Upcoming Events
Zero Waste Day in the Park
Join us in the fun. Living Earth Center will be at Zero Waste Day in the Park at Sibley Park pavilion, 900 Park Lane, Mankato, Sunday, September 8, noon to 3:00 Totally free is: food; music; clothing swap and mending clinic; electronic repair and recycling; face painting; information for reducing, recycling and energy savings. (For clothing repair, please bring necessary parts and supplies).
ECHO Food Shelf will also have a table - donations are welcome and encouraged!!
Sibley Park pavilion is by the Kiwanis garage. Take a left turn at the park entrance and go to the end of the road.
Learn more at Manako Area Zero Waste facebook page link:
https://www.facebook.com/events/499928639053517
Taste of the Garden
You are invited to an evening of good food and friends in the beautiful Living Earth Center Garden, featuring a locally-sourced meal prepared by farm-to-table chef Seth Lintelman.
Tickets: $100 each
Includes: Signature Garden Mocktail featuring Sweet Haven Tonic's Apple Thyme & Cardamom Syrup
Four Course Meal prepared with vegetables grown in the LEC Community Garden and pasture-raised pork from Blue Dirt Farms
Cash Bar available during event.
Seating is limited. To reserve your ticket, click on the link below:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/taste-of-the-garden-tickets-972435860837
Community Farm Volunteer Day
You are invited to join us at the Community Farm for an evening of volunteering!
Many hands make light work, we will be weeding and doing general farm maintenance tasks with...
***BONUS***
Dinner provided by LEC!
The Community Farm is home to our Produce Donation Program, all food grown is donated to local community partners such as ECHO Food Shelf, CADA House, and the St Peter Food Shelf.
You will be making a difference and helping to feed YOUR community.
Registration is not required but requested so we can have an idea how much food to bring.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-farm-volunteer-day-tickets-1009974199017
Fall Farm Fest
Join us at the Blue Earth County Community Farm to celebrate the end of the harvest season and welcome the arrival of fall! Enjoy fresh apple cider making with enough to share and bring home so bring a jar with you! Participate in stewardship by gathering and planting flower seeds in our pollinator plot, and take home a custom seed mix you create yourself!
This FREE community event will feature snacks, crafts, games, and more! So bring the whole family for an afternoon of fun!
Registration is encouraged, with an option for free will donations to Living Earth Center. Register using Eventbrite Link below.
19th Annual Earth Conference
Our Earth Conference Task Force has been hard at work planning our 2024 Earth Conference.
Mark your calendars now and stay tuned for more information on speakers and registration!
LEC News and Updates
Once a month from May through September, LEC Program Manager Cora Uyigue has been visiting Generations Child and Memory Care to bring our Seed to Sauce Programming to their one-of-a-kind child care and memory care facility. "Working with Generations is unique because I get to work with preschoolers and patients in their memory care, making it a beautiful cross-generational experience that the kids and elders get to share together," Uyigue said.
Projects have ranged from planting seed and seedlings and tending to their on site garden, to making scavenger hunt nature bracelets (pictured in photo). According to Uyigue, working with the group from Generations has been a unique and rewarding experience. " I love watching the different ways each participant engages with the activities...
Living Earth Center was recently awarded a multi-year Agriculture Growth, Research, and Innovation (AGRI) Urban Agriculture Grant for their Seed to Sauce Program by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA). The AGRI Urban Agriculture Grant Program encourages urban youth agricultural education and urban agriculture community development within the city limits of urban or peri-urban areas.
Grants help organizations and communities obtain the materials and services necessary to successfully promote urban youth agricultural education and urban agriculture community development. "We are thrilled to receive this grant," said LEC Finance Manager Melissa Martensen. "We have put a lot of work into developing Seed to Sauce, and it is validating to have the MDA support this educational initiative and our efforts to expand our reach to include more area youth...
This year one of the plots in the produce donation section of the Community Farm is growing a Three Sisters garden. "A Three Sisters garden is one of the earliest forms of companion planting. The Three Sisters are corn, beans, and squash, and they work together to support each other, in one instance quite literally," said Community Farm Manager SkyAnne Walker.
"The corn uses a lot of nitrogen to grow, but the beans fix nitrogen into the soil giving those much needed nutrients to the corn. In response, the corn provides a space for the beans to grow up so they can grow off of the ground. The squash's broad leaves provide ground cover so that the corn and beans do not have to compete with weeds and to retain moisture for all three," she explained. The accompanying photo shows some beans growing up a cornstalk at the Community Farm.
Walker planted multiple varieties of the three plants at the Farm. "I decided to do a variety of plants to see if there was a difference in how well they grew," she said...
