Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Kemp.
Hi Adam, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My name is Adam Kemp, and our story is really a story of two farms. My good friend and business partner, Richard Dalen, founded Northern Harvest Farm with his wife, Karola, in 2005. Around 2008, I started working there, and over time I fell in love with farming and the strong community of growers in our area.
A few years later, my wife Jackie and I purchased land across the road from the Dalens and started our own farm and homestead, Uff-da Organics. Since then, both of our families have grown alongside the farms, and for nearly two decades we’ve continued farming side by side—sharing equipment, labor, and knowledge, and helping each other however we can.
For many years, we supplied vegetables like cabbage, carrots, and beets to Spirit Creek Farm, a fermentation business we deeply admired. When the founders decided to close the business in 2022, we saw an opportunity not only to preserve something meaningful to our community, but also to create year-round work for our dedicated farm crew.
We built a certified kitchen and fermentation space and took over production in early 2023. Since then, we’ve been learning and growing into the world of fermentation while staying rooted in organic farming and local food systems.
Today, I focus primarily on growing ingredients at Uff-da Organics and managing day-to-day kitchen production, while Rick continues to run Northern Harvest Farm and leads sales, outreach, and big-picture planning. Together, we’re building something that supports our families, our crew, and our farming community for the long haul.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t been a smooth road, but I think that’s true for most farms. Over the years, we’ve learned how to grow great vegetables and run efficient operations, but making the economics of a small farm work is an ongoing challenge.
What’s weighed on me the most is the people side of it, wanting to take care of our crew in a way that feels fair. It’s hard to ask people to do physically demanding, seasonal work without being able to offer consistent, year-round stability.
In a way, Spirit Creek Farm grew out of that tension. When the opportunity came along, it felt like a chance to solve multiple problems at once, creating a reliable outlet for our produce while also building something that could support our team through the winter months.
It still feels a little counterintuitive that adding another business would make things more sustainable, but in our case, it really has. And along the way, we’ve discovered that fermentation is its own rewarding craft, one that lets us turn what we grow into something alive, nourishing, and delicious.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Spirit Creek Farm?
We make a full line of organic lacto-fermented vegetables—from sauerkraut to gingered carrots to curtido—and everything we produce is made with live cultures. That means our foods are not only flavorful, but also rich in naturally occurring probiotics, along with the vitamins and minerals that come from high-quality vegetables.
What really sets us apart is that we’re a farmer-owned business. We grow the vegetables, harvest them, and then turn them into finished products—all within the same operation, right here in northern Minnesota. From seed to jar, everything is handled by the same group of people, with the same level of care and attention at every step.
That connection to the land and the process allows us to do things in a way that’s hard to replicate. We know exactly how our food is grown, how it’s handled, and how it’s prepared, and we think that shows up in the quality and consistency of what we make.
It’s also been an important way for us to build a more sustainable farm business. By adding value to the crops we grow, we’re able to better support our farms and provide more meaningful, year-round work for our crew.
On a personal level, I never would have guessed I’d spend this much time thinking about sauerkraut, but it’s become something I care deeply about. It feels like a true win-win—we’re able to support our farms and our community while offering people something that’s genuinely good for them and that they actually enjoy eating.
At the end of the day, we’re proud to make food that’s alive, nourishing, and rooted in the place where it’s grown. And the more we’re able to grow this business, the more good we feel like we can do.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Honestly, not too much. I love music, so I spend a lot of time exploring and discovering new things on Spotify. That’s probably the main “resource” I come back to.
Beyond that, I don’t spend a lot of time with apps, podcasts, or books in a structured way. What’s been far more important for me is meditation. As I’ve gotten older and the workload has grown, it’s become the one thing that really allows me to keep up.
It might not be the typical answer, but it’s been essential for making a busy, demanding lifestyle work.
Pricing:
- $8-$12 per jar. Depending on the product and retailer
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.spiritcreekfarm.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spiritcreekfarmers/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spiritcreekfarm/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
