Happy Valentine's Day! Treat Yourself, Soil Lovers!
- Kriss Marion
- Feb 14
- 3 min read
Here at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, we celebrate soil lovers of all kinds every day! Today we're encouraging you to celebrate yourself by buying some soil-building Fields Best Small Batch Grains products - either on-line, at the Oak Creek Winter Farmers Market, or at our upcoming 9th Annual Seed Swap Social. When you purchase Fields Best products, you support our MFAI research trials and other local farmers who are helping us test and develop regenerative grains like Kernza, buckwheat, and alternative cover crops. Good for the earth and good for you!
Join Us at the Oak Creak Winter Farmers Market TODAY!
We are at the Oak Creek Winter Farmers Market every Saturday through April from 9-1pm, at the Oak Creek Community Center, 8580 S. Howell Avenue, Oak Creek, WI. Today there are lots of Valentine's Specials and treats and raffles and kettle corn popping fresh outside.
Next Saturday, we'll have our Fields Best Products at our 9th Annual Seed Swap Social!
For eight years this event has taken place at MFAI's well-known building in East Troy, WI. MFAI is no longer based in that building and as of 2026, we have moved to our New Farm on Pickerel Lake Road in East Troy. We have an equipment shed, but no event venue at that facility.
However, we're still Seed Swappin', thanks to long-term and dedicated volunteers Michelle Washebek-Hackett, Shelly Black, and Xue White, along with MFAI Research Director Dr. Nicole Tautges.
This year, we are grateful for the support of historic Bethel United Methodist Church and community garden volunteers Diane Bustamante and Tim Middleton, who kindly invited us to have the Annual Seed Swap in their historic church building at the intersection of County A and Route 12/67 in Elkhorn. They will lead tours of their historic sanctuary and new community garden and food forest, for those who are interested.
We are also super excited to have a soil block and milk jug greenhouse demo presented by our friend Amber MaHaffy of Urban Amber Gardening. BRING A MILK JUG and she will send you home with a little greenhouse to start seeds indoors or out. Amber will be available between 9 and 11am. She will bring extra milk jugs if you don't have any of your own. We will also have face painting and other activities for kids, and a bake sale to support our MFAI Research Department.
"Michael Fields Institute has been happy to see our Seed Swap community grow over the many years we have hosted this event. Each year we see old friends, and meet new ones," says Dr. Nicole. "We love seeing the joy in seed sharing and have observed many generous and unique plant sharing ideas over the years—we even had one year people bring beautiful lavender bundles! I'm so excited to see this community again, and with new friends (Bethel) involved as well. Bring whatever from your garden and nature that brings you joy, if you can, or if you are new and need some seeds to get started, we will welcome you with open arms! All are welcome at our 2026 Seed Swap."
We will have a full table of Fields Best Small Batch Grains products available for purchase and our Kernza Queen Dr. Nicole to answer your regenerative grain questions. Did you know she has a PhD in GRAINS?
Join us, bring friends and family, and celebrate Spring on the way! Click HERE for more info and directions.
Fields Best Products are Always Available Online!
If you can't make it in person to purchase Fields Best this weekend or next, don't worry, we got you! Our flours and baking mixes are always available on-line - and we can drop them off to you or ship them, depending on where you live. We have customers all over the country!
If you want to treat someone else, just leave us a note in the message field and we can send a gift card, stickers, and tissue paper in the package.
