More than just bread.
photo by Jess Hunter Photography
Yesterday was our first day delivering Full Circle Farm sourdough bread to retail stores. I want to say a humongous thank you to YOU (with all of my heart) because whether you bought bread yesterday or not, the fact that you’re reading this right now means you’re a big part of our journey.
Over the past six years of building our business, I’ve been continually amazed by the power of word-of-mouth and how people sharing about us has made such a difference. For example, when we lived in Hawaii, our next-door neighbor went on a surfing trip to Indonesia during the peak of COVID. He came back with an unbelievable story: While paddling out to the lineup, he met one other surfer. They struck up a conversation, and soon the lone surfer (from New York!) turned to my neighbor and said, “Have you ever checked out Roscoe’s Sourdough? They’ve got the best bread.”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
The summer after we moved to the farm, I was doing pop-up markets in front of La Ferme in Alexandria. A gentleman from the Twin Cities bought bread and told me that while recently getting his hair cut, he shared our story with his barber. The barber then mentioned he’d bought bread from us at a farmer’s market in Honolulu. (WHAT?!)
This past summer, I delivered a flower subscription bouquet to the same gentleman and his wife renovating a stunning lake cabin on Minnewaska that his grandfather originally purchased. They invited me in for a tour and showed me incredible details of their space, including a trunk filled with what looked like a hundred years’ worth of newspaper clippings. Right on top of the pile was a photo of Roscoe and me holding a loaf of bread—the Pope County Tribune article written about Full Circle Farm that spring.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
These are just a few stories that leave me in awe of the support we’ve received. The love we feel on this journey fills my heart to overflowing. Seeing our bread on store shelves brought tears to my eyes with gratitude. It’s hard to explain, but it’s a full-body feeling that we’re on the right track. At many of the places we delivered to, people were already grabbing sourdough off the shelves as we were loading them. We can’t thank you enough.
I feel like we’ve turned a corner. We officially need a walk-in cooler (instead of a fridge) to store our proofing loaves—something we haven’t needed since we left Honolulu. But unlike the dead-end feeling I had about our business in Hawaii, imagining our growth here feels limitless. The farm is the foundation of everything we’re doing, and it’s about so much more than “selling bread.”
We’ve been asked many times, “Why would you move from Hawaii to here?!” The answer is simple: We care deeply about the future of the farm and agriculture in general. The average age of American farmers is over 60, and I believe this country is heading for a major food crisis if young people don’t start farming. Between 2017 and 2023, we lost 21 million acres of farmland—much of it developed into apartments, turned into investment properties, or converted to solar farms. At the turn of the 20th century, there were six million farms; now, there are just 1.8 million.
Once my dad retires, there’s no one else in my family interested in continuing the farming legacy. I’m so thankful he took the baton in the first place. As the next in line after many generations of farmers, I see this as the biggest opportunity of our lifetime. If we try our hand at farming and fail, at least we’ll know we tried.
For us, it’s not just a loaf of bread. It’s the future of our farm. I hope our journey can inspire other young farmers along the way.
Thank you for reading.
