[upbeat folk music]
- Inga: I traveled down the road to the Food Farm
to pick up some eggs and learn about a unique root cellar
that's allowing local farmers to store organic vegetables
throughout the long winter.
This modern root cellar was built into the earth
to maintain a consistent temperature for storing produce.
And it uses solar power to achieve net zero energy usage.
This modern design allows local farmers like Janaki
to store their produce in ideal conditions
throughout all seasons.
Which means they can provide healthy, locally-grown food
to their community throughout the winter.
Well, we drove through a snowstorm,
but we made it to the Food Farm.
I'm gonna go check out the modern root cellar
that's as covered in snow as I am.
[gentle folksy music]
- Hello, Janaki! - Hi, Inga, how are you?
- Good, nice to see you.
- Thanks, welcome to the root cellar.
- Thank you for having me.
I'm really excited to see it.
Can you take me for a little tour?
- You bet; come on back.
- This must be a game changer.
- It really has been. - Wow.
- Yeah, it's been great for us.
It's really...
And it's made a big difference for our members
and customers too. - For sure.
- Not just the farm.
It's the way we can interact with the whole community really.
- I bet a lot of other farmers are interested
in coming to see what you guys are doing.
- Yeah. - 'Cause this is,
I know a lot of farms have refrigeration,
but it seems like this is a lot less energy.
- It is, yep, it is.
It's made a big difference
because we could add so much more storage space
without adding a lot of ongoing maintenance
and operational costs. - Do you have to cool this?
This is just, we're in the earth right now?
- Right, yep, so when you walked in
and you saw the top of the wall there,
the earth comes all the way up
to the top of the concrete there.
- Inga: Wow. - Janaki: Yeah.
- Inga: So what all do you have stored in here?
- Janaki: We've got bins of carrots, potatoes,
racks of winter squash, more potatoes, onions behind you,
cabbage, and rutabagas.
- And this is all offered to your winter CSA?
- It is, yep. - For folks who don't know,
can you explain a little bit about what a winter CSA is?
- Janaki: It stands for Community Supported Agriculture.
So people buy a share in the production of the farm.
This time of year, actually we just started sign-ups
for the upcoming growing season.
And then during the summer, we offer a weekly share.
So whatever's in season, whatever's ready,
we deliver on a weekly basis,
and then we just extended that idea to the winter.
- Inga: That's pretty unique. - Janaki: Yeah, yep.
Yep, and I don't know who else was doing it at all.
I mean, there may have been a few places doing it
when we first started in 2000, and still,
there aren't a lot of us doing it.
And it works really well for us
because we have such a short growing season.
- That's the thing about the Midwest.
You know, it's just, I've lived here for a while,
and it just seems like summer goes right now
and you just really have to embrace winter.
- Yes. - That's like,
one thing that I've learned over time.
And now I'm embracing it. - Yeah.
- And it's nice to see that this must be a great thing
for other farmers to see.
Having an ability to make an income in the wintertime.
- It doesn't extend the growing season,
but it extends the season that we can have a relationship,
and so, both with our members
and then also our wholesale customers,
that's, it's really important.
It's hard to, you know, put all that work
into developing networks and markets and relationships,
and then that lasts for a couple of months
and then you've gotta rebuild it all,
you know, for the next summer.
And so this really enables us to kind of\
keep contact with people,
and once you get 'em hooked on good, quality vegetables,
you wanna keep 'em hooked.
And that actually was a big source of the inspiration
for building the original root cellar,
was our farm members complaining to us that their kids
wouldn't eat vegetables once October rolled around;
they couldn't get our summer share anymore.
So it's worked out really well. - How has it been for you?
I think being a CSA farm, you're unique
because you're face to face with your customer all the time.
What is that like for you? - Janaki: I really like it.
It's a whole different level of accountability.
You really don't wanna let people down,
and it really is a motivator to make sure we do our best,
and especially in times when climate's changing
and weather is an increasing risk and everything,
we are just really conscious of trying to do as much as we can
to mitigate that risk
because our members are sharing it with us.
It really pushes us to keep doing better
and to keep caring for the land long-term
because it's more than just our family counting on it.
We have a, you know, a real sense
that other people need what we're doing,
and have invested in it, and expect that long-term outlook.
- Is that also why you're certified organic?
- Janaki: My parents, when they started farming,
they just, they both had farming backgrounds.
They heard about the organic thing and they're like,
"Well, if it's possible to grow without chemicals,
why would we do it any other way?"
And that's just kind of been a basic assumption for them,
and it's also kind of a source of creativity,
'cause when you restrict yourself
to operating in a certain way,
it opens up all sorts of avenues for thinking outside the box
and really being creative with how you grow produce.
The organic farming community is an amazing network.
We learn from each other and share information.
It just, really to me, it's a testament
to what we've done in the organic movement,
that we really have built a community,
both with our markets and our members,
but also with each other to help share knowledge
and make sure that everybody has the best chance of doing well.
- I've had a lot of farmers give me advice
and tell me what to do, but mostly it's,
"Sell your cows, right now!
Go do something else!" [both laughing]
Well, this has been really amazing, really fun,
and I don't necessarily wanna go back out into the snowstorm.
- Right, yeah.
- I'm hoping I can get a few things for my frittata,
maybe pick up some eggs? - Oh, sure, yeah, you bet.
Come meet the chickens. - Inga: I will.
[gentle folksy music]
[chickens clucking]
This is such a nice space to keep chickens.
- Yeah, they really like it; they're pretty spoiled.
- And it even feels a little bit warmer than outside too.
- Yep, yep, and when the sun comes out
and there's not snow all over,
it's really, it's really a perfect spot for 'em all winter.
- Do you take 'em outside during the summertime, or just...
- Yeah, in the summer, they're out in the pasture all the time.
- Yeah, yeah.
- But then once winter rolls around,
I wanna make sure that they can run around
and do their chicken thing but without being freezing cold,
and this greenhouse space works perfect for it.
- I'm sure they appreciate it. - Yeah.
- Well, hopefully I can come back and see in the summertime.
- That'd be great.
Why don't you take some eggs with you?
- Thank you; these are gonna be perfect for my frittata.
[upbeat folk music]