Featured Programs and Interests

Through our Community Food Connection Program, LEC directly connects people to the land and to healthy, organic produce. We are able to confront the issues of food insecurity and sovereignty in our community collaboratively through a multi-faceted approach. From youth educational programming to navigating ways for emerging growers to enter the local food economy, LEC works with our Community Partners to create pathways to food and land access and agency over food choices.

Community Garden

Located on the former farm site of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, the Living Earth Gardens provide a beautiful organic space where neighbors and family can gather, grow food, and nurture a self-sufficient empowered community.
Individual gardeners, as well as community partners (MY Place, MRCI, and MNSU College of Allied Health and Nursing's Eng-AGE-ment Garden) tend their plots together. Our garden is as diverse as Mankato itself. Ten different languages are spoken by the 120+ gardeners.
Community Farm

Since 2021, LEC has worked in partnership with Blue Earth County to manage the Blue Earth County Community Farm. The Farm is home to our Food Donation Program. All food grown through this program is donated back to into the community. Under the guidance of our Farm Manager, both individuals and groups volunteer their time to tend to these plots.

Since 2022, the Farm has also been home to our Emerging Growers Program, which addresses food sovereignty in the Mankato area by partnering with community members who have expressed concern that they are unable to access culturally significant foods and/or want to grow larger amounts of produce but do not have access to land.
Events, Workshops and Programs

Living Earth Center provides opportunities where minds can be opened, ideas can be shared, and growth can take place through workshops, events, and conferences offered throughout the year. Honoring all spiritual traditions and paths, Living Earth Center also holds gatherings to honor seasonal transitions with ritual and reflection. Find out more by clicking here.
Get Involved

Living Earth Center believes that each person makes a valuable contribution to the world and systemic change can be traced all the way down to the individual level. Whether you are interested in donating, volunteering, gardening, learning or making a meaningful shift, you are helping to create a ripple effect within the local and greater Earth community.
Read more about how to get involved by clicking here.

Sharing Common Ground

Like a healthy ecosystem, we believe that everyone has something important and valuable to offer to our local and greater Earth community. We believe in bringing people with different backgrounds and strengths together to share common ground over food, learning and storytelling. We invite you to join us in celebrating nature's abundance and honoring our shared resilience and responsibility in the interconnection of everything.

Get Connected

Historic Big Red Barn

News and Updates

November 10, 2026

LEC featured on KEYC's Spotlight with LIsa Kaye

byLiving Earth Center

LEC Executive Director Laura Marsala Peterson and Board Member Madison Vandersee sat down with KEYC's Lisa Kaye for what was the first of many conversations about LEC's purchase and transformation of the Wortel's former Pumpkin Farm at 1411 Pohl Rd.

Click the link below to watch the interview in it's entirety:

https://www.keyc.com/2026/11/10/living-earth-center-buys-former-wortel-pumpkin-farm-new-home/

Thank you to Lisa Kaye for giving us the time to shjare how excited we are about the new property!

November 9, 2026

It's BIG Announcement time!

byLiving Earth Center

Dear Friends of the Living Earth Center,

It is with great joy and gratitude that I share a significant milestone in Living Earth Center’s story: we have purchased a property that will become our forever home!

Alongside this news, we are publicly launching our Capital Campaign, Growing for the Future: Rooted in Community, to transform this special place into a vibrant regional center for growing, gathering, and learning.

When we learned that Good Counsel Hill, home to our flagship garden, would be sold, we began searching for a permanent place to put down roots. That search led us to 1411 Pohl Road. For more than 50 years, Katy and Dave Wortel cared for this property with love. Formerly known locally as the Pumpkin Farm, its 11 acres in the heart of Mankato include farmland, old-growth woods, restored prairie, wetlands, and a historic 1940s barn. By choosing Living Earth Center over a developer, the Wortels have ensured this land will be protected and shared for generations to come. We are deeply honored to carry their legacy forward...

October 9, 2026

Seed to SALSA Day at Jefferson Elementary!

byLiving Earth Center

Exactly 6 months to the day after being at Jefferson Elementary to start seeds with every K-5 student April 2nd, LEC's Seed to Sauce program was back on the Jefferson campus on October 2nd to make salsa with every K-5 student from the peppers and tomatoes they started!

"We make a very basic recipe," said LEC Youth Education & Program Manager Maisie Johnson, "it was fun to hear what the kids would add if they made it again at home. We heard everything from corn, to the spiciest pepper in the world, to chicken nuggets..."

October 9, 2026

Winter Volunteer Days Announced

byLiving Earth Center

Even though fall is still in full swing, we are already thinking ahead and planning for post-garden season, when we will be missing our community of summer friends and volunteers.

Last year, to keep our community connected during the "off season," LEC began monthly Winter Volunteer Days. They were such a success we are making them an annual thing.

Dates have been set, and while specific activities will be announced closer to each actual date...