Riverwalk Market Fair

Featured June 23: Chicken farmers, a photographer and multi-generational musicians.

A Family Farm Inspired by ‘Auntie Annie’

Featured farmers Elizabeth O’Sullivan and Ian Rhoades are the owners of Auntie Annie’s Fields, across from Nerstrand’s Big Woods Heritage Forest. Elizabeth and Ian have been married since 1997 and have three young children. The farm is named after Elizabeth’s great-aunt Anne, who farmed the old home place in northwestern Minnesota. “Auntie Anne was so full of life she just twinkled, and it seemed that she could accomplish just about anything. Stories of her life inspire us,” Elizabeth says with a smile.

Auntie Annie’s Fields specializes in free-range chickens, which live on a clover and ryegrass pasture where they graze. “We believe that people’s health is connected to the health of the soil, plants and animals that feed them, so we use natural, chemical-free methods, and our animals know fresh air and sunshine,” Elizabeth says.

Auntie Annie’s dedicates a portion of their land to be used by the Mainstreet Project, which is making land and infrastructure available to aspiring Latino chicken farmers. “We are so grateful that we can pursue our farming goals, and we want others to have the same opportunity.” Learn more at www.auntieanniesfields.com.

A Lens on Life

Featured Artist Dennis McClintock started his fine art photography in Texas. Born in Iowa, he now resides in Northfield where he is displaying his crisp yet painterly photographic style for the third time at Riverwalk Market Fair. Dennis photographs landscapes, historical buildings and other manmade structures, nature and wildlife. His art is exhibited and sold in galleries, gift shops, restaurants and retail stores. Recently his art was part of the Northfield Arts Guild gallery’s “Northfield Ties” exhibit. His sunrises and sunsets have been featured in the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas. Dennis shoots all digital and enjoys exercising his creative talents behind the lens and in post-processing. See his wor at the Fair and at www.mcclintockphotographics.com.

Musical entertainment spans generations

Keeley Nichole Susienka

Youthful songwriter and performer Keeley Nichole Susienka’s musical taste ranges from folk to alternative rock. She says her taste reflects early childhood influences including Tracy Chapman and Elvis Costello and her current passion for Ingrid Michaelson, Ani DiFranco, and Tegan and Sara. Her vocals, guitar skills, catchy originals and unique versions of cover songs captivate audiences. You won’t want to miss her in action.

Multe

As a duo, “Dag” Wornson and Jon Thore Bjork perform as Multe, meaning cloudberry, a sought-after Scandinavian berry. The two accordion players are often joined by musician friends who add additional richness to the acoustic Nordic folk music that has been a mainstay of Riverwalk Market Fair. We’re glad to welcome them back this weekend.

Youth Booth&Friend of the Market, June 16

to a Community Doodle

Our Friend of the Market, located in the Welcome Tent Saturday June 16, is the Eclectic Goat, a Northfield art store. The Eclectic Goat 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 the doodling utensils will be supplied, so all you have to bring is your creativity! The community doodle is from approximately 9 a.m. until noon.

 Youth Booth Kick-off

Visit the Youth Booth at the Riverwalk Market Fair Saturday, June 16 from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. to see the creations of eleven-year-olds Sam Wilmot and Nathan Olien of Northfield. They 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 wholes lives.” The young artists will be the first to use the new

Riverwalk Market Fair Youth Booth, which has been made possible by collaboration between Riverwalk Market Fair, Healthy Community Initiative, Women in Northfield Giving Support (known as WINGS) and the NorthfieldEnterprise Center. The mission of the Youth booth is to grow local entrepreneurs, so please join in supporting these budding local entrepreneurs at the Riverwalk Market Fair this weekend!

Featured Artist and Farmer, June 16, 2012

Watercolorist rekindles childhood passion

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, Minnesota, 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 andcustom commissions for her art. Her passion for painting nowincludes teaching watercolor classes, as well.

A sustainable partnership

Andrew Ehrmann and Betsy Allister own Spring Wind Farm (www.springwind.org) in Waterford township. 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.

This is their third season at Riverwalk Market Fair, and every Saturday morning they pick everything that’s in season and bring it to Fair, fresh from the field. This coming Saturday they expect to have peas, summer squash, beets, salad greens, scallions, radishes, and more. “Riverwalk Market Fair just keeps getting better!” Betsy says, adding that she and Andrew love hearing what people have cooked with their veggies.

They also sell their vegetables through their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program, and wholesale to local institutions. Some of their favorite crops are some 20 varieties of heirloom tomatoes; a spectrum of red, gold and purple potatoes; and dry beans.

Andrew and Betsy plan to marry this August, continuing a partnership that has borne many fruits including a thriving sustainable farm in our community.

Musical Highlight: The Clydes- June 16

Musical Highlight: The Clydes

The Clydes are two thirds of Bonnie and the Clydes, regulars at Northfield’s popular musical venues, The Contented Cow and The Tavern. The Clydes are Scott McMillan and Bill McGrath. Bonnie Jean Flom will join them at Riverwalk Market Fair later this season. The group describes their music as the as “the kind of songs you listened to when you and friends were renting your first apartment near the campus sometime in the sixties or early seventies and your entire furniture contribution to the apartment consisted of a mattress and a coffee table made from a telephone company wooden spool. . .” To learn more, visit http://bonnieandtheclydes.com.