My friend, Anka, posing on Lake Superior

Hello friends, as always, I hope you are all doing well. For me, these last couple weeks have been jam packed with fun activities.

In my last post, I mentioned that I was planning on going to the Apostle Island Sea Caves up near Bayfield, Wisconsin. Well, I did go and I decided to make it into a 2 day trip. The drive to Bayfield takes about 4 hours from Minneapolis and I noticed that my friends who work on the Philadelphia Community Farm in Osceola, WI were on the way. I had been telling them for awhile that I’d like to stop by and see the farm, so that’s exactly what I did.

Well, my brother and I woke up very early to start the long drive to Bayfield. We picked up our friends in Osceola and made it to The Apostle Islands within the afternoon. And what an afternoon it was; the weather was perfect! The sun was out and the temperature even reached up to 42 F (5.5 C). It was the perfect day to hike out to the ice caves and explore the Lake Superior Coast. I could write a bunch more about what I saw and how much I enjoyed myself, but I thought I’d rather make a film about my experience. I brought my Sony HandyCam with me and took some footage. Here’s the short film I made.

After the caves, we jumped into my car and drove back to Osceola. Anka and Ulysse, my friends at the farm, invited us to stay with them that evening. We stayed in the guest house and pretty much passed out right when we got back. The next morning, I woke up bright and early to the sun hitting my face. My brother was already awake, so we got dressed and walked over to the main house for some good ‘ol fashion raison and oatmeal. That morning, I met 3 other people who live at the farm; Verna, Robin, and Monty. Verna is the owner of the farm and caretaker for the people who reside in the main house. Monty has lived in the main house for a long time. He has autism and spends his days thinking and helping out on the farm. I didn’t have a chance to get to know him, but Anka told me he unconditionally loves all animals. Robin has also lived in the house for a long time and helps with household chores. And from what I observed, she is probably the most well-liked person in Osceola. When Anka and I dropped her off at the Community Fitness Center, it seemed like everyone knew her!

Anka was kind enough to give me a tour of the farm. I was able to meet all their animals, even their barn cats. In total, they have 1 donkey, 2 barn cats (that I know of), 4 sheep, and lots of chickens. After the animals, Anka showed me their acres of lands and brought me to their greenhouse. This is where I met Carter. He runs the greenhouses and I believe he does most of the CSA Organic vegetable and fruit distribution. He is a “salt-of-the-earth” kind of individual and from I noticed, he knows a whole lot about gardening. Another cool thing about the farm is that they invite more than 1200 children and adults each year through Inter-related Programs. If you’d like to hear more about these programs and how you can get involved, go to their website: Philadelphia Community Farm! One last thing, if you are also interested in joining their CSA, here is the link: CSA- Buttermilk Falls. They are very sweet people and I promise anything you get from them was grown with compost, sweat, and love.

Why, Hello there.

Anka with her Donkey friend named Burrito

Chickens!

I’m happy to have had the chance to visit the farm and I already know I’ll be coming back sooner than later! They’ll be needing help in a few weeks with turning the soil and planting seeds in the greenhouse. So, I plan on being there with my boots and gloves ready.

Other than that, I’ve been enjoying my days in Minneapolis. I went to a Jeremy Mestersmith concert this last Friday. He’s a local artist and I’d recommend him to anyone who likes an indie songwriter. My favorite song of his is called Tatooine (and yes, it is a song about Star Wars). Here’s more of his stuff through NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert.

Thanks for reading everyone. I hope you enjoy my short film.

Much love,

-Molly

Jeremy Messersmith performing at First Ave