To learn more about the Sola Gratia farm, visit
www.solagratiafarm.org.
environmentally friendly shift, the church needed to hire an organic farmer.
After numerous interviews with six candidates, St. Matthew decided on Dex Conaway, an experienced organic farmer, husband and father of two. Four months into the season, Rasmus said he believes they made the perfect choice. “Dex is a fantas- tic farmer,” he said. “We’re in the middle of a drought. Everybody is. But he’s managed to farm in such a way that we’ve managed to continue to get good, high-quality production out of the land.”
The farmer had heard about the opportunity on a blog. With other options, Conaway said he was drawn to this one because of the initiative. “My sole purpose in this life is to expand the local food movement as best I can, and to create a really good, tight regional cooperative net- work here in the Midwest,” he said. “I saw what this church was wanting to do and I thought it was a great opportunity to start something up from scratch.”
But turning a farm that consis- tently used herbicides and pesticides into a fully organic effort has proved difficult. “It was killing off a lot of my seedlings or stunting their growth significantly,” Conaway said. “It was a challenge to yield and get good production out of the plants.”
Now Conaway is in year one of
a three-year process to get the farm officially certified as organic. He and his summer intern, Luke Haas, work 60 hours a week to keep the farm running. Rasmus and church board member Tod Satterthwaite also help out when needed. St. Matthew’s members have also embraced the farm even though the majority of the shareholders aren’t part of the congregation, Rasmus said. On Tuesday mornings
(harvest day) nearly 10 members and shareholders come out to help. All of the work is done by hand in what Conaway calls “the old-fash- ioned way.”
All of Sola Gratia’s support
helped the farm harvest much more than 1 ton of produce throughout its first year. Whatever the outcome is after the final harvest, Conaway said the future will hold much more as they are looking to expand. A retired minister in the Urbana
area has a half-acre of farmland and a half-acre fruit orchard just over two miles away from Sola Gratia. Conaway said St. Matthew is hop- ing to buy that land. “We could potentially be up to five acres,” he said. “We expect to expand into the land whether or not we have enough shareholders because we are trying
to pursue other markets too.” Although more funds will be necessary to expand, Rasmus said it shouldn’t be a problem since they had to decline several offers from people looking to buy shares. Having met their goal of selling 75 shares, the farm had all it could handle. Once the expansion pro- cess begins, more shares will be available.
The number of shareholders will likely grow, Rasmus said, because Sola Gratia is the only CSA farm in the area. Due to this and its suc- cess so far, it has the potential to become a model other churches try to emulate. “If they’re interested in talking to us, we’ll talk to them,” Rasmus said. “It’s good ministry. It’s very satisfying, but it’s very, very challenging.”
Rose Parade & Coastal Tour
Plus...San Francisco 10 Days
from Travel
with other Lutherans!
$1348* Departing December 29, 2012
Get away from the colder weather during the first week in January and enjoy the best New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day you have had in years! Start in Los Angeles (four nights) with a city tour of L.A., Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and an exclusive, pre-parade, after public hours, float building and viewing at the Rosemont Pavilion with included dinner. Watch the artists put the “finishing touches” on the floats unencumbered by public crowds! On Tuesday, January 1, 2013, enjoy your reserved grandstand seats at the 124th Rose Parade! On Wednesday, January 2, depart for Central California along the coast. Visit Santa Barbara and its Camino Real Mission; the Danish Village of Solvang; tour the Hearst Castle, with its considerable collection of art and antiques and travel along Big Sur and California’s famous Scenic Highway One, to Monterey. Next, spend three nights in San Francisco with an included city tour plus tour of Alcatraz Island! *Price per person, based on double occupancy. Airfare is extra.
For reservations & details call 7 days a week: 1-800-736-7300 October 2012 33
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