Mizuna, Music, and Me
Get a load of this loaded hoop house at Foxtail Farms!
For those of you that don’t know, I have been a Minneapolis-based musician for over ten years. While my primary focus these days is on Foxtail, in my past lives I have been a studio owner, a session bassist, a drummer in an eight-piece circus band, and most recently a frontman for a country group. Most of my friends and colleagues are musicians, artists and farmers. On the surface, these groups appear to have little in common. The more time I’ve spent in both communities, the more I’ve come to realize some key similarities.
Farmers and musicians share the inherent need to create something for the benefit of others, and a hopefulness that through our creation we can positively impact the world. We also share one other thing…
It’s tough making a living in music and farming in the best of times, and this is not the best of times. I won’t belabor the point, we’re all inundated with COVID on the news and in our minds nonstop. What I do want is to offer a small way we can help.
Bandcamp.com is a music hosting website that caters specifically to independent artists. Artists have their music available for streaming as well as purchase. While Bandcamp usually charges artists a fee per sale (MUCH smaller than the fee Apple charges), tomorrow they are waiving all fees. If you’re looking for a way to support local artists, buying music through Bandcamp is a great way to start.
Farmers markets are set to start on time and we encourage anyone with a mask and a grocery list to come visit us Saturdays at Midtown and Fulton Farmers Markets. We were looking forward to fully participating in farmers markets this season, and we still are in large part. The changes being made to how the market operates will affect the atmosphere immensely. People will enter one side of the market, pass by all the vendors, and exit. Not the gathering of food, music, and community that we all know and love, but still a way to continue to support local food.
While we agree that all of the changes are necessary for public safety, we also anticipate seeing our market sales take a significant hit. We’ve expanded our plant starts (thanks to those that have signed up already), and will be rolling out a new webstore for summer vegetables soon. We hope our new online store will be kind of a “pick your own CSA” with pickup either on the farm, at Como Park, or Midtown or Fulton farmers markets.
Stay safe, and as always, thank you for supporting a local food system!