meet Ralf Swenson.

Ralf Sr. might be my life hero. He makes the impossibly romantic notion of farm life seem possible. This is a man who sparkles. You never catch Ralf without a charming grin unless he is about to try and pull a fast one on you. His rosy cheeks and inspiring optimism may be because he eats fresh cut spinach and new eggs for breakfast each morning, but it seems more likely that the sparkle comes from his relentless life passion. He has a hard life I imagine, the kind of hard it takes to maintain a small boutique farm in a pretty uncompromising climate. The Swenson farm was passed to him by his father and was one of the first in the state to be certified organic. This farm did not become organic, it just never became anything else. When I go to pick up my stash every few days, Ralf Sr. always attempts to introduce me to a new culinary experience straight from the ground. Each time he picks something for me it is done with the care and enthusiasm as if were his first time.