Columbus woman loves the farm life
by Kelly Jo McDonnell
Contributing Writer
Published:
Tuesday, December 29, 2009 5:05 PM CST
COLUMBUS — While many Minnesotans may be overwhelmed with the hustle and bustle of the holidays, there are some, like Bridget Edgar, who bring new meaning to the word “busy as a bee”.
Edgar owns a hobby farm in Columbus and counts beekeeping as one of her many hobbies. And horseback riding. And gardening. And wine making. “I do a bunch of things at once,” Edgar laughed. “Yes, I can be a busy body.”
Farm chores are nothing new to Edgar, who grew up on a hobby farm in White Bear Lake. “I bought this farm seven years ago. I knew I wanted animals and a small farm, but still wanted to be close to the cities to keep my corporate job,” she said.
Edgar's parents sell real estate in the area, and when she told them she was looking for acreage and a barn, not too much came up. Finally, after around a year and a half, they told their daughter about a hobby farm for sale in Forest Lake. “It was about location,” she remembered. “It was all about being out in the country, on a gravel road and not a major road. I was working in Shoreview at the time.” She added that her hobby farm is around five acres in size and it was just what she and husband, Olaf, were looking for.
Edgar said she wasted no time in getting back in the swing of things on the farm. Even though she holds a full-time position at Medtronic in the IT department, she said her off time at the hobby farm is her “relaxation” time. She said when she gets home from work, she immediately will either go into the garden, or care for the horses, chickens, and other animals. “I've always had horses since I was a kid, they have always been a part of my life,” she explained. “I've always had chickens when I was a kid, too. I like farm fresh eggs, and I like growing my own vegetables; no chemicals. This is how I relax, I come home from work and eat tomatoes and peas right from the garden, run or ride my horses or work with the bees. It's not work at all, because I enjoy it.” In the summer, her large garden produces quite a bit, such as potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, peas and beans. She also added bee keeping into a growing list of hobbies in 2006, after receiving a starter beehive kit from her husband. “I had one hive in 2007, and four in 2008. I had five hives in 2009, and in the spring of 2009, I decided to paint my hives colorful designs. They look really cool in the yard.”
Edgar initially became interested in bee keeping because of her seasonal allergies. She had read how honey could help with allergy symptoms, so she decided to give it a try. According to Edgar, eating unprocessed, not pasteurized, raw honey from within 15 to 20 miles from your house can help alleviate symptoms. “I was at the point of taking Claritin and Benedryl, and with my allergies, sometimes I couldn't even go outside,” she said. “I know it seems drastic to get honey bees, but it worked out well. After about 10 months, eating the honey every day, it was better.”
She became so immersed into the new hobby that she entered her honey at the Minnesota State Fair last year. She received quite a few second places on her first try. “Sometimes when you're new, it comes a little easier,” she laughed. “We had waited to go to the Fair, to see if we had won anything; some of our friends started texting pictures, (from the Fair) so I found out that way.”
With the winter season here, Edgar works to keep the hives from freezing. She said she covers them in tar paper to keep them warm. “They basically will go into a ball, and sit around the queen,” she said, “and if you put your hand inside the center of the hive, it's 90 degrees. The bees are always worried about the queen,” she said.
Springtime can be a busy time with bee keeping, as that's the time she starts feeding them, since there's no pollen available yet. She also said if any of her colonies have not survived the winter, she breaks down their boxes, cleans them out and gets new bees to replace them. By April, she starts installing them into the hive. Spring is also the busy time for composting her garden, cleaning out stalls, and planting her dalilias, as well as caring for her chicks.
Busy enough? Not for Bridget, who added wine making to her list of hobbies. “My husband gave me a winemaking kit for Christmas in 2004,” she said. “I was excited because I wanted to learn, and intrigued that you could make your own wine that actually tastes good, and it's fairly easy. I started making fruit wines and then grape wines.”
Edgar said her hobby farm doesn't really generate revenue, so she hasn't noticed too much with the recession. She said more people want to buy her eggs. “It really hasn't impacted us, besides it being more difficult to find vegetable seeds, as it seems more people have backyard gardens. I've noticed seed prices going up.”
Edgar and her husband don't really go to the movies much, or go to fancy dinners. “We live pretty modestly,” she said. She does sell her honey and wine, but not at farmers markets or other retail-type venues. She laughed that she gets canned pumpkin to feed her potbelly pig, Priscilla, right from Cub Foods. She also mentioned that hay prices dropped this year, so feeding her horses isn't too much of an ordeal.
Although her products would fit into farmers markets well, she couldn't quite squeeze it in due to her marathon running. “I run in marathons and triathlons, “she said. “I like Grandma's, and the Twin Cities Marathon. I'm doing a winter one this January, it's an indoor marathon.” How does she train for marathons and balance her chores? “I'm good at time management, I guess.”
Edgar laughed when she said her husband told her he didn't want her to add any more hobbies. “It's a hobby farm,” she said, “it's your hobby.”
