The days of harvest are over, and now the land and our farm staff look forward to a restful winter. As we wind down operations for the season, we want to reflect and share the accomplishments of our team. With the leadership of our Farm Manager, Starr, and the dedication of our AmeriCorps Food Corps team leads and crew members, the farm flourished this season.
This year has been our most abundant season yet; we produced over 7,100 lbs of fruit and vegetables on our 1.5-acre farm. This surpasses the 5,100 lbs produced in 2025. That’s a 40% increase in production in one year! To put that into perspective, an adult male bison weighs over 2,000 lbs, while a female bison weighs over 1,000 lbs. That means our harvest weighed roughly as much as a small herd of bison: three males and one female. Our most successful crop this year was the cucumber, with over 1,000 lbs of slicing and pickling varieties harvested, making up 14% of our total harvest. And just how much is 1,000 lbs of cucumbers? About the weight of an entire adult female moose! That’s right, we harvested a whole moose’s worth of cucumbers!
The mission of the Ecolibrium3 Urban Farm is to provide agricultural education, community building, and increased food access to our Lincoln Park and Duluth community. While we’re proud of how much food we’ve grown this season, the true measure of our success goes beyond the harvest. It’s about what that food makes possible: education, community connections, and greater access to fresh, locally grown food.
This year, our Farm Saturdays program series hosted 18 free workshops and events, welcoming more than 150 visitors to explore the farm, connect with our team, and learn more about the food growing in their community. Additionally, we welcomed over 180 participants through group visits and educational programs to explore the farm and make local agricultural connections. In total, we had over 300 visitors to the farm this season. If you would like to read more about our community connections this season, you can read October’s farm blog for more details.
Alongside these opportunities for learning and connection, we continued working toward another important goal: ensuring the food grown at the farm could directly benefit our community. The majority of our produce went to LNPK Grocery’s Sidewalk Samples, where 66% of our total harvest—or over 4,700 pounds—was distributed for free to our community. The other 44% of our total harvest—or 2,400 pounds—was donated to Lake Superior College’s Icehawk Food Pantry, Chum, and the Duluth Center for Women and Children. In order to sustainably increase food access for our community, we are considering how we can get local produce into the hands of our neighbors and tackle this issue together.
It has been our privilege to share the abundance of this season’s harvest with our Lincoln Park neighbors and Duluth community. In 2027, we look forward to continuing to serve our community and being a place for connections and agricultural education. Most importantly, we hope to continue sharing the harvest with our neighbors.
To stay informed about future farm events and updates, check out the farm’s webpage, sign up to volunteer, and follow Eco3 on Facebook and Instagram!