By Michelle M. Sharp, Founder and Content Creator of Meet the Minnesota Makers|
WHO: |
Featherstone Farm |
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BUSINESS TYPE: |
Organic Produce Farm |
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SIGNATURE PRODUCTS: |
Carrots, Heirloom Tomatoes, Winter Squash |
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WHERE: IN-PERSON: WEBSITE: |
Rushford CSA |
Do you know Featherstone Farm’s two secrets to nutritious organic vegetables for their CSA community and wholesale customers? 
1. The diverse team of people who plan, plant, weed, monitor, harvest, wash, and pack.
2. The rich Waukegan loam soil native to Minnesota’s Driftless region.
This dynamic combination cultivates dozens of products including fresh herbs, root vegetables, winter squash, heirloom tomatoes, summer melons, leafy greens and, of course, their signature carrots.
From the early 1990s when Featherstone began with 20 CSA subscribers until the new high tunnels that extend the growing season and climate-controlled warehouses to store winter crops, Featherstone has been a joyfully hard journey for Jack Hedin, Featherstone’s founding farmer. “Farming is a hard life. I love it. I love how there is always something new. We’ve almost lost our farm a couple of time and our customers and community rallied because they were determined not to let our farm fail.” He’s optimistic about the future of Minnesota farming, “There are so many great young CSA farms and farmers out there. I have nothing but admiration for them.”
Founding Featherstone
Featherstone Farm was born of Jack Hedin’s fortuitous reading of his great grandfather’s memoir of growing up on the high grass prairie of Featherstone Township in Goodhue County near 
Red Wing. His great grandfather’s observations of the natural world of southeast Minnesota—the soils, the habitat, the ecosystems—made Jack realize that living with this land through farming was his life’s work. “The name of the farm is from my great great grandparents’ homestead. It’s where my great grandfather learned about the world. It was this gift that he passed along to me.”
From the start, Jack and his wife Jenni McHugh’s mission was to feed people in an environmentally-sustainable way. Featherstone was an early adopter of organic farming, a choice that is at the cornerstone of its daily operation. “I believe in organics. It’s a better way to go,” reflects Jack. “I went organic because of the soil. It’s the foundational principle of trying to return agriculture to some kind of natural system, to mimic something closer to the natural order with respect to diversity and microbiology.” For Jack, organic farming promotes health and balance through improved soil quality, which results in a richer product for the consumer while preserving natural resources for future generations.
When he started farming, Jack wanted to grow food for people, “It’s a sacred service to feed people.” The majority of the produce grown on the 140 acres of Featherstone is destined for consumers’ home use. Their produce is enjoyed by more than 1000 summer and nearly 650 winter CSA subscribers. They also stock Twin Cities, Rochester, Winona, and LaCrosse co-ops, and Whole Foods Stores throughout the Midwest.
In recent years, Featherstone has focused on crops that are less susceptible to disease and to Minnesota’s sometimes unpredictable weather cycles. Root crops 
and winter squashes help them to be more financially stable. “If the general public understood the challenge of farming in a climate with rain, they would understand why local foods cost more than foods grown in California,” explains Jack. “Most of what you see in a conventional grocery store is grown in the arid west where these crops have never seen one drop of rain. When you only irrigate, it’s much more predictable and less risky to grow things.”
It’s All About the Soil
Jack credits the robust rich soil of the current Featherstone site with much of their current success. The Waukegan loam soil native to river floodplains of Minnesota’s Driftless region allows them to grow a tremendous variety of organic produce. A University of Minnesota Soil Agronomist, Nic Jelenski confirmed that the Featherstone Farm combination of Waukegan silt loam in a well-drained floodplain, is extraordinarily unique in Minnesota. Being an active steward of this unique soil is a personal mission for Jack. “We need to take a richer view of soil resources. It would be good to have more of a plan to identify and protect the best land to give local foods a better chance. There ought to be specialty protections for rich farmland just like there are for wetlands.”
Jack stresses that while he is the farm’s founder, “No one should ever get the impression that Featherstone is really me or mostly me. We owe all of our success to a great team of experienced managers and immigrant farmworkers, who do most of the work around here day to day.”
Featherstone Farm has been growing MOSA certified organic produce since 1996. They are also Fair Food and Real Organic certified.
Is a CSA share right for you?
Both spring and summer shares are now available for sign up at www.featherstonefarm.com/sharedetails Next season winter shares are available too!
Featherstone Farm is one of three makers demonstrating at the January 18 Taste Makers class at the Farm at the Arb. Learn about Minnesota’s Driftless region and why it’s so good for farming, and taste a fresh winter salad crafted by Chef Beth with organic fruits, greens and vegetables.
To learn more about Featherstone Farms CSA or Wholesale programs and their farming practices, visit https://www.featherstonefarm.com/
Follow the Featherstone team in their adventures in the field, with their local grocery partners or even packing your boxes on Facebook and Instagram.
Follow @meettheminnesotamakers on Facebook and Instagram to discover more Minnesota farms and food producers!
