A bushel basket each week Grower, consumer come together at The Easy Bean

More than 100 families rely on Mike Jacobs to fill their tables with the bounty of the Easy Bean's vegetable gardens. There's still plenty of sweet corn to accompany the avalanche of tomatoes, carrots, onions, green peppers, green beans, summer squash, cucumbers, and melons he also delivers to supporters of the venture. Tribune photo by Tom Cherveny

By Tom Cherveny
Staff Writer
West Central Tribune
Text version of this story

MILAN — There are those who would say that Mike Jacobs has taken on farming in a backward sort of way.

He grew up in the city and then moved to the farm.

He started the farm without taking on any debt, even though he had virtually no capital of his own.

He gets paid for his crops at the start of the growing season.

Jacobs would argue this is a forward-looking way to take on farming.

Jacobs, founder of the Easy Bean farm, would like to show others that they can do it this way too.

Operating a sustainable, organic farm isn't just good for the soul, the environment or the family, according to Jacobs. It's good for the bottom line, too.

"I'm coming at this from an economic viewpoint,'' said Jacobs. "My goal is to have a good, sound business that will be here 20 years from now.''

Less than five years into his experiment, Jacobs appears to be on the right track. But he's quick to point out that he's not necessarily breaking new ground, either.

The Easy Bean is a Community Supported Agriculture venture located along the Chippewa River east of Milan. It's based on an idea that goes back at least 20 years.

It puts grower and consumer in farming together: They share the risks and the rewards.

At the start of each season, members invest in shares of the Easy Bean. In return, the Easy Bean provides each member with their portion of the weekly harvest.

This year the Easy Bean's bounty of hand-tended vegetables is going out to 109 different households.

Each week since late May, Jacobs and his workers have been putting together more than a bushel basket's worth of freshly harvested vegetables for each.

Photos Mike Jacobs checks the condition of the corn in his field near Milan. Tribune photo by Bill Zimmer Mike Jacobs arranges some freshly picked vegetables. Jacobs boxes and brings to market a wide variety of vegetables grown on the Easy Bean farm near Milan. Tribune photo by Tom Cherveny Text version of these photo captions

The sweet corn — so tasty that some actually prefer it uncooked — has done well this year. As a result, Jacobs stacks extra ears atop the horn-of-plenty selection of vegetables he provides his customers each week.

This year's dry, hot summer hasn't really been kind to vegetables, but the Easy Bean's customers need not worry. The Easy Bean has not failed to provide them with weekly selections of all their favorites, from lettuce and radishes and spinach at the start of summer to sweet corn, tomatoes, potatoes, watermelon and onions in more recent weeks.

Jacobs raises 60 different types of vegetables through the season. He loves to surprise his customers. Asian greens, leeks, Chinese cabbage, egg plant, Swiss chard and kale are just some of the vegetables that he packs along with the traditional favorites like green beans and carrots.

He also sends along help for those overwhelmed by this sudden abundance of vegetables. Jacobs authors a newsletter that goes along with each week's supply of fresh goods. He makes sure to include an update on how things are going on the farm in the newsletter, and recipes for serving the veggies. The recipes range from Midwestern farm favorites to some of his own making, and often come in themes. Indian cuisine was a recent theme.

Sound fun?

Jacobs certainly enjoys it. "I've managed to find a niche where I get to do the stuff I like doing,'' he explained.

That includes working outdoors and tending plants, writing the newsletter, and sometimes best of all, chatting with customers who quickly become friends.

He meets many of them when he delivers the vegetables to designated drop-off points. These weekly treks take him to points in Willmar, Montevideo, Milan and Minneapolis.

The efforts provide Jacobs, his wife Malena and their infant daughter Hazel the income needed to live the rural life they enjoy.

They earn it, too. Jacobs said he and some friends came up with the name "Easy Bean'' for the farm in a spirit of fun. He's quick to point out that there is nothing easy about tending 10 to 12 acres of vegetables on the western Minnesota prairie without the use of chemicals.

Jacobs puts in 16-hour days at the height of the season, and still needs lots of help. Two full-time and two part-time workers lend a hand through much of the summer.

There's a lot of brain power required too. Jacobs takes to the computer in mid-January to begin plotting out the season.

A spread-sheet program helps him determine how much seed he'll need. The computer software, years of personal record keeping and his own experience help him plan the crop successions and rotations needed to keep tables filled for 16 to 20 straight weeks.

The planting begins in mid-February, when Jacobs begins seeding the flats in Easy Bean's four greenhouses. The tempo only picks up from there and can continue until the last pumpkins are pulled from the fields in October.

Then it's time to ready the soil for next year, clean up the tools and start putting away firewood.

It represents quite a change of pace for Jacobs, who grew up in a very urban environment just outside of Newark, N.J. He was introduced to the western Minnesota prairie by friends he made while attending Macalester College in St. Paul.

They ventured to this location in 1996 with Walden Pond-like aspirations, he said. It evolved into a business one year later, but kept its real mission.

Jacobs said he wants to show that organic agriculture is about much more than producing food free of chemicals. It's about creating a way of life in which people can make their living on independent, family-owned farms while treating the soil in a sustainable manner.

He decided long ago that the only way to show it was a viable alternative was to make it work in the real world economy.

He believes others can too. Jacobs started the Easy Bean with a $600 investment, initially leasing the small acreage he needed.

If this seems like the very reverse of the way farming is headed, well, there is more that Jacobs would like to turn around.

The founder of Easy Bean said he'd love nothing more than to reverse the process that has led consumers to trust brand names and bland uniformity in place of variety and the real people who produce our food.

"We're doing what people used to do,'' he explained. "Our business is based on trust.''