By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

“I was shocked,” said Kris Huebsch, a farmer in rural New York Mills, about being named the 2025 Farmfest Woman Farmer of the Year in Morgan, Minn. on Thursday, Aug. 7.

“This spring I got an email from the Otter Tail County Extension, that the Extension County Committee had nominated me, and that in itself was a big surprise. I was told that they put everybody’s name that was nominated and then in June they let you know who the finalists are,” said Huebsch.

The rural NY Mills resident said that she felt honored to be nominated, but when she heard it was a statewide contest with many nominations, she didn’t figure she would make it into the finalist category. Working in her strawberry field in Otto Township, she got the call early this summer.

“The phone rang and it was the gal down there and she just said, ‘you’re a finalist, you need to come,’ and I was like, ‘what!? How is that even possible?’ So then I went and read the bios of the other ladies and I was just blown away, they do so much in agriculture and just to be a part of that and named with those folks was an honor in itself.

“I was shocked when they called my name,” she continued. “I’m still kind of shocked. It was super cool, very humbling. There are so many people in agriculture doing so much stuff and so many amazing things, to get some recognition and to be put in the spot like that… I’m normal behind the scenes,” she laughed, “I like to do the behind the scenes stuff.”

Huebsch started Otter Berry Farms with her husband, Cordell, in 2017 after working as the 4-H County Coordinator for the Wadena County Extension Office. She highly enjoyed that job, working with the county fair and the various 4-H groups throughout the county as well as the Extension staff.

“That was probably one of the best jobs I’ve ever had,” she said. “It was so fun, but our kids were little and we decided, ‘you know, I think I can stay home, we could do this, let’s plant some strawberries,’ so the first year was just kind of planting strawberries and our kids were tiny and people didn’t really know we were here, so it was just trying to get people to come out.

“It was definitely more like farming and it felt more garden-like almost, because we had one acre,” she continued, “and now we’re so much bigger and it’s grown. Like our social media presence and events that we’re doing, it’s way beyond farming now. I’m planning these events, like our Micros in the Maze coming up, and so now I’m an event planner, and lining all that up and learning how to build a website to sell tickets, things that aren’t normally tied to agriculture.

“That’s how it has changed for me over the years,” she continued. “It’s always morphing into something different, right now we’re changing the farm again, we’re putting in a new driveway and a new parking lot. We’ve got new activities we’re planning and we’re just switching it up a little bit. I think you have to be willing and able to accept change because technology is changing fast, the world around us is changing and you have to be able to adapt to that. The weather and all those types of things, if you’re kind of set in your ways, I don’t know, it’s tough…which I am a little bit.”

Along with her husband, Cordell, and their two daughters, Klara and Isabel, Kris does some of everything at the farm. From traditional farm tasks such as planning, ordering, planting, weeding, and harvesting, to new-age portions of the agri-tourism side to the business like social media management, website building, hiring and payroll, and public relations.

“I do everything,” she laughed. “It’s a joint effort between Cordell and I. We’re out here every day, legitimately, farming. On top of that, since we are a u-pick and agri-tourism farm, we need people to come here, so I’m in charge of that. You can’t do it by yourself, so we have great help, we’ve got seasonal employees to help pick strawberries or run cash registers, field work, do weeding, stuff like that. We have an awesome crew, it’s been really fun. It’s been good, we’ve been really lucky.”

Originally from Ohio, Huebsch has deep roots in farming, it’s in her blood. She grew up on a dairy farm and became a sixth generation farmer when she was quite young. Her brother still farms with her dad in Ohio and sister, who lives nearby, can’t seem to leave her farming past behind her either.

“My sister is a teacher, but she lives down the street from them, so she ends up helping stack hay every now and then,” said Huebsch. “So you can’t really get away from the family farm, it’s one of those things you’re born into. I think from a really young age, I knew I wanted to do something in agriculture. So I was born into farming and never really got away from it.”

Huebsch remembers a drawing that still hangs on her parents’ refrigerator today, that she made in second grade which asked the question, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’

“It’s this little sketch of me and I’m like, ‘I want to be a dairy farmer,’” she said. “It’s just funny that you never know where life is going to take you and where you end up. I never envisioned having a farm like this where we invited people out to see what we do and all those things, it was never really in my wheelhouse, we just stumbled upon it with the u-pick strawberries the first year.

“We planted one acre and then you just kind of fall into it and it grew,” she continued. “We never thought it would be this big, so it’s been amazing, the community support, and people coming out and making memories and bringing their families and friends, of all ages too, which is super cool. You get grandparents and great grandparents, and little kids too.”

Another aspect of the farm that was a happy accident is the fact that cellphones are rarely seen on the property. Visitors become so engaged with their families and friends that the distractions of the digital world are all but forgotten.

“People aren’t on their cellphones, that’s awesome,” said said Huebsch. “You go to the park, you see kids playing, but you still see a lot of people on their phone, that doesn’t happen here. If they’re on their phone, they’re taking photos, the rest of the time, they’re interacting, it’s really cool and we did not plan that, so that’s been really awesome.”

Although the farm takes on a great deal of time and energy for the family and their faithful employees, it’s all worth it in the end when a happy little face, dripping with red strawberry juice smiles at them, or when they hear the laughs of guests as they visit the chaotic goats and the other farm animals.

“I love chatting with people and when they come out and showing them what we do and showing them my animals,” said Huebsch. “I love animals, I have an Animal Science degree in agriculture. I love when people come out and seeing the kids.

“I’m actually a little bit of an introvert at heart,” she said. “So at the end of the day, most of the time, I’m out on a tractor and that’s what I love the most. You’re sitting there and it’s the same monotonous sound of the engine and you’re just going and your thoughts can be cleared and it’s peaceful, so that’s my favorite part of it, honestly. Maybe because my dad had us on those tractors when we were young!”

As the summer season comes to an end and fall activities begin at the farm, Huebsch is most looking forward to having some decent weather for the end of the year.

“We had really tough weather this spring and summer with the strawberries,” she said. “It was the hardest year we’ve had growing and harvesting strawberries, it was really difficult. Our customers were amazing and understanding about the crop that we had, so that was really good, but I would love some really wonderful fall weather, I don’t know how to order that, but that would be fantastic.”

Huebsch invites everyone from all ages and walks of life to come and visit the farm and see what rural living and a career in agriculture looks like.

“When I was a kid, a lot of my friends had a grandparent or cousin or somebody that was in agriculture, but that’s not really the case anymore, so a lot of people don’t get the chance to come out to a farm. Just getting people out here to see a farm and what we do,” she said. “I think that’s important. I look forward to more people being exposed to agriculture in general—asking questions—what we do, things that people might not know.”

Otter Berry Farm will be open from September 13 through the end of October for new fall activities including raspberry picking (Wednesdays and Saturdays), pumpkin patch sales, and their popular corn maze (open weekends). 

Located just west of the St. Lawrence Church off of County Highway 14, Otter Berry Farm offers a rural and quiet setting for a whole lot of family fun.