Day Four: Webster Farm Organic to the St. John's Abbey

Tuesday, October 13th

I woke at Amy's to a strange sensation: one of her dogs was nuzzling under the covers with me on the pull out couch. Amy and I ate a breakfast of locally farmed eggs and biscuits and talked about her famous dances and about the importance of internalizing a sustainable ethic in the way we live our everyday lives. Afterwards, she brought me on a tour of her pottery studio (she is an amazing potter, and is a painter too, so her ceramics dance with creativity). Then, we walked through the barn, where she is planning on setting up a farmer's market on the lower level and a dance hall upstairs as soon as she can get rid of the bats that have taken residence.

I hit the trail and found my way to Webster Farm Organic for brunch without getting lost and without being sleeted on. I met with Tam and Nett, a couple who own an organic CSA farm, and whom I had met a month earlier while biking by their Community Supported Agriculture stand in front of Blue Moon coffee in Minneapolis. My mother stopped by to resupply me and we all ate a delicious meal of vegetable soup from their garden. Thank you Nett and Tam!

They gave us a tour of their farm, and showed us everything that they had built with their bare hands, including a storage shed that they were proud to have only paid 93 cents for! They work hard and are able to grow their crops with a very small carbon footprint. Because of their CSA program (Community Supported Agriculture) they are able to make a decent living, do what they love, and limit their CO2 emissions. Nett explained that oftentimes, people in big cities have this idea that people in the countryside know less about climate change and about how to deal with it. Instead, she says that there is a lot of intuitive knowledge about climate held by people who make their living off the land.

We travelled southwest on 23 through St. Cloud and caught the Lake Wobegone Trail by St. Joseph (Yes, Garrison Keillor didn't lie, there is such a place!). Keillor's trail was a beautiful contrast to the shopping extravaganza in St. Cloud. After a short while, I had a chance meeting with a student reporter who was doing a story about technology on the trail. He interviewed me for his show and then Theo, the sustainability fellow for St. John's University showed up.

We biked to St. John's and met with a group of students there who are involved in climate change solutions, some of whom I will be travelling with to Copenhagen this December. Very quickly I learned that there is a lot of good happening on campus that other universities could look to for inspiration. St. John's for example is in the process of installing the largest solar array in the state (by four times!).

Here's a great interview with the delegates about their preparations for the UN Conference on Climate Change: (video to come as soon as it stops freezing my computer)

We talked and then the monks at the St. John's Abbey generously let me stay the night in their guesthouse.