Our Farmers

North Circle goods are lovingly grown and crafted using
organic techniques in the east-central region of Minnesota.
Read on to meet our farmers.

Amador Hill Farm and Orchard (WEI)

Jacquelyn Zita et al.

Almelund, MN

The Women’s Environmental Institute (WEI), a local nonprofit and Chisago County charity organization, is the administrative arm of the North Circle Online Farmers Market. WEI is also one of the participating farms, under the name Amador Hill Farm and Orchard. WEI’s farm program was started in 2006 in an effort to connect our environmental, agricultural, and food justice work with a working farm and a vision of a regional food system. Our education program is grounded on our farm as a place to train new farmers and gardeners in organic ways of growing food and farming together.

We have devoted the last 16 years to restoring the soil quality on our farm through cover cropping, rotations, compost making, and other organic methods. WEI currently grows over 150 varieties of vegetables and fruit to support North Circle and other markets. Learn more at w-e-i.org.

Beulah Land Farm

Michelle Fryc

Stark, MN

Our family farm has been in the family for more than 50 years. It is a beautiful and serene place to live and grow a family and food for ourselves and our community. We offer eggs, produce, and multigrain bread made from freshly ground flours. Our favorite vegetable to grow is celery—the taste is so fresh and crisp. Additionally, its leaves are a wonderful addition to a salad, sandwich, or soup. If you haven't had our celery, you don't know what real celery tastes like!

Bone Lake Meadows Apiary

Mike and Cathy Mackiewicz

Scandia, MN

Bone Lake Meadows Apiary is located in the open, rural spaces of Washington County, Minnesota. Our apiary aims towards sustainable beekeeping. Back in Mike’s Master Gardening days at the University of Minnesota, he received a colony of bees as a gift from his family. What started out as an addition to the garden for pollination became a passion in no time. Since 2001, Bone Lake Meadows has had hives in various locations along the St. Croix River Valley. As beekeepers, it’s our job to set up our bees to succeed. We do this by placing our bees on organically farmed land, orchards, garden plots and CSA farms.

All of our honey is completely raw and filtered once to remove large chunks of wax. With this process you can both taste and see the difference. After harvesting, we use our own beeswax to make hand-poured candles and natural lotions and lip balms. Learn more at bonelakemeadows.com.

Northwood Mushrooms

Jeremy McAdams

Clayton, WI

Cherry Tree House Mushrooms is a farm northeast of the Twin Cities that provides log-grown shiitake and other culinary and medicinal mushrooms and mushroom products to markets, restaurants, vegetable CSAs, and stores in the Twin Cities and the upper midwest.

We are a small-scale family farm in Harris, Minnesota, in our fourth year of operation. We grow chemical-free food, flowers, and forage for our family, friends, and animals. We strive to preserve the agrarian way of life and the farm landscape of our community. The conservation of wildlife, watersheds, and pollinator habitat is at the forefront of our farming practices; we want this land and farm to be a legacy we gift to future generations. We produce pastured-raised pork, turkey, and chicken and feed our animals soy-free organic grain. We also offer a variety of market vegetables and herbs, cut flowers, maple syrup, and strawberry products.

Evermore Forest Farm

Tacy & Chuck Call

Harris, MN

We’re a family farm in Harris, Minnesota, committed to producing sustainable, chemical-free food, flowers, and forage for our friends, family, and neighbors. Our favorites to grow are cut flowers and berries. We enjoy connecting with our community through the North Circle Online Farmers Market. Thank you for supporting local farms.

Ferris Family Farm

Jessica, Jon, Rob, Carol,

and Ellie Ferris

Cambridge, MN

The Ferris Family Farm is a 40-acre multi-generational family farm located between Princeton and Cambridge, Minnesota. We raise laying hens, chickens, and pigs using organic farming standards. We use no antibiotics and no steroids.

We feed our animals wholesome, natural feed without soy, corn, animal byproducts, or GMOs. We believe animals that are treated well and fed well, pastured and raised in the sunshine, will be happier and healthier. In turn they will provide meat that is healthier for us and has superior flavor and texture.

We invite you to join us in our venture to feed our bodies with high-quality foods. Learn more at ferrisfamilyfarm.com.

Eichten's Hidden Acres

Center City, MN

Eichten’s cheeses are all-natural European-style cheeses made on the family farm from cow’s milk. Producing a quality artisan cheese on the farm since 1976, our commitment to quality cheese making is evident in the products we produce. All of Eichten’s natural cheeses are made on the family farm in Minnesota from fresh cow’s milk. We add no coloring, artificial flavors, preservatives, or GMO rennet. (In addition, our milk contains no growth hormones, antibiotics, or rBGH). Eichten's cheese is handmade in an open vat, which is identical to the way cheese is made on the farms in Holland and throughout Europe. Aging rooms are kept at a precise temperature, and the cheese is moved and turned daily for correct breathing and aging. Eichten’s cheese is aged 60 days or longer—the longer the aging period, the stronger the flavors. Eichten’s Hidden Acres Farm is a third- generation farm where your cheese is locally made. Learn more at eichtenscheese.com.

Heirloomista

Kelsey Love

Almelund, MN

Heirloomista is a woman-owned, woman-run boutique farm. The farm was born from the curiosity of how and why food comes to be. Naturally, it started with a seed, and a few years later Kelsey was in business. With her background in biodynamic farming and horticulture, she uses both biodynamic and organic principles on her 5-acre farm. Producing beautiful, high-vitality, high-quality food is what she does. Her specialty is heirloom tomatoes, but she grows a diverse spread of herbs, vegetables, and flowers. Kelsey loves pollinators, seed saving, and making value-added products with what her farm yields. This is her third year growing with the food hub, and she looks forward to providing your family with the freshest farm goods! For more information on the farm, please visit www.heirloomista.com or stop by for a visit.

Mellifera Flowers

Elle & Kerstin

Shafer, MN

The idea for Mellifera Flowers was born over dinner in the summer of 2019. Elle casually mentioned one day starting a flower farm, Kerstin said that had always been one of her farm goals, and the rest is history! Then, like so many others, their plans were derailed with the start of the pandemic in March 2020. But they'd already sown the seeds, built the fence, and ordered the irrigation. As life changed dramatically for everyone that spring, they decided to offer personal CSA shares instead. Two seasons later, their floral CSA is still the core of Mellifera. From choosing a color scheme every week to foraging for yarrows and grasses in the Northwoods prairie, the weekly rhythm of the flower subscription is the heartbeat of their summer. Their bouquets are a combination of all the best cultivated blooms and foraged elements that celebrate the beauty of the Northwoods prairie surrounding their farm. And it wouldn’t be possible without the whole beautiful ecosystem: the goats whose manure feeds the soil, the pigs who tend the flower plot through winter, the honeybees who sing through the field, and of course, all their supportive customers.

Tim's Timber

Tim & Maureen Harder

Hugo, MN

Tim's Timber began 20 years ago as a portable sawmill operation and added a sugar shack to cook down maple sap shortly thereafter. We sustainably tap over 500 trees on our 75 acres and use only natural cleansers and defoamers in our cooking and cleaning processes.

I became a sawyer 20 years ago because I love trees and working with wood. When asked, my wife calls me a "dead and down guy." I don't advocate cutting down healthy trees. However when they're down or dying, I like to see them repurposed. Many times a good use is to have them sawn up into lumber. That's where I come in. I bring my portable sawmill to your site. My mill has high-quality hydraulics that lift the logs and the mill rotates them so no heavy equipment is needed. I operate a Wood-Mizer LT50 mill with a 47.5 diesel engine and it cuts fast. I mainly cut in the Twin Cities, greater Minnesota, and Wisconsin. In addition to custom milling, I also sell lumber, custom wood products, furniture, and maple syrup. Learn more at timstimbermn.com.

Gray Duck Farms

Stacie Mix and Shawn Kilpela

Rock Creek, MN

Gray Duck Farms is a pasture-based family farm in Rock Creek, Minnesota. We are dedicated to humanely raising animals on our farm that are nourished every day with love, attention, fresh air, good food, and the earth under their feet. We are a soy-free and corn-free farm that uses only locally sourced, organically raised feed that is non-GMO. We raise grass-fed/grass-finished beef, pastured heritage breed pigs, pastured ducks and chickens, as well as laying ducks.
Farm visits are encouraged! We sell duck eggs and meat year-round from the farm. Please follow Gray Duck Farms on Facebook.

Sunrise Flour Mill

Marty and Darrold Glanville

North Branch, MN

Sunrise Flour Mill is your local flour mill located in North Branch, Minnesota, and run by Darrold and Marty Glanville. Dedicated to milling the very best heritage grains into premium flour, we source only 100% organic, non-GMO varieties, and we even privately test for glyphosate (Roundup) residue on the wheat berries we source from farmers. After becoming ill from eating wheat, Darrold began searching for a way that he could enjoy bread again. His search led him to heritage wheat varieties like Turkey Red. Modern wheat is very different from the heritage varieties that were prevalent before the "Green Revolution" of the 1950s. The developments in modern grain have made it difficult for some people to digest, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they need to change to a gluten-free diet. If you’ve experienced negative health effects as the result of gluten sensitivity but miss your morning toast or favorite dessert, Sunrise Flour Mill’s Heritage Flour products may be the answer. We provide ongoing education and support to people who want to get back to home baking, with monthly baking classes and a bread festival held annually in Minneapolis. You can find a list of restaurants throughout the Twin Cities area who use our wheat by visiting our website, Sunriseflourmill.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook.

Red Clover Herbal Apothecary Farm

Nancy Graden

Amery, WI

Red Clover Herbal Apothecary Farm is located in Amery, Wisconsin, on 5 picturesque acres of land, surrounded by rolling prairie filled with native flowering plants and grasses. We have a deep reverence for the intelligence of plants and the part their gifts play in our health and well-being. We understand that healthy soil creates healthy plants, which creates healthy people. We are certified organic, growing and wild-harvesting over 60 different kinds of medicinal and culinary herbs. We provide local communities with handcrafted high- quality herbal products including teas, salves, extracts, elixirs, and more and offer common sense seasonal CSA herbal shares that contribute to our well-being. We also offer classes throughout the year educating people on how to grow and use plant medicine for themselves and their families. You can find out more about Red Clover Herbal Apothecary Farm's seasonal herbal shares at www.redcloverapothecary.com

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