“We’re too far north, too cold, and too wet to do anything else-except I’m the weirdo that knows that isn’t true and I don’t believe that crap,” says Stevens. We’re too far north, too cold, and too wet to do anything else-except I’m the weirdo that knows that isn’t true and I don’t believe that crap.”

They work the ground in the fall, work it a few more times in the spring, broadcast their fertilizer, and do it all again. “Except for a few oddballs, I’d say 99% of guys in my area follow mainstream agricultural practices. Today, Stevens keeps one foot in the rows, and one foot in Skip’s repair shop.

In 2010, he got a farming toehold with a few rental acres, and by 2014, bought the family ground from his parents, Skip and Nancy. Stevens trained as a John Deere mechanic, and initially went into highway and bridge construction.

The economic hazards of the 1980s wiped out his parents’ farming operation, including equipment and cattle, but the family held tight to the land. Technically, Stevens is a fifth-generation farmer, but in many ways, he started from scratch.

Maple grove farms golden