HALSTAD, Minn. — To most of us, it’s just a humble potato.
But to Bjorn Solberg, owner of Hugh’s Gardens, a potato storage and packing facility in Halstad, Minnesota, the simple spud is so much more.
It represents a partnership with certified-organic potato farmers across the region who need a place for the fruits of their labors. It’s a move away from industrial food systems, in which a salmonella scare could cause millions of pounds of food waste and that tomato on your salad might have traveled 1,500 miles to get there. And it’s a way to help out rural areas, where the added shipping costs and smaller ordering volumes make small grocery stores struggle to compete with the Walmarts of the world.
“There's been systems around that were created 100 years ago. And in my timeline here, I see there's been drastic change in society and life, and I just don't see those systems keeping up with that drastic change,” Solberg said. “ I want to be proactive in addressing the food issue. So I think the best answer is to create and sustain a resilient local food system right now.”
In 2019, Solberg bought the business from Hugh Duffner, who had converted the building into a certified-organic facility in 2000.
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Solberg has followed Duffner’s model of working with small potato farmers from the region to store, wash and pack their red, yellow, russet and specialty potatoes. He then markets the spuds to regional distributors, schools, restaurants and grocery stores throughout the Upper Midwest as well as direct to consumers.
He now works out of a 12,500-square-foot, quonset-style building which has been designed to keep hundreds of thousands of spuds from sprouting or spoiling. It's dark, although lightbulbs cast pools of light on work stations. It's humid and chilly — about 38 degrees. And it smells like cloves, because the peppery-sweet spice is used as an organic spray to kill off pesky sprouts on spuds.
“Potatoes are one of the most heavily chemically involved products out there and we are proud to work with nature to provide a safe quality product,” he said.
Now entering into his sixth summer at the helm, Solberg has dealt with everything from drought-affected spuds and potato surpluses to the challenges of finding reliable markets for his smaller-scale, niche product.
But Solberg said he’s met plenty of adversity in his 33 years, which now helps him persevere during tough times.
The Bjorn identity
The youngest of three children, Solberg grew up on a fifth-generation family farm south of Fargo near Wild Rice. His dad, Warren Solberg, raised conventional crops like wheat and soybeans, but the Solbergs’ limited acreage struggled to compete amid rising pressures to expand his farming operation.
“The reality that most farmers face is you have to get big or get out, right? And so my dad had to get out,” Solberg said.
The experience taught him early on that there are more powerful systems at work than what we can control by investing time and hard work into an enterprise, he said.
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In 2001, when Solberg was 10, his mom, Mara, and her stepdad were driving to Tower City, North Dakota, when they collided with a combine crossing the road. The accident shattered a facial bone that supported one of his mother’s eyes, broke her nose and caused a traumatic brain injury, which still affects her today.
Mara had to undergo multiple surgeries and treatments at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Two years after the accident, Mara was diagnosed with breast cancer. She would recover, but the medical and legal bills took a serious toll.
“We were food insecure,” Solberg recalled. “We had to go to the food pantries a few times. So I had that experience which really kind of shaped my perspective.”
After high school, Solberg attended a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Their group visited a sugar cane village where people lived in grinding poverty after the ag industry left them behind. Some of the children were so poor that they had no clothes at all.
“We played with the kids there and handed out backpacks of supplies,” he recalled. “I was the last on the bus and had to block the door from the desperate people wanting supplies ... They didn’t have access to all these systems that we have. And, yeah, if that were to be taken away, what would we look like?”
Solberg earned a teaching degree from Concordia College but found himself gravitating toward entrepreneurial interests.
“I just have always had in my head to make an impact in life,” he said.
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In 2016, he and a friend started a poultry and sheep business on his folks' land. Soon after, he learned that Duffner sought a buyer for Hugh’s Gardens, an established business which emphasized local organic food.
His mother took over the meat business, now known as Solberg Farms , while Solberg turned his attention to spuds.
It took a year and a half of negotiation, but Solberg purchased the business with the aid of loans through a local bank, a regional development center and a regional foundation.
No small potatoes
When Solberg bought the business in spring of 2019, he “had a great few months of ownership getting rid of the previous year’s potato sales.”
But that fall brought heavy rains followed by sub-freezing temperatures, resulting in a disastrous harvest for many Red River Valley potato farmers.
“I actually didn’t get any potatoes that year. Basically I went without revenue that year,” Soldberg said.
Since then, it’s often been a struggle to sustain, either with volume or quality, Soldberg explained. He’s kept afloat by working other jobs, such as bartending or deejaying at weddings.
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This year looks more promising. He’s working with farmers from Belgrade, about 21 miles south of Sauk Centre, Minnesota, and from Park Rapids, including Duffner’s nephew, “so I’ve got a little more confidence and stability with them,” he said.
He’s also been able to make some meaningful contributions to local schools, food banks and other local producers:
- Forming a food co-op: Frustrated with the multiple phone calls he needed to make a single sale, he and Candace Anderson, formerly with the Prairie Roots Food Cooperative, worked together to form the Red River Harvest Cooperative, an online ordering platform for local producers at redriverharvest.com .
- Hunger relief: He’s been recognized by the Great Plains Food Bank for donating over 300,000 pounds of potatoes over the last two years. He also donates to other food banks throughout the U.S.
- Supplying organic foods to schools: Through the Minnesota ag department's Farm to School program, he supplies potatoes for eight Minnesota school districts, including Minneapolis, and hopes to supply 20 or more next year, including several in North Dakota. He also speaks to school kids about farming and reminds them where their food comes from.
Noreen Thomas, an organic farmer and owner of Doubting Thomas Farms, Moorhead, praised Solberg's dedication to educating tomorrow's consumers.
“It isn’t just about nourishing bodies, it's about nurturing communities,” she said. “By championing local produce and educating children about its significance, it really highlights what can be done. Someone like him talking to the kids is a special treat and makes learning come alive.”
But one of Solberg’s loftiest goals has been lobbying for smaller, more local food systems.
He said COVID exposed the Achilles heel of a huge, industrialized food system, when the giant meat-processing plants shut down and supply chain snafus caused major shortages.
He pointed out that the current model especially hurts rural consumers and small grocery stores, which are constantly at risk of losing distributors because it’s not profitable delivering goods to them.
Solberg believes the USDA’s enactment of 12 Regional Food Centers across the U.S. in 2023 is a step in the right direction. The mission is to create a more resilient food system by providing localized assistance to support small- to mid-sized producers, processors and distributors.
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They’ve done so by dividing the country into a dozen regional food business centers, which will each develop more local processing, local food concepts and local food supply chains.
Minnesota is part of the MinKota RFBC, which also includes the Dakotas and Minnesota and is headed by the North Dakota Farmers Union.
Solberg is excited what this could mean for Hugh’s and local food in general.
“A couple of months ago, I was at the point of wanting to be done,” he said. “But I’m working with the new farmer and more schools are on board for this upcoming year. And then just the bigger picture overall is coming into place. And so I want to stick it out until I’m told I’m done."
Learn more about Hugh's Gardens on Facebook or visit redriverharvest.com.
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