a lot development model - they've owned the land for
nearly 20 years. They are all in the IC directory.
Plus there's a newly emerging venture by a Quaker friend, in the Loess
Hills area of western Iowa a short drive from either Sioux City Iowa and
Omaha Nebraska - this is to be a teaching center for organic farming.
See their web site at TRACES.org, click on the "TRACES goes green"
button on the home page. They also already own the land - a huge plus.
Farming is a very capital-intensive proposition - even hilly land around
here is $1000 -2000/acre if it's actually viable farmland.

I hope I've generated some interest with these - feel free to contact me
if you want to know more!
Joelyn
Monterey Cohousing Community (MN)
952-926-3872
(no longer actively in the business of cohousing promotion, but still a
booster!)
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