How This Couple Managed to Farm in Minnesota

Lise Abazs and her husband David Abazs are organic farmers in Finland. Not Finland, the country. Finland, Minnesota, where their land sits along the north shore of Lake Superior. There aren’t a lot of organic farms in Minnesota. The climate is harsh, and the soil is infertile and full of rocks. But the Abazs’s Round River Farm is flourishing. They can grow lettuce, spinach, kale and other vegetables, and that’s because they have nurtured their soil with compost and cover crops. “You have healthy soil, you end up with healthy plants,” Lise says. There is a lot to be learned from the way this duo farms and lives. They get all their energy from wind and power, pump their water from the earth and use a compost toilet. Stewards of environmentally-friendly living, they’ve led by example and made their community a better place for all.