Why We Love Our Local Farmers
- Christy Johnson
- Aug 4
- 5 min read
By Christy Johnson
It's almost time for the Minnesota State Fair, and so many of us at Chowgirls look forward to these two weeks of fun every summer. Almost as much as the sights, activities, and foods we love experiencing, we also love that The Great Minnesota Get-Together celebrates all of the wonderful products found within our borders, and the people who grow and hand-make them.
With that in mind, this month we're focusing on the people that our team rely on to help make our sustainable catering business successful — the ones who work so hard to grow and care for the ingredients our chefs and beverage managers use to create their innovative, delicious menu items.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE PRODUCE
During the 22-plus years we’ve been in business, we've built strong relationships with our local vendors. Here are a few of the farmers whose products have graced our menus, season after season.
Oredola Taylor of Taylor Ventures, which is part of Big River Farms, is someone our chefs love to trade ideas with because she's so passionate about the soil on the approximately 1 acre she tends in Marine on St. Croix. During the 2024 growing season, Taylor took part in a nutrient density study for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's (MDA) AGRI Sustainable Development Demonstration Grant. The study's findings landed in the 2025 Greenbook, an annual MDA publication that's devoted to the Minnesota farmers who are developing a more sustainable agriculture. Our chefs actually noticed the results of her hard work because her carrots tasted undeniably better between 2024 and 2025. It's proof that healthier soil grows more nutrient-dense food.
Relyndis Tegomoh founded Kisheri Farms in 2023 and today she, her husband Marius, and their youngest son work diligently to follow the indigenous practices and techniques from her native Cameroon. On their land in Kenyon and Roseville, along with a plot at Big River Farms, the family prides itself on cultivating nutrient-dense produce using regenerative organic practices. "We grow the soil as well as the crops, [which creates] a thriving ecosystem," says Marius Tegomoh, who jokingly refers to himself as the "senior farmhand" of his wife's business.
Three years ago, Pao Lee and his family started Affordable Green Farm, which also partners with Big River Farms. All of the produce grown on their land is both organic and pesticide-free. Lee and his team focus on cooperating with nature instead of fighting it by leaning on crop rotation, composting, and using biological pest control rather than synthetic.
Then there's Raje Haslett-Marroquin of Salvatierra Farms and Regenerative Agriculture Alliance (RAA), which is included in a network of farmers raising Tree-Range® Farms chicken. While his approach starts with poultry, it is really about designing an entire ecosystem in which the land and community support each other.
In April, three chefs from Chowgirls traveled to Northfield to see his methods firsthand. Haslett-Marroquin is a master of agroforestry, and he explained that his family farm is focused on reclaiming the chicken's true identity by giving it back the jungle habitat it evolved in, rather than treating it as something to be alienated from its environment.
That jungle takes years to grow. Salvatierra Farms' hazelnut trees, which were planted five years ago, bloomed for the first time on our visit and will eventually form the canopy that shelters the birds from predators like hawks and eagles. Until then, sunflowers and other fast-growing plants stand in as shade, with maples planned to protect the hazelnuts and cottonwoods to shield the layer in between.
The chickens themselves are raised without hormones or antibiotics, on a certified, locally sourced mix of fresh and dried organic grain. They learn how to seek out food, shade, and water on their own outdoors, with multiple feeding spots set up to keep them moving. Once they've foraged through a paddock, they're moved to a fresh one, and then they range freely through that jungle-like habitat until it's time for them to be harvested.
Haslett-Marroquin sees industrial, conventional farming as a dead end for everyone involved, and believes the real path forward is rebuilding the ancestral, educational, market-supported practices that treat farmers as the heroes they are. His farm's philosophy is that healthy chicken comes from healthy farms, and healthy farms make a better world. It starts with the soil and grows up from there.
HOW REGENERATIVE FARMING HELPS THE PLANET
Working with growers who are close to home shortens our supply chain, which means fewer emissions from transport and less exposure to the microplastics that are thrown from the tires on our roadways.
The benefits go beyond the drive from farm to kitchen, though. As noted, our small-scale farmers use regenerative, organic practices that rebuild soil health over time, which helps with carbon storage and also produces food with more nutrients in it. In addition, they grow diverse crops rather than a single monoculture, which protects pollinators and keeps the soil from getting depleted.
Even the packaging plays a role. Our farmers deliver produce in reusable boxes and vessels, which our chefs then transfer into our own reusable containers. Multiply that across every delivery, every week, every season, and the plastic and water waste we avoid adds up. Because we have close relationships with these growers, we can also ask for specific packaging changes when we need to.
A report completed earlier this year by the USDA's Economic Research Service found that only 7.6% of food in the U.S. is currently sold through local food channels, even though sales from farmers markets, regional food hubs, and farm-to-school programs increased between 180% and 488% from 2006 to 2014. So while local food systems are growing, they're still only a small portion of how our country eats.
That's part of why Chowgirls takes this seriously. Being able to point to a map that shows the farms we source from, while still catering at the scale we do, isn't something every company in this industry can claim. It takes effort for us to keep these relationships intact as we grow, but we feel it's worth it.
"A COMMITMENT TO EACH OTHER AND THE EARTH"
Choosing to work with people who farm organically and transparently means we know exactly how our sourcing decisions ripple outward. It means every dollar we spend on food goes toward backing people who care about the same things we do: robust soil, healthy communities, and food that tastes delicious.
Supporting vendors who share our values lets us extend our impact past our own kitchen, which is also important to them.
"It's a pleasure partnering with businesses like Chowgirls that appreciate good food and value the work we do," Tegomoh says.
Nicktae Marroquin, the Communications Manager at the RAA, which supports Tree-Range® Farms, shares that working alongside businesses like ours is meaningful because regenerative agriculture is about relationships as much as it is about farming.
"Finding partners in organizations like Chowgirls, which share in our mission to support local farmers and care for the land, is key to building a new regenerative food system with farmers, processors, distributors, chefs, businesses, and consumers who share a commitment to each other and the earth," Marroquin says.
Every bright vegetable in our Crudités Cup, crunchy leaf of our Simple Salad, or juicy thigh in our Brown Sugar Brined Chicken is a celebration of the kind of food system we want to see more of — one that's built not on transactions but on relationships.
And that's the story behind what's on your plate every time Chowgirls caters an event.
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