Up North: Clover Valley Farm Trail provides local athletes with healthier food options

With Labor Day weekend now behind us, it’s that last weekend of summer to eat all the junk food that you want. But for athletes, it’s the time to tap in and start eating healthier. The Clover Valley Farm Trail makes that easy for them.

“It’s a collective effort among 11 of us farmers in Clover Valley,” says Julie Allen, Co-owner Sorestad, one of the farms along the trail. “It’s basically a collective marketing effort to bring people to each of our own farm stands. This is the first year it’s ever happened, and we hope it’ll be the first of many.”

Being in the Northland, many people are health conscious, including more than 240,000 students in the MSHSL who are always looking for a competitive edge through not only the weight room, but what they put in their bodies.

“There’s a million reasons to eat local,” said Allen. “But the healthfulness is a big one. The freshness you can taste, that is actually the nutrients you’re tasting.

Organic produce is known for containing more antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids, which help counteract heart disease and inflammation in young athletes.

While this is the trail’s first year, multiple people visited more than ten stands modeled after Bayfield’s “Fruit Loop”. Those stands spanned from farming communities between Duluth and Two Harbors, giving athletes in those areas a hyperlocal option.

“This is peak season, so this is the time to eat locally. The very best time. Everything is ripe and ready right now,” concluded Allen.