Thrive Local

Last weeks Music on the Overlook (MOTO) was a great success and now I’d like to invite you to come out this Friday night to enjoy a free concert sponsored by the new Thrive Local at the St. Croix Falls Overlook.  Celebrate our local music talent with soloist Suzannah Clark (she’s teaching music lessons at Red Bird Music – hint hint) and the St. Croix Valley Orchestra!  6:30pm @ the Overlook - downtown SCF.  Bring your lawn chair and your appreciation for great music.

Music on the Overlook (MOTO) in St. Croix Falls starts this Friday, June 4th, at 6:30!  MOTO is a free concert series that this week features Hitchville - a regular at We Fest, Country Fest and Taste of Minnesota.  They're a unique fusion that mixes pure country with a raw style of rock. Heidi Owens and Matt Kneefe are bringing back the essence of a genre that originated in the U.S..  What a great way to kick off MOTO!  Click the link to see the poster that shows all the upcoming music events.

Saturday was the start of the St Croix Falls Farmer's Market!  It will be Saturdays 10-2 from now through October at the Library parking lot.  All the vendors selling veggies grow without the use of chemicals, so there's no need to ask each vendor about their growing practices.  The market can also accept food stamps, and you can use your WIC and senior vouchers there too. 

My purchases on Saturday included some herb plants, heirloom tomato plants, a green chili and cheese baguette, and a free range chicken.  What great variety!

Here's the fourth installment of our fun ad campaign "My Community is My Business."  Thanks to the generous support of the Osceola Sun and the Inter-County Leader we were able to extend this promotion to include our hard working farmer members who work so hard in feeding us healthy and delicious food!

We had a wonderful community gathering April 14th!  We had a great turnout of CSA farms showing people the wonderful variety of vegetables that they can expect to receive if they purchase a share.  We also had Keppers selling fresh produce, and I think I saw Dylnn with a cooler of meat. 

The dinner was great with Pat Bjork's soups, fresh rolls, and salad.  The salad, meat for the chili, and cheese we're all local. We also had a new Thrive Local member selling gluten free chocolate chip cookies that we're wonderful.  Welcome Gluten Free Bakery and Pasta LLC in Somerset to the Thrive Local family!

The main feature was our speaker, Ken Meter, who spoke about how money flows out of our region with conventional farming, but there's huge economic development potential when we grow food and keep it in our communities.   One fact that stuck out for me was that in one county in Iowa, if each person ate 5 local fruits or veggies for just three months it would  generate 475 new jobs and would bring in $6.3M in new income. 

Ken Meter will be coming to SCF again in June to speak to area farmers at the  Lamar Community Center so check back to find out more information as we get closer.  Thank you so much for coming, Ken, it was motivating!

What an awesome place that we have so many great wild food and medicinal herb learning opportunities!  Here's the latest from Dr. Kelley Hagenbuch.  First the Wild Foods Club (I'm looking forward to this one).....

And now see below for the herb walks!

Starting April 15th the Serpentine Project with will be offering 6 weekly herbal medicine classes at Fine Acres Market's meeting room, downtown St. Croix Falls.  Pick and choose the classes you'd like to attend from the flyer below.  Each one is only $10!

We hope you enjoy this weeks installment of the My Community is My Business.  We now have two banners over the street in St. Croix Falls that goes along with the promotion. 

Next week we wrap it up by showcasing on 7 of our farmer members.  You won't want to miss it!  Look for the full page color ad in your yellow Advertiser on the 17th too.

Enjoy this new group of 6 Buy Local Thrive  Local Business Members.  All of the businesses really put some effort and time into their personal statements, so we hope you enjoy them!