Monte Benz is from Steele, N.D., but picked up his vacuum-packed vegetable meal package business and moved it to Long Prairie, Minn., a few years ago after running into labor problems. Today, the revived business has expanded greatly and still gets onions from Steele, where he’s put up a new storage building. It still gets potatoes from the northern Red River Valley. It has expanded in part due to food consumption patterns during COVID-19.
Monte Benz is from Steele, N.D., but picked up his vacuum-packed vegetable meal package business and moved it to Long Prairie, Minn., a few years ago after running into labor problems. Today, the revived business has expanded greatly and still gets onions from Steele, where he’s put up a new storage building. It still gets potatoes from the northern Red River Valley. It has expanded in part due to food consumption patterns during COVID-19.
Porter Farms knows its onions
Phillip Porter of Steele, N.D., and his wife, Melissa, have taken over a growing and storing business that supplies onions for her the fresh vegetable kit enterprises that her father has grown at Long Prairie, Minn. 5:30 am, Dec. 28, 2020 ×
Onions grown at Porter Farms, at Dawson, N.D., are the main source of the supply for Kidco Farms, a fresh vegetable company that supplies Minnesota Fresh at Long Prairie, Minn. Photo taken Oct. 10, 2020, at Dawson, N.D. Mikkel Pates / Forum News Service
DAWSON, N..D. And now, it’s Porter Farms.
Phillip Porter, 38, for a decade has been raising onions with his father in-law, Monte Benz of Steele, N.D. Porter is taking over supplying onions to Benz’ vegetable business “Kidco Farms” and its Minnesota Fresh facility at Long Prairie, Minn.
Home cooking trend makes vegetable kits from Minnesota and North Dakota take off
Monte Benz is from Steele, N.D., but picked up his vacuum-packed vegetable meal package business and moved it to Long Prairie, Minn., a few years ago after running into labor problems. Today, the revived business has expanded greatly and still gets onions from Steele, where he’s put up a new storage building. It still gets potatoes from the northern Red River Valley. It has expanded in part due to food consumption patterns during COVID-19. 5:31 am, Dec. 28, 2020 ×
Monte Benz, 66, of Steele, N.D., and 50 employees of Minnesota Fresh in Long Prairie, Minn., are producing 6.5 million “fresh, never frozen” veggie kits a year, in a market where more Americans are getting their nutrition at home. Photo taken Oct. 19, 2020, at Long Prairie, Minn. Mikkel Pates / Forum News Service