Getting to know Solway

Paul Conklin runs a CSA, Community Supported Agriculture. At the beginning of the season Paul accepts a relatively small stipend from about 16 families, some who get full shares, and some half shares. All throughout the growing season, on Mondays and Thursdays, Paul delivers a cooler to each family full of whatever is ripest and most plentiful that week. He drives all the coolers into town around noon on Thursday, so we got started at about 6:30 harvesting, cleaning veggies, taking inventory, and packing the coolers. Paul uses scales to measure things like zucchini and summer squash in order to divide the week’s harvest evenly between the shares. We learned a lot about the logistics of the work that goes into implementing a CSA.

After working all morning, we had the afternoon off to explore the greater Beltrami County area. We decided to visit Itasca Park, a very popular attraction in that part of Minnesota. Some two hundred years ago a guy named Schoolcraft got help from the natives to locate the true source and headwaters of the Mississippi River, Lake Itasca. Itasca is a beautiful park covered in marshy wetlands and red and white pines. Both the largest red pine and the largest white pine (Amber is standing next to it) in Minnesota are in the park.
Once we experienced Lake Itasca, we drove to nearby Bemidji to get us some town. We had dinner at the Keg and Cork, the first Irish pub in Minnesota, and saw a show at the Paul Bunyan playhouse. A local playgroup put on a performance called, “The Boys Next door” about four handicap guys living in group housing and what life is like for them. In Bemidji, they have these huge metal beavers throughout the streets of the town-much like the wolves in Raleigh or the pigs in Lexington. People paint them in all different ways to express things about the town. Amber and I got a great shot with one!
Friday, our last full day on the farm, was an educational one. We learned to drive a tractor! Check out Amber on the antique potato picker. The thing was made in the 1930’s and originally pulled by horses. We spent the morning disking about an acre of cover crops. In the afternoon we staked up tomato plants before getting ready for the Beltrami County Fair that evening.
Paul and Becky entered several jars of canned food into the canning contests in the Home Crafts section of the fair. They brought home four first place ribbons and one second place! We got to see all kinds of livestock; chickens, pigs, cows, horses, rabbits, sheep, and our favorite, the goats. We ate fried cheese curds and milkshakes for dinner; one final indulgence while in dairy country. Even though it was a little rainy, the fair was fun and very informative of what farm life is like in Beltrami County. It was an awesome way to spend our last evening before going to big sky country, North Dakota, and yes, Montana.