Urban landscapes are turning into mini-farms all over the Twin Cities

We’re so excited to be working with Harvest Moon Backyard Farmers, a fantastic company dedicated to promoting sustainability, healthy foods, and gardening education all over the Twin Cities. The permaculture experts are working with homeowners, businesses, renters, and Habitat for Humanity to help transform urban spaces into sustainable mini-farms.

Want a mini-farm of your own? Contact Harvest Moon. They’ll do the work for you and help you learn all about the value of permaculture and growing healthy  food.

Contact:

Krista Leraas: krista@harvestmoonfarmers.com

Dina Kountoupes: dina@harvestmoonfarmers.com

For Immediate Release

Harvest Moon Backyard Farmers are turning urban landscapes into mini-farms all over the Twin Cities

Gardens by Harvest Moon Backyard Farmers are helping to bring the freshest and healthiest food to the Twin Cities

April 11, 2011 (Minneapolis)-Harvest Moon Backyard Farmers are giving new meaning to the local-food movement in the Twin Cities. Led by Krista Leraas and Dina Kountoupes, Harvest Moon Backyard Farmers are a group of expert gardeners, permaculturists, and sustainable farmers who are transforming city landscapes into sustainable mini-farms all over the Twin Cities. The gardens are providing healthy food while also helping to educate homeowners, renters, and business owners about the food-growing process.

“Our goal is to build mini-farms that can educate people about how to grow food and the value that has,” says Leraas, who grew up on a farm and later studied cultural ecology and sustainable communities, along with co-founding the Living Green Expo.

Harvest Moon Backyard Farmers are designing organic mini-farms in backyards, front yards, side yards, community plots, business campuses, and, most recently, Habitat for Humanity homes. The farmers are working with three Habitat families to create mini-farms that can help feed them all growing-season long.

Along with creating gardens for homeowners who don’t have the time, Harvest Moon is also working to raise awareness about sustainability and provide access to healthy foods for people who don’t ordinarily have it.

“What’s makes us unique is that we’re teaching people who have a garden, giving them a sense of place, or the workings of nature, of the seasons,” says Kountoupes, who studied environmental education and worked with Leraas at the Permaculture Research Institute before founding Harvest Moon.

“Our gardens aren’t just a grocery store in your back yard, says Kountoupes. “It’s actually about teaching and sharing. I am a teacher at heart. Sharing is a part of me.”

Harvest Moon Backyard Farmers provide full-service gardens, which include more than 35 different vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers. The package also provides weekly maintenance, compost, and watering. Harvest Moon also offers garden coaching, consulting, and design, helping to teach up-and-coming mini-farmers about maintenance, soil fertility, pest control, and more.

“Harvest Moon is very people-centered,” says Leraas. “It’s all about how the people we interact with are getting fed, how they value what they put into their bodies, that they’re staring to understand something about their place; they always learn something and their perception changes…and that’s our ultimate goal.”

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