Got some ideas...
Years ago, I worked for the beauty product company
Aveda.
The company was founded by visionary entrepreneur Horst
Rechelbacher who happened to be born in Austria. With Horst,
I used to attend some of the large natural product trade
shows where the government of Austria was an exhibitor. The
people at the Austrian booth saw him as a favored son and
would give us these huge, complimentary bags of all of their
products including bottles of pumpkin seed oil. Learn
more about Austria and pumpkin seed oil in the Pumpkin Lore
section. I'd never heard of pumpkin seed oil before but
found the rich, nutty taste unique and delicious.
From LA but sustainable Ag was interesting...
I grew up only 5 miles east of downtown LA but since moving
to the upper Midwest have had a real interest in sustainable
agriculture and local economies. It sort of made
sense, I had always gardened and studied plant cell biology
at University of California at Irvine in the mid-1980s.
There was a real interest in plants and environmental
issues. After moving to Minnesota in 1995, I had the honor
of serving as a board member of the Minneapolis-based
Alliance for Sustainability (formerly International
Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture).
What could we grow?
Desiring a rural life I moved with my partner, novelist
Jay
Gilbertson, to 80 beautiful acres outside of
Prairie Farm in pristine Northwestern Wisconsin. We
began to look for niche crops and products that could help
diversify the local farm economy. We attended a value added
agricultural conference in Eau Claire, WI where one of the
speakers was Mark Mueller of
Botanic Oil Innovations. He encouraged farmers to
consider growing oil seed crops, feeling there was a real
untapped potential in Northern Wisconsin.
Hey, let's make pumpkin seed oil!
Putting all this together, the idea of a locally produced
pumpkin seed oil was born. Now, I have a more than full-time
day job as National Sales Manager for a fine line of herbal
supplements,
www.ayurceutics.com but felt that at least on a
part-time, hobby basis, we could pursue and create a product
that might be good for health, be delicious and make a
contribution to our community.
Testing stuff.
We've spent 4 years testing several varieties of these
special "naked seeded" pumpkins looking to find one that
would do well in our northern climate with its brief, but
intense, summers. For a number of reasons, including ease of
harvesting, we eventually selected a winner and have grown
it ever since.
The future.
One long-term goal is to support the local economy and
create jobs in our community. We feel that pumpkins fit well
with the local agricultural patterns and that this project
has real potential to create additional income for small
farmers. Organic and Sustainable Growing Methods.
The Prairie Farm area is already a hotbed of organic
farming and progressive agricultural thought so of
course, the pumpkins are organically grown, without any
type of chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Even more than
that, we consider many aspects of sustainability, including
paying a fair and sustainable wage to the folks involved in
growing and hand-harvesting the seeds. Learn more about the
choices we make in producing the oil in
Seed to Oil section.
The Name.
Hay River is the name of the picturesque, scenic and still
undiscovered river that flows through our community of
small family owned farms. We also wanted to give our oil a
strong sense of place and included the word, "Wisconsin"
right above "Hay River" on the label. "Want some cheese
curds with that oil and how 'bout those Packers!"
Special thanks to our wonderful friends & community
in Prairie Farm. We love Wisconsin! Ken Seguine
Jay Gilbertson |
