In 2020, growers on the Iron Range had a spring drought and a June frost and hail and we thought that was a bad year, but it didn’t top 2021 for weather disasters. Growers all over northern Minnesota lost whole crops to frost, then to severe heat and wind, and then to frost again. Throw a little hail in there with the few storms we’ve had, and you’ve got the picture. Whew!! When I asked Rich and Patty Johnson if I could come visit their North Cedar Valley Gardens near Silica, Patty said “oh it’s been such a bad year for growing…...” But I told her that’s what I want to write about—it’s the reality of growing in northern Minnesota!
Forty-three years ago, Rich and Patty bought these 35 acres and moved here into the woods, with just a hunting shack and an outhouse, AND a 9 month old baby. With the help of Patty’s father, a carpenter with his own sawmill, they built an array of amazing log structures all from local trees. They started gardening to feed their growing family of five children and just kept on doing it into retirement. Today, North Cedar Valley Gardens is a meticulously maintained landscape of woods, a half-acre pond which they dug, 2 acres of fenced gardens, a half-dozen home-made high tunnels, a “pit” greenhouse, a lovely home and several log outbuildings.
A couple of years ago, before the price of lumber went sky-high, Rich replaced 6-foot electric fencing with 10-foot deer fencing around the huge garden areas. The deer managed to jump the 6-foot fence, but none have made it past the new one. Rich also built the high tunnels out of PVC pipe and cattle panels. When I visit in June, the plastic is off and the bees from Patty’s hive are coming in to do their job. We’ve in a fairly intense drought, so the pump is running from the pond, sending water underground to the high tunnels and garden areas where sprinklers are set up and 5-gallon buckets are stacked for hand-watering the 110 squash and pumpkins.
All of the plants begin inside the house in a large sunroom supplemented by grow lights. We’re talking large quantities—like 200 tomato plants and 2,300 onions and beans in the multiple hundreds. There’s just about every kind of vegetable here including multiple varieties of cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, and of course rutabagas. I ask which veggie they plant the LEAST of, and the answer is rutabagas—only 24 of those. As the starts grow, Patty makes “plugs” and plants them outside when the time is right. The soil is sandy here, so they use compost from a Meadowlands hatchery, bone meal, and coffee grounds for soil amendment. Bugs are controlled by hand-picking them off the plants. Rich tills a few of the larger areas with a small tractor, but Patty uses a broadfork for the rest, including the high tunnels. Broadforks are amazing tools—the topic of another column soon.
Patty uses a Jang seeder (photo) and a pinpoint seeder for most of the planting. The 45-foot rows in the large gardens go fairly quickly with these human-powered tools. The bucket on Rich’s small tractor serves as the wheelbarrow. Their son plants and tends the onions, Rich handles the squash and pumpkins, and Patty does the rest. It’s a full-time job tending this operation and the Johnsons are retired, so thoughts of “how many more years can we do this….” crop up now and then. But for now, the gardening is going ahead full force.
Rich also manages the Hibbing Farmers Market and Patty acts as treasurer.
Just when summer’s work begins to slow a bit, canning season begins. Patty always canned their garden produce for their family. Seven mouths to feed meant 52 quarts of everything, 1 for each week of the year, from pickles and jams to beans, peas, summer squash, broccoli, rhubarb, and tomatoes. And then drying and cool storage for garlic, onions, winter squash, potatoes, carrots, rutabagas and herbs. The pit greenhouse (into the ground 4 feet) attached to an outbuilding gets so hot in the summer that Patty uses it to dehydrate some produce and herbs. Their Facebook page (Cedar Valley Gardens) shows photos of dried kale being ground into powder last fall. She still cans for sale at the farmers market. Dilly beans are a big favorite there.
Home-made high tunnels using cattle panels and PVC
What used to be a large chicken coop will soon become the new pack shed where produce is cleaned and packaged for sale at the market. You’ll find Rich and Patty there at the Hibbing Farmers Market every Tuesday 2-5 and Saturday 9-1. The market is located just east of the intersection of 169 and 37 at the east edge of Hibbing, on the north side of 37, right across from McDonald’s.