GRANJAS DE PIEDRA BROOK
HOGAR DEL LABERINTO DE MAÍZ MÁS GRANDE DE MINNESOTA
2022 EL LABERINTO DE MAÍZ MÁS GRANDE DEL MUNDO: 110 ACRES
Una de las granjas de productos agrícolas más grandes de Minnesota.
Stoney Brook Farms is a family run business established in March of 2007 and incorporated the same year. Mark and Pam Chmielewski bought it from Shirley Chmielewski, Mark’s mother. Mark's father, Jerry Chmielewski, was the original business owner and farmer. He started the business from his basement, selling potatoes. He later opened Jerry's Farm Market on Hwy 23 selling fresh produce, bulk candy and even Christmas trees! We know he would be so proud to see where we have taken Stoney Brook Farms.
We started out with around 300 acres. Our biggest crop being sweet corn, other crops we grew throughout the years were potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, green peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, sugar snap and English peas, 10 different varieties of winter squash, pumpkins, gourds and ornamental corn. All of our vegetables are hand harvested. We had a few workers helping us then and Brad started to help out at the age of 16.
We struggled for the first couple years because we could not find enough help. This is when we decided to enroll in the h2A guest worker program. This required us to build a house for the guest workers and provide them with free transportation from their doorstep to ours. We are required to pay them a set wage that is determined by the government and is set on a year to year basis. In 2023 the wage is $17.34 per hour and overtime is 1.5X that after 48 hours. We really enjoy having them here. They are great workers and even better people!
Today, we farm over 700 acres. We sell our produce to multiple different states through over a dozen wholesale houses and grocery store chains. Our biggest crop is still sweet corn followed closely by pumpkins. We now have 22 h2A workers and enough housing for all of them. We still stand by our principle that handpicked is better and we continue to do that to this day. We have narrowed our offerings down based on what we are good at and now we can focus all of our attention on those crops. We grow sweet corn, pumpkins, sugar snap peas, pickling cucumbers, cauliflower, green beans, broccoli, asparagus, kohlrabi, gourds, ornamental pumpkins, and 10 different varieties of hard squash; Acorn, Buttercup, Butternut, Spaghetti, Delicata, Sweet Dumpling, Carnival, Turks Turban, Ambercup and Hubbard.
Brad has helped us a lot as we have moved into a new era of farming. This move has helped us to be a more sustainable and ultimately a more reliable source for the best quality produce. We are currently GAP approved for sale of all of our produce as well as part of the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program, which helps to reduce wind and soil erosion to reduce chemical and fertilizer run off into lakes and rivers.
Starting in 2017, we started up an agritourism side of our business. We planted an 8 acre corn maze with a Jack-O-Lantern theme, farm themed activities and a pick your own pumpkin patch! We have had a variety of maze themes since then from a spider web, haunted house and dinosaurs! In 2021 we went BIG! We had THE WORLDS LARGEST corn maze at 110 acres with Halloween Villains as the theme! Looking forward to crushing our own record and going even BIGGER in the future! We love seeing our little maze baby become what it is today! This is a big hit in the community and we hope to see you this fall for Harvest Fun Days!
In the fall of 2023, we had our first pick your own vegetable (broccoli) event! We had so much buzz and positive feedback from our community so in 2024, you pick vegetables are going to be a new, permanent addition to our venture! We love sharing where food comes from, how to grow and how to harvest these delicious vegetables! Being able to connect with our community on another level is so rewarding for us! We hope to see you all out in the fields!
With the start of a new season in 2024, the start of Harvest Floral bloomed. We will SOON be offering a pick your own flower farm! We have been dreaming of this for years and cannot wait to see where this brings us!