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Glenwood
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Rosenquists up to challenge of growing vegetables BY DIANE LEUKAM | STAFF WRITER
ATWATER – Growing vegetable crops can be a challenge, but it is something Frans Rosenquist is very comfortable with. The Atwater farmer has been growing peas and corn for 43 years. “You have to approach growing vegetables that this year they may come out perfect, but next year it might not be that way; we’re playing with the weather and mother naweather and mother na- ture,” Rosenquist said June ture,” Rosenquist said June 4 at the farm. 4 at the farm. For Rosenquist, growFor Rosenquist, growing vegetables requires being vegetables requires being ready to go when ing ready to go when the time is right, the time is right, whether that is whether that is
getting into the fi elds in the spring or at harvest time. His farming philosophy revolves around planning, something that has carried over from his years as a professional snowmobile racer from 1967-82, the racing heydays. He was inducted into the Snowmobile Hall of Fame in 2006. “When we raced, we always had to have a backup plan,” he said. “If Plan A didn’t work, what was A didn t work, what was Plan B going to be? You Plan B going to be? You had to be perfect because had to be perfect because everyone else was going to everyone else was going to be perfect. I took that into be perfect. I took that into farming with me, that I am farming with me, that I am always 100 percent ready. always 100 percent ready. I’ve got to have a plan; I’ve got to have a plan; if this doesn’t work if this doesn’t work what’s my next what’s my next
PHOTOS BY DIANE LEUKAM Frans (from left) and Jason Rosenquist, Brandon Barber and Matt Nelson stand in a fi eld of peas June 19 at RosenquistFrans (from left) and Jason R Farms near Atwater. Combines work in the background.Farms near Atwater. Combin plan? We move right into plan? We move right into the second stage of it and that’s been very successful that’s been very successful for me.”for me.” Rosenquist and his Rosenquist and his wife, Deborah, have three wife, Deborah, have three children and 10 grandchilchildren and 10 grandchildren, all who live close by. dren, all who live close by. Sarah and her husSarah and her husband, Travis band, Travis
These harvested peas will be loaded onto a semi-truck and hauled to Glencoe for processing, June 19 at Rosenquist Farms near Atwater. Weseman, live in Grove City; Nicole is married to Brandon Barber, and they live across the fi eld from the farm, and Jason is married to Katey, and they live on the farm. Frans and Deborah live nearby. Frans and Deborah farm with Jason and Brandon, along with one fulltime employee, Matt Nelson. In the fall, fi ve or six part-time employees help with the harvest. They grow 2,500 acres of soybeans, 2,500 acres of corn, 800 acres of sweet corn and 200 acres of peas. Peas are grown on contracts with Lakeside Foods in Brooten and Seneca Foods in Glencoe, while all the sweet corn is with Lakeside. Seed is provided by the canneries and can vary by the year. Crops are planted according to a delicately balanced schedule determined by the canneries to ensure the vegetables from many farms are ready to harvest in a steady fl ow. The canneries use a 10-year average yield of 3,000 pounds of shelled peas per acre to calculate planting dates and to keep the plant running at its peak effi ciency. They also keep track of heat units. “The companies know how many heat units it takes to get these peas ripe, so they are watching the heat units. Every day, they get so many heat units so they plant more acres; they know how many acres they can harvest,” Rosenquist said. For the last 40 years, Rosenquist Farms is the fi rst to be planted with peas, due to its de
Rosenquist page 8
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cades-long ability to get into the fi elds early. “They know we can make it work, so we go,” Rosenquist said. “We plant peas as soon as we can get in the fi elds; this year it was around April 3 or 4.” Sweet corn is different, with all farmers being placed on a precise timetable, with a rotation for planting. This year, the Rosenquists began planting sweet corn June 4. In this way, once the peas are all harvested, the canneries can begin harvesting sweet corn within about a week. On June 4, the peas were in full bloom, with an average of six fl owers per plant and each fl ower producing a pod with up to eight peas. As the peas ripen and fi ll out the pods, staff from the cannery begins to keep a close eye on them. A tenderometer is used to gauge the tenderness of the peas with samples taken throughout the fi eld. A reading between 90-105 is necessary to strike a balance of peas that are both sweet and tasty, yet hard enough to be combined with a minimum of peas being crushed during harvesting. Samples are taken back to the plant and run through a portable combine to check for readiness. “They continue to check it and sometimes it comes back TY (too young) and they wait a day or two and check again; Rosenquist page 10
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PHOTO BY DIANE LEUKAM Frans Rosenquist (from left), Brandon Barber, Jason Rosenquist and Matt Nelson discuss strategy for the day’s work, June 19 near Atwater.
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PHOTO BY DIANE LEUKAM A combine makes its way through a pea fi eld June 19 on Rosenquist Farms near Atwater. This header is much like a soybean head, but is enclosed to create a vacuum to help suck up the peas.
they log it really close,” Rosenquist said. “Peas have a better fl avor if they are on the tenderer side.” On June 19, the Rosenquist pea fi elds were teeming the sights, sounds and smells of the harvest. The aroma of peas fi lled the air, along with the low roar of eight combining crews from Seneca. Each crew consisted of the operator of a combine, a cart and a semi. One after the other, the combines made their way down the fi eld. A pea combine has a head much like a soybean head, though it is covered with metal to create a vacuum which helps suck the peas into the machine. “They call it a stripper head; it looks like an older baler with rubber teeth and they strip the pods off; the plant stays in the fi eld and the pods go in the machine,” Rosenquist said. Once in the machine, the peas are shelled. “It’s pretty slick because you think these peas are so tender – which they are – but everything is belted, not augered, so it’s not squished,” Rosenquist said. “There is a big cylinder in the combine that just rotates and tumbles. There are little holes in the screen and the thing tumbles all the way through the machine and it shells them by gentle tumbling; it doesn’t crush them.” The peas in the combine hopper are dumped into the carts, then into the semi-trailers before embarking on their 50- mile trek to Glencoe. The cannery can take in about 500 acres’ worth of peas per day, with some 12,000 acres of peas contracted for this season. “I remember years ago when they were doing 25,000 each (peas and corn),” Rosenquist said. “They have backed those numbers down because not as many people are eating vegetables as they once did. Years ago, families would all sit down for supper and the mom would have a bowl of corn and peas or whatever, and now everything is quick, fast food.” The packaging has changed as well. More vegetables are being frozen in microwave packages versus the cans which were once predominant. After more than 40 years growing peas and corn, Rosenquist still gets excited for the harvest, even though many of those years have presented their own unique challenges. “If you are a vegetable grower, you have to realize when those vegetables are ready you can’t wait until tomorrow or the next day,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it rained 6 inches last night, we have to go. Peas have a three-day window to get out or they get too hard and they don’t taste good. Some farmers are afraid to have ruts in the fi eld and they’re tore all to heck. I’m not. I’ve seen it so many times for so many years.” After the peas are out, soybeans are planted within one week. On a very wet year, they might have to bulldoze the ruts shut to get the water out, and use rippers to work the ground and remove lumps.
“At the end of June, we don’t have a lot of days to let it dry out,” Rosenquist said. “As soon as we get it planted we’ll start the irrigator and water it and get it to grow right away. I’ve had people stop and say, ‘You’re never going to get a crop out of this,’ and three weeks later everything is up and shaded over.” Now, Rosenquist looks forward to the sweet corn harvest, followed by soybeans and corn. Come winter, they will work on machinery so that when spring arrives, they will go righ t into planting peas again. “When the fi elds are ready, our equipment is ready and we aren’t fi xing,” Rosenquist said. “We’ll fi x it in the wintertime and when it’s time to go, we’re going.” Being on the go has been the story of Rosenquist’s life, even back to the time, 43 years ago, when he and Deborah got married. “We got married on a Friday night, Dec. 17, 1976, so I could race in Alex on Saturday,” Rosenquist said. “She’s still with me!” It i s all part of the plan.
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PHOTO BY DIANE LEUKAM Deborah and Frans Rosenquist grow corn, soybeans, sweet corn and peas on their farm near Atwater.
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