Country Acres South - June 17, 2023

Asweet crop

Sanners raise fruit, dye yarn

BY AMY KYLLO STAFF WRITER

ROCHESTER –Small, white strawberry flowers blooming in fields, stately twining grapes and the serene blue of Silver Creek Reservoir in the dis-

tance create a peaceful scene at Firefly Berries.

Dean and Tonya Sanner bought what is now Firefly Berries in 2010 from retiring fruit farmers who wanted to ensure their farm was

sold to someone who would continue the business.

“When we came to look at it, it felt more like we were being interviewed,” Tonya said.

Today, they raise mostly strawberries, Concord grapes and raspberries but also have apricots, tart cherries, plums, pears, crab apples, elderberries and honeyberries. Besides fruit, they dye wool yarn with flowers and fruit juices.

For Tonya, the farm provided part of the lifestyle she and Dean wanted for their children.

“To have something that I can grow my own and the kids and I could do together,” she said. “That’s a big part of why we do it, too, because it’s good experience for the kids.”

The farm is a family

yarn

endeavor for the Sanners and their four children. Tonya said they had a particularly challenging infestation of thistles their first year. Their crew of children, who were 7 and under, took up the task of weeding.

“We paid them 10 cents for every two that they pulled,” she said. “After the first day, my husband realized that was not going to work because they could pull a lot of thistles for the short amount of time even though they were little.”

Now, they pay an hourly rate plus a matching contribution to their college fund.

Tonya smiles when she remembers her early naïveté around weeding. The previous owners of the farm kept track of the hours

spent weeding and had given them one of their journal logs. She said she assumed there were so many hours recorded because the couple was getting older. She was wrong.

Since they do not utilize spray for chemical weed control, weeding is key. Their three youngest children get up around 6 a.m. and weed for three hours every day. Dean, who works full time at IBM, manages the weeding

schedule for the children and helps with weeding outside of his job. Much of the weeding is done by hand, but they also have hoes and utilize a tractor-powered weeder.

The Sanners, who have about 1.5 acres of strawberries, made the decision to stop the pickyour-own system on their farm this year and switch entirely to prepicked.

Sanners page 2

4 Disasters in the kitchen Amy Kyllo column 5 Blondies carves its place Wanamingo

PHOTO BY AMY KYLLO

Skeins of Berry Fun Yarn rest May 31 on a straw bale at Firefly Berries near Rochester. Tonya Sanner has dyed 50 to 70 colors of

with her homemade dyes.

PHOTO SUBMITTED Lincoln (left) and Eliot Sanner plant strawberries in May at Firefly Berries near Rochester. Dean and Tonya Sanner keep a field in strawberries for two to three years before rotating it with cover crops.

PHOTO SUBMITTED Strawberries glow ruby red in containers at y Berries near Rochester. The Sanners made the decision to switch their operation entirely to pre-picked this season.

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“You have to think about the sustainability of your family and your health,” Tonya said. “You still keep going, but you have to try to figure out a way to make it work.”

The Sanners rotate their strawberries with cover crops every two to three years. The first year, the strawberries have their buds pinched to help the plants focus on internal strength. Year two they harvest, and if they are not overrun with weeds, they harvest a third and final year.

Because they do not use commercial fertilizer on their strawberries, they rely on cover crop rotations for nutrients, which focus on getting nitrogen into the soil. Some of their cover crops include winter rye, clover, alfalfa and Sudangrass.

The Sanners raise two varieties of strawberries. Annapolis is an early variety with a more complete flavor profile, and Flavorfest is a mid-

dle-season variety with a traditional strawberry flavor.

They plant early and mid-season varieties to combat spotted wing drosophila, an insect which attacks ripe fruit and which is more prevalent problem for late-season fruit. These insects make themselves known with maggots inside ripe fruit.

The spotted wing drosophila are the main culprit that forced the Sanners to also reduce their raspberries from several acres to several rows. They still raise red raspberries, golden raspberries and black raspberries but only as a prepicked option. They pick raspberries every day to reduce the prevalence of spotted wing drosophila.

“If in doubt, (the raspberry) goes in the compost,” Tonya said.

The Sanners also have around 600 Concord grapevines in their

vineyard. A good harvest will garner 6,000 to 9,000 pounds of grapes. Concord grapes have seeds and are sweet, with the sweetness concentrating around their slip skins.

“You need to put it in your mouth and kind of suck on it,” Tonya said. “I spit out the skin after I get the good stuff, and then I suck on it some more. Then, I spit out the seeds. So, it’s not something you eat on your first date.”

On their 20-acre farm, they rent several garden

plots to other growers. A bee keeper keeps hives on their farm. They sell his honey at the Rochester Farmers Market for free in exchange for the pollination.

“We’re into those symbiotic relationships,” Tonya said. The Sanners sell fresh fruits at the farmers market, their hand-dyed yarns and canned goods such as jams, jellies and Concord grape juice.

Sanners page 3

“Committed to being the eyes and ears of our communities.”

PHOTO SUBMITTED

The Firefly Berries booth is set up at the Rochester Farmers Market. Firefly Berries has a booth most weeks during the season.

You have to think about the sustainability of your family and your health

- Tonya Sanner

PHOTO BY AMY KYLLO

Plum jam (from left), Concord grape juice and raspberry rhubarb jam rest May 31 on a straw bale at Firefly Berries near Rochester. The Sanners sell fresh fruit as well as homemade canned goods.

Blondies carves its place Blondies car ves its IN WANAMINGO I N W A N A M I N G O

Loken shares passion for butchery

BY HANS LAMMEMAN STAFF WRITER

by a former paramedic eager to share her passion for meat science.

Before purchasing a butcher shop, Lindsey Loken first familiarized herself with anatomy as a paramedic in Wy-

oming and Montana for 14 years. After feeling burned out from her career as a first responder, she learned the basics of butchery at a large cattle ranch in Montana.

In 2014, Loken bet on herself, purchasing an 80-year-old meat locker across the street from her father’s welding shop in downtown Wanamingo.

“It was more than a leap of faith,” Loken said.

“It was an interesting one; I was really lost in my career and what I wanted

to do. I just jumped in. It was a headfirst dive into the deep end.”

With only the fundamentals of butchery under her belt, Loken began networking within the industry to learn more.

“A lot of the fellow meat lockers in the state of Minnesota were just amazing to me, stepping up and saying, ‘Come hang out with us for a week, we’ll teach you how to cut,’” Loken said.

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

A bright pink Blondies Butcher Shop looks over Main Street in Wanamingo. The meat locker’s name was changed to Blondies after Lindsey Loken and the family’s recognizable hair color.

Lindsey Loken stands with a knife between two beef carcasses at Blondies Butcher Shop in Wanamingo. The average beef carcass butchered at Blondies ranges from 900 to 1,200 pounds. Loken page 6

Loken from page 5

“Once you learn the basic structure, then the art of it comes along. It is pretty repetitive. You develop your own style after a while.”

Loken renamed the shop Blondies in response to a nickname that stuck from local farmers and customers. She put her stamp on the business with a unique aesthetic that incorporated her favorite color and rustic

decor. “I needed my business (to stand out) in order to draw the public in; I knew I would need to do something,” Loken said.

“I knew I was a rare breed being a female-owned business, and pink was just it. To get people to come to my town for something other than tractor parts or a happy hour beer, I had to do something to get their attention

and make them come.”

Blondies quickly gained a loyal following from the local community and found much more success later from a broader audience on social media. Posts on the shop’s Facebook page have accrued hundreds of shares and thousands of likes, with comments and direct messages from fans nationwide.

Loken’s social media presence connected her with women butchers around the globe. She said women are much more common in the industry than many initially assume.

“When you look at the more established, older butcher shops that have existed, you find that a lot of them are always in the man’s name,” Loken said. “But I will tell you for a fact that the wives are right there running the show just as much.”

With accolades like speaking at the Women’s Agricultural Leadership Conference and recognition from the Minnesota Beef Council, Loken found avenues to educate others interested in butchery as her mentors did for her when she was learning.

“The thing I am most proud of is really helping to bridge the gap between the producer and consumer,” Loken said. “I really enjoy communicating with people who are purchasing meat but don’t have the agricultural connection and have questions. I pride myself in being a no-fear-zone, where nobody feels dumb asking questions.”

Loken jumped at the opportunity to share her passion with interested youth in response to a $300,000 grant from the state of Minnesota that aimed to implement meat processing equipment for

agriculture programs in public schools.

“We (want) to help teach the youth and try to revive the art of butchery,” Loken said.

She connected with Amy Mastin from Kelliher Public Schools to provide curious students with a hands-on lesson in butchery. Loken said Kelliher Public Schools was the only school in the state to raise a cattle herd, and the class used meat from their first harvest.

Loken led classes across the state in about a dozen districts.

Loken said Blondies is a tight-knit family business. In addition to the five full-time staff and about 15 part-time employees, her daughters, Remi and Siri, frequently lend a hand around the shop and help customers from behind the counter.

butchery, Loken encouraged them to push through adversity and persistently pursue learning opportunities.

“The kids had an absolute heyday,” she said. “They cut for four hours straight and were so proud of what they had done when they found a steak or cut that was hard to get out.”

Inspired by the students’ excitement,

As words of ad-

“Just keep trying,” Loken said. “Don’t make the same mistake twice. I always tell my customers that mistakes are your learning tools – unfortunately, sometimes painful learning tools. You just pick up, dust off, keep go- the erd, meat

ad vice for those looking to pursue

go ing forward and keep learning. “

PHOTOS SUBMITTED

Students carve meat alongside Lindsey Loken (right) in mid-March at Kelliher Public Schools. She has led hands-on meat science classes at about 12 districts across Minnesota in 2023.

Lindsey Loken stands behind the counter at Blondies Butcher Shop in Wanamingo. The shop gained a large audience online through successful social media efforts.

Blondies Butcher Shop received the 2023 Retail Beef Backer Award from the Minnesota Beef Council. The award recognizes retail and beef promotion in Minnesota

BY AMY KYLLO | STAFF WRITER

CALEDONIA – For Jordan Meyer, health begins at ground level in the soil.

“Healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy people, healthy communities,” Jordan said.

Jordan and Rachelle Meyer own three properties where they raise a conventional dairy herd, grass-fed beef cattle, a small grass-fed Jersey herd, grass-fed goats, grass-fed broiler chickens, laying hens and pastured pigs.

Together with Jordan’s dad, Lee Meyer, they will be hosting the first Houston County Breakfast on the Farm in a decade. The event will be held from 7-11 a.m. June 24 at one of the family’s farmsites near Caledonia. Guests will be bussed in from Caledonia High School.

Rachelle wants visitors to understand what their regenerative farm looks like and reconnect people to the source of their food. As a farmer, Rachelle said she often takes for granted the beautiful scenery and the farm experience.

Jordan agreed.

“Getting off … of the concrete jungle and … into the open wide country area, it’s a big deal for (consumers),”

he said. “If we can just share a little bit of that, I guess I’m willing to do that.”

The Meyers graze more than 700 acres of land across three properties and farm around 500 acres. Eventually, they hope to transition their entire operation to grass. The Meyers are switching their acres to grass for several reasons including soil health, reduced labor and animal health.

“You can’t beat … going to grass-fed dairy,” Jordan said. “You’re not growing any annual crops. You don’t have any bare soil out there. It’s all covered all the time.”

Rachelle said the labor required by a conventional dairy herd is far greater than that of a grass-fed system.

“You’re carrying all the groceries to the cows and carrying all the manure out,” she said.

The Meyers utilize no till on 80% of their row crop acres.

The conventional dairy herd is housed in a sand-bedded freestall barn. However, they also own seven grass-fed, organic, A2A2 Jersey cows. The milk produced from these cows is sold directly off the farm.

Meyer page 11

PHOTO SUBMITTED

The Meyer family –Layne (front, from left), Natalie, Gabe and Ashton; Rachelle (back, from left), Jordan holding April and Lee holding Kade – on their farm near Caledonia. The Meyers are hosting the Houston County Breakfast on the Farm June 24.

from page 9

They also sell beef, pork, chicken and eggs through their on-farm store or via the Winona Farmers Market.

The Meyer family’s operation includes their six young children and a seventh child who is due four days after the Houston County Breakfast on the Farm.

Jordan said three of their sons are already interested in farming.

“If Mom and Dad are interested in doing what they’re doing, kids kind of follow suit,” he said.

Rachelle agreed.

“That’s (what) I think sets us apart,” she said. “I farm full time. … Both parents are out here and truly loving it.”

Ashton enjoys getting up with his dad at 2:30 a.m. to help with chores.

Rachelle said Ash-

ton even knows enough to keep their standards up in the milking barn.

“(He) yells at me if I use a paper towel twice,” she said. “It’s kind of comical.”

Rachelle appreciates the work ethic and worldview the farm is teaching their children.

“They really value, start to finish, life, death and the whole process,

raising their own food,” she said. “They’re so proud when they can sit at the kitchen table and say we’re eating our own chicken that we raised.”

The Meyers’ children are the fifth generation on their farm. Jordan said he remembers growing up surrounded by cousins playing on the farm. Rachelle also grew up in the country but developed a passion for farming at the same time she came to love Jordan.

The couple started dating in high school.

“I just loved it out here,” she said. “I’d ride the bus out here after school, and I helped Jordan do chores.”

At 14, Rachelle did not have a driver’s license, so a parent had to drive her home. Their teenage romance lasted, and in 2013, they married.

“That family legacy has always been here,” Rachelle said. “Continuing to keep the family here is why we do what we do.”

Meyer page 12

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Gabe Meyer feeds a goat on one of the Meyer family’s farms near Caledonia. The Meyers have 400 meat goat nannies.

PHOTO BY AMY KYLLO

A permaculture of

Retired Schmidt couple starts diversified flower farm

BY AMY KYLLO STAFF WRITER

WABASHA – In a valley among the big knobby green bluffs of the Driftless Area sprouts a farmyard of red barns and little buildings. The landscape is textured, with bushy hazelnuts crowning the edges of the clearing before giving way to the broccoli tops of the forest. Around the barns and across the farm, tousled grass surround gardens of flowers blooming on landscape fabric creating a com-

arts

bination that is at once organized and riotous. Bees with legs covered in pollen feast upon flowers before flying back to the hives and white hoop houses packed with rows of flowers and vegetables complete the scene.

Dave and Catherine Schmidt purchased the land for Bluff Valley Flower Farm as part of their retirement in 2015. In their first careers, Dave was a city administrator, and Catherine was a doctor. Now, they are focused on sustainability in the way they live and farm

near Wabasha.

basha.

The couple uses perennial plants to fi bon and create a terrain that retains water. Part of this includes planting trees, such as hazelnuts, in order to create an income stream within the permaculture.

fix carains uch ream lture.

“With a perennial, ... it’s sort of like no till on steroids,” Catherine said.

The Schmidts added pollinator habitats, improved water quality and provide land access to younger farmers.

Schmidt page 14

(Above) Raised flower beds, hazelnuts and swales stand in the sun on Bluff Farm near Wabasha. Catherine and Dave Schmidt recently received certifi Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program.

PHOTO SUBMITTED Bluff Valley Flower fication through the

PHOTO BY AMY KYLLO

(Right) Catherine and Dave Schmidt smile June 1 on their farm near Wabasha. The Schmidts purchased the property that is now Bluff Valley Flower Farm in 2015.

The couple grows pick-your-own flowers, hazelnuts, apples, mushrooms and asparagus to offer alongside honey and eggs on the property.

They sell their flowers to florists and many of the other products through Dancing Gnome Farm.

Lauren Barry is the young farmer who owns Dancing Gnome Farm,

which the Schmidts provide land access to.

Barry and Michael Anderson live on the farm with their infant Arthur.

Barry operates a community supported agriculture program and sells at the Wabasha and Hopkins farmers markets. She also recruits farm interns interested in learning about sustainable vegetable farming.

Catherine has been a

lifetime gardener, gaining inspiration from her aunt and grandfather, who were both farmers. She remembers her aunt getting her a subscription to an organic farming magazine when she was a child in Detroit. Now, in retirement, Catherine’s garden has expanded into an entire farm.

“We joke that we ran out of room for perennials at our house in town,” Catherine said.

After they purchased the land, the couple and many friends spent a full year cleaning up the abused property, disposing of 6,000 pounds of tires and over 100 TVs.

The Schmidts have taken their farm from being an unofficial dump site to certified organic. They were also certified through the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program.

Because they are located in the bluffs, they also use swales to slow rainwater. Their sustainability efforts are not only outside, but inside.

Their new barn, which has a gathering space, a walk-in cooler, kitchen and more downstairs and will soon feature a farm guest suite upstairs, uses geothermal heating and cooling.

Pipes radiate 1,000 feet out from the barn through the ground below the frost line, gathering the

relative coolness of the ground in summer and the relative warmth in winter. The shed of the new barn also has solar panels on the roof which supply part of their energy needs.

The farm also has a monarch habitat rest area designation. Catherine said this means they provide habitat such as not pulling up milkweed even when they are grow-

ing in fields as weeds.

“The monarchs went from being super common when I was little kid to now they’re in danger,” Catherine said. “It was just from everybody, like mowing their yard and spraying chemicals all over everything and thinking they have to cut everything down.”

Schmidt page 15

Holly the farm dog sits in the owers at Bluff Valley Flower Farm near Wabasha. The Schmidts spent a full year cleaning up the farm after they purchased it.

PHOTOS SUBMITTED

Amaranth flowers bloom in front of the barns at Bluff Valley Flower Farm near Wabasha. Catherine Schmidt wants guests to feel a pastoral peace when they visit the farm.

The farm reflects her values. It is tidy yet boisterous with grass, plants and flowers growing in profusion.

Dave is passionate about land access and volunteers in this area with the Land Stewardship Project.

“Don’t be afraid of young people coming onto your farm,” Dave said. “They bring vitality, energy and ideas.”

The Schmidts enjoy sharing meals on the farm with their small community. Lunch is replete with stimulating conversation, interesting ideas and a group of highly educated young people.

Though they have other products, Catherine mostly focuses on the flowers and honeybees. This decision was prompted because she knew how to grow flowers and because flowers have a higher return on investment.

Dave is also active on the farm, focusing on project needs such as maintaining their extensive drip irrigation system, building things and more.

As a pick-your-own flower farmer, Catherine wants guests to feel a sense of pastoral farm peace, a feeling like look-

ing at a chamomile flower and experiencing the sensation of the bright and beautiful tucked into a scented floral package.

“I want people to feel, ‘OK, here I can relax,’” she said.

Catherine is offering two pick-your-own flower days this summer, Friday, July 7 and Saturday, Aug.

12. In the future, she hopes to grow florist connections and contract her flowers ahead.

Catherine runs a startto-finish operation, starting almost all of her flowers from seed in her greenhouse beginning in February.

She grows both perennials and annuals in black landscape fabric. Their farm has clay soil, so certain perennials grow better in raised gardens. She mounds dirt in long rows under the fabric to create better conditions. She also grows flowers in the two hoop houses which she shares with Barry’s vegetables.

As farmers, Catherine

and Dave are dedicated to leaving the earth better than they found it and encouraging others to do the same.

“I care about the future,” Catherine said. “If we all just try to take care of the water and the rest of the world it’ll last for the next hopefully many, many, many generations. … everybody just has to do a little bit.”

Chainsaws

Bars on hand

PHOTOS BY AMY KYLLO

(Above) Plants grow between drip irrigation lines June 1 in a hoop house at Bluff Valley Flower Farm near Wabasha. Besides raising flowers, the Schmidts also provide land access to young farmers.

(Above) Wine cap mushrooms lay June 1 at Bluff Valley Flower Farm near Wabasha. Though the Schmidts raise mushrooms, they are not currently for sale.

Cut flowers stay fresh in the walk-in cooler June 1 at Bluff Valley Flower Farm near Wabasha. Catherine Schmidt wants to sell flowers in advance to florists in the area.

Love-in-a-mist flowers bloom June 1 on Bluff Valley Flower Farm near Wabasha. The Schmidts joke that they purchased their farm because they ran out of room for flowers at their house in town.

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