- Hello and welcome to Farm Connections.

I'm your host, Dan Hoffman.

On today's episode, we visit the Rooted Flower Company just outside of Lansing to peruse their cut flower offerings.

JoAnn Lower provides us another story of growing up on a small farm just across the Iowa border.

And the University of Minnesota Extension provides us with another best practices, all here today on Farm Connections.

(country music) - [Speaker] Welcome to Farm Connections with your host Dan Hoffman.

- [Speaker] Farm Connections made possible in part by-- - [Speaker] Minnesota Corn, working to identify and promote opportunities for corn growers, enhance quality of life and help others understand the value and importance of corn production to America's economy.

- [Speaker] EDP Renewables North America, owner and operator of Prairie Star and Pioneer Prairie Wind Farms in Minnesota and Iowa.

EDPR wind farms and solar parks provide income to farmers and help power rural economies across the continent.

- [Speaker] Northern Country Co-op, a full service cooperative in grain, agronomy, feed and lumber.

For the latest news, job openings and podcasts, you can go to their website, ncountrycoop.com.

- [Speaker] R and S Grain Systems is a family-owned business serving its customers for 50 years with leading designs in the manufacturing of grain handling equipment and grain storage systems.

You can call them for a quote today.

Employee-owned AgVantage Software, Rochester, Minnesota, 47 years designing and developing agribusiness software for grain elevators, feed manufacturers, producers, fertilizer and chemical dealers, co-op seed companies and fuel distributors.

Mower County Farm Bureau Association advocates for agriculture based on the policies and beliefs of its members.

It's dedicated to making the voices of its members stronger.

You can learn more about membership benefits at fbmn.org.

- Welcome to Farm Connections.

We travel to Northeast Lansing, Minnesota at a beautiful spot with beautiful flowers and beautiful people.

With me today is McKenzie.

McKenzie, thanks for having us.

- Thank you.

- So what's happening here?

- So my name's McKenzie Weis, my husband Alex and I, we own Rooted Flower Co, and we're a cut flower farm here and we grow flowers from seed and tubers underground and we grow flowers for people's enjoyment.

So what that means is we cut flowers for vases, for events, showers.

Whatever it might be that people want flowers for, we do that and we're kind of unique in that it's only in the season of growing in Minnesota.

So a lot of people think they can buy flowers year round, which is awesome and they can, but we're unique in that we sell everything that we grow here.

So with our Minnesota winters, that takes us from about April to October depending, maybe May more like, but that's what we do here and we also offer experiences on our farm such as U-picks and private parties that want to include flowers in that.

So that's essentially who we are and what we do.

- That's a lot and it's no small feat.

You mentioned our short growing season.

Do you do some inside growing?

- Yes, if you count our house as a growing inside right now.

One day in the future, we'll probably have a greenhouse, but right now we utilize our basement and we grow all winter long starting about January to prepare for our summer and spring growing.

So this last winter, we planted around 65,000 seeds in our basement and maintained the heat and the humidity and all of the factors that can really help seeds to thrive or not and we got them up to seedling stage and then once our frost was gone and surprisingly, all the water was out of here 'cause it was very full of water this spring.

Before the drought weather came, we planted all the seedlings out here so that's our inside growing.

- 65,000 seeds, and you counted each one?

- No, just a general estimation with our seed packet.

- It might have actually been more, but that's a lot of detail work.

So how many of the plants actually make it to harvest?

- Yeah, that's a great question.

I don't have an exact number, but I would say a majority.

So for sure over 50%, probably a lot higher than that.

I don't have an exact percentage but out of each tray, there's a handful that might not make it.

Some varieties are just not as hardy or their germination rate is lower, but we did have a great majority of our plants survive.

Keeping them alive in the drought has been probably the bigger challenge, but we've had a lot of success even amidst a lot of struggle with the weather and all the factors outside.

- Farming with a different crop, flowers versus corn and soybeans.

- Oh yeah, for sure.

It's still a lot of work just like it is to maintain a big field, but it's definitely a different beast.

- What brings you the greatest joy from your work?

- Great question, what brings us the greatest joy from our work is seeing the satisfaction of our customers.

Usually when someone gets flowers, it's 'cause someone is thinking of them or they're doing it for themselves for self-care or whatever it might be and just seeing the joy that people get when they get something special from someone or they're able to come out here and just not hear really anything except for the birds and the wind.

A lot of people don't get to experience that.

So it's just kind of a slice of peace for them and when people come out and are just excited and they just want to pick flowers that make them happy, that makes us happy.

It puts all the hard work at rest and it's worth it.

So we're in it for the people and we're really excited to see what's ahead.

- McKenzie, do you have a website people could look to?

- We sure do.

It's pretty simple with our name.

It's just rootedflowerco.com and it's linked on all of our social medias and you can subscribe to our newsletter as well which is on there and that's our community of people that get our information first before it's released publicly.

- So you sell actually on the farm.

Any other places where we can find your flowers?

- We currently don't have anything set up necessarily weekly or regularly, but if people wanna order flowers, we'll deliver them to them within 15 to 20 miles of Austin.

Typically most of our customers are in Austin and the surrounding rural areas.

Bloom and Prairie, we have quite a few people and rural meaning that live right around here.

So yeah, we won't set up without knowing that someone is desiring it, but we do have our subscription program where people pay ahead of time just like if you are maybe subscribing to your favorite magazine or some people subscribe their toothpaste or whatever on Amazon.

That's essentially the same thing.

They pay ahead of time and then we take care of the rest.

So we currently have a subscription program where people get a bouquet every other week.

They can either do a farm pickup and people love that.

They say they like coming out here to enjoy just the scenery and they get their bouquet for the week and then we do deliveries as well.

So that's Thursday nights and Saturday mornings and we're running that until the end of September or whenever the frost comes.

- And how many years have you been doing this, McKenzie?

- How many years we've been doing this, just under one.

I've been into agriculture and just plants and animals my whole life so this is nothing really new to me.

The aspect of owning a business, it's January of 2023 is when we launched our business and our first growing season is happening right now.

So that is how many years, not even one yet, but yeah.

- What's been the greatest success in this first inaugural year?

- The greatest success, that's a tough question.

We try to celebrate all the small and big wins here 'cause we have to.

There's a lot of both manual labor work and the business side of things of making this happen.

So probably the greatest success is when we had our first sale.

Over in spring with Mother's Day weekend, we had a lot of people bite on our tulips and after a long hard winter in Minnesota, just having that fresh flower or flowers, bouquets in your house is just something that you can't... We all crave that spring weather and even if it's not great outside, that's just something that lights up a home.

And so knowing that people wanted to participate in this was great and then on top of that, just having people that wanna participate in cut flowers.

A lot of people don't know what a cut flower farm is until they come here or get a product and we just have a lot of really loyal customers already that love this and we just are so excited to keep that going.

- Sounds fun.

- It is fun.

- And in that first year, the largest challenge?

- Oh that's a great question.

The largest challenge so far, I've already mentioned probably the weather side of it.

We've had very near drought conditions I think we could all agree on.

It's been tough for anyone that is trying to grow anything outside or raise anything outside and like I said, we started our growing season.

This whole area was pretty much underwater.

We had our knee-high boots on every single day 'cause the water was just flowing through here and once that went away, we've had less than we can count on our hands of actual rain that sticks and does something.

So just keeping up with the watering and making sure our plants are healthy, that's been a pretty big challenge.

And then besides that, we're a new business people in the area and just getting our feet in the door and having people that will take a chance on us and support us and that's...

I wouldn't say it's been really a challenge, but just knowing that we can put ourselves out there and our community has really stepped up and supported us so it's been nice.

- Any changes coming next year?

- We do have a lot of changes coming next year.

Kind of just taking what we have and amplifying it a bit.

We will be extending our growing area quite a bit.

We will be hopefully getting some raised beds over in the open area over there, planting tons of bulbs this fall for our tulip subscription.

That's something we weren't quite established as a business yet a year ago, but we are gonna be launching a tulip subscription where people can pay ahead of time in the fall, even offer it as a gift.

A lot of our subscribers do it as a gift, which is really fun to kind of surprise people with.

And then in the spring, they can get those flowers.

Everything's already taken care of and it's our job to deliver.

So there's a lot going on behind the scenes right now on top of maintaining what we have going.

The events that people can come to, we're really excited to launch some of those.

Our U-picks, I've mentioned that.

That's where instead of us picking them and arranging, people come here and it could be a group of girlfriends or moms and their daughters or whoever it might be that wanna have a special occasion can come here and have an experience and that is one of our favorite things to do because we get to teach people about plants and just about our land and how this all works and then they have fun and cut their bouquets.

So we're gonna be offering a lot more U-picks next year.

Earlier in the summer, things got planted a little late with how wet it was out here 'cause nothing was tilled yet.

So we have a lot coming, we're excited.

- McKenzie, I've noticed a few family members moving through the gardens, smiling as you're on camera.

Tell us about the family involvement.

- Sure, so first and foremost, my husband Alex, he is my business partner and husband and we run this show together and Alex does a lot of the behind the scenes work that you might not see on social media or might not see as glamorous, but he's most of the time has dirty knees and dirt all over and sweat.

We're out here super late sometimes with our headlamps on, picking flowers now when the sun's going down, but he does most of the manpower behind all of this, a lot of weeding too.

So that my husband Alex.

Our daughter Rowan, she's two and a half.

She helps when she can and we make the best of that.

It's super fun having her see all this and learning about running a business at a very young age has been very fun and rewarding.

And then my parents, we couldn't do this without them.

They really help us a lot.

My dad is very project-oriented and he'll take an idea and run with it and we're very grateful.

Like our flower stand that our subscribers pick up flowers at is actually built out of my grandparents' old barnwood and we try to repurpose everything we can here and he kind of helped us make that.

And it's all a family affair and my mom is very also very helpful with our daughter and helping us get ideas and yeah, it's a whole family function so we're very grateful for that.

- Sounds like you think family involvement's important.

- [McKenzie] For sure.

- And you're doing a great job.

What's your goal for this farm going forward?

- That's a great question.

So we have a lot of goals moving forward.

Like I said, a lot of plans for events and offerings for our community.

Our goal would be to just make this something special for people where they can get an experience unlike anywhere else and I think what we have to offer is pretty unique in our community and both with the experience aspect and with just what we can bring people, the joy through our flowers and our goal is just to expand that greatly and just become a large flower production and experience location for people.

And yeah, we're very excited for that.

- McKenzie, thanks for brightening people's lives and the good work you do.

- Thank you, appreciate it.

- Stay tuned for more on Farm Connections.

- [Speaker] Farm Connections Best Practices brought to you by AbsoluteEnergy.

- My name's Daniel Kaiser, extension nutrient management specialist with the University of Minnesota and this is today's Best Practices segment.

For today's segment, what we're gonna talk about is making nutrient management decisions.

With the uncertainty in prices, both from the fertilizer side and the crop side, there's been many questions from growers on how to best manage your nutrients to try to make sure you're getting the most out of your overall investment.

Within the University of Minnesota, our research, we've been extensively looking at different things to try to fine tune where and when certain nutrients are needed.

Two of one's nutrients that we've been putting a lot of emphasis on have been phosphorus and potassium and these are nutrients that are easy to determine where you need them based on a soil test.

So we get into years with a lot of uncertainty on prices.

If you have a soil test, that can go a long ways in determining where and how much of a nutrient that might be needed.

Phosphorus, for example, one of the things that we've been really looking at a lot of our research has been to focus it on looking at a risk assessment of what would happen if I didn't apply phosphorus.

If we're looking at situations where we get into high to very high soil test, so a Bray soil test of 20 or above or an Olsen of 15 and above, we know that there's a very low probability at that point in time that the phosphorus that we're applying with fertilizer is actually going to be needed by the crop.

So it's one of the things to watch out for is that a lot of growers put a large emphasis on phosphorus when it comes to nutrients, particularly for corn production, that if you have a soil test indicating that you should have sufficient levels in the soil itself that you shouldn't be too concerned about applying a low to no application in some of those fields and you should still have a high chance of getting maximum yield potential.

One of the things with potassium on the other hand is that we start looking at that is that while we can use the soil test for assessing where it's needed, is that a lot of times, growers seem to prioritize it lower than phosphorus and many times I think that's a mistake looking at a lot of our data with situations particularly in dry years where we see a stronger response to that particular nutrient.

So it's one of the things if you're looking at trying to assess what nutrients you need, particularly for corn production, we know that nitrogen is gonna be number one because we know that we get a large response to that, then use your soil test for phosphorus and potassium.

Prioritize those based on what your soil test is and then we look at other nutrients like sulfur and zinc, zinc being one we can use a soil test as well to see where it's needed, some things that we wanna start thinking about depending on circumstances within the soil.

So again, prioritize what you need, look at where you might be able to cut to make sure you're getting the maximum out of your investment.

So again, this has been Daniel Kaiser with today's Best Practices segment.

Thank you for watching.

- I would like to tell you a story of love and courage, a story about my grandmother, Johanna.

She was born in 1886 and she grew up on a farm near Fertile, Iowa.

She had just promised to be the bride of Stein Wagner.

That's how they pronounce it in the old country.

Oh, she's not so beautiful as other women I've seen, Stein thought to himself, but she's strong, she'll help me farm.

She will bear my children, she will be my wife.

Johanna was thrilled that a man such as Stein would want to marry her.

He was tall, straight, handsome, beautiful blue eyes, so brave too.

At the age of only 16, he had sailed from Norway and had landed in Manley, Iowa where he worked for a farmer for years.

And so it was in her first store-bought dress of brown, cotton and lace, Johanna promised to love, honor and obey Stein Wagner.

Of course, newspapers next week would headline Manley Man Marries Fertile Girl.

It was a two mile ride from that little brick Norwegian Lutheran church in Stein's brand new buggy pulled by his favorite horse to his brand new farm two miles south of Scarville.

They curved up the driveway and as they did for the first time, Johanna saw the little wooden shanty that would be her home.

The bed back in the corner, the homemade bed, she stretched out her white wedding quilt with a wedding ring designed in the middle that she had been so carefully stitching for such a long time for this most special day of her life.

That night, under that white wedding quilt, Stein promised Johanna a new house.

Oh, there would be no cold Iowa winter winds that came in through the walls or the windows, not in their new house.

Next summer, all the neighbors came.

They brought their hammers, they brought their saws and they held a barn raising.

Within three days, the most wonderful barn in all of Winnebago County belonged to Stein Wagner and he was proud.

The next summer, the first son was born.

The next summer brought the second son, but when the third summer brought the third son, Stein was angry.

Johanna, I wanted a daughter this time, not a son.

Because you have given me another son, tonight, you will come with me to the barn and help me milk the cows.

Johanna didn't understand this kind of love, but she got up from her bed, she went out to the barn and she milked the cows.

That night, the next night and she grew stronger.

She learned how to cook on that wooden cook stove.

She learned how to make the children's clothes from feed sacks bought at Riso's Store in Scarville.

She raised chickens, she raised ducks.

She sold the chicken, she sold the ducks, she sold the eggs.

She grew stronger and not long after, a daughter was born, and then the second and then the third.

And it was years later when the second daughter was sitting in the kitchen stitching her white wedding quilt that she said, Ma, Pop promised you a new house.

Do you remember?

Of course, Johanna remembered, but every time she'd brought it up, Stein had seemed not to hear.

It was one morning as Johanna was making her very best an apple pie that she heard men's voices out in the farm yard and through the window saw all the neighbors gathered with their hammers and their saws and she ran out to Stein.

Stein, what is going to happen?

What are you going to build?

Nevermind, he said, men's work, go inside.

It didn't take long before Johanna realized that what was being built was another new barn.

Just in case any of the people in Winnebago County had forgotten that Stein was the best farmer, they would now be reminded.

Stein came into the house after the barn was completed and announced that he would be going to Lake Mills to buy a new team of horses good enough for his barn.

Johanna walked across the farm yard and for the first time stepped into that barn.

It was beautiful, it was huge.

There would be no cold Iowa winter winds that came in through the walls or the windows of this barn.

She looked around and the doors on the horse stalls, wouldn't they look beautiful with the quilts she had made from the leftover feed sacks?

And the alleyway, the alleyway where the stanchions would be hung and the cows would be milked, the perfect place for Hazel to walk on her wedding day.

Oh, there was no supper that night, just six grown children asking no questions who moved the household into the barn.

Stein came home the next day and as he and Johanna walked to the new barn, he thought he could smell his favorite supper cooking.

He stepped in and fell to his knees.

Oh, Johanna was all he was able to utter.

Not many years after found Johanna lying in that homemade bed under the now yellowed wedding quilt.

She was 57 years old and dying.

She was just worn out.

As Stein held her hand, she said, our father who art in heaven and as she took her last breath, Stein finished the prayer.

You see, it wasn't until right then he realized that that plain little woman he had married all those years ago was his strength.

It was she who taught him to love.

- Well, that'll about do it from here.

I'm Dan Hoffman.

Thank you for joining us on Farm Connections.

(country music) (country music continues) (country music continues)