Humble Pie Farm

The road of life has twists and turns. Some you can see coming, some just come up really fast as you're tooling along. We had a surprise sharp turn this week. The Wedge Co-op has put Gardens of Eagan Certified Organic Farm on the market for sale this week. For us this means that in nine months, our home and livelihood are uncertain. An investor could buy the place and keep everything as is. Or we will need to move, find a new home and new land for our farm, and new employment and health insurance to sustain our family. It's a big deal. We're processing the surprise, feeling the layers of grief of loss, and getting ready to make a new plan. We knew that this wasn't a forever gig, we just weren't quite ready to move on yet. 

Five years ago, Linda, our farm manager and friend, asked us to drive by this place. "It's where Eveleth Avenue Ts with 290th Street." She had been talking with the current owner because the land lease with the Diffley's was coming due for decision to purchase. "Just check it out," she said. We drove by and I said, 

"I wouldn't want to live on that dusty, dumpy corner." 

Famous last words.

Today this dusty corner houses state of the art produce farm buildings with planting and harvesting equipment, 116+ acres of Certified Organic land, solar panels for electricity, 12 bays of functional greenhouse space, many with rehabbed soil for season extension planting. It also houses our little home and Humble Pie Farm. The farm crew has spent countless hours rehabbing the greenhouses, fixing the furnaces, hustling propane, planting cover crops, redefining farm fields, not to mention seeding, planting and harvesting thousands of pounds of delicious produce to feed our community. My Mike leads this crew in many ways, and picks up pieces all around every day to ensure smooth functioning. He's spent countless overnights slipping out of our warm bed when the sensaphone called to let him know that the temperature in the greenhouse has dropped to go find the problem and fix it. Earl and I have spent countless hours watching Papa on the tractor working these increasingly healthier fields. We've  planted countless red dogwood, cedar, plum, apple, willow and cherry trees. We have a pergola with bittersweet and grapevines climbing it. We have a sandbox. And a chicken coop with 15 happy chickens in our front yard.  It's beautiful. The certified organic farmland across the road is beautiful. Now it looks loved because it is.   

While I was birthing Earl and navigating the wonderful, terrifying first weeks of new motherhood, Bob(12 years with GOE), Susan(8 years with GOE) and Mike(This is his 10th year with GOE!) worked so hard to finish our house so we could move in.  Our church friends painted the walls and refinished the wood floors in the house for cost of materials. Earl's room is "celery", a light happy spring green. We moved here when he was three weeks old. He loves this place. It's his home. He loves the greenhouses and the machine shed and his shovel and the outgoing spinach and the incoming radishes. He loves the farm crew. They're like his family. He sees them every day, they hug and kiss him and let him "help" them. 

Friends, I'm so sad. We will be fine. We have a wonderful community and many resources and skills. We'll figure it out. But oh I'm so sad. This is our home. This is our first farm. We love this dusty corner. We've worked so hard. We aren't ready to let go.

Note: Mike and I are only grateful for and empathetic to the Wedge Co-op management and Board of Directors for their work in making decisions for and financing the farm in shifting and often difficult circumstances.  We hope they understand how hard we've worked to make this place successful in shifting and often difficult circumstances. We love this place. We hope they know that.

AND, everything will go as planned this season. Same TONS of flowers for sale and exciting new markets and events. And we will work like the dickens to make everything the same and better next year. Stay tuned for the next installment in HPF's exciting story.

xoxo
J,M+E