I spend the quiet days after Thanksgiving filled with gratitude and a bit of amazement that we made it to the finish line of our peak season. I’m struck each year by all the pieces that have to fit together just right to make our model work. In no particular order, here are a few of the things I’m [...]

Football has the Super Bowl. Accountants have tax day. We have Thanksgiving. It’s our season to shine! Starting early each fall, folks ask me if we’re gearing up for the Thanksgiving season. The answer is yes, of course, but the truth is that we’ve been busy prepping for a year. It’s no stretch to say we spend all year [...]

I had the opportunity to enjoy a pork chop sandwich and stroll through big farm equipment at Farmfest earlier this summer, to receive the Goodhue County Farm Family of the Year award. We were surprised and honored to be recognized, and it was a joy to hear the stories of all the other Minnesota farm families chosen (87 unique farm stories!). Some of [...]

We hit one of those unexpected milestones at our on-farm market recently. While doing paperwork on one of our newest hires, I noticed that she was born a couple weeks after Ferndale Market opened in 2008. It’s hard for me to believe that our market has now been around 17 years, longer than most teenagers. Our little baby is [...]

Summer greetings from our flock here at Ferndale! We’ve had a busy stretch across the whole team: launching our new turkey bratwurst, mowing grass, building more range shelters, mowing grass again, and planning for our soon-to-arrive new outdoor seating space at the market. Much as I joke about the endless summer mowing, the good rains have been a blessing [...]

It felt momentous last week when I grilled up our new turkey bratwurst line for my family. Sure, I’d tried many versions many times over the past few months (eating brats on the job is a perk of this gig), but there was a finality now that the brats were properly packed and labeled, with no tweaks left to [...]

It's finally the season where our turkeys are out on pasture. In fact, I just came in from moving a flock to range on one of these postcard-perfect spring days we’ve had. By the time this hits your inbox, the birds will be well adjusted to their new home outdoors, cruising through the range and following along as we [...]

In the midst of last fall’s hubbub, we had a special experience when Ferndale Market was announced a finalist for a Minnesota Family Business Award through Twin Cities Business. My wife, parents and I rubbed shoulders with fellow families in business, swapping stories on the commonalities among us. Of course, the third generation doesn’t deserve the credit for our [...]