Calling all past, present, and future Co-op Volunteers – join your Rooted Carrot Co-op for a volunteer appreciation celebration!

Volunteers ARE the Rooted Carrot Co-op!! 

Everyone who has invested time to bring the Rooted Carrot Co-op closer to opening is invited to a Volunteer Appreciation picnic at Washington Park in Cedar Falls. If you worked on a grant, helped set up the tent at a farmer’s market, dressed a Rooty, donated a door prize for the Fall Food Festival last fall, or any of the other many tasks that add up to this amazing cooperative, collective effort, YOU ARE APPRECIATED! Please come so we can all show it! 

When: Wednesday, August 12th, starting at 5:30 pm

Where: Washington Park Shelter, Cedar Falls (East end of 9th St, by the playground)

Who: Family and friends are welcome!

RSVP: Please RSVP by 5:00 pm Monday, August 10th using the link below

Dinner will be provided by the board, with vegetarian and gluten-free options available. Feel free to bring a special dish to share, if you wish, as well as a lawn chair.

Please RSVP at:  https://bit.ly/RCCMVolunteerAppreciation2026

Come join your co-op friends, including board members, to enjoy a cup of coffee, share ideas, and ask any questions you have about your co-op. 

We’ll gather at Jessie’s Java on August 15th at 9:00 am.

Hope to see you there!

What happens to the trash after it is picked up? How is Black Hawk County managing the waste that is collected at the county landfill? 

Many people attended the informational recycling event we hosted at UNI in 2024. There were many thoughtful questions, and John Foster, the Solid Waste & Resource Recovery Administrator at the Black Hawk County Solid Waste Management Commission, shared some important information. 

Join John on Saturday, August 22, from 10:00-11:00 am for a tour of the landfill to take the next step in learning about waste management in Black Hawk County! To plan for the size of our group, please RSVP HERE before Tuesday, August 18th. You will receive an email with specific information about the meeting place as the date approaches. 

7 Things I Learned Working on Local Farms

Richard Ross, Board Member and Community Partner Coordinator

When I first started working on local farms, I thought I was signing up to help with a few chores, spend time outdoors, learn how local food is made, and where it comes from. What I didn’t expect was how much the farms would teach me about life. Here are seven lessons I took away from my time working on local farms:

1. Things Change

When I first arrived, there was a lush orchard, bordering on overgrown. Fruit trees stretched into one another, brambles crowded the edges, and everything seemed full of possibility. By winter, the same landscape appeared empty and dormant. Leaves fall. Branches break. Working there taught me that change isn’t an interruption to the process. Change is the process.

2. Old Growth Must Be Shed Before New Growth Can Happen

Pruning always felt wrong at first. Why cut back healthy branches? But trees need light, airflow, and space to thrive. The healthiest thing for future growth is often removing what no longer serves a purpose. Renewal almost always begins with removal.

3. Death Is Part of Life

The first time I found a diseased chicken in a hen house, I panicked. After hours of Googling and phone calls, the owners got in touch and said, “Leave it be. It will either get better or it won’t.” Two days later, it hadn’t. 

More Googling. How do you ethically dispose of a dead chicken?

The owners called again and said, “Pick it up with a shovel and throw it in the field.” They said nature would take care of the rest. And it did. It felt harsh, but it was honest. Growth, decay, and renewal are all part of the same cycle.

4. Hard Work Pays Off

There is no substitute for hard work. A good harvest starts months before the crop is picked. The work done in spring and summer shows up in the fall, if you’re lucky. Sometimes frost, drought, or hungry deer undo your efforts.

What I learned is that hard work must become an end in itself. If you only work when success is guaranteed, you’ll never begin. The value comes from showing up consistently, even when the outcome is uncertain.  

The habit of hard work changes you long before it changes your circumstances.

5. Stuff Breaks

A surprising amount of farming involves fixing things. Fences lean, water lines leak, tires go flat, and equipment breaks at the worst possible moment. Maintenance is never finished. The work taught me that success often comes from addressing small problems before they become big ones.

6. Solutions Don’t Have to Be Perfect, They Just Have to Work

Farms run on ingenuity. Broken gates get patched with baling twine. Missing parts are replaced with whatever is on hand. Perfect solutions are rare; workable solutions are everywhere. Progress usually comes from action, not perfection.

7. The Universe Doesn’t Care About Your Plans

You can do everything right and still lose a crop to a storm, a drought, or a pest outbreak. Nature follows its own rules. At first, that can feel frustrating. Eventually, it becomes liberating. You learn to focus on what you can control and let go of what you can’t. You do the work. You make the plan. Then you adapt.

Working on local farms taught me practical skills, but the bigger lessons had little to do with growing food. Change is constant, hard work matters, nothing lasts forever, and nature always gets the final say.

National Farmers Market Week 2026 takes place from

Help us celebrate our Cedar Valley local farmers, producers, and artisans!

Prep time: 10 minutes
Bake time: 15 minutes
Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour*
• 1/2 tablespoon butter*
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 3 ounces cream cheese*
• 3 cups boneless chicken breast, chopped and cooked*
• 3/4 teaspoon cumin, divided
• 2 garlic cloves**
• 2 4.5-ounce cans green chiles, chopped
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced (optional if spicy isn’t your thing)
• 1 1/4 cups Mexican blend cheese, shredded
• 1 onion, diced**
• 1 teaspoon salt, divided
• 8 soft tortillas, 6-inch
• 1 teaspoon canola oil
• 1/4 cup low-fat plain yogurt*

*Available at Hansen’s Dairy stores
**Available seasonally at Hansen’s Dairy stores

Remember to Shop Local!

Link to Full Recipe: https://www.usdairy.com/recipes/easy-cheesy-chicken-enchiladas-with-yogurt-sauce

Link: https://www.mainstreetwaterloo.org/calendar

Marian Kuper, Board Treasurer

When you think about a start-up food co-operative that doesn’t yet have a storefront, the Rooted Carrot Co-operative Market certainly comes to mind. We’ve been working toward our vision for many years – fourteen, if you count from the moment the idea was hatched. Twelve, if you count from our incorporation year (2014). Lots of hiccups along the way, too.

Think that’s a long time to work and strive toward a fabulous idea before it bears fruit?

Ever hear of Wasatch Food Co-operative in Utah?

Seventeen years ago, the Wasatch Food Co-op’s initial, tiny group of members got together in a neighborhood in Salt Lake City and started to dream. Optimism and a can-do spirit helped drive them forward, but hard work, grit, know-how and determination proved especially essential. It shepherded them through COVID, money woes and more than one plan that ran aground against unanticipated roadblocks. Discouragement often reigned.

But the group kept its nose to the grindstone and its eyes on the future. Sound familiar?

Their vision persisted. Hard lessons got learned. Those members simply saw no reason why they couldn’t make a food-co-op storefront a reality in their community, and so they kept at it.

They found board members with business backgrounds, marketing expertise, financial chops and legal expertise. They recruited all kinds of volunteers. They developed relationships with local truck farmers, ranchers, politicians and public safety officials. They went to conferences and met like-minded individuals trying to do these very same things in their own communities – a goldmine of ideas and inspiration. They arranged marketing studies and hammered out business plans.

It still didn’t look feasible. It still wasn’t a ‘go.’

So they raised more money, worked even harder than before, kept their frustrations in check, crunched the numbers and consulted people who knew the community grocery business inside and out.

They also had a lucky break or two along the way.

One day, three years ago, an opportunity presented itself. The business sense they had mutually developed allowed them to see a potentially feasible path open up. But it was risky. Taking those risks into consideration, they jumped. They “went all in.” There was no going back, after that. It was now-or-never.

What they did three years ago was sign a lease on a building and then launch a major capital campaign. Their plan indicated that they’d need to raise – gulp – $2.8 million dollars.

That’s because leasehold improvements, refrigeration equipment, several months of pre- opening managerial and staff salaries, training for those hires, the initial stocking of the store and a big marketing plan were all going to be needed. It was the only way to ensure that the full-service grocery store they’d envisioned for so long would not only get established properly, but thrive, grow and become a fully sustainable business capable of operating on its own in years to come.

This $2.8 million dollar capital campaign was above and beyond the $300-per-person membership fee that many Wasatch Food Co-op members had already paid in.

But the Wasatch Co-op board took the gamble that they could raise the money. And that’s exactly what they did. They went out and raised it. And these dollars paved the way for the store to open.

The Wasatch Food Co-operative held its grand opening on May 20 of this year. It was a huge community event, and the co-op is off to a tremendous start. We’re cheering them on.

And we can hardly think of a better example to follow. Onward!

Stop by the booth to say hello and pick up a yard sign!

Stop by the booth to say hello and pick up a yard sign!