Rural Enterprise Center

A religious music group formed by musicians from Northfield and Faribault will hold a public concert on the parking lot of St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in Northfield on July 5th from 6 to 10 pm.

I met Roberto Ibanez over 9 months ago when he was looking for a place to record a solo disk. My neighbor Craig Wasner, happens to have a state-of-the art recording studio and was willing to donate his time to support this new entrepreneur. What came out of that process is a recorded disk that Roberto (Charlie) will have available at the concert on July 5th.

Roberto is not in this alone, he plays with other musicians from Northfield, and his group joined another group from Faribault recently as a way to put together the outdoor concert and introduce themselves to the wider community. I was invited to visit their rehearsing room at the Catholic church in Faribault last week, I took some pictures and recorded one of the songs that they were rehearsing.

Despite my inexperience with supporting artists, we are doing what we do for every entrepreneur, getting the word out about their work, helping them envision their business within a larger market context and supporting their business planning process to reduce their risks and increase their chances of success, those elements apply to all enterprises so we are happy to be part of this experience with this group.

On the drums is Carlos.

Efrain on the guitar

On the base is B.To Ibanez (Charlie), B for Beto, Beto for Roberto.

Not pictured: Oscar, Camen, Jose Luis and Miguel who play different instruments and will be at the concert on July 5th.

Here is also a short digital video that I took while visiting and that they gave me permision to post.

I had the chance to have Cecilia Alvarez from the Enterprise Assistance Fund in Montevideo, MN visit us today.  With her was Chuck Waibel, owner of Garden Goddess Produce in Milan, MN.  Chuck is a researcher and producer of vegetables for winter distribution, a really interesting operation that grows and stores food in the summer and distributes it in the winter.  We have a lot to learn from these folks as we look into the winter months for our production in Northfield and other areas.

Chuck also produces vegetables during the winter through a system of solar heated greenhouses that require a very small amount of heat during the coldest weeks of the year.  He is sharing all of this data with us in Northfield and the blue prints for a chicken/greenhouse that he has developed with the purpose of extending the chicken growing season as well as combining their production with vegetables under the same facilities, also taking advantage of the heat generated by the birds.

Kay Fernholz was also part of the contingent, whom, with her sister Annette run Earth Rise Farm out of Madison, MN.  They established a foundation as the legal entity behind their farming operation and training center.

I had learned from these folks back in 2001 and then again recently as we assembled a statewide network of resources to support Latino families getting into agriculture.  Recently, our partnership work with the Land Stewardship Project on farm management training brought us back to looking at Earth Rise Farm as we envision a physical location in the western part of the state where we can launch a program of this kind.

Working with Cecilia Alvarez to strengthen our links, and to share experiences for the benefit our Latino communities around rural MN has been very productive.  In the coming months, we will be learning more about Chuck\’s winter production methods and as we train Latino/a farmers in the Northfield/Faribault area, we will incorporate this new technologies and production and marketing methods.

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to meet a very nice group of people who are ready to take initiative and launch their businesses in our region.

Carlos Miguel Paredez Valiente, used to own a business in Mexico City, he started a company that consolidated sells of bus tickets to destinations all over the country. He now lives in Northfield and is exploring two possible business opportunities, one in regional tourism, and another in transportation. This exploratory process should clear the picture for him so that we can concentrate on a business planning process to launch him on the best option.

Clemente Lopez Arcos, is also from Mexico City, he lives in Northfield and has been interested in learning more about sustainable home building. He is looking to explore the possibility of starting a solar electrical systems company, to include solar panels, solar shingles, and passive-solar heating and other similar systems.

I ended the day meeting with three other people who have come together to start a residential remodeling company. They are Isidory Cornelio “Izzy” a graduate of Northfield High School, Gabriel R. Hitzil and Marie Langlie. A fourth member to this partnership was unavailable for today’s meeting.

Over the coming weeks, we will be holding exploratory and business planning meetings with these folks as we continue to chart a course of action for each of their initiatives.

On Sunday June 1st, I also traveled to Worthington where I met with food vendors and other business owners. My primary purpose for this trip was to meet with Adolfo Avila, an business consulting officer with the Southwest Initiative Foundation. Adolfo provides business consulting services to Latino/a business owners in the region and crosses over to Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation’s 20 county South-central region.

My specific purpose was to discuss Adolfo’s own farm operation out of Tracy, Minnesota and his interest in distributing our Northfield grown poultry in that part of the state. He is well connected and respected in the region and a good marketing partner to our organization.

Adolfo owns a 10 acre farm just west of Tracy and is interested in exploring using his farm as another training center for the region’s emerging Latino farmers. Having raised pigs in the past, he already knows the challenges and opportunities associated with livestock and will be a good asset to our rural farmers network.

We have now assembled a group large enough to organize our second formal general business training workshop. After visiting with over 25 business owners, we now have 15 who have asked for business management training. We will organize this training in cooperation with established partners such as the Southern MN Initiative Foundation, the Southwest Initiative Foundation, the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce, the Northfield Enterprise Center, the Northfield Community Action Center and the Faribault Diversity Coalition.