Country Acres - August 19, 2023

freshfieldfrom the

Peppa and Poppy’s Market grows just right

BY JAN LEFEBVRE STAFF WRITER

ALEXANDRIA – Peppa

and Poppy’s market is known for its sweet corn but offers a variety of produce as well as a medley of fresh from the farm foods whipped into creative dishes and served out of their own food truck.

When Emily Louwagie decided to grow and sell sweet corn in 2018, she also grew ideas that quickly turned into a thriving business.

“We started with maybe an acre of sweet corn and thought, ‘Wow, we’re going to make some money,’” Louwagie said. “We were picking in laundry baskets. Now, we have a onerow picker and we have 60 acres of just sweet corn.”

Peppa and Poppy’s market also has a large variety of produce available at two staffed stands and four self-serve stands across Alexandria and surrounding towns. They have plans to add three more food stands and have also begun offering goods in-store for Miller’s Fresh Foods sites in several nearby towns.

The food truck operates at various events in the area from Memorial Day through fall, offering dishes Louwagie creates herself with foods that come fresh from her very own farm.

“I switch it up, depending on what I have available or have

lots of,” she said. Her most popular dish is a Mexican Street Corn Cup, which is layered with fresh-offthe-cob corn cooked with mayo and seasonings, smoky carnitas pork, beans, homemade salsa, cheese, pickled onions, cilantro and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos on top for crunch.

Louwagie also sells burgers topped with a bleu cheese cream sauce she created. Caprese paninis, brats and other entrees are also available. For side dishes, Louwagie whips up salads with fresh ingredients, and for desserts, she makes custards, pies and other treats using garden goodies such as rhubarb and raspberries. Depending on the event and crowd size, she will sometimes make her own Italian cream sodas. There are also items for kids such as grilled cheese paninis and hot dogs.

Although the food truck becomes more popular every year, it is only a small part of Louwagie’s main business, which is growing produce.

Besides the fields of sweet corn, Louwagie farms another 25 acres to grow tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, cantaloupe, watermelon, cabbage, green

Peppa & Poppy page 2

PHOTO SUBMITTED Emily Louwagie stands with her children – Gabby (from left), Isaac and Hannah – in 2022 in front of the food truck for Peppa and Poppy’s Market. Louwagie said her children help in all aspects of her business, including growing and harvesting produce, taking care of their farm animals and working in the food truck. truck

PHOTO BY JAN LEFEBVRE

Emily Louwagie checks one of her pumpkin patches July 27 in a field near Alexandria. Pumpkins are one of the most important fall crops for Louwagie’s business, Peppa and Poppy’s Market.

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Copyright 2023

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Peppa & Poppy from front

beans, peas and more. However, sweet corn is still the market’s No. 1 seller. Because of staggering plantings and growing a wide assortment of sweet corn varieties, Peppa and Poppy’s Market has sweet corn available from July until freeze. Louwagie chooses varieties that will be resistant to pests present at ripening times and has, so far, been able to avoid using sprays on most crops. The business is not certified organic but avoids the use of chemicals if at all possible.

Louwagie also makes salsa, jams and jellies to sell and has begun beekeeping to offer honey at her stands. Recently, she has teamed up with an Amish community near Deerwood which supplies her with more produce as well as maple syrup and butter to sell.

“I’d much rather do that than not have a lot of choices at the stand, and I like to just support (the Amish community),” Louwagie said. “It’s still Minnesota grown, and they are almost all organic. They are

Mexican Street Corn Cups have become one of the most popular dishes at Emily Louwagie’s food truck for Peppa and Poppy’s Market. The food truck can be found at events from Memorial Day through fall, offering foods featuring fresh produce from the market.

such great people and so easy to work with.”

“We do fun crops, like sunflowers,” Louwagie said. “We tell people they can stop by the fields and take pictures. It just adds a lot of prettiness for everybody.”

Prior to becoming a produce grower, Louwagie was a deep-tissue massage therapist, raising her three kids – Gabby, Hannah and Isaac – in Alexandria. When she developed carpal tunnel, she downsized her massage business and brainstormed with her friend, Joey Anderson, about a possible business venture. Anderson, a grain farmer from Hoffman, owns several businesses and farmland around Alexandria. Louwagie began growing sweetcorn on some of that land. When the coronavirus pandemic arrived and her children’s classes went online, Louwagie needed to be at home with them. She moved her family to a farm property Anderson owns outside of Alexandria and focused full time on growing and selling corn and other produce.

Louwagie, originally from Cottonwood, did not grow up on a farm, but in her youth, she used to work with her mother at a plant nursery in Granite Falls and found she had skills in tending seedlings and vegetation.

“I’ve always been a plant person,” Louwagie said. “I would fill Mom’s trunk with all these sick plants and nurse them back to health.”

Peppa and Poppy’s Market allowed her to get back to those roots.

Buy a SnowDogg Plow

“I like being out-doors, and I enjoy growing stuff for other people,” Louwagie said. “I like talking with people at our stands and receiving feedback, like when people say, ‘That was the best sweet corn or that was the best watermelon.’”

Her business hosts two events at one of its several produce fields. The first, Anderson Bash, is a country music event over one weekend in July where Louwagie and her team cook up a large quantity of food on site while guests listen to live music. Local youth softball players help serve food at the event and raise money for their program through the food sales. The event also raises money at the gate for local youth scholarships.

“(Anderson Bash) is really laid back,” Louwagie said. “This year on Friday we had about 2,000 to 3,000 attend, and Saturday we had 5,000.”

The other event is a fall festival for four to five weekends each autumn where she sells pumpkins, produce and fall décor as well as offers free hayrides. Louwagie’s food truck is also on hand for the event.

The animals the family has on the farmland are the result of the farm property itself – there was a barn and other small buildings, and she and the kids decided it was time to get some animals.

On a road trip to see family living in the southeast, Louwagie found two Kunekune pigs

Peppa & Poppy page 3

PHOTO BY JAN LEFEBVRE

Fall produce awaits shoppers in 2022 at one of Peppa and Poppy’s Market locations in Alexandria. The market’s stands run from mid-July to first freeze, offering a plethora of vegetables, flowers and other wares.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Peppa & Poppy

from page 2

on Craigslist and loaded them into dog crates to bring them home to Minnesota. When they hit a blizzard on the way home, the family smuggled the pigs into a hotel. They covered the dog crates with blankets and placed them on a hotel cart. As they wheeled the cart to their hotel room, the pigs began squealing, but no one stopped them.

They named the pigs Peppa and Poppy, which inspired the name for Louwagie’s business.

All three of Louwagie’s children participate in all aspects of Peppa and Poppy’s Market.

“They help with the garden, the food truck, the animals, chores,” Louwagie said. “We just kind of moved to a farm and jumped right into it.”

The animals Louwagie has accumulated are becoming part of her business as well. She is already selling eggs from her own chickens and the Amish community, but her own 300 chickens she incubated and hatched will be laying more eggs by wintertime. She also bought a few goats, at first just for fun.

“The goats started happening, and now they keep multiplying,” Louwagie said. “I thought, ‘Maybe I can make some cheese and some soap.’”

She now has 18 goats and milks five of them daily. Three freezers are already full of milk, waiting for winter when she will begin making soap.

And, she still has pigs –three of them. Peppa recently

passed away, but Poppy has Porky and Paddington to keep him company.

With Peppa and Poppy’s Market on solid footing, Louwagie has been giving back to the community that embraced her business venture.

This year, the market donated 800 dozen ears of corn to the Rotary Club’s pork chop feed and donates corn to fire department events and church fundraisers.

Two years ago, Peppa and Poppy’s Market began a new tradition when the first hard freeze of fall took place.

“When it freezes, you are on a time clock,” Louwagie said. “Your sweet corn is going to look bad on the outside, and so people would not want to buy it.”

She announced a sweet corn giveaway on Facebook.

“It was insane; there were people around the blocks –people from the food shelves, from schools, nursing homes, churches … everybody,” Louwagie said. “They would just load their trucks. We couldn’t haul it fast enough to the trailers and the trucks. We’ve done it the past two years now.”

Families struggling with food insecurity picked up enough corn to freeze for the entire winter. Louwagie and her team gave away trucks and trailers full of corn all day. The gesture earned them loyal customers who appreciated that they did not let good sweet corn rot in the field because of the freeze.

It is that kind of community connection and family togetherness that Louwagie said she wants to maintain. Therefore, the size of her business, she said, is now about at the level she wants it to be.

“We don’t want to get huge,” Louwagie said. “If we can do sweet corn and the Amish can sub in some of the other produce, it’s about right.”

Besides family, some of her kids’ friends work part time. Chad Denardo, has helped with the business from its beginning and a neighboring farm family, the Fabers, work whenever needed. Louwagie can run the whole business with family and friends.

However, Louwagie still has some new ventures on tap. She recently received a grant to build a hoop-frame greenhouse

in one of the produce fields so that she can start plants early, directly into the ground.

For now, Louwagie continues moving fast every day to keep all parts, products and produce of Peppa and Poppy’s Market flowing smoothly. The challenge this year has been pumpkins. One pumpkin patch was nearly destroyed from lack of rain.

“I thought all the pumpkins in that field were going to die from drought; I thought they maybe had half a day or one day left,” said Louwagie. “Suddenly, we got two inches of rain two days ago – but it’s still too early to tell how they’ll do.”

Another irrigated patch was attacked by gophers.

“The gophers dug tunnels through all of our rows and mowed them all down in one

night,” Louwagie said. “There were 40 striped gophers over there.”

She and her small team went on gopher patrol. Then they had to replant quickly if they were to still get a crop.

“As we were replanting, I was on the tractor and the kids were putting the seeds in, and there were the gophers,” Louwagie said. “The little turds were popping up and eating the seeds right while we were planting. They ate them all. I had to replant – again. Now they’re starting to eat some of my cantaloupe and watermelon,” Louwagie said.

The challenges are all part of operating her unique business – and, the third planting of pumpkins is up, so Louagie’s fall festival will have orange in its multicolored palette.

PHOTO BY JAN LEFE

Porky the pig does not seem to mind a goat using him as a stepstool as Emily Louwagie gives the goat a chin scratch July 27 on her farm near Alexandria. Goats, pigs and chickens live among each other on the farm, which is the home base for Louwagie’s produce business.

Rasmussen extracts honey, grows flowers

BY TIFFANY KLAPHAKE STAFF WRITER

MELROSE – Samantha Rasmussen has over two million bees buzzing around her family’s property near Melrose.

Over the last four years, she has grown from having two hives to 30 at Pine Hollow Farm, despite a slow start to reaping the sweet rewards for her endeavors.

The first year, the two hives she started with were destroyed by a family of black bears. Rasmussen took note and now keeps a fence around her hives.

The second year, she worked with new hives, extracted honey from them, but lost all her bees to the harsh Minnesota winter.

Not to be deterred, she purchased more bees and started all over once again. She now keeps her hives inside the insulated milk house attached to the old dairy barn on the farm, with a space heater keeping the room between 35 and 40 degrees.

sites.

“Since then, I have slowly been adding more hives,” Rasmussen said.

“I hope to grow my hives and help to supply the surrounding area with honey.”

Rasmussen quickly learned

through online research the ins and outs of beekeeping and continues to grow her hives. She now has bees at two sites in central Minnesota.

Recently, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa Public Schools reached out

and asked Rasmussen to supply the school’s cafeteria with local honey.

“We are planning on building a new shed (on the farm) that will have a section just for my honey processing,” Rasmussen said. “I currently have an extractor, but I do everything else by hand.”

When it comes time to take the combs from the hives, Rasmussen’s parents, Steve and Sandy Rasmussen, and other family members all pitch in to help.

Each hive, which is home to 60,000 to 80,000 bees, will weigh 60 to 100 pounds when it comes time to harvest the honey. Rasmussen gets about 60 pounds of honey from each hive in a good year.

“I check on the hives every seven to 10 days just to see what is going on,” Rasmussen said. “Bees are a complex creature.”

The young entrepreneur bottles her own honey and makes candles with the beeswax at Pine Hollow Farm. Her line of beeswax candles includes 24 different scents plus seasonal favorites. Some of the most popular ones are lilac and one called Aloha.

Rasmussen page 9

PHOTOS TIFFANY KLAPHAKE

Bees gather near their hives July 31 at Pine Hollow Farm near Melrose. Pine Hollow Farm has 29 hives at two different

Adam Sunderman Cell: 320-761-9918

Jeremy

320-267-7712

Feed Co. Salutes Allie Pyka

Town: Holdingford

Grade: 11

Parents: Jim and Shelly Pyka

Holdingford FFA Chapter

Tell us about your involvement in FFA: Last year, I participated as our chapter’s officer at large until I was chosen as our current chapter treasurer. The first contest I participated in was the small animal contest until I switched to milk quality.

What has FFA taught you so far? FFA has taught me leadership, respect and people skills. You meet lots of new people in FFA and attend a lot of events where total respect is needed. My goal is to be a leader to others in FFA.

How do you intend to stay involved in agriculture after your FFA career? I currently live on a farm where we have dairy cows and two broiler barns. I plan on continuing to help out at home and would like to have a hobby farm of my own one day along with a career in the agriculture field.

What are you involved in outside of FFA? In the past, I participated in swimming and track, but I chose to focus more on being home on the farm and getting more involved in FFA.

What is something you believe people need to know about agriculture? Something I think people need to know about agriculture is how important it is to the community and farmers themselves. Many people don’t realize how important the animals and land are to farmers and how much it impacts our community.

Paynesville 320-243-3938

www.feedcomn.com

A bee and a butterfly rest on some flowers July 31 at Pine Hollow Farm near Melrose. The farm has a cut flower business and produces honey from its 29 hives.

Rasmussen from page 6

“My family would vacation in Hawaii all the time, and when I made that candle, I was like, ‘Oh that smells exactly like Hawaii,’” Rasmussen said.

Besides checking on the bees and making candles, Rasmussen also has a cut flower business, 13 Icelandic sheep, a flock of chickens, guineas, ducks and geese.

“The birds are more for pets than anything else,” she said.

Rasmussen has a full-time job that allows her to work from home, so she can spend less time on the road and more time taking care of her critters.

“I started with the bees, and then I ended up doing flowers because they are a natural fit with the bees,” Rasmussen said. “I took an online course on cut flowers, and I just branched out from there.”

Pine Hollow Farm offers a weekly or bi-weekly flower subscription to interested individuals and supplies fresh flowers to Bavarian Gardens, a coffee shop in New Munich.

“My main flowers are zinnias, sunflowers and dahlias,” Rasmussen said. “Those are all really simple, and you can just plant and they all come up.” Rasmussen said the flowers are a lot of work to maintain and weed all summer, and some varieties are easier to grow than others.

“I also love it because it helps me get outside.” Rasmussen said. “Some people don’t mind sitting inside in the summer. I have a full-time job that is inside all day, but I love having something to do outside.”

In addition, Rasmussen has another hobby – Icelandic sheep. The 12 ewes and one ram are housed in the old dairy barn on the farm

and have room to roam outside. Icelandic sheep are a natural fit with Minnesota’s climate.

When Rasmussen first got the sheep, she did all the sheering, carding, cleaning and spinning of the wool herself. Now she does the sheering and washing, then sends the wool off to a mill in Wisconsin.

“They send back the roving because I like to hand spin my own yarn,” Rasmussen said. “They basically just clean it up and make it easier for me to spin.”

Once the yarn is spun, it can be dyed various colors, so Rasmussen chose sheep lighter in color to facilitate the dying process.

She supplies her products to wholesale dealers and also offers candles, honey and roving on her website and through various shops around Minnesota.

Although all the aspects of the farm keep her busy and intrigued, Rasmussen said her favorite thing to do is

work with the bees.

“It’s interesting working with them, understanding their behavior, predicting what they are going to do,” she said. “Working with nature makes you pay attention to a lot of things happening around you.”

An Icelandic sheep stands in the barn July 31 at Pine Hollow Farm near Melrose. The fiber of the sheep is used to make roving that Samantha Rasmussen sells or uses to spin yarn.

PHOTOS BY TIFFANY KLAPHAKE

Samantha Rasmussen pulls a frame out of a hive to collect honey Aug. 11 at her farm near Melrose. Rasmussen said her favorite task on her farm is working with bees.

PHOTO BY TIFFANY KLAPHAKE

Samantha Rasmussen pets one of her Icelandic sheep July 31 at Pine Hollow Farm near Melrose. Rasmussen uses the fiber from the sheep to make yarn.

PHOTO SUBMITTED Pine Hollow Farm’s wildflower honey is locally produced and sold. Samantha Rasmussen has been producing the product to sell to the community since 2019.

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Solbreken

and Solbreken began to build up her clientele at the farmers market. During the second year of the business, she added classes to the farm’s offerings.

“My business just grew from there,” Solbreken said. “Now I have seven employees, and this is my full-time job as of the last six years or so.”

Today, the farm includes roughly two acres of flowers and numerous additional buildings such as greenhouses and sheds for workspaces.

Throughout the winter, when she can’t be in the fields, Solbreken dedicates time to weaving rugs to sell at the farm.

“I took a class in Benson a number of years back and fell in love with it,” Solbreken said. “I bought a loom online and have been making rugs ever since.”

Solbreken completes anywhere from 150-300 rugs throughout the colder months of the year. The rugs Solbreken weaves include the traditional rag rug and a shaggy version of that

traditional style.

“People really like them,” Solbreken said.

“The shaggy ones are a little bit heavier in weight, so they don’t slide and move around as much.”

The rug season for Solbreken runs right up until she begins to

turn her focus back to the flowers. Around the middle of March, she begins to sow seeds indoors and prepares for field planting. Throughout the summer, Solbreken also uses her flower knowl-

from page 11 Solbreken page 13

God Bless Our Farmers

Rugs sit on shelves, available for purchase Aug. 2 at Rustic Designs Flower Farm near Belgrade. Solbreken weaves rugs on her loom throughout the winter

PHOTOS BY ALEX C HRISTEN

Dahlias bloom Aug. 2 at Rustic Designs Flower Farm near Belgrade. Dahlias and Sunflowers are two of Solbreken’s highest producing flowers.

Brown finds passion for foraging

BY HANS LAMMEMAN STAFF WRITER

SAUK CENTRE –

While most people scan grocery store shelves for their favorite snacks, Shane Brown prefers to search the forest floor.

Known in the mushroom foraging community as “The Fun Guy,” Brown spends much of his free time with a basket in hand, moseying off-trail through forests, peering around tree trunks and eyeing the ground for natural delicacies.

Brown said finding food amongst the wildness has developed into one of his strongest passions in life. Driven

to expand his survival skills, he began researching foraging online and making connections in the Minnesota mycology community in 2016.

“As soon as I got in the woods, it was like a lifetime of Easter egg hunts,” Brown said. “You get the thrill of finding it. Every time I go out, I don’t know whether I will find anything or not, but when I do, I get that childhood excitement.”

His interest in finding food in the wild ignited a drive for learning he had not experienced previously. He said his passion triggered a reflex where he can absorb information easily when reading books.

“I am very dyslexic; I don’t read a lot unless I have to,” Brown said.

“My passions are cooking and foraging. Prior to getting into foraging, I probably only owned three books. I now have 23 foraging books and probably a thousand cookbooks, and I have read most of my foraging books at least three times.”

Today, Brown is three years into selling mushrooms, dried soup blends, and other

Brown page 16

PHOTO BY HANS LAMMEMAN (Above) Shane Brown forages for mushrooms July 1 at Birch Lakes State Forest. He forages at least twice a week during the spring, summer and fall.

PHOTO BY HANS LAMMEMAN

Shane Brown displays a false chanterelle mushroom while foraging July 1 in the woods south of Grey Eagle. He hosts foraging classes independently as a guide and through his church.

Mushroom Facts Facts

Chanterelle mushrooms

Favorite Use: Candied Chanterelles. Cut the mushrooms into pieces and fry them in a pan at medium heat with butter and brown sugar.

Key Identifiers: These mushrooms have bright yellow caps, false gills, convex caps and lightly scalloped edges.

When to find them: Mid-July through early August

Where to look: Once you find one, stick to that elevation and follow the contour of the land where water would flow. They are more likely to be found in damp areas on hillsides.

Purslane

Favorite Use: Fried Purslane. Pan-fried in butter over medium heat.

Key Identifiers: This herb has tear-dropshaped leaves with round stems that snap. The leaves are typically plump and alternate sides instead of being directly across from each other.

When to find them: May through September

Where to look: This herb grows abundantly in disturbed areas like trails and gardens.

Chicken of the woods mushrooms

Favorite Use: Chicken of the woods burgers. Slice the mushrooms into quarter-inch chunks; then oil and grill both sides like chicken for three to four minutes on each side. Pour barbeque sauce on top. Pull them off the grill. Toast a bun, grill onions and tomatoes and assemble the sandwich.

Key Identifiers: This fungus grows in shelves or brackets with bright orange tops and typically bright yellow bottoms. They have juicy insides and no gills.

When to find them: Early August to late November

Where to look: These mushrooms often

grow on oak and elm trees infected with the spores. The trees are typically distressed from woodpecker holes, fallen trees, lighting or similar damage.

Wood Sorrel

Favorite Use: This sour-tasting herb is best enjoyed raw or in a salad with dandelion greens.

Key Identifiers: They resemble classic three-leaf clovers but grow from .5 to 8 inches tall. They have seed pods with small yellow flowers.

When to find them: June to October

Where to look: This herb grows abundantly in disturbed areas like trails and gardens.

Mullein

Favorite Use: Infuse in tea, or inhale smoke/vapor as a respiratory suppressant.

Key Identifiers: Younger plants have fuzzy or furry leaves. It typically has rosette-shaped flowerets in the first year with ear-shaped leaves. Starting the second year, it will grow up to 8-feet tall with a corn-cob-looking top with yellow flowers.

When to find them: June through September

Where to look: This herb grows abundantly in disturbed areas like trails and gardens.

Shepherd’s Purse

Favorite Use: This spicy herb is best enjoyed raw. It is known to have medicinal effects that aid with mood swings.

Key Identifiers: The seed pods resemble coin purses and grow in clusters.

When to find them: June through early August

Where to look: This herb grows abundantly in disturbed areas like trails and along roadways.

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Reclaimed scraps makes for happy birds

VanZee builds on passion for birdhouses

BY HANS LAMMEMAN STAFF WRITER

RICE – Greg VanZee does not make birdhouses; he makes bird homes.

Six years ago, he quit his career of 25 years working in call centers to dive headfirst into handcrafting the avian abodes from reclaimed scraps through his one-man business, Greg’s Garden Concepts.

With an emphasis on livability for birds

rather than glamour, VanZee’s birdhouses exhibit a unique aesthetic beloved by thousands of happy customers and birds since he started the hobby about three decades ago. He credited his father-in-law, Bruce Stellmach, with introducing him to the craft.

“My father-in-law did this exact same thing for 25 years,” VanZee said. “When I first started helping him, I didn’t necessarily think of doing it as a career. He was always looking for help; he made a lot of birdhouses. It was something that grew on me over time.”

Stellmach traveled to craft shows and gained support from

customers throughout his entrepreneurial career with Bruce’s Birdhouses.

“When he retired (about 10 years ago), it coincided with the point in time that all of our kids had left the house,” VanZee said. “So, financial obligations changed a bit, and I was able to begin transitioning from my career into this.”

With the support of his wife, Heather, VanZee started the business from his backyard in rural Rice. He spends many days between May and October in the company of Labrador retrievers, allowing creativity to take over as he produces and designs several dozen birdhous-

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es at a time.

“I enjoy this; it gives me a creative outlet that you don’t get in a call center setting,” VanZee said. “I found my style more over the years. When I go into a garage sale now, I know exactly what I want (for building materials). My father-in-law will still go to garage sales or thrift stores with me.”

Similar to Stellmach’s signature style, VanZee uses reclaimed materials whenever possible in his creations.

“What other people call trash, I call future birdhouses,” VanZee said. “The bulk of the decorations are all used stuff that otherwise are all going to end up in a

hole in the ground.”

VanZee’s birdhouses are hanging from trees and positioned in gardens across the Midwest. He loads up hundreds of them for about a dozen craft shows each summer. With an abundance of his products in his front

yard, his growing customer base even heads directly to his home to shop for birdhouses to bring home.

“Honestly, (customer feedback) is probably the best thing about it,”

VanZee page 21

Dozens of birdhouses constructed by Greg VanZee sit on display in front of his home July 11 in rural Rice. He makes birdhouses, bat houses and other yard and garden displays in his backyard workshop.

Greg VanZee holds a handcrafted birdhouse decorated with a metal flower outside of his home July 11 in rural Rice. He uses reclaimed materials whenever possible for the decorations on the birdhouses.

RECIPES SUBMITTED BY CARRIE BAILEY | Villard, Pope County

Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

• 1 cup butter

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 3/4 cup brown sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 3 cups quick cooking oats

• 1 1/2 cups flour

Biscuits and gravy Cajun Shrimp

• 1 pound breakfast sausage

• 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 package instant vanilla pudding mix

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars together until fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the oats, flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from baking sheet to cooling rack.

Ravioli Lasagna

• 1 pound ground beef

• 1 jar spaghetti sauce

• 1 package frozen sausage or cheese ravioli

• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

• 1/3 cup flour

• 3 to 4 cups whole milk

• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper

• Biscuits, warmed for serving

Brown the sausage over medium-high heat in large skillet until no longer pink. Reduce heat to medium low. Sprinkle flour and stir so that the sausage soaks it all up; then add more, little by little. Stir and cook it for another minute, then pour in milk, stirring constantly. Cook the gravy, stirring frequently until it thickens, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle in the seasoned salt and pepper and continue cooking until thick. If it gets too thick, just add more milk.

Spoon the sausage gravy over warm biscuits and serve immediately.

Farmers Hotdish

• 3 cups frozen shredded hashbrown potatoes

• 3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

• 1 cup cubed, fullycooked ham

• 3 tablespoons butter

• 1/2 cup beef broth

• 1 teaspoon pepper

• 1 teaspoon

Worcestershire sauce

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon thyme

• 1/2 teaspoon rosemary

• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

• 1/8 teaspoon oregano

• 1 pound uncooked large shrimp

In large skillet, saute garlic in butter for 1 minute. Add the broth and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium. Add shrimp; cook and stir for 3 to 4 minutes or until shrimp turns pink.

In a large skillet, cook ground beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. In a greased 2 1/2 quart baking dish, layer a third of the spaghetti sauce, half of the ravioli and beef, and 1/2 cup cheese; repeat. Top with remaining sauce and cheese. Cover and bake at 400 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.

RECIPES SUBMITTED BY SHIRLEY HULINSKY Burtrum, Todd County

Apricot chicken

• 1-8 oz bottle of Russian or Catalina dressing

• 1-8 oz jar of apricot preserves

• 1 pkg dehydrated onion soup mix

• 6 to 8 boneless chicken breasts

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix dressing, apricot preserves and soup mix together. Place chicken breasts in 8 by 11 baking dish. Pour dressing mixture over chicken and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Serve over rice

• 1/4 cup chopped green onion

• 4 large eggs

• 1 can evaporated milk

• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Place potatoes in 8-inch baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese, ham and onions. Whisk eggs, milk, pepper and salt. Pour over ham and potatoes in baking dish. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes prior to baking. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake uncovered for 55 to 60 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Poppyseed bread

• 3 cups flour

• 2 1/2 cups sugar

• 1 1/2 cup milk

• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

• 3 eggs

• 1 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1 1/2 tsp almond extract

• 1 1/8 cup vegetable oil

• 1/2 Tbs poppyseed

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Pour into two greased loaf pans and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Sculpting a

Kurtz carves his niche as chainsaw artist

BY HANS LAMMEMAN | STAFF WRITER

Using chainsaws operating at about 1,400 rotations per minute, Mark Kurtz has carved his niche as a chainsaw artist, using it as a means of meditation throughout a 37-year career.

Three or four days each week, Kurtz shapes logs into carefully sculpted statues to fit his customers’ liking. With commissions booked more than a year in advance, Kurtz is fittingly known among his customers and colleagues as “The Chainsaw Man.”

Kurtz’s portfolio of completed work includes staggering projects like 35-foot totem poles and an 11-foot by 14-foot ice

unique career

sculpture. His sculptures sit in homes and businesses throughout the United States and across the globe, and he has been commissioned to perform his unique talents everywhere from downtown Minneapolis office buildings to inside wrestling rings.

“For a lot of chainsaw artists, it is hard to make it past five (years) because you have to reinvent yourself and you have to do the business, cut the grass; you’ve got to do everything,” Kurtz said. “It’s too much; that is what a lot of carvers have told me.”

Despite the heavy workload, Kurtz said he typically looks forward to grabbing a chainsaw

sparked his passion for carving in the early 1980s: math teacher Tom Warren and industrial arts teacher Dale Bakko. Although he hadn’t yet started using a chainsaw, his first carving was a crappie that received an A- in his industrial arts class – a mark high enough to help him realize the skill came easily. His relationship with carving has continued since, forever changed by the introduction of chainsaws as an instrument a few years later.

“I ran a firewood business with my dad and my brother, so that’s where I got the knack for running a chainsaw,” Kurtz said. “They always said to get away when I am cutting the tree down because pieces are flying and

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brothers and five sisters, Kurtz familiarized himself with manual labor

from a young age.

Mark Kurtz stands with a carved eagle in flight July 12 near his workshop in Avon. He has worked as a full-time chainsaw artist for more than three decades. and getting to work each day. Raised on a dairy farm near Avon with five

Two teachers at Avon Middle School

Kurtz page 26

PHOTO S BY HAN S LAMMEMAN

(Left) Mark Kurtz slices through a log to create the wing of an eagle in flight July 12 in Avon. Kurtz has worked at his workshop in Avon for 28 years. (Right) Mark Kurtz carves an eagle with upwardly-stretched wings behind his workshop July 12 in Avon. Kurtz said eagles with outstretched wings are his favorite item to sculpt.

Sturdy and durable hands

When I point north, my index fingers point north-northeast or north-northwest. When I close my hands, make a fist, my fingers need to sort of align themselves properly before they close. My left fist does a better job than my right. However my left index finger has a Heberden’s node or arthritis bump, so that finger’s future ability to flex is uncertain. My right pinky has one, too. I could blame the stress on my right trigger finger from holding the button on the chainsaw but that doesn’t explain my left hand’s bump nor my pinky bump. Nope, it’s just life and living. Or living long.

I used to think my hands resembled my mom’s but now they look more like my dad’s. I suppose it’s hard use. During my dad’s farming days, his fingers were the size of sausages. Definitely not the little sizzler variety but more like bratwurst. My hands don’t look like that but more closely resemble Dad’s elderly hands.

I read Wis. author

Michael Perry’s book,” Population 485,” and

his contemplation of hands. Perry, a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical responder for his hometown of New Auburn, Wis (a few miles due east of Stillwater), rejoices that the dings and scars of those jobs gives his hands a more respectable look than that of his other job, being a writer and humorist.

Perry says of laborer’s hands, “Scabbed knuckles, thickened fingers, the palmside nicks and whorls stained an indelible black. Your hands feel good like that. Sturdy and durable. Like you can handle things.”

I guess a man thinks about things like having manly hands. Women may be the advertising targets for sweet-scented lotions, creams and ointments but no outdoor person needs a marketer to tell them that a can of Vermont’s Original Bag Balm offers more healing properties than those fancy bottles.

With a few pricker poke holes, a bubble or two of poison ivy, a healing cut, and a minor abrasion, my hands would pass muster for a Michael Perry don’t-wantmy-hands-to-looklike-a-writer’s-hands inspection.

I really don’t care too much about how they look but I prefer my hands to be useful and I would really like to be able to wear my rings. There are the wedding/engagement rings, the golden citrine set in silver I found decades ago in the bottom of an auction box, the blue topaz with diamonds I bought when I needed a little feminine pick-me-up, the emerald set in gold that I got for the same reason, and a few others. But, if hands can feel claustrophobia, that’s the sensation I experience if I can’t get a ring off. And if I cut and handle a significant amount of wood, or prune grape vines, or dig in the garden with a

shovel, or any of those other outdoor workout jobs, with rings on, my fingers swell and I can’t get the rings off.

Recently I met with two college friends. We graduated from nursing school together 50 years ago. One is active. She plays golf, volunteers at an arboretum, and delivers Uber Eats. She wears two rings. She says she had them enlarged so she can still wear them. My other friend plays bingo on Thursdays. She says she does nothing else. There are no fewer than four rings on each of her hands.

I’d like to say that there’s some kind of karmic significance here. But there isn’t. A life of leisure may sparkle, but give my fingers liberty and let them look like they can handle things.

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Kurtz

from page 24

my approach to cutting trees down is different to most people.”

Kurtz said he wasn’t afraid to climb logs for ideal cutting angles. During his senior year of high school, he worked multiple jobs for funds to support his own housing or help his family.

“I worked at Fleet Farm after school. Then when I was done, I would go out to the ballrooms and bounce or cut firewood in the dark with the headlights of the truck,” Kurtz said.

About four months after graduating from high school at age 17, Kurtz faced a near-death experience that changed his career and life forever. He was using a chainsaw to carve a husky to donate to his alma mater, Albany High School, when the chainsaw jolted toward the helmet shielding his face.

“It hit the mask, flipped the screen up, pushed it off, and the chainsaw went down and away,” Kurtz said. “The helmet went down

A carving stands in front of Mark Kurtz’s workshop July 12 in Avon. His portfolio of completed sculptures includes bears, totem poles, foxes and much more.

PHOTOS BY HANS LAMMEMAN

Mark Kurtz poses with a chainsaw and sculpture in front of his workshop July 12 in Avon. He began carving during his industrial arts class in middle school.

the street, and I didn’t even know I was cut.”

The blades sliced his nerves so quickly he didn’t immediately feel pain from the cut

that, he said, completely “filleted” his face.

He recalled the incident with detail, saying a friend sped towards the old Albany Hospital

18 blocks away at 75 mph while blood pooled on the burgundy seats of the vehicle. Despite nearly facing death in an ambulance, he survived

the incident.

Although it took him years to get past mental hurdles and the fatigue caused by blood loss, he has since logged more than three decades of professional chainsaw carving since then.

“The trauma was coming out of me when I was cutting,” Kurtz said. “There was fury and rage while I was carving. I did a mental analysis at a private organization this last winter, and the gentleman said I have post-traumatic stress disorder from

that injury.”

Kurtz has used the incident to inspire others to overcome trauma while addressing crowds and radio audiences as a motivational speaker. He even used chainsaw carving to help define his niche as a wrestler in the ring with the All-Star Wrestling Alliance in the late 1990s, using his nickname of Chainsaw Man as his wrestling persona and doing carvings in front of event audiences.

Mark Kurtz displays his first-ever carving, a crappie he made in middle school, July 12 in his workshop in Avon. He received an A- grade for the sculpture.

Kurtz page 29

Mark Kurtz walks towards logs with a chainsaw resting on his shoulder July 12 in Avon. He said it takes three to four days after carving oak for his aches to subside.

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