A natural pop

WILLMAR — Whether it be through beef, eggs or grains — including popcorn — Schueler Farms aims to bring people food that is closer to home and nature. As they join their family’s 122-year legacy of caring for the land, Ayden and Kiana Schueler are strengthening the farm’s organic, regenerative practices to provide a product that is good for themselves, the customer and the environment.

“We’re very passionate about having food that’s nourishing,” Kiana said. “We want Schueler Farms products to not be out of reach for people like us.”

Ayden and Kiana are the sixth generation to work on Schueler Farms, with their young children — Thaddeus and Kelilah — being the seventh generation on the farm. The land was first farmed by Ayden’s great-great-great-grandfather, Mons Anson, who immigrated from southern Sweden and purchased the property south of Willmar in 1904.

“In 1904, farming looked a lot different,” Ayden said. “Everybody did everything; you had all different varieties of livestock. … That’s what it (Schueler Farms) was for most of its history until farms started to specialize after the heavy mechanization of agriculture and the advent of chemical pesticides in the ’60s and ’70s.”

Military involvement also runs deep in the Schueler family. Ayden’s grandfather, Sherman Schueler, served as a Navy aviator in Vietnam and later as a training pilot in San Diego, California; and Ayden’s father, Mitchell Schueler, was a submariner in the Navy for nine years, entering the Navy Reserve and moving back to the farm afterward. Sherman still works with Schueler Farms, and Mitchell lives on the land as well, having moved back with his family in 2013.

Ayden followed the military tradition as well, currently serving with the Minnesota Air National Guard 148th Fighter Wing in Duluth as a crew chief. He was employed full time with the National Guard for 3.5 years before he and Kiana came back to Schueler Farms; Kiana is also an in-home midwife for the area.

In the 1980s, Schueler Farms primarily raised hogs but later transitioned to a dairy for a couple of decades. The family sold the dairy cows in the late 2000s and then grew crops for a few years before bringing in beef cattle.

“As I heard it, my great-uncle Kevin (Schueler), who also still works on the farm, got bored of not having livestock,” Ayden said.

In the mid-2010s, Sherman began transitioning Schueler Farms to organic; the farm was officially certified in 2018.
At first, it mainly made business sense, as the market was shifting toward organic farming.

“Over the years, as we’ve gotten more into it, it’s more like, this is actually important that we do it organically, that we step away from conventional ways of agriculture that are really damaging to the soil (and) hard on the ecosystem,” Ayden said. “This is something we believe in (and) are passionate about.”

With its organic certification, Schueler Farms also works on regenerative agriculture to build back soil health, maintaining a complex crop rotation that relies less on fertilizers and incorporates winter wheat, hay and assorted cover crops into the usual corn and soybeans.

“We try to let the land work for itself, like it was designed,” Ayden said. “This was all tall grass prairie before it was plowed, and grass builds rich soil.”

The alfalfa hay also makes good feed for the farm’s approximately 45 head of grass-fed beef cattle, aside from pasture grass in the summer. Toward the end of the summer, though, the cattle are generally fed sorghum to help them put on a bit of weight to add a small amount of marble to the meat.

“That’s what a lot of people are missing when they get grass-fed beef,” Ayden said. “It tastes kind of gamey sometimes, so we mitigate that a lot with that sort of rationing. … We can provide a really healthy, high-end beef product; they’re all organic-fed, grass-fed (and) grass-finished.”

The cattle contribute to the land through their grazing and manure. In the future, the Schuelers aim to move pastures around to get the cattle onto field acreage.

Alongside the cattle, the Schuelers raise laying chickens that they move around in a chicken tractor; the chickens are also organically fed. They are expanding the flock to have more eggs for sale.

Schueler Farms has grown popcorn for a long time, but it was mostly just a couple of rows per year for fun. Only in the last couple of years have the Schuelers started growing acres of it to bag and sell; it grows similarly to regular field corn, and it is not unusual to have a stalk with three ears on it.

“It’s so flavorful,” Kiana said. “When I grew up, popcorn was like air; you put butter and salt on to make it taste better, but this popcorn has its own flavor that’s so good.”

When the corn is harvested, the Schuelers hand-pick through the kernels to remove any debris or shriveled kernels that will not pop well.

“It takes a long time, but it’s worth it,” Ayden said. “We want to get people something we’re proud of.”

Schueler Farms sells directly to consumers at the Willmar Farmers Market and through its website, schuelerfarms.com, but it aims to build a processing facility where the old barn used to stand, handling its direct-to-consumer grains like popcorn and winter wheat. The Schuelers also want the building to house a retail store, and this summer, they tested the demand by putting a farm stand on 15th Street Southeast near their farm.

“(It) was testing to see if people would really drive out here to get stuff,” Ayden said. “I’ve heard crazy statistics like people are willing to drive an hour one way to get the right sort of food they want.”

The results were encouraging. They also partnered with Lexi Owens with Dough by Lex, a local baker who added sourdough bread to the stand, such as a whole wheat loaf made from Schueler Farms grain. Once the Schuelers add the retail space, they aim to have more contributors selling there as well.

“We want people to be able to come and shop at our retail location, our farm stand or at the farmers market and get their staple foods,” Ayden said. “We’re trying to be a catalyst to bring people together to be able to have a co-op here. We really believe that everywhere should have somewhere like that.”