Has it been fifty years?
Tue, 08/02/2022 - 4:29pm
admin
Two young men met in Grand Rapids. John Gunvalson, a University of MN Crookston student and Paul Imle, a graduate of the University of MN, Twin Cities in plant pathology. They were in the U of M Agricultural Experiment Station with Thomas King the plant pathologist, working with wild rice experimental plots. They decided they would try farming themselves. This was over 50 years ago.
They spent the summer of 1971 looking for property to rent. They found 130 acres north of Gully. Paul worked construction and John had money saved from his military service to get them started.
The partners had a plow, a single disk, a small tractor, several shovels and they started preparing the land. They were able to burn off what they had scraped together. They hired LeRoy Thorstad to build some dikes on the property and bought seed from Ordean Sundrud, who owned Black Gold Wild Rice. John's brother Ken, a senior in high school, helped the two.
In the spring of 1972 when it came time to flood the paddies that had been made they did not have electricity to pump water up into the paddies. The tractor they used needed gas to be hauled to the site. Paul and Ken had to haul the gas to the riverbank while the ground was still frozen. There was a lot of physical labor compared to 2022. John had broken his leg that winter so he was elected to refuel the tractor as it was needed at all times of the day and night. He lived in a tent they had set up until the water level was high enough for their crop. When the water level was up after hours of pumping, the field was seeded by airplane.
The 1972 crop was a good one and the pair were able to payoff their debts and buy some more land of their own.
Equipment for the wild rice farm has advanced and some of their early equipment came from California by truck and others by rail car. Through trial and error modifications have been made to cope with the land that they purchased.
In 1997, John bought out Paul and his brothers Ken and Jim, who had been in the military took on more roles. While Paul had been working with the Gunvalsons, he and his father-in-law Oscar Thorbeck, bought land on the east side of the Gully road and started Pine Lake Wild Rice Farm. That has also expanded and Paul's son Peter now manages that property.
Marketing their wild rice was another problem that they had to address. There were also others that were growing wild Rice in the area. Wally Rutkowski, Bob Rouland, Duane Erickson, Doug Robbins, near Kelliher, Velmer Hadama and Skoes to name a few. They formed United Wild Rice Grower Coop. They held meetings and worked on marketing of the wild rice.
What started out as a potato warehouse in Clearbrook and bought by Arctic Enterprises of Thief River Falls to manufacture shipping crates for snowmobiles was converted into a wild rice processing plant in 1982. It was owned an operated by the Wild Rice Grower Co-op. In 1988, it was purchased by Anhauser Busch who bought the plant and began processing and packaging operations year around. They developed and operated by the Gourmet House name. Since 1999, Riviana Foods Inc purchased the Gourmet House and in 2004 Riviana was purchased by Ebro.
Ebro Foods, S.A. is the leading company in the Spanish food processing sector. Ebro Foods is the world's largest producer of rice and the second biggest producer of pasta.
Riviana Foods, staff and growers were present at the celebration last September on the expansion of the facility's storage capacity by over 50 percent. They eliminated the need for outside storage. Each of the new bins can hold 2.2 million pounds of wild rice. Enrique Zaragoza, President and CEO of Riviana US spoke at that meeting that there are exciting things that is happening and coming in the future for the Clearbrook facility. The marketing for the local growers is in the hands of Riviana Foods, Inc. which is North America's largest processor, marketer and distributor of wild rice.
More changes were done at Gunvalsons farms. They also went into other crops, Peteland Red potatoes, Yukon Gold potatoes. Their main two crops are wild rice and potatoes.
The three Gunvalson brothers have now taken a lesser roles and Ben, son of John and Steve Marsh, a son-in law to Jim are now in the business for the next 50 years. Last summer they completed the building of an 80 x 100 foot building that will make it easier to repair all the equipment that needs.
It is still a lot of work but a lot easier than 50 years ago when John and Paul first started out.