Homegrown Food-Supply Industry Emerging within South Dakota

Backyard gardening remains a central hobby and therapeutic pastime throughout South Dakota. A large part of our personal motivation in this rural state stems from families connecting to their farming roots and little by little getting back to the land and to nature.

       Most gardeners relish the opportunity to grow vegetables abundantly and cheaply right at home, involving the whole family, right through to the time later spent in the kitchen preparing a meal—then perhaps eating at a table set under a tree outdoors or deck umbrella. In short, gardeners tend to be happy people, knowing that the food they consume is loaded with a lot more taste and nutrition and variety than is possible at local supermarkets. Long supply chains take their toll.  Compromises are made.

     Now the South Dakota Specialty Producers Association is showing families how they can turn a pleasing hobby into a livelihood. The demand for locally-grown food goes well beyond popular farmer’s markets. Restaurants and hospitals are two of many local industries that the SDSPA knows are central to the South Dakota’s burgeoning tourist industry. It is ready to provide support, teaching startup families and individuals the ins and outs of every aspect of these small businesses.

   One tool that the SDSPA especially does well at organizing are tours that would-be entrepreneurs can learn by seeing for themselves.

   A Black Hills gardening website describes how–on Friday, August 9th–such a greenhouse and growing-for-health tour will take place in Custer.  It is free, but requires a RSVP. Starting at noon, it includes a medical presentation by Wyatt O’Day, MD, “Healing through Meditation and Nutrition.”  Food and health are synonymous.

     The sidebar off the above link shows an additional tour that will feature growing with hydroponics at Happy Hydros in mid-state  Pukwana on Sunday, July 28, 2019, where “Mark & Teal Scholl of Happy Hydros specialize in growing pesticide-free hydroponic vegetables including tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce. The produce is grown in greenhouses, providing a space for year-round production of lettuce and an extended season for the other crops.”

       South Dakota’s future will look brighter once its people become more independent of national and international suppliers.  Same with politics. Survivalism takes many forms.  Growing livestock and chickens answers to the same call.  Homesteading is a good fit for South Dakotans.