Lakeland PBS presents Common Ground, brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Production funding for Common Ground is made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community.

Member FDIC.

Closed captioning is made possible by the Bemidji Regional Airport, serving the region with daily flights to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

More information is available at bemidjiairport.org I'm Producer/Director Kelsey Jacobson.

In this episode we explore the Northland Arboretum as it changes from summer to the dead of winter.

Okay so you got to pull it really hard and then make sure you let your hands go back in.

Nice pull back in.

This is a one of the houses that would be used possibly by eastern bluebirds.

They like open areas.

They like a little prairie.

My name is Trevor Pumnea.

I'm the Executlive Director of the Northland Arboretum in Brainerd and Baxter region.

Prior to this life I was a director of Parks and Recreation and before that I was Parks and Recreation faculty.

So I was looking to transition into the nonprofit world and they had 413 acres of developed land out here and I figured it'd be a good fit for me as a land manager.

From the winter obviously we have Sertoma's Winter Wonderland out at the Arboretum.

My name is Eric Larson.

I'm the chair of Sertoma Winter Wonderland and also the president of the club.

Sertoma Winter Wonderland started in 2007.

There were some club members that wanted to start a drive-thru Christmas light display and that's what they did.

We start going through the displays in early October and then we wait till after Haunted Trails is done to set up out here and so that gives us about 3 weeks to get the displays set up and the tunnels and stuff.

Mike's Tree Service gets the displays up usually in a day or two and then it takes us two additional days to get the tunnels.

Lots of lights.

We've got displays anywhere from 6 feet tall to, you know, 30 feet tall.

The Sertomans enjoy putting this on.

The funds that are raised go back to our nonprofit partners which is the Crisis Line, Relationship Safety Alliance, Camp Confidence, and then the Arboretum and we just hope that we're succeeding in creating a family tradition.

We are open Thursday through Saturday nights starting at 5:30 till 8:00 and that is the schedule until Christmas.

We're open Christmas Eve and then every day from Christmas to New Year's Eve.

I enjoy the faces of the kids they get to go through and see the lights and that's one of the main reasons that I became involved in Sertoma and why I'm involved in Winter Wonderland.

We also do snowshoeing, we do guided nature hikes, we do tons of cross country skiing.

We maintain and groom about 20 km of trails as well, so anytime you're out here you'll see plenty of people utilizing our property for cross country skiing and winter activities.

You can check our website for all of the available classes.

A lot of people will come out here any given day of the week, but if you're looking for a guided hike or a guided cross country skiing or guided snow shoe then you can check our website and our Facebook page for updates.

He is no longer living, he died of natural causes and he was donated to science so that you guys can learn from him.

He's very happy in his box, we treat him very well.

He's already got a name.

So we're a member-driven organization, most of our people that utilize the Arboretum do so through a membership program though you can attend as the public there is a small fee for our instructors that offer those courses.

I think it's really important to the community to have something like a Central Park located between two major cities up in the Brainerd Lakes Area.

We have 413 acres of land out here and we have an extensive trail system for people to utilize.

I think it's important just for people to be able to get away from the city and have that connectedness to nature.

Our three main pillars are recreation, conservation, and education.

So at any point we might be running a summer camp.

So when you're looking for something and you just going to oh I saw birds so do you go like this and try to find them?

Yeah.

No, you see that thing that you're looking at and you keep your eye on that and then you bring your binoculars up right to your face that way.

My name is Jane Stevens.

I'm the education coordinator here at Northland Arboretum.

We're getting binoculars ready to go for a walk looking for birds.

We have a spring break nature camp for kids from second grade to sixth grade just to give them a break from family, give Mom and Dad a break during spring break time.

They're here, we have a different topic each day, today we're learning about loons and other birds and bird calls.

Tomorrow is another topic and then Thursday is our last day.

And while we were out walking I asked the kids you know do you like this, is it different from school, and I think they like it.

It's a chance to learn some interesting stuff but we don't give them tests and it's not real hard it's just teaching them some fun things about nature and I think they enjoy that hey look at this cool stuff mom, guess what I learned about loons today, just some fun things that are outside of their normal school day.

We try to give them a lesson inside and then go outside and explore and learn about and maybe try to find those things that we talked about during the lesson so we give them something to think about.

We talked about birds and bird calls, we did a short lesson on binoculars this morning, and then we put on binoculars went out for a walk and tried to find different birds.

We also do summertime nature camp which is every Thursday from the middle of June to the middle of August and we do the same thing, we do a lesson inside and we do a lot of things outside just to try to get them out in nature.

They can't bring their phones or social media with them.

We're just trying to get away from the game playing, teach them what's out in the woods and personally I want to teach the kids to love it as much as I do.

That's what it's all about, learning to love nature and what's out there.

They're happy to be here, I think, the kids seem to have a lot of fun.

This is just a cool opportunity too to make new friends.

There's several different elementary schools in Brainerd and a lot of these kids don't know each other.

They're making new friends and learning new things.

There's just always a lot of stuff going on out at the Arboretum from concert series and festivals to Haunted Trail events.

My name is Harry Worm.

I am the owner of Clayhill Farm and Forest here in Brainerd.

That's what that is.

We've been working with the Arboretum probably since 2018.

Mostly what we do with the Arboretum has to do with our maple syrup.

We do a class for the Arboretum, we call it Maple Syrup 101, for people who are interested in maybe learning or starting to make maple syrup on their own.

When we did the farm tour this year with the Arboretum we had already tapped all of our trees and we had been working for probably 2 weeks collecting sap and making syrup.

There's a sound that it makes when it's seated and if we pound it in too far it'll create a stress spot and it could actually create a stress fracture.

We have met people from everywhere, not only Minnesota but lots of different states, Illinois and Indiana Michigan that have come here to watch us make syrup.

That has been really cool.

Also syrup coming out of the boiler is the best.

You never have better syrup than when it is just finished cooking and comes out of that boiler just before we filter it.

This year we had a very good contrast in our syrup.

It started out early in late February, that's a little early, and that syrup was very light colored and sweet, had a light maple flavor which is pretty typical.

Then as the season progresses the syrup gets darker and the maple flavor becomes stronger and a little bit of the sweetness kind of falls away so the end will be more mapley, heavier maple flavor and taste a little less sweet, where the beginning will be pretty sweet and less maple flavored.

My name is Judy Worm and I am a co-owner of Clayhill Farm and Forest along with my husband.

So our farm is 100 acres here and then plus we farm an additional 300 acres that is nearby or adjacent and we practice sustainable farming practices, regenerative that we are being stewards of the land, air, and water as well.

Most of the open land is into forage and hay crop and we have beef cattle.

We now have goats as well and they help us with the brush control in our maple syrup wood.

And then the other product that we produce is maple syrup, so that is our spring activity and we tap about 600 trees for our production.

Best thing about the production of it is being being able to sample all of the different batches and then when we're all done with a batch cleaning out the pans, we do a lot of sampling of that maple syrup so that of course is just kind of a fun personal thing.

Having people come out here and see and understand, to see our farm, to see who we are and that education piece.

That's my background anyway is education and so the more we can expose people to where their food comes from It's really cool to see people taste that and go wow!

But we have had people come and come and watch this process and then tell us well we didn't see where you added the maple flavor because when you taste the sap it just tastes a little bit sweet that's all you taste but it's just that they just don't understand the whole process of making syrup, which syrup is nothing more than sap that comes from a maple tree and you remove a whole bunch of water from it and you end up with syrup.

Come to really appreciate how the woods and how the farm how the land wakes up from winter because you spend a lot of time out in the woods where it's quiet and maybe you're drilling a hole in a tree or tapping a tree but a lot of times you're cleaning brush or just repairing lines and then you get to hear the first blue jay come back or the first cardinal or when the first robins come back you can actually hear the Earth renew from the dead of Winter to Spring and into Summer.

Making maple syrup started out with us with just a small 10 trees and a propane cooker and one pan, and it is grown to a a large commercial-based boiler, 600 trees, and many of our friends coming to help us collect the sap and enjoy the syrup.

Here in a pot we add to it as we cook it.

There's a bunch of minerals in that sap.

It's just really cool.

That's what really does the filtering to be able to make really good food out of the woods, it's really a cool thing.

I grew up with a garden with my mom and I've done my own garden but I wanted to train a young woman I'm mentoring, a 16 year-old actually, and she couldn't be here today so I thought it'd be a good thing for us to do together and she couldn't be here today unfortunately.

She came last night but the storm kept us away.

So hopefully those come up.

So therapeutic, love it.

But the Giving Gardens are a premium resource for the community.

Essentially what they do is that the University of Minnesota has a Master Gardener program.

The Master Gardeners come out here and do G 101, so they rent the space from us to use for gardening, they learn all about gardening, different types of horticultural techniques, things like that.

The big thing for us is at the end of the season they donate all of the produce to the local food shelves.

It goes to Garrison, goes to Emily, goes to the colleges, and so we've identified groups in Crow Wing County who are experiencing food insecurity and last year they donated over 2,500 lbs of fresh produce to those individuals.

Yeah, I mean I think everybody's starting to notice, city of Brainerd, city of Baxter, Crow County Commissioners, a lot of people have been out here to look at the Giving Gardens.

They see the decomposed granite and we added wheelchair accessible raised garden beds so people of all abilities next year will be able to give back to the community in a meaningful way.

We just want to open it up to all people but we also want to highlight what we're doing in the community.

Yes there are beautiful botanical gardens out here, yes we have beautiful trails, but we also want to, you know, exemplify what we're doing to serve our community as well.

I'm Dan Lee.

I'm the president of the Northland Arboretum and on the state advisory board for the Master Gardeners.

This is my wife Jennifer Lee.

And I am the President of Crow Wing County Master Gardeners.

Now we just cover it up and then we have our pepper right here.

here.

It's coming.

I guess get it off of there.

So we're here today at the Giving Gardens.

It's a project that we started in 2020 at the start of the pandemic and what we do here is a group of Master Gardeners throughout the summer have planted garden stocks that they harvest for donation to the local food shelves.

Since 2020, in Crow Wing County we've donated well over 9,000 lbs of food to the local food shelves here in Crow Wing County.

So today's harvest is going to be predominantly we're in the height of bean season and we have a number of different types of beans that we will be picking, cucumbers, some zucchini, yellow squash, apples because we have some trees in the orchard that are ready to drop some of the apples and we want to get those, some peas and some herbs and those will all be delivered to a local organization.

Today will be the Salvation Army.

So we actually harvest on Mondays and Thursdays and that will go through to the end of September.

And on Mondays we deliver food that goes out of the Brainerd corridor.

This last week it was delivered to Garrison, next week it will go up to Cayuna food shelf and the following week will be Emily.

And on Thursdays we stick within the Brainerd corridor, Salvation Army, Relationship Alliance, Crow Wing Women and Children and Social Services, The Lighthouse and Sharing Bread Kitchen are all recipients of the produce that is growing here.

Especially as we get a little bit further into the season, when it's really bountiful, we try to divide it up so that several organizations get a decent amount of food to help with their guests and clients.

The other thing that you'll see today is a lot of our Master Gardeners have their own personal gardens and they're more than willing to share the abundance from their personal gardens and will bring some of that produce in here to be added to what we're harvesting here today.

The weather can be horrible out here but you will not see a frown anywhere because every one of the volunteers that come comes out here and does this finds some peace in this, finds some joy in this.

They feel like they're giving back to the community and that's what the Master Gardener program is about, it's educating people as well as giving back to the communities that we serve and this is a great example of that.

So if you're here to visit the gardens, we have some really beautiful botanical gardens, you can start at the entrance and you'll notice just right when you get into the parking lot you'll notice there's a butterfly garden, which is a pollinator garden, and then we have the rain garden which is designed to capture rain and it's really a research project that's an ongoing project.

So we've renovated that site thanks to some generous volunteers and donors, so that site looks really nice.

You can go to the Gazebo Garden which is one of our premier gardens.

It's a massive garden, a really immersive experience, starts early spring and it runs all the way into the fall.

Walk a little bit farther you can go down by Monet Pond.

You can go over the bridge, you can check out the lady slippers if your timing's right, and you can walk all the way back to the Memorial Garden.

The Memorial Garden got some recent renovations.

We added a waterfall, it has a water feature, and they've been working really hard to renovate that garden.

Again, just one of our premier gardens.

We have some really beautiful botanical gardens out here, excellent volunteers, the Garden Club, The Master Gardeners everybody works so hard to keep those spaces nice throughout the year so I think it is one of our biggest assets and I feel like it's bit of a community secret so it'd be nice to see some people out here enjoying them.

Coming around to the other door with our produce.

Here bring us your cart.

We brought you some apples today fresh off the tree.

I'm going to do this, I know that's probably not where you wanted it.

Well we've been working on this thing called Regional Designation.

In 5 or 10 years I see this being a regional park.

If we can get Regional Designation it opens up a slew of funding opportunities from the state and different funding agencies to allow us to really become a premier recreation site.

It would open up the opportunities for recreation site development.

We could add additional bathrooms, we could have accessible trails where people with mobility impairments could, you know, use their wheelchairs or they could push a stroller out here, we could have a ski chalet.

I mean once you get Regional Designation the sky's the limit.

Like the Cuyuna Mines or Spirit Mountain up in Duluth, they're all examples of great regional parks that have obtained Regional Designation and got this premier regional status and so that's the goal, that's what we're shooting for and I think it's attainable for the Northland Arboretum.

Thank you for watching Common Ground.

If you have an idea for a Lakeland PBS production in north central Minnesota, email us at legacy@lptv.org or call 1-800-292-0922 To watch Lakeland PBS productions online visit lptv.org or download the free PBS app.

Production funding for Common Ground is made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community.

Member FDIC.

Closed captioning is made possible by the Bemidji Regional Airport, serving the region with daily flights to Minneapolis-St Paul International airport.

More information is available at bemidjiairport.org.

Common Ground is brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money by the vote of the people, November 4th, 2008