Woodside Raspberries
Lee Hoselton
Kyle Johnson
Kagen Waage
During the spring semester 2006, several local food producers were interviewed by University of Minnesota Crookston composition students instructed by Dr. Rachel McCoppin. These interviews were done as a service-learning project that allows students to practice their interviewing and writing skills on a real world project.
If you’ve ever wanted to go pick your own fresh raspberries instead of buying them at a grocery store, Woodside Raspberries is the place for you. This small family farm is owned and operated by Chuck and Barbara Schulstad. The Schulstads are retired elementary school teachers with combined teaching experience of 67 years. After retirement Chuck and Barbara decided to move back home to the family farm inErskine,Minnesota. The farm is 10 miles south ofMentor on PolkCounty#10. They wanted to move back after retirement because they were both farm-raised children. Chuck and Barbara cut out the middle-man by selling raspberries directly to the consumer. They run a small hobby farm with a total offive rows of raspberry bushes, 100 feet each. Chuck enjoys working on the farm and they both enjoy getting to meet many people. They said that they get quite a few people coming from the Union and MapleLake area.
You may ask why you should buy food from a local farmer instead of going to the grocery store like everyone else does. One reason is that you are keeping your money in the region, which boosts the local economy. Another reason is that it’s nice to be able to see where your food is coming from and be able to know that it is fresh. Fresh food has no preservatives and this may be better for your family’s health. Also, there are a lot of family farms that are not making enough money and are in danger of going out of business. Purchasing from these farms can give them the added revenue to continue farming.
Raspberries are available for picking in the week following the 4th of July until the middle of August. Chuck and Barbara charge two dollars for a pint of berries to pick them yourself, or three dollars a pint to have them picked for you.
When asked about the work required on the farm, Chuck said that raspberries are a very labor intensive crop. It requires a lot of clipping, pruning and trimming They do not do a lot of advertising for their raspberry business and except for putting flyers in the local stores andon bulletin boards, they rely on word of mouth to promote their business.
If you like raspberries and want to support the region’s economy, stop by Woodside Raspberries to get some of the freshest raspberries you’ve ever had. Chuck and Barb will be more than happy to see you.