On Saturday, June 16, Riverwalk Market Fair will showcase an artist who started her art career in retirement and a couple who have made sustainable farming a livelihood and a life partnership. The Fair also hosts two 11-year-old artists, two favorite local musicians and a “community doodle.”
A sustainable partnership
Andrew Ehrmann and Betsy Allister of Spring Wind Farm (www.springwind.org) in Waterford township are this week’s featured farmers. They met in a class at Macalester College where they read the writer Wendell Berry. Three years ago they started farming and now have more than 200 varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers along with pigs, laying hens and honeybees. Their produce is grown with no chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides.
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This is their third season at Riverwalk Market Fair, and each Saturday morning they pick everything that’s in season and bring it to Fair, fresh from the field. This Saturday they expect to have peas, summer squash, beets, salad greens, scallions, radishes and more. They also sell their vegetables through a Community Supported Agriculture program and wholesale to local institutions. Their favorite crops are some 20 varieties of heirloom tomatoes; a spectrum of red, gold and purple potatoes; and dry beans.
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Watercolorist rekindles her early passion
This Saturday’s featured artist, Kathy Miller (www.kmillerwatercolors.com), considers herself a young artist as she only began painting in 2006. Her path to becoming a painter began in her childhood home of Falcon Heights, Minn., where she had vivid memories of drawing in her own studio — a backyard tent made from blankets draped over the clothesline, with a “do not disturb” sign pinned to the opening.
Years passed in which she married, raised two children and taught elementary school. Since her retirement, she’s rekindled her love of art and finds herself back in her very own art studio, this time in her Northfield home.
Kathy has displayed her sumptuous watercolors at Riverwalk Market Fair since it opened and has been thrilled with the response, sales of her work and custom commissions for her art. Her passion for painting now includes teaching watercolor classes.
A Community Doodle
The Eclectic Goat, a Northfield art store, invites Riverwalk Market Fair visitors to participate in a "community doodle.” The Eclectic Goat embraces the handmade creations of local artisans and crafters. Paper and doodling utensils will be supplied. The community doodle well be from approximately 9 a.m. to noon.
Youth Booth hosts 11-year-old artists
Eleven-year-olds Sam Wilmot and Nathan Olien of Northfield will be making and selling handcrafted origami and are excited to be starting their own art business. They say they have been making origami “their whole lives.” The new Riverwalk Market Fair Youth Booth is been made possible by collaboration between Riverwalk Market Fair, Healthy Community Initiative, Women in Northfield Giving Support (known as WINGS) and the Northfield Enterprise Center. The mission of the Youth Booth is to grow local entrepreneurs.
Musical Highlight: The Clydes
The Clydes are two thirds of Bonnie and the Clydes (http://bonnieandtheclydes.com), regulars at Northfield’s popular musical venues, The Contented Cow and The Tavern. The Clydes are Scott McMillan and Bill McGrath. The group describes their music as the as “the kind of songs you listened to when you and your friends were renting your first apartment near the campus sometime in the sixties or early seventies.”