Today we’d like to introduce you to Dusty Hinz.
Hi Dusty, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I started doing small-scale, organic agriculture 12 years ago now. I chose to get into sustainable farming because it seemed like a practical, direct-action response to the converging ecological crises that we face. Our way of life is unsustainable and it is killing the planet. We need more local, organic food production, and I think the radically sustainable systems of the future must be bioregional and ecologically embedded.
I lived in Philadelphia and South Jersey for six years. I moved to Philadelphia in the fall of 2011, which coincided with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Up at Occupy Philly, I got in with a subgroup called Occupy Vacant Lots. We did urban gardening on vacant lots across the city. This is where I met Nate Kleinman. Nate and I then branched out to South Jersey where we farmed for four years and co-founded the Experimental Farm Network (EFN) together. To date, you could call this the magnum opus of my life. We have grown EFN into a very successful seed company that features seed savers and small-scale organic plant breeders from across the country.
In 2018, I moved back to Minnesota, where I am from. In 2020, my brother, his wife Kierra (who we also run EFN with), and I bought a small garden center in south Minneapolis. Our name is Agrarian Seed and Garden. We are in our third year now and it is going well. We have a large selection of vegetable plants, herbs, native perennial flowers, berry plants, and much more.
I am also very big into agroforestry. We have a farm in southern Minnesota where I plan to plant 20 acres of chestnut trees. I believe we need to move away from the dominant, chemically-dependent corn and soybean annual grain agriculture system, towards a nut-tree-based agriculture system.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Managing a garden center (ASG) is very labor intensive, with thin profit margins. We have found that the seed business that we run (EFN) is more lucrative, with less overhead.
With the garden center, as time goes on, we need to be more efficient and get our numbers dialed in. It is dignifying and fun, and we feel good about the service that our garden center provides to the community. It’s just a lot of work.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At the garden center, I curate the vegetable plant collection in the store.
We also have a large native perennial pollinator plant selection. These plants are very popular these days as people move away from conventional grass lawns and choose to have a lawn that mimics prairies by planting native flowers, which feed native pollinators.
We are starting to be known around Minneapolis for our extensive and unique plant selection.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
My passion for the underlying environmentalist ideas that undergird the businesses. It makes it easy every day when you believe in what you are doing.
My work ethic and determination to succeed. I used to be a big athlete in high school and college, and I think some of that work ethic from playing sports carried over into farming.
Lastly, my entrepreneurial spirit. My parents encouraged me to start a lawn mowing business when I was 10, and I have always had the desire and drive to start my enterprises. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Pricing:
- Seed packets on the EFN website are around $3.75 or $4
- Native plants in the garden center are $5
- Vegetable plants in the garden center are $4
- Pottery in the garden center is reasonably priced
Contact Info:
- Website: agrarianseed.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agrarian_seedandgarden/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/agrarianseed
- Other: EFNseeds.com
