TC Growers: City Grown Produce and the Hennepin-Ramsey County Committee

Urban soil challenges? Consider a high tunnel? Not sure how to work with USDA for a loan or funding? Just want to see a Minneapolis market garden and meet growers in the metro? Join the TC Growers at Bullthistle Gardens! Registration required, walkups welcome. This event was rescheduled from May 24th.

Address: 3044 Minnehaha Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55406  (next to Arbeiter Brewing Company)

Bullthistle Gardens was started by David Gray and family in 2018 focused on season extension, soil heath and water quality. Located on a garden leased through the Minneapolis Garden Lease program, a hightunnel on a parking lot, and, growing indoors at their home. They specialize in salad greens, herbs, tomatoes and microgreens. Plans include using the hightunnel in winter as a farm stand, potentially creating an outlet for farms that produce what they don't, such as corn, apples, pumpkins. Bullthistle Gardens is developing compost to address poor urban soil and water conditions. Previous experience includes commercial greenhouse construction and starting a farm to create competitive paying jobs that became a 10-acre certified organic vegetable farm in Buffalo, MN with a 100 member CSA.

The US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Services Agency (FSA) is piloting an urban committee to better serve agriculturists in the Hennepin-Ramsey County region. The new three-person FSA committee is comprised of Metric Giles (Urban Farm & Garden Alliance), David Gray (Bullthistle Gardens), Dennis Vitali (Great Northern Microgreens). USDA staff and Whitney Place, MN FSA Executive Director, invited. Get to know your USDA!

The Twin Cities Metro Growers Network is a collaboration between SFA and the University of Minnesota Extension.

SFA staff and volunteers occasionally take photos during our workshops, cafe chats and field days for promotional purposes and to use as documentation of events to share with our funders.  If you do not wish to be photographed, please let our event host know -- we'll make every effort to make sure you are not photographed.