• Playing with Fire: Facepunch Foods Brings Flavorful Heat to the Table

    Mark Petersen of Stillwater’s Facepunch Foods fell in love with heat when he was six years old. 

  • Apple Love is for Keeps: Cidery Grows out of Farming Interest

    Welcoming visitors of all ages, Nate and Tracy enjoy being a destination for multigenerational families, fermentation aficionados, or day trippers just looking for a change of scenery — their front porch, also known as the Keepsake Cider Tasting Room, truly is a family-friendly site

  • Backstreet Country Market: Small Family Beef and Pork Direct to Your Door

    “We are just a family farm working at preserving our livelihood that is built on a love for good tasting food and creating memories with our family on the farm or around the table,” reflects Tina of Backstreet Market in Gibbon. “We want people to have a great experience eating together. We are so lucky that our products have a place on our neighbors’ tables. That personal connection keeps us going and makes all the work worthwhile.”

  • Lazy Farming? Windhaven Farm Embraces Regenerative Agricultural Practices To Bring The Land to Life

    Alex Green and Vanessa Gillman are the hardest working lazy people you’ve ever met.  That’s why Alex and Vanessa believe in the power of regenerative agriculture. 

  • Meet Minnesota’s Cottage Food Community: Breaking Down Barriers to Building a Registered Food Business

    The very legalization of Minnesota’s cottage food enterprises is a major accomplishment. The 2021 amendments increased the sales cap per registered individual and added pet treats for dogs and cats as a cottage food product. “We’ll keep working to educate the public about the importance of registering and how to run a business safely,” said Shelley Erickson. “It’s essential to recognize what it means for a business to have registered and why that’s important both for the business owner and their customers.”

  • Playing in the Mud: Functional Heirlooms’ Norwegian-Mexican-American Pottery

    Ceramics are both beautiful objects and a domestic necessity used in intimate ways. “I love the function of the pieces I create. You are able to eat out of them; you put your mouth to them,” muses Wendy Eggerman of Functional Heirlooms. “How many forms of art do you put your mouth to? How many forms of art do you interact with on that level?”