Couple born in the city, drawn to the farm
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 05/19/2010 3:33 PM
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WELLS, Minn. — Chuck Thompson's high school placement test said he'd make a good farmer.
He said no way.
But "now here I am," Thompson said, walking amid the cattle pastured on his Wells farm.
He and his wife, Heidi, moved to the old Passer farm outside Wells three years ago and started Thompson's Painted Hill Farm.
They formerly had 10 acres north of the Twin Cities near Zimmerman, but realized they would need more acres for the farm to support itself, Heidi said.
They began their search, looking for a farm place with 40 plus acres within driving distance to the Cities and a house built before 1940. They had three choices, Heidi said, and they were sold on their new home in Wells as they drove up the driveway.
An older white farmhouse in need of restoration sits on a hill where the driveway turns to wind past red painted outbuildings and a big red barn. It ends at the farm store complete with awning. The Thompsons are living in a rambler behind the house until they restore the house.
They moved to the area with no connections, Heidi said, and it was difficult at first. They started selling at the Mankato Farmers Market and people would just walk by, Chuck said.
They wondered what they'd gotten themselves into, but then customers started to find their website. They have customers from all over, Chuck said.
They also added farmers markets in Chanhassen and Excelsior to their schedule, putting them at farmers markets four days a week in the summer.
"It's more work to sell the product than to raise the animals," Chuck said.
Their goal is to have a self-sustaining farm with a large enough customer base to support themselves financially. They are three-quarters of the way there, Chuck said.
"Farm sales have really picked up," he said. They have 250 customers on an email list who buy from them year-round.
Besides selling at farmers markets and on the farm, the couple also has a CSA for meat, modeled after a similar CSA in Georgia, Heidi said. There are only a couple meat CSAs in Minnesota, she said. CSA is community supported agriculture, where people purchase shares in return for a share in the crop.
In this case, shareholders receive a share that includes at least two species of meat, with an average weight of 15 pounds, plus a dozen eggs each month.
The Thompsons raise beef, pork, chicken, turkeys and ducks.
Hogs are Chuck's favorite because they are personable, smart and always happy to see him, he said.
They aren't confinement hogs, Chuck said. They have Mulefoot pigs, Guinea hogs and Ossabaw hogs, all rare, heritage breeds. They have Dexter cattle, Muscovy ducks, Bronze turkeys, heritage laying hens and non-heritage chickens for meat.
"It gives us a good variety," Chuck said.
Having the rare breeds is a conversation starter at farmers markets and drives traffic to their website, Chuck said.
Ossabaw hogs were left on the islands off the Georgia coast by the Spaniards in the 1500s, he said. The Spaniards left them there so they would have food when they returned. The hogs adapted to the environment and even adapted to tolerate saltwater, he said.
The Ossabaw and guinea hogs are smaller and are active foragers, Chuck said. Mulefoot hogs tend to be more content to lounge and eat whatever is fed to them.
The Thompsons raise their hogs on pasture. They farrow indoors, but give the piglets access to pasture before they are weaned.
It takes about 10 months to grow a Mulefoot hog to 300 pound market weight, Chuck said. They have three sows and three gilts. Each sow raised four pigs this spring.
This is first year they tried farrowing Ossabaw hogs. The sows raised six to 11 pigs each, he said. They are experimenting to see if they can raise the Ossabaw hogs to market weight with less grain. They have five sows now.
They have bred the sows to farrow once in years past, but will try for two farrowings this year, Chuck said.
He strives for one calf per year from his Dexter cows. He bought his first cows six years ago. The Dexter breed is a fairly popular in the small farm arena, Chuck said. They do well on grass and eat less hay in the winter, a key factor for the Thompsons because they have to buy their hay. They have introduced miniature Hereford genes into their herd because Herefords tend to fill out a bit more, Chuck said. It takes 15 to 18 months for the cattle to reach market weight.
"I like the cows," Heidi said. "They're a little less hands-on maintenance."
She also likes the serene picture of them grazing in the pasture.
The Thompsons are working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to set up a grazing plan for their roughly 40 acres of pasture. Now, Chuck puts in one hot wire and step-in stakes as he moves the cattle up and down the pasture. He moves a water tank with them.
Dexter cattle originate from Ireland and are hardy animals that do fine whether it's 40 below or 90 above, Chuck said.
Heidi, an artist and author, also staffs a concession trailer at the NuMart Convenience Store parking lot in Wells. She's usually there Tuesday through Friday from spring through October.
If she's gone, chances are she's been commissioned to paint a mural. She's painted murals in people's homes in six or seven states. Her goal is to get into illustrating children's books and develop her own line of illustrations for dishes, fabrics and cards.
She's also written a book, "It's a Dream Life … with a few nightmares thrown in for fun," chronicling their city-to-country transition.