By Barth Anderson

Ezra returning from plot number four (where the best ones are).


Winona strawberries, freshly picked

Sitting with Jeremy and Kelly Lanctot overlooking 5 acres of their organic strawberries is a hard job.

You try hard to listen to the story of how Jeremy quit his job after 19 years at Honeywell in order to start a farm, how he and Kelly moved their kids out to the Sunburg, Minnesota farmland and partnered with Greg Reynolds of Riverbend Farm in the Farm Beginnings program to learn how to make a go of it.

But all the while, a barrage of strawberries is right there, just a short walk away from you - reddening, sugaring up, and getting fat for eating.

It doesn't help that their eight children keep drifting on the edges of the conversation with red-stained fingers and mouths.

"The best ones are over in plot number four," eleven-year-old son Ezra says with a wise nod.

While Jeremy and Kelly talk, you file away that information from Ezra, for later...

Coming Home

Jeremy Lanctot's story is an encouraging one. He grew up on a small farm in northwest Minnesota, graduated with degrees from the University of Minnesota - St. Cloud in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Mathematics. But something was missing.

"Really, he was a farmer underneath," his wife Kelly says. Having grown up in rural Minnesota, Kelly seemed to know this about Jeremy, even before Jeremy did. In the mid-eighties, Jeremy got a job at Honeywell and nineteen years later, he started wondering if it was really what he wanted to be doing.

"I started to be more concerned with home, the environment. I wanted my kids to understand hard work and getting along," he explains. "I couldn't stand the regulation [at Honeywell]. It just wasn't very creative."

In 1998, he and his wife moved the family from St. Cloud out to the land that would eventually be Glacial Acres, in Sunburg. A few years later, when Honeywell started laying people off, Jeremy gladly accepted a severance package that allowed him to buy the land from Kelly's mother and stepfather. They joined the Sustainable Farming Association and both say it was like "coming home, meeting those folks."

In the summer of 2002, Jeremy and Kelly planted their first cover crops - the first step, that is, in transitioning the land into organic production.

"I'd rather die knowing we've done something we believe in," Jeremy says, looking out at his field of ripening strawberries.

Of Belly Buttons and Shoulders

As for what to grow, the Wedge Co-op had a direct effect on Glacial Acres. When the farm first started, Jeremy had been considering trees, nuts, even poultry or eggs. To get some feedback, he called Dean Schladweiler, the co-op's produce manager and asked what he might need, if Glacial Acres were to grow for market. When talk turned to strawberries, Jeremy put Kelly on the phone.

"I'm a foodie," Kelly explains with a winning smile. "I'm very particular. I know food."

Dean told Kelly that Glacial Acres would have an immediate market for organic strawberries if they sought organic certification. But strawberries are hard to grow organically, he warned her. The loss is high due to pests, their high sugar-content makes them vulnerable to turning to jelly in shipment, and their window of availability is very brief before the pounding heat of Minnesota's summer hits. Very few farmers grow organic strawberries in Minnesota.

But with Jeremy's farming and engineering background ("I like to innovate"), and with Kelly's love of good food, they decided to take Dean's advice. In 2004, they were certified organic by Midwest Organic Services Association.

Glacial Acres now grows a number of varieties of organic strawberries, including Late Stars, Jewels, and Mesabis - but, really, it's all about the Winonas, which the Lanctots swear by.

"[Winonas] aren't as productive as the Mesabis, which can produce twice as many berries," Kelly admits. "But the flavor is hard to beat."

Paul Otten, local berry guru at Natura Farm, had advised that they try the Mesabis in this climate. Otten globe trots looking for good cultivars of berries, so he knows of which he speaks.

"But I really like that bright red of the Winonas - they just sparkle," Kelly says. "Nice belly button with a big shoulder, and they're flesh is peach-like. Nothing, I mean, nothing can beat the Winonas."

"We wanted to make a good first impression with those berries," says Jeremy, "so when we tried those berries it was - "

Kelly cuts him off coyly, "Love at first bite?"

This love of Winona strawberries carries on to the extended Lanctot family, like their sister in Shoreview who happens to be a Wedge member. Or Jeremy's mother (also a Wedge member) who buys Glacial Acre strawberries at the Wedge - then makes them into jam and gives them back to the family in Sunburg. A real family affair.

The Family that Farms Together...

For now, strawberries are the main market crop for Glacial Acres. But Jeremy says that melons may be a more regular feature of theirs at the Wedge. In years to come, there may even be carrots, garlic, and other roots, raspberries, peppers, and even heirloom tomatoes coming out of this farm. Many of these items are grown there, right now, but those fruits and vegetables aren't for sale - they feed the burgeoning Lanctot clan. That was the original point after all - to teach the children hard work and respect for the food on their plates.

"When they eat a meal, they know what it takes to get it there," says Jeremy.

Later, walking the squared off plots of strawberries with Jeremy and learning about the planting and irrigation strategies, his son Ezra proves his father right with many facts about the family operation, offering asides about berry production, the toughness of the thistles (two tons were hand-picked out of the strawberries this year), how the sun affects harvesting.

And then he's off on his bike to pick berries for us in plot number four, where the best ones are growing.

Ever wonder why local organic strawberries are so rare and spendy? Ask Professor Produce...