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Funding the farm
Swanson reflects on grant process, struggles
SPICER — Starting a farm can be a lot of work, and Crystal Swanson is no stranger to the experience.
Swanson opened her farm, Tipsy Barn Farms, in 2021 after moving from Anoka.
“It’s called Tipsy Barn because my barn is quite literally tipping over,” Swanson said. “We need to do a lot of work on the infrastructure, but that all takes time and money.”
Swanson said she moved to the farm with big dreams of supplying produce to the community. She has planted a large garden with vegetables, a pumpkin patch and many fruit trees and bushes. While learning the ropes of growing produce, Swanson began researching grants that may help her.
Growing Cinderella’s carriage
Johnson cultivates giant pumpkins
HOUSTON — Pumpkins worthy of a fairy godmother’s wand do not grow by magic in Nickki Johnson’s patch. Instead, her giant fruits grow by abundance of effort, time and year-round planning.
“At minimum, (this summer), I was probably in the patch an hour in the evening and half an hour in the morning,” Johnson said. “I joke that I started my day in the pumpkin patch, and I ended the day in the pumpkin patch.”
Johnson grows her orange beauties on the farm she and her husband, Marc, live on in rural Houston. The pumpkin is mainly Johnson’s project, but their daughter, Ella, enjoys helping, especially as the pumpkins set on the vines.
