Valley Natural Foods’ March 2011 class line-up takes a step beyond encouraging purchase of organic, healthy food. Instead, it focuses on how to plant and harvest your own produce within your backyard, even within the confines of the city or suburbia. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night classes at the co-op, which are open to the public, center on developing a sustainable lifestyle involving local, growing practices that follow nature’s natural patterns.

“It is one thing to buy local, organic produce from your co-op but it is another to truly live a sustainable lifestyle and grow your own,”  Courtney Tchida, instructor of Valley Natural Foods’ February “Organic Farming, Design & Business” class series told us. “Some think it isn’t possible to do this in the city, but we can show you that it takes only a small plot of land for a successful, productive garden. Local food production helps promote healthy eating, it reduces our carbon footprint, conserve resources, promotes healthy soils and plant diversity. It also helps to re-invent our food system on a local level toward a healthier, sustainable model.”

Courtney’s March 2nd “Feeding Your Community One Tomato At A Time: Marketing Strategies & Options” will teach attendees what they need to know to make their growing endeavors worthwile financially –whether it be marketing to CSAs, wholesale options or a few “think outside the box” ideas.  Neil Cunningham, a writer/urban naturalist with a working background in entomology, is teaching a series on Insect Management. During his March 8th and March 15th classes, you can discover how to cultivate beneficial insect populations along with organic methods to manage unwelcome infestations.

Linda Halley, manager of Gardens of Eagan (GOE)  and Jennifer Nelson, a Market Coordinator for GOE, will teach how healthy soil can create healthy food that is full of nutrients during their “How to Grow Good Soil” class. On March 31st, GOE will also teach you how to develop a seasonal eating calendar around your garden.

Sign up early! All classes include discounted rates for members. Call 952-891-1212 ext 221 to register and pre-pay or stop by our customer service counter at the store.

View all class listings online:
Valley Natural Foods Website and  Facebook

We are delighted to welcome Gary Johnson to our co-op family! Gary will be working as our community relations developer for our community gardens and educational outreach here at Valley Natural Foods.

Currently buried under a couple feet of snow, our two “mandala” gardens are located on the grassy lawn east of the Valley Natural Foods parking lot. Both gardens will contain several keyhole gardening areas, and will be leased as community plots. We can hardly wait to start digging in the dirt - hurry up spring!

If you are interested in gardening with us, why not sign-up for one of our February gardening classes, while we are waiting for spring! Click Here to see our exciting class line-up, here at Valley Natural Foods.

Valley Natural Foods kicked off its January-March 2011 Gardening series with an Intro to Permaculture class taught by Dan Halsey last night, January 25th. The class was a success , provoking people to think about how they live their life in regards to preparing for future generations.

The fundamentals of permaculture go beyond the concept of sustainability. Permaculture is a holistic approach to sustainabile living, based upon ethics and the idea that we need to create more natural wealth and less waste than what we consume.  In relation to gardening, Permaculture design follows nature’s natural patterns and involves  capturing and storing energy and resources for future use.  If you missed this week’s class, Dan will be back on March 1st from 6pm-9pm to teach another Intro to Permaculture Workshop. Sign up at customer service or call 952-891-1212.

If you are interested in learning more in-depth knowledge about local food production models that following Permaculture design techniques, we have a great new February organic gardening class series for you! Wednesdays in February will explore several different organic growing practices and how they can fit into your backyard garden. Discover how to  design your garden and what crops fit best. Become familiar with basic business strategies and skills that will bring your crops successfully to the market. Courtney Tchida, the Student Program Coordinator for the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, is the instructor.

View complete descriptions of the classes by downloading our entire January-March 2011 class booklet here. All organic growing classes listed below are $15 for members and $20 for non-members. Sign up at customer service or call 952-891-1212.

Principles & Practices of Organic Growing:

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Biointensive Growing:

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

 SPIN Farming:

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011, 6:00 p.m. -8:00 p.m.

Field Layout & Design for Production:

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011, 6:00 p.m. -8:00 p.m.

Feeding Your Community One Tomato at a Time: Marketing Strategies & Options:

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.