Our path to farming began years before we owned land. Angela grew up playing in her family’s flower garden, while Erik spent his childhood camping and fishing in the Boundary Waters. When we met at Michigan State University, we discovered a shared love of the outdoors and spent many hours exploring parks, trails, and nature centers together.
Although our education and early careers kept us mostly indoors, we found ways to stay connected to the natural world. We gardened in community plots, volunteered with local parks, and replaced our lawn with native perennials. Angela also decided to work for a season on an organic community-supported agriculture farm. The experience made her feel more connected to the farmers in her own family who had immigrated from Germany in the 1800s as well as to other people growing food around the world, and she started to consider whether farming might be in her future.
At the same time, she began to question whether the food system that she was advocating for at her other job –one that nurtured the land, paid farmers and farmworkers fairly, and made healthy, organic food accessible to people of all income levels– could exist in practice. When Erik’s work brought us to Minnesota, we decided to try to build that vision on our own land.
We purchased Middle Fork Farm in 2013 and began farming part-time while raising two young children and learning as we went. From 2021 to 2024, we ran a CSA, and the farm grew rapidly. However, in recent years, repeated flooding and shifting weather led us to move away from growing most annual vegetables.
Today, we run a native plant nursery, focus on crops we most enjoy growing – like asparagus and garlic – and work to restore prairie, oak savanna, and pollinator habitat across our land.
Like most farms, we couldn’t do this alone. We’re deeply grateful for the friends and family who’ve shared their time, energy, and encouragement along the way, and for our customers whose support makes our work possible.
Middle Fork Farm 