In July of 2020, Kelley Rajala and her partner uprooted from the San Francisco area of California, where they had been living and farming, and moved to Aitkin to take over her grandparents' property and start a new farm business. Kelley says, “Our goal is to create a business here that will keep the farm in the family. We’re also doing this work for climate change reasons and long-term sustainability of the property.” Situated on 146 acres, Clear Lake Gardens produces edible flowers and “every vegetable under the sun” on two of those acres, using both high tunnels and open fields. They primarily sell their produce direct to consumer at their on-site farm stand. In 2023, they also sold about 25% of their food through the Aitkin Food Hub, which they hope to increase in coming years.
Getting Clear Lake Gardens established in Minnesota has been a different ballgame than their farming experience in California, where the sheer number of people equaled greater sales, numbers that are difficult to match in a sparsely populated rural community. Kelley notes, “We just don't have as many people here. We’re thankful for the food hub because it’s been much harder [to sell our food] in Minnesota.” She adds, “Our Food Hub Manager, Allison Rian, has been doing a fantastic job. The amount of food that Allison is moving through the Veggie Rx program, in partnership with our local hospital, is substantial and impressive.”
Kelley is on a mission to increase local food sales overall in her community. She finds herself consistently encouraging Aitkin residents to support the area’s restaurants and for the restaurants to support farmers by buying their food. She explains, “The wholesale side of our food hub has room to grow. We are encouraging more restaurants and retailers to purchase local, fresh food through the hub. It is very rural here. It’s not a food desert, but there are few restaurants where you can get farm fresh food. Any dent we can make in that is a step in the right direction. We don’t ask restaurants to buy everything local; just buy local lettuce, tomatoes or peppers and we’ll be happy with those baby steps.”
Peter Lowe at Block North Brew Pub in Atikin is one chef who was persuaded to work with more local foods after getting to know Kelley. One of his biggest obstacles to sourcing locally is the large quantities he needs consistently for his bustling establishment. Peter cleverly sidestepped that challenge by creating a separate farm-to-fork menu based on local product availability. He explains, “On Mondays, we would build an entirely new menu for the restaurant: three to four entrées, a couple appetizers, a salad or two - and 99% of it would be based on what the local farmers had available.” He continues, “This special menu, which ran from May through October, doesn’t affect the normal menu at all – it’s in addition to that menu. The farm-to-fork menu starts on Monday and by Wednesday we would be sold out of everything. The farmers would tell me a week ahead of time, ‘This is what we’ll have next week. What do you want?’” He concludes, “It was a lot of fun, and people are already looking forward to it this year.”
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