A Little Farm in Your Life?

We've had a number of people ask if we might consider shipping our products. I ask, "To where?" thinking I might consider the headache of mailing if the recipient is someone who stopped by on a visit from California or New York last summer during peak tourist season, but no, people requesting we ship are often in the Twin Cities (and some on the Eastern outskirts) making a trip to Lake View Organic Farm less than an hour's drive. Now, before I lose any customers, please consider our philosophy and tag line...Need a Little Farm in Your Life? We are a Farm-Direct outfit for your benefit and ours. Let me explain.

Morning Fog Over the Fields

Small-Scale Food Producers

First off, we are small-scale producers. That means we plant, harvest, prepare, and package all of the products in our store ourselves and produce only in small-batches. Love and care and lots time are invested in what we do. If we do the dumb thing of figuring out an hourly wage for ourselves, we end up making a dollar or two an hour most days. Every minute we spend taking what we grow on the farm and turning it into farm store products is more about lifestyle than paycheck. If we shipped our recipes and products off to big factory producers for them to prepare and package then perhaps we'd want to ship and sell off farm because we'd have a heck of a processing bill to cover. We've been asked to go big. We pondered, weighed the costs and ultimately said, "No."

Our Work is Ours

Why on earth would you pass up an opportunity to sell wholesale? You might wonder. There are lots of reasons why moving in the wholesale direction isn't appealing. First, it would cost a lot of money. When we drive by fields of corn and William comments, "That's break even corn," I understand that farming and its inputs can be really costly. Most farmers have full time off-farm jobs to pay for their farming enterprises. When William has to spend nearly $100K in the Spring to make $105K in the Fall, one quickly understands the concept of squeezing nickels! Setting up a wholesale operation would cost us a fortune upfront and who knows how long it would take to recoup the investment. If I were 35 years old, that may be an exciting adventure I'd be willing to try, but at 55, I'm less risk tolerant. At this point in my life, I'd rather live on less and stay on the farm than go back into the workforce.

Wholesale processing would also mean we would likely need to either expand our operation and grow on a larger scale or buy products from other farmers. Both of those options would mean an outlay of more work and more money. The joy and happiness we find in small scale small batch would be lost if we transitioned to a wholesale formula.

I understand this is hard for those in the modern world to understand when money is the guiding light. Maybe moving our product line to a big producer could potentially make us some moolah, but it would certainly involve more work. That work would no longer be for our own joy and satisfaction - we would be working to fill demanding orders. No thanks.

Unique Delights

If you know me, you know I don't often make the same thing twice. I'm also not good at following recipes, preferring to add my own twist. Because we're small batch, and I like the creative outlet offered by food, things that are on our shelves may never return. I may have a creative idea for a product, make a small batch of it, and never make it again as that product combination won't align in the future for all sorts of reasons. It's very difficult for me to promise any given product will be available. The fun of visiting our store is to see what unique delight I've created that week! There is always something new...especially this time of year when harvest brings so many ingredients to work with.

Peace, Quiet and a Working Farm - What You Don't Have in the City

We love the peace and quiet of our world and we love sharing it with people who want a little slice of this heaven. Remember, I lived in Minneapolis for 30 years and I understand the stress of city living. While I was there I couldn't quite put my finger on the sense of over-stimulation I always felt, but once I bought my farm, and began to slow my body, I recognized it for what it was - STRESS. We invite you to the farm, to visit our little FARM STORE as a way to get off the beaten path and out into the country. People from the city come out here and mostly do things they could do in the city - go to stores and restaurants. We offer the opportunity to get out into the countryside, meander a few back roads and visit a real working farm! Sit on the porch, pet Homer the cat and watch the cows on pasture for a few moments. It's so relaxing, nostalgic for some and nurturing. You can't get that in a box we've mailed you and you can't get that in your average shopping experience.

Shipping Issues

Shipping is a huge headache for us. We've done it a few times and have learned we're just not set up with packaging to mail our products. Many of the products folks want shipped are liquids, and that's a headache of grand proportion to make sure bottles don't break and lids don't leak. Once a box is packaged, I have to drive down to the post office in Maiden Rock, hit them during their very limited rural hours, and spend anywhere from $15 to $100 for shipping. It just doesn't make sense to me. That person in Cottage Grove who wants me to ship their salad dressing could take a nice drive down the River Road, visit the farm and have a slice of pie in Stockholm for the price they would spend on shipping. It's a headache for me and a lost opportunity for you.

The Solution: Grocery Shop Farm Direct - Go BIG, Go WEEKLY, Come This Way

Don't get me wrong, I understand the weight of the work week and the absence of time one feels in living in the city, but I also know that the drive out here is completely therapeutic! The way I see it, why not put the pieces together to do all your grocery shopping FARM-DIRECT. It'll be fun adventure and make you feel good to see the fields where your food was grown or grazed.

Here's a list of just a few of the many farm stores/markets and farm stands in my neighborhood you could shop to complete your weekly grocery shopping needs...all while taking in the countryside. (If you have a market, store or stand that I didn't include, please leave your info in the comments below.)

Lake View Organic Farm (Farm Store Open Daily)

Udder Hills Meats (Farm Store)

Wheatfield Hill Organics (Periodic Farm Markets)

Oxheart Farm (Milk and Yogurt Store Th. & Su. or CSA for veggies)

Hilltop Homestead (Farm Stand)

Farm & Flour (Baked Goods Farm Stand)

Good Turn Farm (Preorder veggies for pick up Fri. or Sat.)

Maiden Rock Apples (Cider and Apples Th-M)

If a regular trip to the countryside isn't in your cards, perhaps you could post an inquiry to The River List to see if you might create a buyer's group of sorts. This is a community board for our Lake Pepin area with thousands of subscribers who travel to the area regularly.

After quite a lot of hmmming and hawing, and at the risk of losing customers, William and I agree that the headaches involved with shipping our products isn't worth it for us. We want to run our farm in a way that works for our peace and tranquility, and you stopping out to the Farm Store is part of that equation. The world and all of its instant gratification, speedy delivery and fast food is not what we want to be about. We'd like for everyone to take a deep breath and ponder the opposite of that insanity from the porch of our farm store.

Slow your body, slow your mind and take a drive in the country. The leaves are beginning to change out here, weirdly the lilacs are in bloom again and there are fun food venues dotting the backroads all around us.

Thanks for shopping with us and following along on this grand adventure!

Sending LOVE from the farm,

Sarah Brenner