Accessible organic for all

OWATONNA — Larry Schultz has been part of growing and distributing organic or naturally-raised eggs his entire life.

“I never believed that you had to be rich to afford organic,” Schultz said. “I always wanted to have the best-tasting product at the most affordable price.”

Schultz raises laying chickens on his farm near Owatonna. He also collaborates with other local farmers to raise crops and additional eggs. The eggs are cleaned and processed by Schultz’s crew in Owatonna and distributed to Rochester and the Twin Cities metro area. Schulz also sells chicken and turkey.

Schultz said being organic is something he continued from his parents.

“(We) never switched to (conventional),” he said.

His business has grown as opportunities have opened.

“Rather than producing and then wondering where it’s going to go, … I usually go the other way,” Schultz said. “I already have the market before I produce it. … It’s not something that lasts forever. You got a perishable product.”

In 2006, Schultz started partnering with other area farms in the community to help him with raising eggs. Many of these farmers are from the Amish community.

Schultz said collaborating with the Amish community preserves an farm income for them so they can continue their farming way of life.

Schultz said he chose to begin collaborating because he already had two barns of chickens at his farm, and he wanted to make sure the chickens lived in smaller groups with minimal barns per location. All of his chickens have pasture access and organic feed.

“I didn’t have to compromise anything of how I raise chickens,” he said. “We just did the same thing on their location, and they tended the chickens. … It was a really good fit because what my customers expect is what they’re getting: … same kind of chickens, same kind of conditions.”

In 1992, Schultz made his official start in the egg business, buying a farm and 1,200 chickens. The next year, he started raising broilers.

In the late ‘90s, Schultz also began raising turkeys, first for himself, and then for stores. Demand quickly grew, with more stores looking for turkey every year.

In 2000, Schultz built a new chicken barn on his property, and in 2003, he built a second barn. The first barn had updated processing facilities.

The processing facilities allowed Schultz to fully process 5,400 eggs per hour, a large jump from the less than 1,000 that could be done before.

“I thought it was the cat’s meow,” Schultz said.

Today, Schultz’s crew processes about 60,000-65,000 eggs an hour in Owatonna, where the egg processing moved in 2012.

Each egg that comes through the Owatonna facility is loaded on trays onto a moving belt. There, a machine uses suction to pick up each egg and put it in the first wash vat. The eggs travel through three vats to be cleaned and rinsed. The first wash vat’s temperature is about 105 degrees, the second is 110 degrees to 120 degrees, and the rinse vat is 140 degrees. The water must be warm, Schultz said, in case an egg has a crack in it. The warmth causes the shell to expand, sealing the egg’s interior.

After an egg is dried, it goes across the candler. This machine shines a light through the eggs to check for impurities or other issues.

After the eggs are checked for internal problems, they are checked for cracks.

“As the egg rolls across (the checker), it taps on the egg, and … (the egg) sends a sound wave back,” Schultz said. “(The checker) rates the vibration, and that vibration tells you how bad (any potential) crack is in the egg.”

The machine then sorts the eggs by weight, and they are loaded into the corresponding cartons.

Schultz tries to charge what is sustainable long-term.

“The grower has to make a profit; … I have to make a profit,” he said. “The store has to make a profit, and the customer has to be able to afford it. If any one of those things breaks down, it doesn’t work.”

The Schultz family egg business began when Schultz’s mom, Helen, would sell eggs weekly to a buying station in Meriden. His family also had had a herd of dairy cattle.

When the egg distributer closed in the early 1970s, they recommended Helen be their predecessor to supply Waseca’s school district and hospital with eggs. Helen had a flock of 400 chickens and egg coolers that kept her product fresh, which set her apart from others that had been supplying Meriden.

Helen bought the equipment from the Meriden distributer and got started.

“Working with the chickens was her pride and joy,” Schultz said.

Now, decades later, like his mom, Schultz said he likes being involved in many aspects of the business — raising crops, working with the chickens, helping process eggs, hauling eggs or grain, developing new meat product recipes, doing sales, meeting customers and more.

“I look at everything we’ve had, (it) is what the Lord has given us,” he said. “It’s my responsibility to manage what he’s given me.”