These three wonderful women were nominated by appreciative friends and colleagues to be recognized as 2011 Sustainable Farming Moms of the Year. Congratulations to all!
Sandy McAntire of Kissing Emu Farms will receive a pair of Green Heron Tools gardening gloves in appreciation of her role as a mother and a farm business owner.
See profiles below:
Sandy McAntire
Chelsea, IA
Kissing Emu Farms is a 100% women owned and operated alternative agriculture family farm located near the small town of Chelsea in east-central Iowa. The farm’s specialty is all natural emu products geared toward organic skin care and heart-healthy, hormone-free meat.
Sandy was nominated for this year’s award by Kim McWane Friese, general manager of Devotay Restaurant in Iowa City and managing editor of Edible Iowa River Valley Magazine.
“Sandy is a fantastic mother to her just-as-fantastic daughter Miya,” Kim wrote in her nomination email. “Sandy raises emu, distributes emu meat and makes and sells emu-based skin care products. She is always enthusiastic and an inspiration to all she meets.“
Audrey Arner
Montevideo, MN
Atina Diffley nominated Audrey for recognition with this lovely note:
You know that feeling of “I wish I was more like so-and-so”? For me, that’s Audrey. But instead of wishing, I ask myself just how it is that she is the mother to so many people, plants, and community projects. What most impresses and inspires me about Audrey is her ability and commitment to bring people together into collective action. She draws people out, everyone’s voice is heard, and then she empowers them to take action. She gets projects started and secure, and then starts more. Her latest project is starting a garden at a Montevideo school
Her and partner Richard’s 240 acre grass-fed beef farm is the community hub of activity. The land has been transformed from conventional row crop to a continuous living cover in the form of grazing and hay acres, 40 planted acres of 42 woody species, woods and water. She serves on non-profit boards, she trains interns, teaches holistic farm management, facilitates meetings, influences and informs decision makers. Their bed and breakfast is an opportunity to expose guests to alternative and ecological agriculture. Everything she does is with consideration of the health of ecosystems and all life.
Atina is a farmer and organic consultant at Organic Farming Works, Farmington, MN.
Paula Olson
Madrid, IA
Danielle Wirth, one of WFAN’s founding mothers and an eco-feminist educator, nominated her friend and farmer Paula Olson with the following description:
Sets examples to her own daughters and to her CSA members by:
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• Choosing first to provide healthy food for her children and from that standpoint
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• Determined the best way to do that was to keep them at home (home schooling) and teaching them about holistic food growing practices
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• From these practices - many local community members have benefitted through memberships in the Twin Girls Garden CSA
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• Innovative use of hoop houses for early and late season vegetables that gained ME a fresh lettuce, pok choy salad for Thanksgiving.
What the girls are learning and doing: -
• The girls are fully integrated partners in the vegetable growing operation
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• Each twin has her own projects involving livestock including dairy goats - a new venture as they are learning cheese making
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• Raising market hogs that are humanely treated and fed wholesome foods, and chickens for eggs and meat
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• Selling produce, vegetable and other goods at the farmer's market and most recently, as vendors in the Iowa Food Cooperative in Des Moines
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• One of the twins learned her grandmother's pie and pastry baking techniques and now bakes pies and cookies that she sells at the market and to CSA members
At the farmer's market, the twins are adept entrepreneurs - handling the money and selling the products through knowledge of the quality of the product as well as well-honed "people skills.”
Their mother's ability to have first confidence in these young women, as well as teaching them the sustainable skills of farming, ensures all of us that the next generation of farmers is well on their way to success.
Congratulations from WFAN to all of our 2011 nominees for inspiring others to suggest you for this recognition! We will send an announcement to your local newspapers about the honor.
