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A Vision for Hiawatha Food Forest, Learning

Farm and Restaurant

William Hunter Duncan FoodForestFarmRestaurant.org

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Acknowledgements: To my love and partner Kerrick Sarbacker, for her vital, ongoing contribution to this proposal, from the perspective of her degree in biology, her training as an Arborist, her experience on an organic community farm, and not least her attention to grammar. To Randall Rogers, whose incredible artwork in colored pencil brought life to the vision of this proposal, out of an otherwise barren landscape of text and random maps. All sketches in color pencil on Stonehenge Kraft paper in this document were drawn by Randall Rogers. To Dave Wheeler who helped with the layout and image prep. www.MINDWAVECOMICS.com To Craig and Alexis Bloomstrand and Jamie Wellick, for your wise council. To Ryan Seibold and Mike Rivard, who were integral to the genesis of this project.

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INDEX

Acknowledgements 3

Index 4

Maps. 5

Summary 6 Introduction 7-8

Hiawatha, the Land and Waters 9-11 Hiawatha Food Forest 12-15

Learning Farm 16-18

Restaurant/Education Center/Retreat Outpost 19-21

Water Restoration/Remediation 22-23 Wild Woods 24

Prairie/Savanna 24-25

Nonprofit 25

Values 25-27

Financials 28-29

Financial Projections 30-36

Conclusion 37

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Map from the Minneapolis Park Board Website, www.minneapolisparks.org, from an early stage of the Hiawatha Golf Course Master Plan

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Summary The Minneapolis Park Board is in the process of writing a Master Plan for Hiawatha Golf Course. This proposal is in response to that effort*, offering a vision of a Food Forest, Learning Farm and Restaurant; operated as a non-profit, employing approximately 60 people full-time, another 20 part-time seasonally, interns and volunteers, generating at maturity after five-ten years approximately $5.8 million in revenue: vegetables, year-round greens and mushrooms, fruit, nuts, tree saplings and plant starts, value-added meals, preserves and fermentables, also classes and trainings – a genuine economy that takes care of people, the community and the land and waters. Hiawatha will teach kids where food comes from, how it is prepared from field and forest to table, and how that can be foundational to community and local economics, and the health of the earth. Relationships will be built with local schools, the veteran’s hospital and housing, the neighborhood particularly the under-served, and the Minneapolis Indigenous community. In addition, increasing vegetation on the property by a factor of 10, including expanded wetland surface water, will transpire and evaporate many times the amount of water naturally into the air as is currently, artificially pumped (pumping paid for by Minneapolis taxpayers) - thereby helping with local flooding problems. The Food Forest will be open to the public to pick fruit, nuts and mushrooms for free (to limits). Open trails throughout the land, interactive trails, the staff also teachers: come learn about the land, the waters, the gardens, the fruit and nut trees, fruit shrubs, vines, and canes, mushrooms, pollinators, people - what a truly healthy, modern local economy looks and feels like. The old clubhouse as the restaurant, an interactive education center next to the restaurant, an amphitheater, a farmhouse, barn, greenhouses, a mushroom-house. Hidden in the wild woods in the southeast corner is an off-grid bunkhouse, for youth and education groups overnight. Internationally recognized, a one-of-a-kind destination site, an energetic focal point economic and eco-logic, a guiding star in the Minneapolis Parks system. * In the summer of 2018, the Minneapolis Park Board passed a resolution to build, “at minimum, a flood-resilient and ecologically-driven nine-hole configuration for a golf course…recognizing…the history of black golfers in the Minneapolis parks system.” We respect that decision; however, we believe a golf course on a flood plain can be neither ecologically driven, nor flood resilient. Therefore, we are offering up this proposal, without any expectation, yet as an option should Minneapolis decide the golf course is untenable at this location. Meanwhile we are seeking alternative sites.

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Introduction

1892 map, www.standish-ericsson.org/historicalmaps.html

In 1929-31, Rice Lake in south Minneapolis covered most of what is now Hiawatha Golf Course, part of the Minneapolis Parks system. A shallow wild rice lake, it was dredged, material from the east half of the lake used to fill the west half, to build Lake Hiawatha and the golf course. In 2014 Minnehaha creek flooded, shutting down much of the golf course until 2016. It became known in 2015 that Minneapolis Parks was pumping nearly 8.5x’s the amount of ground and storm water – 242 million gallons, every year - into Lake Hiawatha, than a DNR pumping permit allowed, to keep the course dry enough to play, and to protect local homeowners from basement flooding. As the course had not been profitable since 2008, in 2017 the Park Board voted to close the course.* Before it was Minneapolis, wild rice grew there. Buffalo roamed freely along its shores. This is a proposal to turn Hiawatha Golf Course into the Hiawatha Food Forest, Learning Farm and Restaurant.

A 150 acre food forest, learning farm, on-site foods restaurant, land, waters and food interactive education center, an amphitheater, a retreat off-grid bunkhouse, prairie/savanna and wild wood.

With a rerouting of Minnehaha Creek and a storm drain, into a system of wetlands, before entering Lake Hiawatha and the Mississippi River, to reduce pollution downstream.

A steady-state micro-economy, self-sustaining, an example of an economy that takes care of people and the earth; good, dignified, well compensated work, teaching

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Minneapolis and beyond about what it can mean to produce food from seed to table, how important that is to a healthy local economy.

Empowerment and skills training, particularly for the youth of Minneapolis. A non-profit dedicated to mentoring, teaching and outreach, challenging people to think and feel differently about what economics means and what it is for. *In 2018, a new Minneapolis Park Board voted to retain the golf course, “at minimum, a flood-resilient and ecologically-driven nine-hole configuration for a golf course…recognizing…the history of black golfers in the Minneapolis parks system.”

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Hiawatha, the Land and Waters:

Minnehaha Creek originates at Lake Minnetonka in the western suburbs of the Minneapolis/St Paul metro area. It travels 20 miles through 5 municipalities and two counties, draining a watershed of 178 square miles or 113,920 acres, before passing through 150 acre Hiawatha Golf Course, into 53 acre Hiawatha Lake; another two miles to Minnehaha Falls and the Mississippi River. The Minnehaha Creek watershed drains 29 municipalities and 129 lakes, by way of eight major creeks, of which Minnehaha Creek is the primary tributary.

Map from the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District website, www.minnehahacreek.org

The Minnehaha creek watershed was and is home to the Dakota people. Wild rice was harvested in the watershed for millennia. Lake Hiawatha is the only lake that Minnehaha creek drains into. All the other lakes in the watershed - 128 lakes - including the headwaters of Lake Minnetonka, drain into the creek and Hiawatha Lake. For wild rice to grow, the water has to be exceptionally clean.

Hiawatha is the hero of Longfellow’s epic poem, “Song of Hiawatha”.* Minnehaha as a name is romanticized Indigenous for laughing waters, the creek dropping precipitously many times, once magnificently, on it’s 22 mile course through suburbia and Minneapolis. Many have laughed in the rapids of Minnehaha; but the pollution of that creek is no joke. Much of what drains into that 178 square miles of intensely urban watershed ends up in Lake Hiawatha, and then the Mississippi.

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A storm drain with a watershed of 200 Minneapolis city blocks approximately, or 3000 acres, from Lake Street to Portland Avenue, also flows into a pond adjacent to the golf course, which is subsequently pumped into Lake Hiawatha and Minnehaha creek. Hiawatha golf course has a foundation of peat, the land compacting over time, lowering parts of the course a remarkable ¼ inch per year.

The main portion of the golf course is only a few feet above the water table. It is considered a flood plain under State and Federal law. Through much of the golfing season, walking the fairways is like walking on a wet sponge. Shallow rooted turf grass is ineffective in pulling water from the soil and transpiring it, nor does it develop deep roots to build soil and stabilize it over time.

Several of the houses in the area are impacted in spring seasons of saturation, and increasingly through much of the year, as 2016 was the wettest year on record in the Twin Cities, and seven of the last eight years have dramatically exceeded average precipitation.

Map from www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us signifying the mini-watershed of the storm drain that enters the golf course and Hiawatha Lake from the northwest.

The vision of this plan would reroute Minnehaha creek, as well as the city storm drain, into a newly created and more expansive wetland system, in the middle of the existing golf course, where much of Rice lake used to be; this new wetland would cleanse the waters before they reach Hiawatha lake and the Mississippi. Extensive plantings of deep rooted fruit and nut trees, native wildflowers and grasses, would stabilize the soil, build soil over time, and transpire water into the air from ground water, far exceeding the rate of current pumping. Extensive plantings of fruit bearing trees, shrubs, vines and canes, would store much water in the fruit. All of this preparing the land more effectively for future flooding.

A monoculture transformed into a diverse, vibrant, energetic landscape, exemplar of the abundant potential of nature, while proving a foundation for a more healthy, more holistic economy.

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* Hiawatha is the name of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem, and the poem’s protagonist. The name

Hiawatha is a problem; though it has a long history at the site, the poem is an example of 19th century colonial

thinking, Hiawatha the quintessential “noble savage”, the language condescending in that particular way that sets

white, European culture in a category of enlightened awareness, with American Indians as ignorant and even

soulless, “That in even savage bossoms/There are longings, yearnings, strivings/For the good they comprehend

not/” Food Forest, Farm and Restaurant nonprofit imagines, if this project came to fruition, a name change might be

appropriate.

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Hiawatha Food Forest

A forest is a primary ecosystem, consisting of tiers of vegetation, large tree species making up the canopy, with smaller trees and shrubs in the understory, grasses and herbaceous plants creating the lower story. Shade is prominent in any forest, the more mature the forest, the more shade typically.

A food forest is a forest designed to mimic the local forest ecosystem. Food for people does grow in any wild forest: around the Twin Cities metro, black cap raspberries, blackberries, mulberry, gooseberries, juneberries, chokecherries, parsnip, burdock, nettle etc. A food forest is deliberately planted to maximize food production of native, introduced and cultivar species that grow well in the region. Hiawatha Food Forest could consist of native fruit and nut bearing trees such as wild cherry and black walnut, but also introduced and cultivar cherries, sour and sweet, hybrid chestnut etc. Hundreds of species and varieties of fruit and nut trees, shrubs, vines and canes could be present in a 30 acre food forest.

Any land cannot be a forest, without healthy bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi. While the forests of Minnesota consistently grow many kinds of edible mushroom, at Hiawatha

Food Forest, using wood chips and logs sourced locally, from Parks Forestry and private tree services, edible mushroom yield could be increased ten-fold. Healthy bacteria in the forest soil, depends upon a diverse forest. A healthy forest and healthy soil bacteria and mycorrhizae, will help break down residual chemicals, after a hundred years of golf and periodic urban flooding.

The food forest at Hiawatha lake and Minnehaha creek would be on the north 30 acres of the property. The ground is already somewhat higher here with an existing slope, south facing. While much of the center of the course will be dredged to accommodate the water restoration/remediation project, it is possible to build a layer of logs and chips, to an eight

foot depth, throughout the food forest location, on the old fairways and greens; using the fill from the new ponds mixed with sand, to cover the logs to a 2 foot depth. The wood will break down over time, creating soil, the new trees, shrubs, vines, canes, deep

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rooted herbaceous plants and grasses, will have significant nutrient to maturity, the roots weaving through the wood as the wood breaks down, stabilizing the whole as the land is built up. The 10 ft tall planting in the old fairways and the old greens, will become 3-4 ft gradual slopes over time, building over time.

Compost on a grand scale, a ten year process of wood turning to soil, a compost pile turning into a food forest.

With sufficient trees, plants, grasses, seed, volunteers, machinery and money, Hiawatha Food Forest could be (mostly) in place in just over a year: Stack logs and chips November to April; April to August dredge the ponds to redistribute over the logs; plant quick growing, nitrogen fixing ground cover such as clover, various Fabiacae, August to September, with some casting of appropriate food forest grass and wildflower seed; the bulk of the planting of the food forest as soon as conditions allow, the following spring into early summer.

Maintenance will involve regular watering the first two years. No spraying of any chemical will be necessary, though some hand weeding will be necessary. Many native seeds take up to three years to establish. Once established the forest will require regular pruning, proper harvest methods and sapling control.

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There will be a series of primary paths, with many spur paths for efficient management and picking, designed according to what is best for the forest and public access.

Looking south from the north boundary of the property

A third of the food of the food forest will be free to pick by the public. Another third will be picked by volunteers and staff for charity. The final third will be sold through the restaurant and farm, fresh and value-added as jams, canning and fermentables, for the sustainability of the project. An hour’s walk through a mature 30 acre food forest, with containers and a pack, would yield a variety of fruit, maybe all you would need to eat for the week, free, through much of the season: fruit, nuts and mushrooms. The food forest would employ a core staff of six, with a seasonal part-time crew of 2-4. Managing the forest: planting, watering, weeding, trimming, cultivating, harvesting, preparing produce for delivery, educating, assisting people, protecting the forest.

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Learning Farm

The Hiawatha Learning Farm would focus on education, about the land and waters, about food production, and the ways in which people are empowered in the act of reconnecting with the land, in community. Empowering people, empowering local community, empowering distant people and communities, particularly youth, to take better care of themselves, the community and the land and waters.

Thirty acres, with greenhouses, aquaponics (year-round fish and greens, production), edible and medicinal fungi production, composting, extensive tailored gardens of food and medicinals, some animal husbandry and beekeeping, tree propagation and grafting, plant starts.

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The farm would be located in the south of the property, on both sides of Minnehaha creek, along the current fence line. The ground is level here, rising up to the west and east. The farm would not look like a conventional farm, the infrastructure or extensive row

cropping. The design will be “permaculture” primarily, of which there are many models around the world. Fruit and nut trees interspersed among edible and medicinal plants and grasses, with extensive garden beds, both vegetable and fungi. (Also, closer to the Restaurant/Education Center - interactive gardens, examples with description of all the vegetation and fungi found in the food forest, wetlands, prairie/savanna and wild woods.)

The farm will consist of a series of greenhouses with interior water tanks that act as both fish production ponds (aquaculture), and as the nutrient base for the plants in the greenhouse (hydroponics). This aquaponics system will be self-contained, separate from the creek or water

restoration/remediation wetlands; the primary water source is the roof of the companion greenhouse.

Greenhouses and ponds would be heated in the winter by passive solar, and ultra efficient thermal mass heaters.

There is a separate structure dedicated to year-round edible fungi production. The garden beds are not “community gardens”, individual plots of bare ground for one person to control and manage, but planned beds based on the needs of the restaurant, maximizing production generally, and for education, managed by employees of the farm and volunteers.

There is a farmhouse, for the day-to-day management of Hiawatha Learning Farm. Also a “barn”, where the activity of the farm and forest is managed, a rendezvous/entry point for public participation. The goals of construction are low cost and extreme energy efficiency.

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The “healing” of the land and the waters, in turn healing those who participate, building community. People coming together with a common purpose, doing meaningful work for the community and for themselves, growing healthy food.

This is what, in part, the Hiawatha Food Forest, Learning Farm and Restaurant is about, to connect with the rhythms of the earth, to bring balance, wholeness and healing to people scarred physically, mentally, emotionally and economically.

By “healing”, we mean in part skills training, to empower: farm, forest and prairie/savanna management, fruit tree cultivation/grafting/pruning, water management, greenhouse ecology, aquaponics, fungi spore propagation, gardening, composting, tool making, maintenance and use, animal husbandry, beekeeping, food preparation, small business and household economics, ecologically responsible technologies, tolerance, an appreciation for diversity, inclusiveness, working well with others, leadership, being ok with oneself and the earth.

Farm and garden work is humbling, hard, peaceful and healing. It builds character, and so should be a worthy challenge for even the most hardened and cynical. Hiawatha Learning Farm is a challenging, meaningful, empowering project, it lends a sense of dignity and self-respect, and an appreciation for one’s place in the whole. There are 8 core employees of the farm, another 6 seasonal. Attached to the farm is the mushroom house, where indoor and outdoor production of edible mushrooms is coordinated: another 6 core employees and 2 part time seasonal. The food forest, farm and mushrooms all have their own director, operations managers and staff, as does the Restaurant and Interactive/Education. Their mission is the same as those managing the food forest. To manage production, to educate and to protect.

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Restaurant, Interactive Education Center and Gardens, Amphitheater, Retreat Outpost

The restaurant would serve meals both wild picked and cultivated at Hiawatha, while facilitating relationships with local growers. Open year round, with a large seasonal patio looking out on the whole of the food forest, farm, wetlands, creek and lake, the Restaurant alone would gross more than twice the current income of the golf course, employing more than twice the people – not including revenue and employment of the farm and food forest. The restaurant would also be in charge of value-adding the food produced by the food forest and the farm, artisan preserves and fermentables, maximizing the economic benefit to the community, while educating as to how this is done.

The restaurant would be housed in the remodeled clubhouse of the former golf course. A separate facility would be built to house the interactive/education center, and value-added food processing. Next to the education center to the south east, flowing down the hill to the farm, would be interactive gardens, examples of everything grown on the property, with descriptions and context. The Restaurant will employ 21 people, including another 6 staff and 2 seasonal part time for value-added preserves and fermentables.

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The Land, Waters and Food Interactive/Education Center would focus on the primary mission of Hiawatha: educating and empowering the greater community. Information, knowledge and skills classes on the ecology, economy and energy of Hiawatha Food Forest Farm and Restaurant. Meeting rooms, a full kitchen for training and another for value-added preserves and fermentables, a wide open expansive area for telling the story of Hiawatha, an interactive education in the history and current use of the land, for visitors and large groups. The 6 staff and 6 seasonal part time would be primarily storytellers, tasked with telling the story of Hiawatha Food Forest, Learning Farm and Restaurant: hosting groups, teaching classes and presentations, giving tours particularly of the interactive gardens.

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The interactive gardens cascade down the hill to the south of the Interactive Education Center, tiered occasionally, randomly, all along the gradual slope. At the edge of each limestone retaining wall are beds with vegetables and greens, easily observed and

managed standing next to the retaining wall. On the flat behind the garden beds to the next retaining well are pathways weaving in between beds that are representative of all the flora and fungi and microecosystems found in Hiawatha, every bed with descriptions, names and stories. Two to three acres of seasonal and perennial beds, transitioning into the farm as the slope meets level ground. Back on top of the flat overlooking Hiawatha, there is a parking lot to the west of the Restaurant and Interactive Education Center. To the east is a large patio, extending for much of the flat, overlooking an Amphitheatre built into the slope flowing down to the prairie approximately 40 feet: for education, for entertainment.

The retreat outpost would be near the shore of the lake, perhaps near where the existing creek enters Lake Hiawatha, in the Wild Wood side of the creek. An off-grid bunkhouse, rustic, with a modest kitchen, solar hot water and compost toilet. No drugs or alcohol allowed. Half the year for Veteran, Indigenous and kids groups, etc, free; the other half, a lottery for groups of similar mission, paid.

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Water Restoration/Remediation

This is an illustration from the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board of what could happen if current pumping ceased.

Approximately 242 million gallons of water is pumped from the golf course into Lake Hiawatha each year.

Currently, Minnehaha creek flows through the southeast corner of Hiawatha Golf Course. The MPRB in 2017 suggested as part of the reconstruction of the land, the creek would be routed deeper into the heart of the land, where it would meet a 30-40 acre wetland, before it enters 53 acre Hiawatha Lake.

This is important to both Hiawatha Lake and the Mississippi river. To some significant degree, the waters will be “healed” in this wetland, by the plants, fungi, bacteria, algae and aquatic insects growing there - combined with solar fountain aeration. The wetland edge would be cattail primarily, otherwise excellent examples of Minnesota wetland plant diversity, with a zone 20 feet all around that is diverse wetland/prairie transition: transitioning to food forest on the north side, a prairie/savanna west of the creek, to the east mostly a wild representation of a typical regional woodland. The wetlands would be dredged deep enough to accommodate the building up of the land around the creek, sufficient to allow for the planting of woodland, prairie and fruit bearing plants. A 30 acre wetland with an average depth of 6 ft would allow for an approximate average of 2 ft of fill to cover 90 acres of low ground, for the food forest and farm. Not only will the new focus on wetlands “heal” to some degree the waters flowing in, the project as a whole will focus attention on pollution throughout the Minnehaha creek watershed, encouraging more thoughtful action to remediate it.

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In addition, expanding vegetal density by a factor of ten, plus the expansion of surface water with a new wetland, will transpire (draw water from the ground, through the plant into the air) and evaporate more than twice the volume of water that is currently artificially pumped. One acre of corn can transpire 3000-4000 gallons of water per day. But corn is inefficient; one mature oak tree can transpire 220 gallons a day. Forty mature oaks on one acre can transpire 8,800 gallons per day. Turfgrass is considerably less efficient at transpiration than corn. Assuming an increase in vegetal density over 120 acres by a factor of 5, with an average transpiration rate increase of 20,000 gallons per day, over 180 days, is 432 million gallons; with evaporation rates of the wetland @ approximately 70 million gallons, combined @ 502 million gallons, is more than twice what the MPRB is currently pumping. When the pumping total of 242 million gallons is reduced by 40% to account for pumped water returning to the aquifer from Lake Hiawatha, the rate is 2.5-1, natural transpiration and evaporation, to artificial pumping. This is a conservative estimate.

This is part of a solution for local homeowners who are impacted by increased water in the watershed. Ultimately however, water problems in the watershed as a whole are largely a factor of 80+% of the watershed being covered by buildings, roads, parking lots and turfgrass, combined with the fact that there is considerably more water falling on the watershed the last decade. To put that into perspective, in 2016, when precipitation @ 40.32 inches was 12.43” above the historical average of 27.89”, that is 38.45 billion more gallons of water in the watershed, enough to fill Hiawatha Lake 371 times. After seven years of precipitation exceeding the average by more than 5 inches per year on average, the aquifer at Hiawatha is simply saturated, and rising.

Transpiration image: https://www.dep.pa.gov/Citizens/JustForKids/Water/Pages/Transpiration.aspx

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Wild Wood

A wild forest with a woodland pond would cover much of the southeast corner of the property, between the creek, the new wetlands and Lake Hiawatha. Managed not for production primarily, but as a representation of a successionary deciduous forest. The MN DNR takes excellent care with the forests of MN State Parks, the methods of which will be leaned on heavily at Hiawatha: maximizing diversity, with a manual, human check on invasive species that tend toward domination.

The forest will be interactive, educational, with some examples of old technology, such as coppicing. Coppicing is the cutting of mature or semi-mature trees that tend toward suckering, many new growth shoots emerging from the one stump. This growth tends to be very fast, which then allows for regular harvesting of the shoots, to be used for burning for fuel, or poles for garden staking or trellising etc. It would also be possible to plan for a future maple sugarbush, by planting a high number of sugar maples. Employing Wild Wood materials for use on the farm will be more educational than ongoing utilitarian. Some harvesting of fruit and mushrooms will go on there. Even then, the forest will be managed to reflect what a deciduous forest would have looked like here, prior to Western settlement.

Prairie/Savanna Massive herds of buffalo grazed near the shore of Rice Lake for millennia, indeed not so long before it became lake Hiawatha and Hiawatha Golf Course.

Migrating through the prairie, savannas and woodland edge, from the Ohio valley to Montana to Oklahoma, a hundred million+ buffalo did innately to the soil, something like what Hiawatha Food Forest and Learning Farm will attempt to replicate.

It was noted that the grasses of the historic prairie could be tied across the back of a

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horse, the grass was so tall. This is a function in part of regular grazing by buffalo: eating everything in their path but always on the move, leaving behind their “chips”, churning up the soil with their hooves and horns, encouraging seed dispersal, germination and growth, Buffalo were essential to a healthy grassland. The process fertilizes and builds topsoil. Grasslands are considerably more healthy and vibrant because of the activity of migrating grazers.

Prairie is a grassland primarily, without trees, while a savanna is a grassland interspersed with mature trees, usually fire resistant oaks. Both would be represented at Hiawatha. They would be managed in part by rotational grazing, by goats, pigs, chickens and maybe a few milking cows, and by occasional fire/controlled burns. Rotational grazing, the animals never allowed on more than one acre at a time, moved from acre to acre every few days, cycling through the whole over a period of many months, allows for the sustainability of the prairie/savanna, and actually increases overall system health.

Joel Salatin with his Polyface Farm in Virginia provides an excellent example of this method in practice.

This thirty acres of prairie/savanna could contain as many as 300 or more distinct species of plants, many of which would be edible or medicinal. Native wildflowers and grasses will be the focus, but beneficial and symbiotic introduced species will be welcome. Non Profit Six full time employees and two part time, employed in the maintaining of mission focus, general management of the various aspects of the economic and educational, coordinating the activities of the Amphitheatre and the Bunkhouse, and general outreach, as well as liaison between the staff of Hiawatha and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, and the greater community. Values As E.F. Schumacher noted 45 years ago in Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, “crude materialism” only sees production and money/income in agriculture, so extended that “the living world has no significance beyond that of a quarry for exploitation” [his italics]. Shumacher understood that the first three goals in the management of the land are health, beauty and permanence; production is the fourth goal and literally the by-product of such care and concern. As Wendell Berry said, agriculture that mimics nature would cleanse water and conserve soil. It would be self-contained with no waste. “The goal is a harmony between the human economy and nature that will preserve both nature and humanity, and this is

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the traditional goal.” That goal was paramount even in the West since Aristotle; only since the “enlightenment”, the rise of science and materialism, and really industrialism, have we decided that nature is mostly irrelevant except as a thing to exploit and control for the generating of wealth and consumer product. A kind of despair has beset much of America, evidenced most dramatically by crack, crystal meth and opioid epidemics, and increasing suicide numbers, particularly among veterans. There are many reasons for that, but this plan supposes that chief among these is the lack of meaningful, dignified, well compensated work, the collapse of local economics and the local communities that rely on that. A lack of focus by society on “health, beauty and permanence”, with a demand of eternal growth of production and wealth, with the ever decreasing quality of most consumer goods, with the ever more pervasive reach of global finance (with overall debt far exceeding economic “growth”), and the impoverishment of ever greater numbers of Americans, has exacerbated cultural pathologies, generally. Fifty years after the financialization of the economy, with an emphasis on corporatist globalization and shareholder value, turning the productive economy into a service economy, the stagnation and collapse of compensation and benefits for working people, record income inequality, with unchecked automation (and militarism), has left a great many Americans feeling bereft of purpose and meaning without hope for the future. The Earth has limits. The earth is in need of healing. People are in need of healing. Society is in need of healing. Humans evolved with a clear and visceral connection to food, and to the land and waters that provide. That relationship has evolved in myriad ways, remarkably, irreducibly. There is abundant evidence that the mere presence of green space – trees, parks, wetlands, wildflowers – provides a direct economic benefit to society, primarily in the form of better health and reduced health care costs, particularly in urban areas.* While that is tangible if mostly passive benefit, this proposal suggests that a more active relationship with the urban green landscape would have considerably greater benefits. This plan pre-supposes that a real connection to food - planting, tending, harvesting and preparation - is a most peaceful endeavor, healing in a most fundamental way. Gathering wild foods can be like a meditation. Relationships cultivated in the act of growing food and tending to the land and waters set deep roots. Community sprouting in that way grows tall, broad, sturdy and long lasting. Local economics matter. Hiawatha Food Forest, Learning Farm and Restaurant is an education in local economies, in meaningful work and skills with a purpose, to empower people and community, to encourage ethical and moral treatment of the land and waters and each other: training entrepreneurs who will change the way we think about eco-nomics.

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Roughly a third of the food produced at Hiawatha will go to charity. A third will be free to pick by the public. A third will be for sale, to help maintain Hiawatha economically. Ultimately, we see Hiawatha as the seed for similar projects nationally and globally. The prime-ultimate purpose of this project is to bring the community together. In the building of the project and maintaining it, there will be an immense amount of work to be done, for anyone who wants to volunteer, especially in the food forest, the interactive/educational and farm gardens, and in the interactive/education center. Relationships will be forged with environmental, food and community organizations, schools, neighborhood associations, Indigenous groups, the veteran community, the retirement community, the immigrant community and the homeless community, to make certain that the work that needs to get done, gets done. We will be building very real and metaphorical bridges on the property (If you want to remember what America means, talk to immigrants.) We are especially thinking of kids, particularly those who are 9-11 years of age, participating in the earliest days of the work, who continue to participate as the land and community mature, as they mature. These are the ones who will lead this and the like for future generations. In the earliest stages, in the initial buildout and planting, before there is the infrastructure in place to generate revenue, volunteers will carry the project. Building something to believe in. * See “Green Health, Good Cities”, www.greenhealth.washington.edu

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Financials

A primary goal of this proposal is to show how this public property, Hiawatha Food Forest, Learning Farm and Restaurant, can be economically sustainable, for both practical and educational reasons, such that no taxes are required to build or maintain it, profiting the parks generally and the Minneapolis general fund, remaining a vital public resource in perpetuity (while taking care of the land and waters). Economically the concept is sound, and efficient. The central location means the market will come to it, reducing costs considerably. It is further believed that the concept fully realized, will appeal to an exceptionally broad market, as it will be a one-of-a-kind destination site, for many people in many places and many cultures. Important economically and public-relations wise, for all of Minneapolis. This proposal fully realized would employ 60 people full and part time, another 20 seasonal part-time, with revenue at maturity in 2030, of $5.8 million. With an estimated build-out cost of $27.7 million dollars, with a full funding expectation of $35 million, what follows is less a financial business plan, than a financial guide, a theoretical framework. This plan challenges many assumptions economic and regulatory, while also relying on optimistic growth models, unable as any plan might be to fully account for future social, political or economic upheaval such as the event of 2008. The land and waters in this case are subject to municipal, regional, state and federal regulations, particularly because the land is a designated flood plain in a major city. Regulatory costs are expected to be $4 million. The requisite government regulatory agencies are as unfamiliar with this concept as is the general public. It is hard to imagine such a project not receiving the proper permits, when so much is allowed that is so detrimental to the health of the land, waters and people; but at the very least the process is sure to be lengthy and expensive. One would otherwise hope such a project would be put on the “fast-track”. Otherwise this plan supposes Minneapolis will want to build a showcase worthy of a destination site of international recognition. The management of the restaurant, farm and forest is structured legally as a non-profit. Minneapolis has several public-private contracts on park land, with private businesses, mostly restaurants. While the Farm, Food Forest and Restaurant at Hiawatha could be structured as several LLC’s (Limited Liability Corporations), as is the norm, this plan suggests a Non-Profit charity designation would be more appropriate: one non-profit, with caps on compensation respective of the charity-designation, hiring directors and managers for the Restaurant, Farm and Forest. Economically the relationships between these three branches will be treated as a truly free market, except no compensation by anyone in the project including the administration of the non-profit could exceed $70,000, 2018 equivalent. All full time employees will have benefits similar and perhaps

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better than any typical corporate structure, with all profits going to pre-designated endowments, with staff having a vote on the dispersal. Twelve percent of gross after wages and benefits will be given to the City, amounting to approximately $200,000 in 2030. Initial funding will rely on donation: grants, foundations, corporate boards and the general public. As this is a community project, it would be hoped it would benefit from a grass-roots funding model, with 2 million donations @ $27 avg. Otherwise no money will be turned away, except that which insists on naming rights and the like controls. This is not a corporate arrangement. This is a project of, by and for the people of Minneapolis. Proceeds exceeding yearly operating costs will go to an endowment, with a ten-year goal of building a self-sustaining endowment to maintain steady-state economics on-site, and expand the concept elsewhere. Finally, these revenue and employment numbers are relative. They show revenue in 2030 approximately 2.5X the golf course at peak. That is assuming in part, productivity is greatest when people feel the work is well compensated, dignified, with meaning and a purpose greater than themselves. Probably income on-site could exceed these expectations; of course, Minneapolis might decide more modest goals are appropriate. Ultimately, these numbers reflect what we believe the micro-economy in question could generate from the land, while maintaining an approximate equal regeneration of the land and the waters.

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Restaurant Sales Projections

Industry Standard Found here:

http://www.bakertilly.com/uploads/restaurant-benchmarking.pdf

INDOOR SALES Sq Ft Usable Months

Industry Standard Rate TOTALS

Kitchen Space 850 12 350 $297,500.00 Utility Space 750 12 350 $262,500.00 Meeting Room

/ Private Party 540 12 350 $189,000.00 Indoor DIning

Space 1750 12 350 $612,500.00 TOTALS 3890

$1,361,500.00

OUTDOOR SALES Sq Ft

Usable Months

Industry Standard Rate TOTALS

Patio Space 3500 5 350 $510,416.67 TOTALS 3500

$510,416.67

OTHER SALES

Avg Daily Sales

Avg Monthly Sales Avg Year Sales

Catering Sales

500 $15,208.33 $182,500.00 Take Out

400 $12,166.67 $146,000.00

Retail Sales

250 $7,604.17 $91,250.00 TOTALS

1150 $34,979.17 $419,750.00

TOTAL YEARLY GROSS 2023

$2,291,666.67

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Farm and Food Forest Sales Projections

2023 2024 2025 2030 Fruit @ 50,000 lbs/acre x 30/3 = 500,000 lbs for sale @ maturity Sales

Wholesale $1/lb $30,000.00 $45,000.00 $90,000.00 $229,737.13

Sales Retail $3/lb $60,000.00 $85,000.00 $170,000.00 $344,605.00

Total Sales

$90,000.00 $130,000.00 $260,000.00 $574,342.13

Fungi @ 25lb/sq ft/yr x 2000 @ $5/lb wholesale, $16lb retail; 500lb/acre outdoor @60 acre

Indoor Sales Wholesale / Retail

$300,000.00 $320,000.00 $350,000.00 $472,109.81

Outdoor Sales Wholesale/ Retail

$100,000.00 $140,000.00 $250,000.00 $425,013.70

Total Sales

$400,000.00 $460,000.00 $600,000.00 $897,123.51

Greens $20/lb Wholesale, avg indoor/outdoor 0.5 lb sq ft/yr

Indoor Sales Wholesale Retail

$50,000.00 $60,000.00 $70,000.00 $124,058.05

Vegetables and greens @ $4/lb Wholesale, $10 retail

Outdoor Sales Wholesale Retail

$150,000.00 $200,000.00 $250,000.00 $464,069.01

Total Sales

$200,000.00 $260,000.00 $320,000.00 $588,127.06

Fish (Yellow Perch)@ $3 lb

Sales Wholesale

$0.00 $10,000.00 $15,000.00 $28,812.70

Vegetable Starts and Fruit Saplings Sales Retail

$100,000.00 $110,000.00 $120,000.00 $157,369.94

Honey Sales Wolesale and Retail

$20,000.00 $20,000.00 $40,000.00 $100,000.00

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Total Sales, Farm and Food Forest

$890,000.00 $1,130,000.00 $1,530,000.00 $2,345,775.34

Interpretive and Value-added Preserves Sales Retail

$100,000.00 $200,000.00 $300,000.00 $835,094.48

Mead Sales Wholesale

Restaurant Sales Retail

$2,219,666.68 $2,356,528.13 $2,549,065.93 $2,710,128.43

Total Sales

$3,309,666.68 $3,869,528.13 $4,679,065.93 $5,890,998.25

* Notes : Fish could be made more economic by raising Talapia instead of Yellow perch. -Fruit @ 50,000 lbs/acre x 30/3 = 500,000 lbs for sale @ maturity -Fungi @ 25lb/sq ft/yr x 2000 @ $5/lb wholesale, $16lb retail; 500lb/acre outdoor @60 acre -Greens $20/lb Wholesale, avg indoor/outdoor 0.5 lb sq ft/yr - Vegetables and greens @ $4/lb Wholesale, $10 retail

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Cost Guideposts, Infrastructure and Landscaping Buildout * COST

Restaurant

$600,000.00

Dredging and Land Restructure

$4,000,000.00

Greenhouses & Fish

$2,000,000.00

Barn

$3,000,000.00

Food Forest

$600,000.00 Gardens

$600,000.00 Mushroom House

$400,000.00 Farmhouse

$2,000,000.00

Bunkhouse

$400,000.00

Bridges

$300,000.00 Prairie & Wild Wood

$400,000.00

Parking

$1,000,000.00

Regulatory

$4,000,000.00

Trails

$1,000,000.00

Beekeeping

$10,000.00

Interpretive Center

$6,000,000.00

Amphitheatre

$2,000,000.00

Total Cost

$28,310,000.00

Guidepost

* These guidepost costs are a rough measure of cost to achieve the vision of this plan, from the existing to a fully functioning food forest, farm and restaurant, pushing the limit of what is possible economically from the land, while taking care of the land and waters. The goal should this vision be implemented would be to secure an endowment from private donors of $35,000,000, to be held in trust, to be spent as deemed appropriate over a period of 10 years, to achieve the full vision. That endowment would act as buildout capital and liquidity to assure success in the economics. These numbers assume Minneapolis wants a showcase project - costs could be reduced dramatically, to achieve a similar effect. Otherwise the goal is not to spend a dollar of taxpayer money, in the implementation or over the long term.

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Employment Cost 2022

Title

Wages

Benefits etc Compensation

costs

Compensation Cost

Non-Profit Executive Director

$70,000.00 $26,250.00 $96,250.00

Chief Operating

Officer

$65,000.00 $24,375.00 $89,375.00

Chief Financial Officer

$65,000.00 $24,375.00 $89,375.00

3 Staff

$120,000.00 $45,000.00 $165,000.00

2 Part Time

$18,750.00 $7,031.25 $25,781.25

Food Forest Director

$60,000.00 $22,500.00 $82,500.00

Operations Manager

$50,000.00 $18,750.00 $68,750.00

3 Staff

$120,000.00 $45,000.00 $165,000.00

2 Part Time

$18,750.00 $7,031.25 $25,781.25

Farm Director

$60,000.00 $22,500.00 $82,500.00

Operations Manager

$50,000.00 $18,750.00 $68,750.00

6 Staff

$240,000.00 $90,000.00 $330,000.00

4 Part Time

$75,000.00 $28,125.00 $103,125.00

Restaurant Director/GM

$60,000.00 $22,500.00 $82,500.00

Operations Manager

$50,000.00 $18,750.00 $68,750.00

Executive Chef

$60,000.00 $22,500.00 $82,500.00

6 cooks Part Time

$180,000.00 $67,500.00 $247,500.00

6 Servers Part Time

$112,500.00 $42,187.50 $154,687.50

2 Bus Part Time

$37,500.00 $14,062.50 $51,562.50

Host Part Time

$18,750.00 $7,031.25 $25,781.25

3 Dishwashers

$90,000.00 $33,750.00 $123,750.00

2 Sou Chef

$80,000.00 $30,000.00 $111,000.00

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Interpretive Director

$60,000.00 $22,500.00 $82,500.00

Operations Manager

$50,000.00 $18,750.00 $68,750.00

2 Staff

$80,000.00 $30,000.00 $111,000.00

2 Part Time

$18,750.00 $7,031.25 $25,781.25

Mushrooms Director

$60,000.00 $22,500.00 $82,500.00

Operations Manager

$50,000.00 $18,750.00 $68,750.00

2 Staff

$80,000.00 $30,000.00 $110,000.00

2 Part Time

$18,750.00 $7,031.25 $25,781.25

Bee Keeping

Preserves Director

$60,000.00 $22,500.00 $82,500.00

Operations Manager

$50,000.00 $18,750.00 $68,750.00

1 Staff

$40,000.00 $15,000.00 $55,000.00

2 Part Time

$37,500.00 $14,062.50 $51,562.50

Cleaning Director

$60,000.00 $22,500.00 $82,500.00

Operations Manager

$50,000.00 $18,750.00 $68,750.00

2 Staff

$80,000.00 $30,000.00 $110,000.00

2 Part Time

$18,750.00 $7,031.25 $25,781.25

Security Director

$60,000.00 $22,500.00 $82,500.00

Operations Manager

$50,000.00 $18,750.00 $68,750.00

3 Staff

$120,000.00 $45,000.00 $165,000.00

2 Part Time

$18,750.00 $7,031.25 $25,781.25

Totals

80 employees

$2,763,750.00 $1,036,406.25 $3,802,156.25

2030 Compenation Costs, 2% Interest

$3,802,156.25

$4,334,458.12

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Total Revenue 2030 Compensation % of Revenue

$5,890,998.25 Operating

Budget

73.58%

$1,556,540.13

Notes: The 2022 employment costs are much too high for projected income in 2023. The purpose is merely to model employment needs in 2030, with a relative cost increase from 2022. Surely paid employment needs in 2022 will be half what is needed in 2030. Again, volunteering will carry much of the project early in the project, building the farm and Food Forest. However, by 2025 the Restaurant, Farm and Food Forest could be productive enough to justify these employment numbers.

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Conclusion:

Hiawatha Food Forest, Learning Farm and Restaurant is to learn about food, the land and waters, to be empowered, to empower people and the greater community; to build relationships between people, between people and the land, waters, plants, fungi, and all the creatures of this microecosystem at Hiawatha Lake and Minnehaha Creek.

Vital to this mission is to model self-sustaining, steady state economics, to restore the health and abundance of nature that plants, pollinators and people will thrive. For people, meaningful work, skills training, encouraging a sense of dignity and self-respect, facilitating the restoration of local community.

A blessing for Minneapolis, a thing unlike any other in the world, a place where people will come from all over the world to see and feel and taste Hiawatha. International in scope, a seed of a greater systemic change, a worthy project for Minneapolis, for anyone who wants to participate