Consumer Supported Agriculture (CSA) Shares are a great way to connect your family with a local farm. We do NOT using any roundup herbicide or GMO seeds.
Our NEW address:
7526 160th Avenue,
Oak Park MN, 56357
Our farm was started in 2011 by owner Ben Brown. This is our 9th season offering vegetables, fruits and herbs grown with organic practices through our CSA Share program. We are a farm that specializes in CSA Shares, over 95% of our produce is planted specifically for our CSA Share members. The remainder of produce is brought to the one far
mer's market that we attend, or brought to the local food shelf. We practice sustainable farming, through methods that include a crop rotation, drip tape irrigation (to conserve water), and using all natural composted manure to supplement fields, to name a few examples. As a small family farm, we make decisions that are healthy for our own family and the other families we have the opportunity of growing for. We are not certified organic. We have a complete list of what we grow, the 3 CSA Share size options, the 25+ CSA Share pick-up sites to choose from, and other important CSA Share details available on our website, www.brownfamilyproduce.com
Operating as usual
We started collecting eggs to hatch 🥰🐣🌈
Over the years I have acquired and hatched quite a few chickens. We need to add more hens if we're going to be able offer eggs for sale from the farm here or the stand.
I'm collecting eggs over the next couple of days to start incubating!
Chicken math is serious business, folks. One chicken, two chicken, 3 dozen chickens....
We're forecasted to get between 12-18 inches here at the farm starting this afternoon & going into tomorrow...
Snow ❄️ what!
It doesn't matter how much snow we get because the greenhouse will be started up in a couple weeks, no matter what!! 🌞
We start our tomatoes & peppers in small cells about the size of our pinky fingers and let them grow until they're 2 weeks old, a couple inches tall maybe.
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When the root ball is nice & tight, we transfer them into much larger cells where they will continue to live in the greenhouse for another month or so before they're transplanted out into the field.
None of the other varieties we grow are planted into small cells and then transplanted into larger cells- peppers & tomatoes are unique in this way.
We can't wait to get in the greenhouse and be able to work in our t-shirts with the radio on, warm air blowing, and the earthy smell in the air! 😜
Stay safe everyone and stay home if you can!!
*Pictures from previous seasons*
We are getting excited as the season approaches- we have so much to look forward to this summer!
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We start the greenhouse in about 5 weeks, it'll be here before we know it! 😍 We are enjoying prepping the greenhouse and getting our seeds in order. Organization is key when we have so many different types & plantings of each type of produce.
We are now accepting CSA Memberships!
Visit our website to check out the different sites we have, the prices and Share sizes we offer, and what kind of veggies to expect this season! Sign up is available on the site as well.
Brown Family Farm is a CSA farm (community supported agriculture) providing fresh vegetables, fruits & herbs to members. Become a member today and join the harvest!
Well that's it for the season folks, I can't believe it!
Another season in the books.
We are very thankful for your business over the summer & participation in our CSA!
As we wrap up this season...
(I'll do my best not to get sappy)
The relief and satisfaction we get from delivering the last of the CSAs for the season is incredible. We did our best and offered the freshest high quality produce we could!! Mam what a summer!
At the end of the day we're very happy with how the season went, even though it did get pushed back a week (and extended a week).
Highs and lows- you guys see it all!!
Thank you for cheering us on & being a part of our farm. Thank you to our crew too, we couldn't do it without you guys!!
We appreciate you ALL very much!!
~The Farmer's Wife
Happy Birthday to Luna!!
She's a nice puppy who greets everyone with kisses; instantly the best friend you didn't know you had. She runs around with all of our employees like she's one of the gang. Periodically finds critters to chase, loves messing with her kitties, chickens & pigs, and just loves being in the mix of things.
Living her best life on the farm here and we're blessed to have her!
Happy 1st birthday Miss Luna!!
To our CSA Members-
We have additional produce for sale in bulk that can be delivered alongside your CSA in the next two weeks!
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In addition to the newly added HONEY SHARES! We have extra potatoes, beets, squash, carrots, onions... the list goes on!
The ordering for the bulk FALL SALE ends tomorrow!! Friday Sept 30th.
For our local folks who aren't in the CSA-
We see you too!! 🥰 We will be having the farm stand this weekend (last of the season!) Friday 10-6, Sat 10-6 & Sun 10-5 at Hardware Hank in Zimmerman.
Also will be having a farm sale the weekend of the 15th-16th, where we will have the last of our produce and canned goods for the season set up at the farm in Oak Park. More details on that soon! 🤩
https://www.brownfamilyproduce.com/fall-sale
CSA Members can choose whatever products they like, "add to cart" and then check out like normal. We will deliver your add-on goodies with your normally scheduled CSA Share for convenience!
We got everything in! Using every harvest receptacle we had- big cardboard bins, little green totes, shoe boxes, just kidding 🤣
We are resting easy today, thankful for our crew of very hard working (commited!!) folks & the bounty of the season. Farmer Ben's skills and of course, God's grace!
Now that it's all in from the field and protected from the frost we can take a moment to sort and organize. Evaluate what we have on hand and what the last 2 weeks of our csa looks like.
Thanks for all the love this season 🥰🥰
Awwh the colors of the season are truly breathtaking!! 😍
It's a jungle out here folks!!
For those wondering, I'll be working on my blog post this evening! If you meal plan, this might be helpful-
Varieties for this week:
Jumbo & Families: purple cauliflower, red cabbage, Yukon gold potatoes, zucchini, Anaheim & sweet banana peppers & tomatoes!!
Singles: white cauliflower, Yukon gold potatoes, crookneck summer squash, Anaheim & sweet banana peppers & tomatoes!!
Remember Labor Day is tomorrow so no CSAs will be delivered tomorrow. Monday sites are redistributed throughout the week so no one misses out 🥰 complete details on the blog post later, but if you're curious feel free to peek in your csa handbook and the dates are posted there.
Enjoy your veggies!! 🤤
We're got tomatoes!!
If you're interested in canning tomatoes, we've got regular slicing tomatoes and roma tomatoes. The regular slicing tomatoes are a bit sweeter in my opinion, and the romas are a little meatier.
Half bushel baskets are $30 and they're appx 25# each.
We sell peppers and onions in bulk as well, so if you're looking for salsa supplies- you're in the right place!!
Our sweet peppers: Bells, gypsy and sweet banana. Hot peppers: Jalapeno, Hungarian Hot Wax & Anaheim.
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Stewed tomatoes, salsa, chili starter, spaghetti sauce, marinara, tomato soup, what else am I forgetting??
To place an order, shoot me an email at [email protected] or call/text 952-836-5263
Happy Canning!
One of our hidden talents: tetris puzzles. Oh wait, I meant CSA Boxes 🤣
This week in the Family & Jumbo boxes we weren't able to fit the purple cabbage because the cauliflower is really big.
So we thought oh we could add less corn but realized a lot of people count on there being enough for supper so we didn't want to decrease the #'s.
The muskmelon can't wait, when they're ripe they're ripe! Cauliflower can't wait either or it'll go to seed!
Here is the picture of the box (but it didn't have all the 🍅 "maters in there yet either!) The ultimate game of tetris 😜
Unfortunately we weren't able to fit the purple cabbage, but fortunately the boxes were super full of farm fresh goodies!!
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Dont forget the WATERMELONS on the side, lol!! They don't ever fit in the boxes, so remember to grab one when you pick up your CSA this week ❤️
Enjoy!!
How big are your peppers this week?! 🤩
Green, purple & red sweet bell peppers!! Doesn't get much better 🫑
They're ready!! 🤩
These beauts are coming in your CSAs this week, too!
Remember the Single Shares get just as much fruit as the larger shares! We did that on purpose 😜 because who doesn't love the fruits of the season!!
Look at all the pickles!!
It's so cool that you can see every days' progression. First a flower then a pickle, and then every day they grow a little more.
5 pickles on the same vine; one very healthy plant!!
The first of the season!! I love the purple hues that come through 😍
We've got a new momma over here!!
We've never had a hen successfully hatch out her own brood, until now!!
She's a Rhode Island Red, but her babies will be a mix of everything in the chicken yard because other hens laid eggs in her nesting box too. Now I've got them moved to their own suite.
Precious little babies 😍😍😍
I call this one 🤌
"Sunrise over the pig pen"
All jokes aside, this view never gets old 🌞
❤️
I took a field walk today to check on a few varieties. Things are looking good!
Good morning!!
Definitely the best way to start my day. Birds chirping and sunshine 😍
You know what they say, early birds get the zucchini!! 😅
Hey there little fella, we've been waiting for you!!
Now that they're heading they should be ready to harvest soon.
Broccoli will be in the CSAs next week! 🥰 🥦
Look at these romaine lettuces!! 😍
Lookie, lookie what we found 😍
We've got some slicers & pickles!! 🥒
The first pick we got about 8- 5gallon buckets!!
William helped harvest- he's such a good helper! 💪 He's saving up $ for some big goals.
🇺🇸 Happy 4th of July!! 🎆 🇺🇸
❤️🤍💙 We want to make sure everyone still gets their veggies in this week. As many of you know, we don't cancel our CSAs for holiday weeks, we just reorganize our harvesting and delivering to make it work for everyone!
Have a great 4th of July weekend ya'll!
First CSAs are in the books for 2022!! 🤩
Harvesting, washing, packing and delivering all in a day!! With a couple of (expected) hiccups we had a successful first day and look forward to sharing with you all season long!
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Now off to baseball where we have pictures tonight AND our kids' teams play each other!! There will be blood or tears, maybe both lol.
Big days ahead but we are thankful to be busy 🥰 the season is finally here!!
We've got flowers, and even some small 'maters!! 🍅
The posts in-between are for tying tomatoes, which we do several times throughout the summer.
Hand pounded, 4 foot long 1 by 2s, and then tying between. We tie higher and higher as they grow taller to support their heavy branches 😍
Happy Father's day Ya'll!! A day to be thankful and celebrate 🥰
I just thought I'd share our project this year. We got a little creative! 🎨
Here is a new tool box for the back of the tractor. The girls and I cut the wood to size, screwed it together and even found some hinges to make a topper. William isn't feeling well so he sat this one out.
The girls used the circular saw and the drill, with guidance of course.
Don't worry, the blood you see there is mine, lol. Teaching is painful sometimes 😜
It might not be straight and it might not be square.. but they did their best and even decorated it 🥰🥰
Love you Daddy, Farmer Ben, and "the best farmer in the world" from the eyes of your little girls. They decorated the top on their own when I was up at the shed, they did such a good job ❤️
"A father is neither an anchor to hold us back, nor a sail to take us there, but a guiding light whose love shows us the way."
-Unknown
Happy Father's Day!!
Nature Does Not Hurry, Yet Everything Is Accomplished.
- Lao Tzu
This spring has been challenging! We are ALL at the mercy of nature.
We did everything we could but ultimately made the hard choice to push back our CSA season to start June 27th. Though the fields look great, everything is too small and won't be ready in time.
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We're confident this was the only real option. We have high standards and want a bountiful CSA for you!! You'll see 😉
We are anxious to get out there and start harvesting. Can't wait to show you what we've been up to!! 🤩
Thank you for your understanding,
Ben & Jodi
NEW Pick up site available!!
Check out the graphic I made below- it shows all of the sites in the northern metro area. We just added C**N RAPIDS!!!
If you'd like to update your CSA site and switch to the C**n Rapids site, please shoot me an email at [email protected] and we'll get you all set up :)
*All changes must be made by June 10th. We start harvesting for your CSAs starting June 20th!! :D
Tomatoes! They don't look like much quite yet but there are a LOT out there.
Now, for the waiting game 😍
It's a good day for field work! The sun feels so good 🌞
Planting cukes & admiring all of the lettuces, bok choy, brassicas & greens!
Finished the pig shelter today with Bob's help & look forward to picking up more piglets in the morning!!
We've got pigs at the farm! Here is a pic that our youngest snapped- Karli with a piglet!
They're pretty small yet but they'll grow big and healthy with the free choice feed & plenty of veggies coming their way soon!! 🐖
Finally drying out a bit!! 😍
⛈️ We got hit by the storms today too..
Ben & I are busy tending to a semi-flooded greenhouse and fields while assessing hail damage.
⏰️ Safe to say we are now behind this season. Potatoes and onions should be in already but they're not (thank goodness, or we'd likely have lost them all anyways), and the fields are so wet we can't get into them.
🌱 Plants in the greenhouse are very saturated but should not be a loss. The golden beets look bad but we expect everything else to be fine. So as long as it dries out and we can plant soon, we should be ok. All trays in water were moved out or elevated.
I think the whole metro has seen terrible weather in the past few days.
Let's see what everyone else got?
📸Comment with a picture and what city you live in.
The chicks hatched!!
Tiger approves.
⏱ Two years.
We moved to our forever farm in Oak Park exactly two years ago, today!!
Thank you for supporting our farm over the years and getting us here, to our piece of heaven on earth! Starting our farm 8 years ago, Ben & I would have NEVER imagined being here. I am feeling very nostalgic.
We rented farmland everywhere, in three separate cities at one time actually, and drove the tractor back and forth. In our first years, we also had a new baby every year! 🎀 Being able to farm and live in one place as a family here, has arguably been the biggest blessing we've ever personally experienced.
🚜 Our first morning waking up in our new home, the kids all ran out the door to go to the field where they had previously found a lot of worms.
These are my FAVORITE pictures of our first moments in our new home... waking up to a brand-new day, in a brand-new place, and having the freedom to take off out into a field and find worms. From the pictures you can tell who was the last one out of bed that morning...
The best part: this is how it still feels two years later. It never gets old. The excitement and fresh air, sweat off the brow hard work, freedom and openness... It’s a place that always feels like home at the end of the day!
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I pulled out a few photos to look back on, you can see the before & after’s of one of the fields (one of 3 main fields). Those are fun to look back on too- you can see that field was set up for Alpacas and we ended up pulling all the fencing so we could plant that field too. And it was nicely fertilized by the Alpacas too 💩
Thank you for being a part of our journey!! We look forward to many, many seasons ahead!!
Today we drove to the Iowa border!
Picking up this beauty! A used trailer, to haul our piglets home later this spring & also to the market later this fall!
We have more interest in our hogs than we have capacity for raising them (for now!), so if you want to get your name on the pig list please follow the link and we will let you know as soon as we have availability!! 🐖 www.brownfamilyfarm.com/pork
Laying in bed, I realized I failed in my usual tradition..
I never got a single picture of our family at church or in our Easter best. (How does that even happen?!)
What I did get though, is a picture with my girls and our Auntie Hannah's new baby goats. 🐐 They were born yesterday afternoon, Easter Sunday.
I am thankful for our time spent with so our family & friends over this weekend! I wish I would have thought to get some nice pictures, but the goat will do 😜 😍
Resist the urge! 😅
The greenhouse is up and running, the germination chamber is full of trays and life is good!!
We are looking forward to what this season brings 🌞 ❤️
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Hey, that's me!!
I'm having fun learning at the Sustainable Farming Association Annual Conference!
MFU member Jodi Brown visited our booth at the Sustainable Farming Association Annual Conference in St. Jospeh, received a Farmers Union sign, and purchased our cookbook, “The Farmer and the Chef”!
📢LAST CALL FOR 2022!!
Farmer Kelsi here to tell you that our CSA is filling up faster than ever and we're going to be closing CSA Membership TONIGHT.
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To everyone who already signed up or reserved your Share, THANK YOU! We have a lot to look forward to 😍
To anyone who wants to sign up, I'm going to leave the Membership portal open online through this evening. We would be happy to have you join us for a season of fresh goodies from the farm!
www.brownfamilyproduce.com/become-a-member
7526 160th Avenue
Oak Park, MN
56357
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We are all loving it here! #farmlife
I took a video of the storm rolling in last night over the starry sky. If you turn up the volume you can hear the crickets & frogs. Quite the "show" but no thunder!
Happy fourth of July weekend!! Here is an update on the 'maters! 🍅🍅🍅
Happy Friday from the farm!
Check out what we are up to tonight!!
What are we all cooking this week with this big cauliflower?! Got any big plans for it??
Mhmmm! Fresh always tastes better!🥔
Box tutorial! Although it seems obvious... These boxes collapse differently than normal boxes because they're made to withstand weight. Check out the how-to here!
Our family offers a weekly delivery of fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs from our farm in Big Lake, MN. We grow over 100 varieties of produce throughout the 16 week season (June-Oct). We grow for our neighbors and surrounding communities, delivering to over 30 sites across the Twin Cities. We would be happy to grow for your family!
Ben using the manure spreader. We have been doing this since 2pm. Wow that's a lot of doo! 🐄 We use composted manure from our neighbors cows to supplement nutrients in the field. I added some pictures of today in the comments. Notice how the soil here in Big Lake is more like sand which differs from the field in Zimmerman that we farm which is very heavy, black peat. Farming multiple soil types helps us provide proper growing conditions for each produce variety. #knowyourfarmers #Minnesotagrown #allnatural #wecare
Kelsi is about a year and a half here (last fall) and this is the last week of October, just getting the last few squash out of the field before we worked up the ground for winter rye planting. William & Karli were helpers too but they were busy with filling their own box down the way! #littlehelpers #wintersquash #CSAleftovers #nosquashleftbehind
The bees are almost as excited as we are to get started this season! Ben & I will be starting the germination chamber in just a few days. It feels like it's been a long winter, but this is a refreshing reminder that our harvest is right around the corner! Every single flower in this video will turn into a zucchini after the bees pollinate them. It's almost magic. Have you signed up for your CSA Share yet? www.brownfamilyproduce.com
CSA Shares are off to a great start! Here is a video of one of our fields to show you a little of what we have been up to for the last several months 😊
Welcome! We are Ben & Jodi Brown, owner & operators of Brown Family Farm in Big Lake, MN. We specialize in growing a huge variety of fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs for our CSA Share Members throughout the 16 week season (from the middle of June to the beginning of October).
We are a husband and wife run CSA Share farm. We come from humble beginnings, starting our farm on just a few of acres of family land with a handful of seeds. When you start your own farm and watch it grow from the ground up (pun intended!) you have a special perspective on the appreciation of the plants, our CSA Members, the soil and land we farm & the many seasonal changes around us.
We started our farm 7 years ago with a small acreage and roadside stand. The second year we started offering CSA Shares and we were growing for just a handful of families in the area. Every year since then, we have tilled more ground and grown produce for more & more families in our area. In the 2018 season we grew for about 300 families and we are planning growing for that many families this 2019 season as well!
Together as a husband and wife team, we are making this lifestyle a possibility for our family. We’ve come a long way to get here and appreciate that you’re taking the time to support our family farm!
We practice sustainable farming, through methods that include a crop rotation, drip tape irrigation (to conserve water), and using all natural composted manure to supplement fields, to name a few examples. We do NOT use any roundup herbicide or GMO seeds. As a small family farm, we make decisions that are healthy for our own family and the other families we have the opportunity of growing for.
If you have questions about our farm please reach out to us! One focus for us is to make sure that we’re transparent and easily approachable. It’s just us!
~The Farmer’s Wife
Super Sweet Sweet Corn at Hi-Way Auto Sales
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