Meet Pat and Deb

We started with a garden on the Hannu family land near Finlayson, Minnesota about nine years ago, and soon found ourselves up to our necks in tomatoes — What to do? With the entire concept of “CSA” (Community Supported Agriculture) shares being very popular in our area, we decided to give it a try. In our first year, we had five families on board with us, as we began to learn the ropes of growing and transporting quality food items. We graduated from Lake Superior Sustainable Agriculture’s “Farm Beginnings” class, and continue to learn and grow.

How it all started

The only known photo of “Uncle” Herman Efram, the German bachelor farmer who my father purchased our land from after World War II. Herman is shown on the left, with his brother Tom, a snapping turtle, and their dad. My father, Fred Hannu, helped Herman on his farm when he was a kid. Fred had his eye on the land since his teenage years. I like to think that Dad would approve of what were are doing there – he was also a beekeeper, a conservation-minded person, and a handyman –Our families find it somewhat amusing that their “city kids” want to go “back to the farm…”