Angelica's Garden

It's about time that I sit down and let you know what's going on here at Angelica's Garden. As a matter of fact, our farm-based business has been going through a lot a changes, all of which are meant to improve what we are doing out here and in turn make our Angelica's Garden line of cultured and pickled vegetables the healthiest, best tasting on the market. Right off the bat, we have changed our logo and product labels. I think it was time to retire the old labels, which looked nice, but lacked some of the qualities that reflect our farm's personality and character. I would love to hear feedback about what customers think of the new, simpler look. Kelly Esterby of Farmhouse Design of New Auburn, WI took a photo I sent her of me on my tractor and made our new logo. I think she did a great job and she was awesome to work with. Over the past 6 months, my husband and I have been talking about our status as a certified organic farm. We've been certified by MOSA since 2008 and while I initially was excited to become certified, the last 5 years of certification have not changed the farming practices that I have been using since I started Angelica's Garden in 1997. Also, the ingredients that don't originate on our farm have always been organic too. One thing that organic certification has done is pulled me out of the kitchen/field to do lots of paperwork. Every year, we also pay a significant amount of money to be certified, some of which is paid back to us by a federal reimbursement program. This year we were slated to pay about 50% more than last year for certification fees, none of which would have been recovered through the federal program. So here's the deal, Angelica's Garden is no longer a "certified" organic farm. Has anything changed in regards to my product line? Nope, absolutely nothing. Our standards for growing produce and processing cultured vegetables and pickles has not changed. We will always use produce and other ingredients that are either certified organic or grown using only organic growing methods when we buy ingredients. An advantage now for co-op customers is I am able to offer sales on my products at your local co-ops. This month Linden Hills Co-op in Minneapolis and both Mississippi Market stores in St. Paul will be offering sales on selected Angelica's Garden products. It's a good feeling to be able to offer sales on our products and it's a great way to thank you for supporting our farming and pickling endeavors. I'll be offering sales at all locations where we sell our products in coming months, so be on the lookout. Our new labels also explain that our farm is an "ecofarm. It's a term I've heard over the years to describe sustainable farming practices and I feel that it fits our farm very well. On the flip side, one thing that seemed strange to me as a certified organic grower, was that organic growers are allowed to use compost and manure from conventional factory livestock farms. If you've ever spent any time around a large conventional livestock facility, you would want nothing to do with it. But certified organic farms all around the upper Midwest are putting toxic fertilizers on their fields from these conventional farms. It's very disheartening and it's a practice we have never used here. We fertilize our fields with our own compost and manure from our cattle and chickens. Since we rotate our cattle all over the farm, they graze future vegetable fields and help build the soil. And after a field has been harvested, we rotate the cattle into the veggie field to glean vegetable plant scraps. Now that's "salad bar beef. It's such a basic system, yet it's so effective in bringing high quality fertility to our land. Also, when we're done processing vegetables into tasty products, the cattle and chickens get the vegetable scraps. They come running when they see us pull up with boxes full of treats for them. Lastly, check back for future farm updates. I'm not great at updating our FB page or this website, but I'll do my best to improve. I'd rather be in the kitchen or the field. Please don't hesitate to contact me by e-mail: [email protected] , FB, or on the website.