'The best food in the world is all around you'

Cherry Lane Farm sees big role for microgreens in local food movement

For Calvin and Krissy Thiessen, what began as a basement trial has become a major operation. The couple owns Cherry Lane Farm north of Spirit Lake near the Minnesota border, were they've cultivated a market for microgreens over several years.

The Thiessens said many newcomers to their sales booths will mistake microgreens for sprouts, but they're an entirely different practice. Microgreen growers harvest the harvested leaves and stems from young edible seedlings, according to information from Iowa State University. Sprouts on the other hand are harvested root, seed and all.

"The reason we chose microgreens was because it's very easy to grow your customer base," Calvin said. "Any one person doesn't need a lot of microgreens to fulfill their need."

He said a typical customer buys 1-2 ounces of microgreens at any given time — maybe 1-2 pounds if they're a professional chef buying for a restaurant. At one time, the Thiessens were producing 31 different varieties of microgreens — anything from pea shoots or broccoli to red cabbage, kale and beets. In fact, they said Cherry Lane Farm produced about 100 flats of microgreens each week this summer.

"It's so fun to grow microgreens because you get to see how well you did in 14 days," Calvin said.

He noted the quick turnaround also allows growers to correct issues with their crop relatively quickly, and he said it's fairly easy to add other leafed greens and root crops to the mix once an operation finds its rhythm — Cherry Lane Farm at one point produced about 500 pounds of lettuce per week over a two year period.

"It was crazy and it was awesome to have that demand, and the demand is still there, especially if you're selling retail," Krissy said. "The lettuce — anybody knows, if you buy it from the store, it's bad in a day or two. Ours would sit on the shelf for two weeks and still be fresh and crisp."

And it was partly that commitment to healthier, longer-lasting food options that prompted the Thiessens to start their operation. The couple did some Lakes Area market research and found no one was producing microgreens locally. The entrepreneuring growers later pitched their products to retail stores and local restaurants — an intimidating process the first few go-rounds, Krissy said, but a successful one.

Cherry Lane Farm is now stocked at multiple Hy-Vee locations. The Thiessens worked with Jeremy Morrison at Bonfire Marketing in Spirit Lake to create packaging comparable to their competitors on store shelves. Morrison said things like waterproof labels and clear containers were a plus, but he said it was also important the packaging also show consumers Cherry Lane Farm was a local family operation.

"People want to buy local, but they also want things to be easy," Morrison said, noting many will choose local products if they're available at familiar stores.

But there was also the matter of educating the public — the Thiessens said many in the community were unfamiliar with microgreens when they began their business venture.

"We are growing a superior product — that's all there is to it," Calvin said. "It's a matter of convincing other people that you have a superior product, and showing them that you do. The big hangup a lot of times is that maybe we have to charge more than you're going to find in the store, but your product is going to have a shelf-life of probably two weeks longer than theirs."

That said, Calvin pointed out that same price gap is closing amid rising food costs, making locally-grown produce a more appealing option for some.

Krissy said, once the education hurdle was largely behind them, Cherry Lane Farm turned its outreach efforts elsewhere — eventually becoming Farmers Market in the Park, an outdoor market held each week from Memorial Day to late September along Lake Street near both Arnolds Park Amusement Park and the Berkley Bedell State Pier.

Krissy said she aimed to create a niche community event capable of showing the general public the goods they often seek are being made within the region, if not within their own community.

"It was really cool to see the community really embrace the local food movement," she said. "So we became really passionate about that and kept pouring into it because of that part — maybe not so much because it benefitted our farm specifically, but because it benefitted so many farmers, the local food movement and the education piece of it."

Calvin agreed, adding he feels it's wise for producers to be out in public and meet their buyers face to face.

"The best food in the world is all around you," he said. "And if you spend the time buying that food from those people, you're not just helping yourself and making yourself healthier, you're helping your neighbor."

In that same vein, the Thiessens recently partnered with the nonprofit Practical Farmers of Iowa to host a field day at Cherry Lane Farm. The couple demonstrated portions of their operation and discussed market strategies with other producers — some from as far away as Galesburg, Illinois.

"PFI is so excited about farmers sharing what they know about their systems with other farmers, because we believe that farmers are the experts," said Jacqueline Venner Senske, senior horticulture education coordinator with PFI.

Practical Farmers of Iowa was founded in the 1980s and promotes farmer-led education related to sustainable practices producers can potentially apply to their own distinct operations. Venner Senske said part of her job in particular is to give producers like the Thiessens a platform to do just that.

"They have been so critical in building a really vibrant community around local food in the Spirit Lake area — and especially the Arnolds Park farmers market — to grow and really thrive and become the amazing place that it is," she said.

Farmers Market in the Park is slated to run through Sept. 30 this year.

This story appeared in the special Heritage and Harvest section, which was included with the Sept. 28, 2023, edition of the Dickinson County News.