This was the start of the most miserable harvest season I’ve experienced in 22 years. Each day, I had a few employees start in rows that I thought would produce, while I’d dash inside to check my messages. After 30 minutes, I’d go check on the employees, and they’d already be at the end of … Read more
When we decided to grow our farm, we looked for ways to reduce our weather related risk by improving plant and soil health. I applied for and received a grant from the MN Department of Agriculture. As part of our research, we grazed our sheep on cover crops in a crop rotation with strawberries for … Read more
Risk Management: Diversification The old saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is so true for farmers! As our strawberry crop grew larger and larger, our risk was increasing exponentially. Over 20 years, we slowly grew from a half acre, to nine acres of strawberries. After each field growth, we thought we’d run … Read more
We’ve come to the conclusion that we couldn’t have changed our harvest this year. Each of those weather events, by themselves, wouldn’t have taken out our crop, but the combination of all four was catastrophic. Our attention has turned, instead, to risk management. Risk Management comes in many different forms: Insurance Controlling the controllables, such … Read more
“The plants broke dormancy in the heat in early March, forcing us to remove their straw blanket early. The extended cold in April froze our plant canopy. This exposed the blossoms to the frost on May 28, and the remaining strawberries have now been hammered with high heat.” (My Facebook post explaining why we couldn’t … Read more
Facebook post June 11, 2021: Dear strawberry friends, I’ve been trying to gather my courage to post to you… We have been experiencing catastrophic crop loss. …. We appreciate your graciousness and kindness as together we bring in the remainder of the harvest. Sarah Brouwer After that heart-breaking post, I sat and watched the Facebook … Read more
Did you get some strawberries in 2020? We hope so! The season is so short, and we know it takes you some effort to get to our farm when the strawberries are ripe. Many people ask me why we close early some days, and how long it takes to grow strawberries. If you are one … Read more
It’s date night on the farm, and tonight, for our hot date, Dan and I headed out to use our new toys, a soil probe and a Soil Compaction Tester, purchased with grant dollars from the good state of Minnesota. What fun! Field 1: Winter Rye Cover Crop: Sheep Grazed 5 days Field 3: Three week old … Read more
My husband Dan loves cows. Has loved them since he was a boy visiting his grandpa’s dairy farm in Northwest Iowa. He went to college to be a dairy farmer, but soon realized we couldn’t afford to start our own dairy. So, he started a strawberry farm. About 2013, he figured out that he could … Read more
Sustainable Agriculture Grant: 2019-2021 Our crop advisor talks about soil as a grand symphony. He says that if all the parts are in balance, it will be like a symphony, and beautiful music will result. Our desire is to create a soil symphony that grows stupendous strawberries. Last fall, we applied for and received, from … Read more