REGIONAL- “Stay on this path and you will find nourishment. Stay on this path and beauty will follow you.” – Kate Ingrid Paul, in Memoirs from Down in the Boondocks
For Paul, who published those words in 2013, that path has been a circle, taking her away from her childhood home south of Iron Junction for 17 years but bringing her back in 2006 to Owl Forest Farm and a new future in which living in harmony with the land and nature is as natural as breathing.
“This is land that my grandpa owned,” Kate said. “Home was just one mile down the road.”
In 2010, her future husband, Ron, wandered down that path and into her life, and they married in 2011. Together, they started a community-supported-agriculture (CSA) vegetable operation in 2013, preparing up to 50 boxes of food a week during the growing season underneath a carport next to the house. Kate had left a full-time job with the Department of Natural Resources immediately prior to that, but Ron continued his full-time job as a UPS delivery driver.
“After being at the DNR for several years, I realized what I really wanted to do was here,” Kate said. “Thank goodness Ron has a regular job with benefits, or I wouldn’t have been able to make that work.”
But as another author, J. R. R. Tolkien, once wrote, “The road goes ever on and on,” and so it was with Kate’s path. After six years of running the CSA, Kate took a job as a project manager and environmental scientist with a small Hibbing engineering firm.
“I love working there,” Kate said, “but when that happened it was like, okay, we’re not going to do the vegetables anymore.”
It turned out, however, that Kate’s path didn’t lead away from Owl Forest Farm at all, but instead led to beauty, the beauty of flowers, and a new family business venture.
You-Pick Flowers
“We were already doing flowers, mostly wholesale to the local florist,” Kate said. “We continued to do that, and at the end of last year we had so many flowers out there. We decided at the very end of the season that we would open it up to the public and just have pop-up events where people could come pick and take pictures.”
The response exceeded any expectations Kate and Ron had.
“It was such a big hit with people,” Kate said. “They had such a great time and we enjoyed having them out and being able to share all the hard work. We decided we would try doing a full season of it this year.”
Visitors who turn into the driveway at 3442 Mobraten Drive today will notice two things immediately – a large field of brightly blooming sunflowers, and a relatively new building with space for an office and area for classes and creating bouquets, a large walk-in cooler, and garage space to keep the tractors and other implements necessary to cultivate the farm’s four acres of blooming bounty. A greenhouse for early-season growing and the family home also come into view, and once patrons are parked, there are the flowers.
“We had tulips in May, we had peonies in June,” Kate said. “There’s a ton of annuals that we put in – zinnias, cosmos, there’s a ton of different kinds of sunflowers, just about every kind of sunflower that you can think of, and all sorts of perennials like coneflowers and yarrow. Just a lot of stuff.”
However, there would have been even more “stuff” if not for an unusually late freeze this year.
“It was a hard freeze,” Ron said. “It was an October freeze in May.”
“Three nights of freeze,” Kate added. “We lost all of our lilies this year. We would have normally had thousands.”
The freeze also affected many of the buds on the 1,800 peony plants, although the plants themselves survived, Kate said.
But patrons don’t lack for selections as they wander between row after row of floral delights, and the Pauls have added touches little and big to appeal to both pickers and photographers. Colorfully-painted chairs are to be found throughout the grounds, and to the particular delight of youngsters is an old blue Ford 4000 tractor that belonged to Kate’s grandpa that’s parked out among the sunflowers.
“It’s a working tractor,” Ron said. “Every kid pops on it and they hit every switch and every button.”
Those who come seeking flowers can choose from among four different sizes of containers, from Mason jars to two-gallon buckets, to fill on the days and times when the grounds are open to the general public. Private picking times can also be reserved.
And those who want flowers but don’t want to pick them can order bouquets and buckets.
Kate said the farm isn’t trying to compete with local florists, as picking flowers is as much about the experience as it is about what customers take away.
“Most people are surprised by the variety and the amount that we have out here,” Kate said. “I’ve had several people come pick the two-gallon buckets for things like weddings and receptions, and they’re just thrilled they can get such a diversity of flowers. They’re coming for the experience, to pick their own, take photos and to enjoy being out in nature, to let the kids run around, to have family time. I’ve seen groups of women come in that are laughing and having a great time the whole time they’re here. There’s nothing else like this around and I think that makes it a draw for people.”
The farm is a natural paradise for photographers, and anyone who purchases a container or other items is welcome to take as many pictures as they want, Kate said.
Amateur and professional photographers can also pay to reserve time for a private photo shoot, whether it involves shooting flowers or using the grounds as a setting for photos of individuals or special events like weddings and receptions.
But the grounds aren’t open to anyone who just wants to wander around taking pictures without making a purchase, Ron said.
“We’ve had people actually come in here, spend two hours out there taking photos, taking time away from other people, and then try to sneak out the back way and get in their vehicle,” he said. “Most people are wonderful about it, but there are those people who try to take full advantage of it.”
Family affair
With Kate and Ron still holding other jobs, the flower operation isn’t something they could possibly do without help, and for that they have the willing hands of family to assist.
Ron’s father, Rich, helped out in a big way when they located the walk-in cooler, which measures about eight feet by 14 feet. Rich was the one who dismantled it so it could be moved and reassembled at the farm. However, he admitted with a grin and a chuckle that he happened to be gone when it was time to reassemble it. Perhaps Ron and Kate might have had a clue that would happen from the well-worn T-shirt Rich was wearing on Saturday that featured a picture of two men in a fishing boat with the slogan “Can’t Work Today – My Arm is in a Cast.”
Kate’s mother, Donna Johnson, lives right next door and helps out when she’s not working at the Vermilion Land Office in Tower, which she co-owns.
And summertime is a chance to put sons Noah, 20, and Levi, 12, to work, too.
“It’s been really great having Noah home from college, because if he hadn’t been out there this summer moving sprinklers on those sunflower patches, we probably wouldn’t have had them because of the drought,” Kate said. “Levi is with us part time, and when he’s here he’s a hard worker. He likes to be involved with everything that we have out there. This really is a family effort.”
That effort will be needed next year, as the “everything we have” is going to double in size. But it really isn’t work for a couple whose lives are so entwined with nature. Ron expressed a sentiment shared by Kate, that, “My church is the outdoors.”
Information about open public hours, private reservations, ordering flowers, pricing, and more can be found on the Owl Forest Farm website, owlforestfarm.com, on Facebook, or by calling 218-290-6630.