Northern Minnesota used to be food self-sufficient. The original people on this land, the Dakota and the Ojibwe, fed themselves from the bounty of the land. They hunted and fished and trapped, gathered grapes, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, chokecherries, plums, sumac berries and bulrush bulbs, wild rice and the sap of maple and birch trees. They didn’t have to plant much, just a family garden with annuals like pumpkins, corn, squash and potatoes. Their diet was wild, and perennial. The land provided food for its people and abundant fur for the fur trade.
That all shifted beginning in 1837 when the Selkirk refugees from Canada came south and made their way to Fort Snelling, a military reservation, and then to the Red River area, and began what historians call “Euro-American” farming. That meant planting annual crops and harvesting them seasonally rather than relying on the perennial fruits of the earth that renew themselves every year. They laid claim to land on which Indians had the “right of occupancy but not of ownership.” All of Minnesota’s land was categorized in that way except military reservations, until 1838, when the first treaty ceding timberland opened the door to the lumbering boom. And that meant massive immigration. The influx of non-natives brought huge changes to Minnesota’s land and economy. The Red River farms were able to supply the fur trade with flour, potatoes, dairy products and fresh meat. By 1850 lumbering rivaled the fur trade, and the census counted 3,000 “whites” among Minnesota’s native population, consisting of a few farmers and more loggers. Food shifted with the new population. The menu for an 1852 lumber camp included “biscuits, gingerbread, tea, boiled beef, beans, stewed cranberries, butter and milk,” most of which was bought or traded for. Occasionally camps had a cow on site for milk and butter. But much of camp food came out of a barrel, either dried or brined. Agriculture was so minimal that nearly all food except garden produce and wild game had to be shipped up the Mississippi from regions farther south. The 1850 census listed only 36 “farms” in the “Itasca” area which spanned the current Arrowhead. They averaged only 2.5 acres each and weren’t counted as “real” farms in the final census. In 1855, a land cession treaty with the Ojibwe added the Iron Range area to the official Minnesota Territory. The Homestead Act of 1862 gave 160 acres of land to adults or heads of families who were “citizens” provided that the land had been surveyed and the homesteader lived on the land. So, by 1870 there was more local agriculture, more annual crops, and lumber camp menus reflected that. Still, in 1869, the total value of farm products in northern Minnesota was only $10,000.00 and most of that was in what is now Crow Wing County. Lumbering grew exponentially until the resource was used up and the Virginia and Rainy Lake Lumber Company, the largest White Pine mill in the world, shut its doors forever in 1929.
During lumbering’s heyday, though, something else entered the scene. Iron ore was discovered on the Vermilion Range in 1884, and that led to another boom. In 1885, there were still fewer than 5,000 immigrants living on the Iron Range. By 1920, there were 100,000. In addition to its native population of Ojibwe, Finns and Swedes and Slovenians, Norwegians, Canadians, Cornish and Germans came first, then Italians, Croatians, Polish, Serbian, Slovak, Hungarian and Greek immigrants followed representing forty-three different nationality groups. And each brought their unique foods. In 1878, wheat was grown on 70% of Minnesota’s farmland, but not up here: northeastern Minnesota’s farms were more diversified and subsistence-based. By 1910, the value of all farm products in Minnesota’s Arrowhead had grown to $1,763,000.00 and the census of farm products showed potatoes, dairy cows, horses (for work), sheep, swine and poultry. Most vegetables were grown at home for home use. Between 1900 and 1910, St. Louis, Lake, Cook, and Aitkin counties added 2,650 farms with an average size of 125 acres. While most early farms were situated in the forest, later farmers were encouraged to convert lumber’s “cutover” areas to farms. Lumber companies wanted to sell their land and there was a push for farmers to buy it. The University of Minnesota Extension distributed millions of pounds of leftover WWI explosives for tree-stump removal to farmers. Still farmers could only clear about 3.8 acres per year. Farms were small and many cutover farmers supplemented their income with mining or logging jobs. The 1907 mining strike actually propelled many Finns into farming. This was the first really well-organized strike and the Finns were blacklisted by the mines for their perceived leadership in the strike. Banned from the mines, they turned to farming and spread into rural areas across the Range.
Fast forward 150 years and farming on the Range looks very similar. Northeastern Minnesota’s current 2,400 farms are not huge monoculture businesses, they are smaller diversified farms where off-farm income is key. And these farmers, like most today, sell their products very indirectly to consumers far from where the food is produced. Less than one-half of one percent of food is sold directly from the farmer to the consumer. Despite the growth of farmers markets and CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), most of us buy food that travels an average of 1500 miles to reach us. If we bought local, we could generate jobs and keep food dollars in our communities. The way our agricultural system in the U.S. operates, farmers of today are making less than their counterparts were in 1910. Most of us have some knowledge of the “farm crisis” that just won’t quit and the frightening suicide rate for farmers (more than double that of veterans). What we don’t know much about is the dramatic impact each of us can have by buying directly from local farmers, either through a CSA, a farmers market, a u-pick farm, or at retail outlets that carry specifically locally-grown food. Natural Harvest Food Coop in Virginia is a good example of that kind of retailer. You can make a difference with every bite you take!