| WHO: | Rustic Roots | ||
| BUSINESS TYPE: | Direct-to-Consumer Specialty Crop Farm | ||
| SIGNATURE PRODUCTS: | Premium Garlic, Maple Syrup, Asparagus and Mushrooms | ||
| WHERE:
SOCIALS: WEBSITE: |
Alexandria, MN |
By Michelle M. Sharp, Founder and Content Creator of Meet the Minnesota Makers
The garlic lifestyle is the cornerstone of the Olberding Family’s Rustic Roots Farm in Alexandria, Minnesota.
Featured growers since the 2022 Minnesota Garlic Festival and Best in Show awardees at the festival in 2023, their 11 varieties of garlic thrive in farmland the family worked to restore to a fertile landscape. While not a standard entry on the resume of your local healthcare professional, Julie marvels how much happens when you’re simply willing to learn.
Beginning farmers together, all four family members invest in the best practices to let their specialty crops thrive. Since 2015 they’ve built high tunnels, tapped trees for syrup, planted asparagus, powdered garlic to reduce food waste, established mushroom logs, built a farm stand, and created custom spice blends using their garlic powders.
A FAMILY PROJECT
Their farm business started as a family project to instill a strong work ethic in their two kids. “We founded Rustic Roots Farm to teach our children the values of independence, hard work, self-reliance, perseverance and creative thinking,” explains Julie. “It has rapidly grown to be a successful specialty crop farm based on sustainable, regenerative practices.”
The kids are involved with every aspect of farm operations from equipment repair to answering questions at in-person markets. Growing specialty products with more limited seasons leaves room for the family’s travel schedule around the kids’ archery, baseball and softball teams.
The farm’s first product was maple syrup. The most recent experiment is dahlias, an addition that indulges Julie’s inner child and celebrates the tantalizing flower her grandmother always cultivated. “It makes me so happy to see families and friend groups smiling and enjoying themselves in our dahlia field. I look forward to adding more cut flower options as our farm continues to grow.”
Since 2025 the farm’s two high tunnels that allow Rustic Roots to extend the growing season for a variety of vegetables and offer unique products like 
turmeric root that require some protection from Minnesota’s temperature fluctuations. “Growing produce in a controlled environment allows us to expand our offerings for our own use and our customers,” shares Julie. “There are still plenty of challenges. The first winter we lost our overwintered parsley thanks to some local rabbits that found a way to force themselves into the tunnel.”
Julie expresses a sense of wonder about their specialty crops, “I find joy in watching the process of growing evolve from working the soil to planting the seed (or clove) through harvest. Each time, I start with a blank slate. With some careful nurturing, I grow something beautiful that can be enjoyed by many.”
GROWING WITH RBIL
Rustic Roots Farm is a graduate of the 2024 cohort of the Rural Business Innovation Lab. RBIL is a cohort-based, entrepreneurial program that redefines the narrative of rural decline. Each cohort builds a peer network dense with ideas, expertise, and resources that help rural small businesses start and scale their work within their communities.
Working in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, RBIL supports rural businesses in their growth to become sustainable drivers of economic health.
Rustic Roots applied to RBIL’s program with the goal to improve their business management skills. These were instrumental in helping their small farm scale up its operation. “We wanted to increase our overall revenue so that we as owners would no longer have to finance routine operations,” explains Julie. “We haven’t made an owner’s contribution to the business in several months! As self-taught beginning farmers, this is such an incredible feeling.”
The program tailors itself to fit a range of business types including farms with value-added products that depend on direct-to-consumer sales like Rustic Roots.
“I know we accelerated our growth as a farm business compared to what we would have done if it was just us doing it on our own,” shares Julie.
“Having guidance from our coaches and professional experts is so helpful. The networking of our peers continues to be incredible. We’re all in the weeds together. It offsets the isolation of running your own business where everything can simply feel so hard.”
Julie explained how RBIL continues to provide resources to make the many roles she fulfills for Rustic Roots more manageable. She is the laborer, bookkeeper, social media manager, contract negotiator, chief strategist, website manager and top salesperson in addition to having a full time job off farm. It’s challenging and fulfilling in ways she never foresaw.
UNEXPECTED GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES
Julie’s work in the maker community continually takes new forms. In 2026 she and another maker began managing the monthly winter markets at Rolling Forks Vineyard in Glenwood. Playing off 
of each other’s strengths and experiences, they created a locally-sourced event that delivers a positive environment for customers, fellow vendors, and the greater Alexandria community. Reflecting on the experience, Julie states, “This type of work can often feel isolating, but we find community with our customers and with local network of makers.”
Julie’s biggest surprise in farming with her family? “How much I love it. All of it!,” smiles Julie. “It turns out that I really love being able to work together outside. We get to spend a lot of time together, whether or not the kids always appreciate it. We have met some amazing people in this intertwined network of customers, growers, and makers. This community legitimately wants to see their peers succeed.”
Another surprise? Just how much that Julie loves garlic. When they closed on their farmland in the fall of 2018, Chad, Julie’s husband, mentioned on a whim that garlic is a crop that starts with a fall planting. That first year they planted 77 pounds of seed. They now grow tens of thousands of heads each year with nearly 35,000 planted in the fall of 2025. With orders coming in from across the country and prize winning garlics at the ready, that whim to plant garlic has proven to be just the right call.
STOCK YOUR PANTRY
Among the unexpected roles of running the farm has been educating customers how to use and plant their own garlic. “I never thought people would buy our garlic to plant their own. It’s really fun to see our practices and garlic varieties expand into new areas,” reflects Julie.
Garlic bulbs that are too small for retail become one of four varieties of garlic powder, which have been purchased by foodies and home cooks throughout the United States. The family peels and prepares all of their garlic for their powders, which are one hundred percent dehydrated garlic.
Rustic Roots Farm garlic powders are available in four varieties: Gourmet Garlic Powder, Roasted Garlic Powder, Smoked Garlic Powder, and a Garlic Scape Powder that is the most beautiful shade of green. Buy them individually or in the Garlic Lover Gift Pack. These pair deliciously with their mushroom powder for that extra dash of umami.
Purchase whole garlic, garlic powders, garlic storage bags, and mother-daughter made jewelry to be shipped from their website rusticrootsfarmmn.com/shop.php Maple syrup and spice blends are for local pickup only.
GET IN TOUCH
Sign up for their newsletter at rusticrootsfarmmn.com to get first dibs on garlic or learn about special events. Read their blog for on-farm happenings or off site adventures like the whole family being a part of John Mellencamp’s set at the 2025 Farm Aid Concert in Minneapolis.
Follow Rustic Roots at @rusticrootsfarmmn on Facebook and Instagram to see what’s new on the farm.
Contact Cameron Payne cameron.payne@cedausa.com at RBIL to learn more about the RBIL program. Visit 
https://www.cedausa.com/ruralinnovation/ for a program overview.
Follow @ruralbusinessinnovationlab on Instagram
Follow CEDA on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Visit meettheminnesotamakers.com or follow @meettheminnesotamakers on Facebook and Instagram as well as Ambit and LinkedIn to discover the small business owners that make Minnesota an amazing place to be! Meet the Minnesota Makers is a news site that connects you to the local food, farms, artists and artisans that make Minnesota thrive.
Rustic Roots was a presenter in the April 2026 Alexandria-road trip Taste Maker class at the Farm at the Arb.
