The History of Peterson Produce

Peterson Produce has been a Peterson Family farm for more than a century. Originally started as a dairy farm in 1899, we shifted to farming fruits and vegetables in 1982 and selling our freshly harvested produce at our farm road stand. We are easy to find on Hwy 12, just East of Delano, MN.

 

 

 

Locally Grown

Everything we offer for sale is locally grown, which provides the freshest and best tasting food for you and your family. We are committed to sustainable farming practices to grow the highest quality farm fresh local produce, while also being concerned about the soil and impact we have on the community.

 

 

 

Local Workers

We also use local youth, who do good work - and that raises good food! We have employed over 120 local young boys and girls who have worked on the farm since 1982.

 

 

 

 

We LOVE what we do!

And it shows! We love producing delicious and nutritous farm fresh food, for you and your family, providing beautiful flowers and fall family fun and pumpkins. You can get to know us, our workers, our farm and our many happy customers better in the Stories section of the Peterson Produce website.

Thank You!

Thanks to your support, our local family farm will continue to keep goodness growing naturally at Peterson Produce!

Hello from all the Petersons at Peterson Produce! We wanted to introduce you to a few of the fine folks who you will most likely see on your visit...

Lorraine Peterson
A great mom and ex-professional photographer - a great example to women in how to be happy and strong - vital and productive. Her favorite recreational activity is digging quack grass. Every day she is often seen toiling away in one field or another. In the evenings between 5 and 7 PM she enjoys what she calls her "social life", which is telling stories while selling produce in our cute roadstand at the farm. Everyone loves Lorraine!

Jean Peterson
Jean is Lorraines daughter and as her husband Al says 'did not fall far from the apple tree!" She loves the challenges of farming and is blessed with the ability to convince the crew each year that weeding 12,000 onions or picking thousands of pounds of tomotoes is fun! With her crews help, Jean is responsible for planting, weeding and the daily harvesting of the fresh produce. During her free time, Jean will usually be found walking in the woods, swimming in the local lake, shooting her bow - rather well, thank you, or canning up more jars of food for winter use. In the winter she is often found pursuing her passion and love of archery.

Mary Peterson
Jean's sister in Law - Mary Peterson is our star performer!! We are all better people because of her! Really you should just stop out and see how naturally good it feels to get a cheerful smile and helllo from Mary. She will be happy to help you with your flower, vegetable, or pumpkin selections, and is always available with her warm and friendly manner. In her free time Mary enjoys bird watching - taking pictures - canning produce and cutting wood for the family.

Al Sterner
Al, who grew up in South Minneapolis, knew when he married Jean that he would become a career farmer. He has proven to be a very good farmer, and is in charge of machinery repair, field work, and managing quality control, sales and conversation at the farm stand. Fortunately for Peterson Produce, Al is a good bookkeeper as Jean has demonstrated she has no skills or interest in this area. In his free time, Al can be found playing guitar at home, or at the 3 Crows Coffee Shop in Delano. You can also find him chatting with the boys there over coffee, and has even been known to help out over at YMCA Camp Ihduhapi as a board member.

Other Staff

To see photos of other current and past staff of Peterson Produce, please visit the Staff section of our site.