Fixing a farm, building a business

ALEXANDRIA — For several years, Noah Koehn and his wife, Ashlyn, traveled around the United States, living in their van full time and working at various restaurants to gain experience. After residing in Montana for the past few years, the couple has returned home to Minnesota, where they plan to fix up a fifth-generation family farm while growing their personal chef and upcoming catering business, Field and Flour.

“We were in the process of looking for land out in Montana, and the family kept asking, ‘Well, what are we going to do with the farm?’” Ash said. “We were like, ‘We would love the opportunity to be on the farm and start working here.’”

Noah and Ash moved back to the family farm near Alexandria at the beginning of this year.
Their converted van sits behind the garden under the shade of large trees, with a couch outside for more seating. The couple’s Australian shepherd, Gus, enjoys trailing after them and exploring the property.

“The family had no direction of what was going to happen to the farm site,” Ash said. “My grandma was getting older, and all of the siblings and cousins have their own houses and lives, and it obviously takes a lot of money and work.”

The 80-acre farm, which used to have dairy cows, has been in Ash’s family since 1896. While much has changed over time, Ash’s 90-year-old grandmother still lives in the original farmhouse. The red barn and tall silo also remain; however, time and weather have taken a toll on both.

“It hasn’t been well maintained in the past how many years, because there hasn’t been a reason to fix it up,” Noah said. “It’s going to take a lot of work to get it where it needs to be and where we want it.”

Today, Noah and Ash — along with friends and family — are working to renovate buildings and restore the land. They are currently focusing on updating the machine shed, which has a cement slab floor near the front of the building. Noah said they are walling off and insulating that section to become a workshop.

“We just dug in a water line from the house to the machine shed,” he said. “A family friend has an excavator, and he was willing to come up here if we threw some hay bales at his place to trade labor.”

Another focus for the pair was to bring the farm’s garden back to life; Ash’s grandmother had stopped gardening five to 10 years ago, and grass was planted over much of the area. This spring, they got to work redoing most of the garden, adding mulch and soil. The couple’s friend, Spencer Ferguson, also came with them from Montana to help grow the garden along with Field and Flour.

“In the future, we definitely want to utilize this space, and that’s a large part of why we brought Spencer with us,” Noah said. “He’s been traveling around, helping out on farms and getting that experience, so he’s a shortcut for us, because we don’t have much gardening experience.”

With some extra insight and assistance, the garden is now a vibrant mix of almost anything and everything: sunflowers reach for sunlight, bright red Jimmy Nardello peppers shine and herbs like dill and lemon balm wait to be picked. They also grow tomatoes, beans, asparagus, edible flowers and more. Additionally, Ash has been experimenting with medicinal plants, such as calendula.

As they continue tackling projects on the farm, Noah and Ash are also working to expand Field and Flour.
The idea first began at a restaurant in Montana where the couple worked together and Noah was head chef.

“We did these 5-course dinners and tasting menus,” Noah said. “Ash and I realized that we were doing most of the work, and that we could do it ourselves, and that’s where it started.”

They then tested the waters and hosted a few dinners for some former regulars. Noah was inspired to create a dinner centered around tomatoes, with each course containing the vegetable. The positive feedback, along with being able to create unique dishes and make major choices, further solidified the couple’s decision to become personal chefs.

“It’s just personal chef work right now; all the prep is done at home or on site,” Noah said. “We’re working on expanding to catering so we can do larger parties.”

Each course and experience is tailored to the customer’s taste and preferences, with many trusting Noah to do what he does best: create handcrafted meals. Yet, when it comes to deciding what to make, he focuses on using seasonal, sustainable and local ingredients.

“There is a chef I like that said, ‘Mother Nature is the true artist, and the cook is just the cook,’” he said. “I take that same style where I try to show off what’s naturally there, and I don’t try to manipulate things too much; I keep it pretty simple and produce forward.”

Ash helps prepare courses while also taking on the roles of designer, social media manager, builder and decorator. With each event, Noah and Ash handle the prep, cooking, cleanup, tablescape and atmosphere, providing linens, tableware and glassware and floral arrangements.

“On our menus, we always point out the farms that we source our stuff from,” Ash said. “Before each course, Noah will tell a story of the inspiration of his dishes, where it came from and try to connect people back to the source of where stuff comes from.”

Noah said it is important to highlight the importance of partnering with local farms and businesses to source most of their ingredients.

They are currently working with a nearby beef farmer and Full Circle Farm in Starbuck, which grows wheat and makes sourdough bread. Noah said they have many farm connections and hope to continue building new relationships with others.

“That’s one of our main whys for our business, and one of our main missions is to reconnect people with food,” he said.

Having been together for almost seven years, Noah and Ash said owning a business and working together has been a great experience. However, they weren’t sure how their skills would complement each other. As time went on, the pair discovered each person’s strengths, where there were gaps, and how to fill them.

“It helps when you’re working with someone that you know everything about them,” Ash said. “You can read body language and know everything without even communicating.”

As Noah and Ash work to update the farm and expand Field and Flour, they’re focusing on slowly growing and not rushing anything. In the future, they plan to use produce from their garden in meals. They’re also hoping to potentially have a fruit orchard, animals and a space to host guests and dinners.

“It’s a lot of potential and opportunity but also a lot of work that has to go into maintaining it,” Noah said. “Eventually, the town’s going to grow out farther. To keep the land restored for animals and growing produce, then letting people come here and enjoy that, too, would be really special.”