BY CHRISTINE NESSLER
When visiting the North Mankato Farmers’ Market, customers find a variety of vendors from Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa. The market hosts an average of 15 to 20 vendors each week selling various self-sustained products including produce, farm-fresh eggs and meat, flowers, baked goods, canned goods, crafts, art and more. Products sold vary based on the season: shopping the market for flowers in June and wrapping up the market season with pumpkins in October. In addition to an ever-changing array of products and produce, shopping at the North Mankato Farmers’ Market gives customers the opportunity to get to know their local producers and to support small businesses. One of these producers and small businesses is Leuer Gardens. Hilary Leuer, owner of Leuer Gardens, is a life-time resident of North Mankato. She recently took a personal interest in growing her own food and found farmers’ markets as the perfect platform to share her produce with others. Leuer and her husband Bob had been looking for a farm to rent for years before coming across the current home of Leuer Gardens in rural North Mankato. The land was already set up as a vegetable farm and was just what they had envisioned for their family. “The major goal of the farm was to raise our family in this lifestyle; where we can have a hands-on approach to showing the kids where their food comes from and how livestock is raised,” Leuer said. “It doesn’t come from the grocery store. It comes from the ground or is raised off what the earth produces.” Being able to share their fresh produce with others quickly became another added benefit of life on the Leuer Gardens farm. “We can provide different varieties of produce that aren’t seen at the grocery store,” Leuer said. “The goal of grocery store produce is to be able to ship well and last a long time. Whereas with the produce we grow, our goal is flavor. It doesn’t necessarily travel well, but it tastes so much better.” Customers can pick up products at Leuer Gardens, four miles outside of North Mankato, but Leuer needed a way to get her healthy foods and fresh cut flowers out to the public. As a new business owner, cost was a factor in her distribution. At the North Mankato Farmers’ Market, vendors can attend for free. “We are really excited that we are able to provide our vendors an outlet to sell their items at no cost to them,” said Anna Brown, Public Information Officer for the City of
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NORTH KATO MAGAZINE FALL 2022
Hilary Leuer finds the perfect place to share her wares.
