A Season of “Crazy” Crazy WeeksHave you ever gone through crazy weeks? Our family just finished a session of ‘Crazy’ that involved spring planting, prom, science camp, a magazine interview and photo shoot, two trips to Iowa for our son and his wife, a CRP burn, and the grand finale was a wretched experience with … Read more
Are you feasting your eyes on a riot of blossoms and colors this week? I stood under a purple crabapple tree with a class of preschoolers from CMCS and and we were covered in a “flower shower” as the wind swirled clouds of petals around us. The strawberry fields are also beginning to flower, as seen … Read more
Jen Hatmaker, a popular blogger and speaker, has some instructions for how to be a Great Mom. Loosely paraphrased, they go like this: 1. Spend three hours scrolling through Pinterest for the perfect dinner menu. 2. Write down 14 ingredients you’ve never heard of before.3. Shop for ingredients. Come home with 28 things you didn’t need, … Read more
Have you ventured into the realm of gift certificates yet? Because you are a seasonal businesses, with an uncertain crop, you may feel uneasy about giving out gift cards. I certainly didn’t dare when my crop was below an acre and I was turning customers away by the hundreds because I didn’t have enough strawberries … Read more
I have marketing dilemma causing me to wake up at nights in cold sweats — I somehow need to get an extra five thousand people to come to our farm in June. This is because Dan rashly planted an extra 4 acres last spring, hoping to finally beat me in our running contest to out-grow … Read more
Listening With the sudden switch to warm weather, the bird chatter on the farm is reaching a crazy level of intensity. I feel a bit like a little girl, listening in on my parents talking in Dutch around the kitchen table. I knew they were talking about Christmas presents, or vacations, because otherwise they wouldn’t switch … Read more
Connecting Faith, Farm & Family Hello, dear strawberry friends, This snow is really driving me nuts, and unless you like being stuck inside, you’re probably going a bit nuts too. Are you dreaming of summer while glaring out the window? As I go on walks around the farm, I dream of the scent of strawberries in the air. I … Read more
Dear farmers, Thank-you so much for being such attentive listeners at Thaddeus’s specialty crops seminar last week. It is good when we can learn together, as we are all seeking to grow delicate crops in this harsh northern climate, and we have a very small window of time in which to sell our produce. One … Read more
We were thrilled to receive a notice from the MN Department of Agriculture that our grant application for Livestock Investment has been approved! You probably know that we have consistently sold out of strawberries very quickly every year, and that this has led to our quest to grow more strawberries, while intentionally managing our soil health. … Read more
We met the Karen people from Burma/Myanmar 3 years ago when they first came with Nancy Snyder of Grace Baptist Church in Willmar to glean pick. We started hiring them to work for us in 2015– WOW! Check out 10 ways they’ve blessed us: 1. They pick so much, so fast, that they are racing to … Read more