This year’s Plant Sale offerings have once again been sourced from some of the best local growers. You’ll find an expanded assortment of unique pepper and herb varieties, a wildly beautiful tomato selection, edible flowers and pollinator plants, and an array of unique vegetables for your garden. Everything at the Plant Sale has been grown to organic standards, with a healthy selection of certified-organic vegetables also available. Read on to learn about the methods and values of this year’s Plant Sale growers.
Glacial Ridge Growers – Glenwood, Minnesota
Glacial Ridge Growers has been using sustainable greenhouse management practices for over 40 years to grow a huge variety of certified organic vegetables and herbs. Gene and Muriel Stark began their growing operation in the 1970s and now, with their son Jeremiah as head of production, propagate and grow plants in west-central Minnesota. In addition to a large array of native plants, they also grow and supply Mississippi Market with beautiful annuals, hardy perennials, and an array of organic vegetables and herbs. All of their plants are grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or other harmful chemicals. Their greenhouses are state of the art, allowing them to closely control growing conditions while successfully implementing the use of beneficial predatory insects for all-natural pest control.
Green Earth Growers – Prior Lake, Minnesota
Since 2004, owners Jenny Hotz and Jolea Gress of Green Earth Growers have been committed to producing an extensive selection of quality annual flowers and vegetables. Located in Prior Lake, Minnesota, Green Earth Growers raises all of their plants in accordance with the national organic standards. This year, we’re carrying their exceptional collection of organic tomatoes including Brad’s Atomic Grape, Dark Galaxy, and Berkeley Tie Die, along with a selection of unusual and tasty vegetables like Mexican Gherkin, Malabar Spinach, and Alpine Strawberries, to name a few.
Rush Creek Growers – Spring Valley, Wisconsin
Located in Spring Valley, Wisconsin, Rush Creek Growers work to bring you the most creative, practical, and delightful plant options for your edible garden. They grow a wide variety of exceptionally interesting plants using innovative, ethical, and environmentally-friendly practices including the use of compost tea, beneficial insects and fungi for disease and pest control, compostable pots, rainwater retention and reuse, and more.
Urban Roots – St. Paul, Minnesota
Urban Roots, formerly the Community Design Center of Minnesota, has empowered communities since 1969. Originally a 501(c)3 organization, their mission is to enhance health, wellbeing, and economic opportunities. From offering various community development services across Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and southern Minnesota, they’ve evolved to focus on food and environmental programs since 1996, engaging thousands of youth. Today, they’re a leading youth employer, providing under-resourced, primarily BIPOC youth with economic and educational opportunities through programs like Market Garden, Cook Fresh, and Conservation, addressing critical needs in fresh food access, environmental sustainability, and wellbeing.
Prairie Smoke Gardens – St. Paul, Minnesota
Prairie Smoke Gardens (PSG) is a mini-farm maintaining a small agricultural business in the city of St. Paul, while fostering the existing native environment. Since 2018, they’ve operated with the goal of increasing food production close to where people live. On-farm practices to sustain plant and animal diversity include incorporating frequent cover cropping, no-till soil management, perennial fruit production and incorporating native plantings. PSG operates a small CSA within the neighborhood as well as a greenhouse they rent out to other local growers.
Northwood Mushrooms – Clayton, Wisconsin
Northwood Mushrooms started inoculating logs in 2008. What started as a backyard urban farm in the Twin Cities has since become a spacious mushroom farm an hour away in Clayton, Wisconsin. They grow a variety of mushrooms organically on logs, in-ground, and indoors. They’ve made a special effort to build a farm business that is primarily local, that uses organic practices, and that uses the least amount of embodied energy to grow mushrooms. Northwood Mushrooms continues to prioritize sustainability, overall quality, as well as freshness, affordability, and transparency.
The Barefoot Garden Center – Blaine, Minnesota
The Barefoot Garden Center is a family business based in Blaine, Minnesota. They first got into the nursery industry through competitive growing, successfully harvesting goliath pumpkins, yardstick carrots, enormous tomatoes, and much more. They curate their plant varieties based on yield, fresh flavor, storage holding, disease resistance, hardiness and growth habit. They inoculate all potted plants with a full ecosystem of over 800 university studied beneficial microorganisms, creating a plant much more resilient to stress, weather extremes, disease, insects, and transplant shock. This year, The Barefoot Garden Center is providing the Annual Spring Plant Sale with fruit trees and bushes.
B&D – Northfield, Minnesota
B&Ds Farm has cultivated four seasons of fresh produce and flowers for more than 30 years. This family-owned farm uses only sustainable growing practices and has a long history with the Saint Paul Farmers’ Market.