Learn more about Against the Grain: The Farm Aid Podcast
Against the Grain brings the magic of Farm Aid’s annual festival to listeners year-round. Hear from farmers and artists, advocates and food experts, activists and policymakers – all of whom are working towards building a more just and equitable farm and food system.
Click here to listen! Check out extra materials – think: bios, how-tos, recipes etc. – from this year’s HOMEGROWN Skills Tent participants. Click on the links below each demo title to expand the section!
To Bee or not to Bee: Beekeeping 101
Presented by Jessica Helgen of University of MN Bee Squad
Find out what it takes to become a backyard beekeeper. Experienced beekeepers from the UMN Bee Lab will give an overview of the skills and equipment needed to get started. Find the queen bee in the observation hive, try your hand at pollinator trivia and sample delicious local honey. Come see what the buzz is all about!
Click here to learn more about how to start beekeeping and also more about Jessica Helgen and the University of MN Bee Squad!Jessica Helgen is the U of MN Bee Squad Program Director and manages an amazing team of Bee Squad beekeepers, educators and researchers.
The Bee Squad is the outreach and public facing branch of the U of MN Honey Bee Lab. Our mission is to support high quality research and offer educational programming about bees. We collaborate with UMN Extension to educate beekeepers on the importance of keeping their bees healthy and offer public classes and a free Beekeeping for Veterans program. We participate in native bee research projects and support participatory science programs such as the MN Bumble Bee Atlas and Bumble Bee Nest Quest. We love spreading awareness and affection for these incredible insects!
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IndigePOP!: Popcorn as Medicine 101
Presented by Linda and Luke Black Elk from NATIFS
Discover the many Indigenous varieties of maize with a focus on nutritious and resilient popcorn varieties such as Dakota Black, Lakota Yellow and Cochiti Pueblo. Then make your popcorn extra tasty and healthy with an all-Indigenous spice blend topping. Ethnobotanist Linda Black Elk and Farm Director Luke Black Elk will provide information about the health benefits and medicinal uses of each herb in this spice blend.
Click here to learn more about Linda and Luke Black Elk!Luke and Linda Black Elk are food sovereignty activists and teachers of traditional plant use, gardening, food preservation and foraging. They spend their time collecting and preparing traditional foods and medicines for Indigenous peoples and communities in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and beyond. They also get their three sons involved in this amazing work, so they may learn about the importance of feeding themselves and their communities with food and medicine that nourishes and heals mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.
If I had a Hammer: Flower-Pounding 101
Presented by Maddy Bartsch Salt of the North/Get Bentz Farm
Find out how farmers grow natural dyes as a specialty crop in Minnesota and learn a simple technique to dye fabric at home: flower pounding! Using a hammer, this demo will show you how to pound flowers and leaves onto fabric to release pigment and create imprints of the plant material. Create an organic cotton flower-pounded patch to take home.
Click here to learn more about Maddy Bartsch! Maddy Bartsch (they/them) is a natural dye farmer, art educator and organizer of local textile economies. For Maddy, seeing our textile systems as intrinsically linked to sustainable agriculture is paramount to the creation of a thriving decentralized textile economy in the Midwest. Whether in the fields harvesting flowers for dyes or teaching textile arts to learners of all ages, they are grateful for the many ways their passion around textiles brings people together. They farm cooperatively at Get Bentz Farm in Northfield, Minnesota and live in the Prospect Park neighborhood of Minneapolis. Read our Farmer Hero profile of Maddy and Get Bentz Farm
Fantastic Ferments: Fermentation 101
Presented by Charlie Zieke of Magic Acre Farm
Fermentation is one of the oldest and safest food preservation techniques. With some simple materials and knowledge we can harness this natural, transformative process to create something delicious, funky and nourishing. Come learn the magic of microbes and begin preserving your own krauts, pickles and other lacto-fermented goods!
Click here to learn more about Charlie Zieke and fermentation!Charlie Zieke (they/them) is a farmer, designer and fermentation enthusiast who grew up on 40 acres of clay soil in rural Houston County, MN. With their partner Relle, they run Magic Acre Farm, a permaculture land project and small CSA raising more-than-organic veggies, flowers and eggs at their land trust home. After a decade wrangling both communications and livestock at agricultural nonprofits across the Twin Cities, Charlie founded Zieke Design in 2024, a creative studio supporting farmers, artists and organizations with visual storytelling. In their free time, Charlie teaches at folk schools and hones their favorite fermentation practices – sourdough, hard cider and curtido.
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A Fruitful Future: Seed-Saving 101
Presented by Neely Snyder of Dream of Wild Health
If you love your current crops, learn how to gather their seeds and grow them again next season. Using a winter squash, Dream of Wild Health will demonstrate how to not only save the seeds, but also how to make a tasty squash dish.
Click here to learn about Dream of Wild Health!Dream of Wild Health is a Native-led nonprofit dedicated to restoring health and wellbeing in the Native community through Indigenous food sovereignty. Based on a 30-acre farm in Hugo, MN, they grow heirloom seeds, teach youth leadership programs and share Indigenous foods with the community. This work preserves cultural traditions while building a healthier future for the next generations.
Farm Aid 40 Seed Swap
Facilitated by Reana Kim from Share a Seed and Black Rabbit Apothecary
Farmers and gardeners: Bring seeds from home and come on down to the HOMEGROWN Skills Tent for our annual seed share. Even if you don’t have anything to swap, we’re providing seeds for herbs and healing flowers as well as root veggies. Come meet enthusiastic seed savers, share some of your own seeds and go home with new varieties to try! If you’re bringing seeds, please keep them domestic, in a sealed envelope and labeled.
Learn about the Seed Swap and Facilitator Reana Kim from Share a Seed Reana Kim is a beginning farmer, community organizer and founder of the mutual aid program Share a Seed. Reana launched Black Rabbit Farm Apothecary in Belen, New Mexico after spending 15 years leading policy and communications in the food/farm sector. She works part-time with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and spends the rest of her time building up her small farm and working in her community. Reana loves sharing seeds and believes that no one person can “own” a seed, seeds belong to us all and the future they hold within is our shared responsibility. Photo: Jessica Ilyse Kurn
