Visit the historic Red Barn, discover the past, present and future of agriculture, explore Minnesota farm crops, and get tips on growing your own fruits and vegetables!
3210 W 82nd St, Chanhassen, MN 55317
Overview
Overview
For decades, visitors have admired from afar the historic red barn on the eastern edge of the Arboretum. This well-loved landmark is celebrating a rebirth as it enters its second century. Careful renovations will soon be complete and it will become the focal point for an exciting new food growing campus. Whether you take Farm’s Northern Grains Walk through plots of major Minnesota crops or explore its demonstration area of fruit and vegetables to try at home, interactive interpretive displays will prime your curiosity and set the stage for intriguing conversations about food production, the people who grow our food, and the enduring value of the land.
Features
Features
1) Tashjian Bee & Pollinator Discovery Center
Watch the honey bee hives in action and explore the interactive exhibit hall.
2) Garden for Pollinators
Observe gardens buzzing with activity from butterflies, hungry bees and other pollinators (May - October).
Coming in September 2019
3) Northern Grains Walk
Stroll through today’s agricultural crops such as soybeans, wheat, corn, oats, barley, rye and sunflowers. Check out potential crops of the future such as Kernza®, perennial flax, perennial sunflower and camelina. Visit each of the stop-and-learn interactive stations along the way.
4) Red Barn
Visit the iconic red barn! Carefully restored to preserve its history and beauty, interior banners celebrate the legacy of 30 varieties of northern fruits and grains developed by the University of Minnesota.
5) Vegetable Gardens
Visit a garden for growing vegetables on a homeowner or urban agriculture scale. Learn helpful tips on how to maximize vegetable production per square yard anywhere you want to grow.
6) Fruitful Way
Explore fruits that can thrive in your Minnesota yard or community garden such as apricots, plums, apples, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and currants! See plantings of hardy perennials that feed pollinators essential to these fruit crops.
7) Garden Gallery
This exhibit garden will serve as a rotating stage to showcase diverse crops and growing practices, envisioned and managed by a different Guest Curator each season.
8) Gathering Lawns
Enjoy the pastoral vistas from these two green oval “lawns” below the Red Barn. A great place for on-the-grass picnics, events, or community gatherings.
9) Summer Kitchen
Drop by this seasonal outdoor kitchen to taste samples of farm-fresh snacks. (Only open for special events in 2019)
10) Sweasy Learning Shelter
Bring a lunch and enjoy a picnic under this shelter next to Bee Center. Capacity 80 people.
Tool Shed Exhibit
April 1 - October 31 (closed Nov 1-Mar 31)
Monday - Friday 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Saturday - Sunday Noon - 4 p.m.
Coming in 2020
Apple Demonstration Plots
Explore how apples are grown commercially in Minnesota and view a living history University of Minnesota apple variety introductions, from the first apple developed through First Kiss.
Grape Demonstration Plots
View how grapes are grown commercially in northern climates, showcasing University of Minnesota varieties.
Orchard & Vineyard Walk
Adjacent to Eastern Drive, this accessible walkway loops around the demonstration Orchard & Vineyard (future developments) that will showcase apples and grapes
11) The Farmhouse Education Center
This building will serve as the welcome center for the Farm. It will include a classroom, a conference room, and will serve as the headquarters for the Extension Statewide Master Gardener Program and Arboretum Adult Education.
Proposed Future Developments
Compost & Living Soil Demonstration area
New Farm Public Entrance
Native on the Land Exhibit Garden
History
History
Land
The Arboretum’s Red Barn and Farm is on original tribal homeland of the Dakota people - as is the rest of the Arboretum property and the surrounding region. It became the farmstead of early Swiss immigrant farmers Theodore & Sophie Bost, who cleared the first fields beginning in the 1850s.
Barn
The historic Red Barn was built a century ago around 1920 by the Williams family. They had 32 cows and ran a small dairy farm here from the 1920s to the 1960s. The existing Red Barn on the site was built in 1920.
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota purchased the property in 1968.
Sustainable Horticulture Training Program
Spring Schedule February 3 - May 22
Monday 9 a.m. – 1p.m.
Tuesday and Wednesday, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Paid Work Experience
May 26 - August 30
14 weeks at partnering farm sites
Fall Schedule September 1 – October 8
Monday and Thursday, 9 a.m. – noon
Tuesday and Wednesday 8 am - noon
About
This program is a hands-on technical training in local food production for sale and community health. It is offered in collaboration with the University of Minnesota Department of Horticultural Science and Extension. Trainees receive a combination of classroom, lab and field experience at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and partnering farm sites. This includes a 14-week paid work experience in vegetable production at the Arboretum and local farms.
Program Overview
In the spring, the program focuses on the foundations of sustainable agriculture: horticultural plant science, soil fertility, pest management, greenhouse production, and food safety. The program also includes exposure to specialty topics by guest lecturers. Trainees also explore environmentalism and community building in group activities and discussions. The program structure is made of lectures, lab activities, and fieldwork to develop an employable and problem- solving trainee with applicable skills to the industry.
During the summer paid work experience, trainees will work a minimum of 24 hours per week on a commercial vegetable farm or garden. This intensive work experience applies concepts learned in the spring with on-the-job training. The trainee also completes an independent pest and disease management project, S.M.A.R.T goals, and a detailed notebook on farm management.
After the summer, each trainee creates a crop plan for the following year and presents in a public forum. Trainees continue field work at farm sites, completing their skill sets for the program. Finally, trainees create an up-to-date resume, a horticulture cover letter, and participate in a mock horticulture job interview.
Learn more
Training Program Overview Program Topics
Questions?
Contact Tim Wilson, Arboretum Farm Education Manager
trwilson@umn.edu
