(instrumental) - Food is good when you make it.

You know it's best when you make it.

Very few, you know, foods get better with age, unless it is fermentation is a part of that process but with baked goods, it's fresh, you know that's where it's good.

- Carl's Bakery was founded in 1957 by Carl Aus.

He owned and operated it for 30 years.

His son Tom, bought the bakery, then he and his wife Lori and they ran it for 32 years until 2019 when my wife and I along with our, our oldest son, who's a minority owner and my father, a part-owner, bought it.

- My husband up to that point could make peanut butter toast and that was about it.

And so when he said he wanted to buy a bakery, I, I just didn't see how that was gonna quite fit with who he was.

But the more we thought about it, the more we saw that it was just a perfect fit for our family.

It was a lot of new things to learn and a lot of transitions that were difficult, but we took it one step at a time and it's become so much a part of our lives now.

It's hard to imagine not having it at this point.

(instrumental changes) - We were farming just a small livestock you know, pasture-based farm.

We were eager to expand what we were doing on the farm.

We have nine children as a big family.

We love working together.

We, we love the joy that comes in producing good things through our labor and our work together.

- Papas?

- What honey?

- Can I hold your hand?

- Yeah.

Here.

- And we also thought this is a wonderful way to bring what we're doing on the farm, a step forward.

And, and so that's a part of what we do here is, you know farm to table food offerings.

What we produce at Streblow Family Farm is pastured pork chickens, and beef.

They go into our breakfast sandwiches they go into our salads, they go into anything that we serve up front for the, for the lunch and and breakfast menu.

- It's the beauty of a local bakery or a winery or a cheese maker.

It's, it's the flavors of the place.

(instrumental changes) - What we produce on a on a daily basis is gonna be our buns and bread.

That's a, that's an everyday production for us.

And our fry rolls, fry rolls is a, is a big part of what we do that starts every single morning throughout the rest of the day is gonna be the production of our cookies and the bars and the cake and the muffins and the, you know the pastries and pies and, and all of that.

The bakery doesn't open until 6:30 but really by the time the lights are on 5:30, 6 o'clock, you know, people are sneaking in to see what we may have available yet.

And, and by the time we get to 6:30, 7, well then the the store is starting to fill up with with customers that are eager to get those fresh rolls.

- The bakery is just a really unique place in the community where people can come and gather and sit down, read the paper interact with whoever else is coming in.

I think that's really important for a healthy community to have places where people can do that.

- Alright, have a good day.

- Thank you.

(instrumental changes) - Since getting the bakery, I've seen it teach my kids a lot of things that, some of the things they didn't even realize they needed to learn.

They've all learned to excel in different parts of the bakery whether it's cake decorating or learning how to run a till or helping on the bench or whatever it is.

The kids have all just really enjoyed becoming a part of the bakery here.

- Okay, what did you say for hotdog cuts?

- Our son, Isaiah just jumped right in.

He just loves the baking here.

He really enjoys trying new things and even trying things that have been around a long time.

- And this is what we've tried to inculcate in our children.

This, this sense of this is what a good life looks like.

It's not about having things, it's about, it's about learning the right things and applying them in the right way so that they bless other people and ultimately for us, they give glory to God.

- I think baking is a really important art and skill that is being lost.

Keeping those skills alive is is important for good living, for healthy living.

We've had trouble selling whole chickens because it intimidates people.

They don't know how to de-bone a chicken.

It's overwhelming to them, just like they don't know how to make a roll of bread or or how to make cookies from scratch because of our society now, they don't have to do it.

And so they don't.

- When this bakery was founded back in the fifties there was at least two if not three bakeries in Granite falls.

Bakers would have been active through the night multiple night bakers producing hundreds of loaves of bread because there was no big box bread solution.

It was just your local bakery or you made it yourself.

And now you, you know, you fast forward to where we are at now, and you're driving 40, 50, you know an hour even to, to find another bakery.

And if you find one that's typically owned and operated by an older couple who are, are going, "Hey we would love to retire.

But who wants to, who wants to get up at, at two three in the morning and go to all the hard work of running a bakery?"

Our love of tradition, our love of the older ways and our desire to see these older ways brought forward these older tradition, these older skills and practices which are so essential to not just a healthy community, but to human thriving to to good living was a very much a part of what we were eager to see.

The book of recipes that we inherited with this bakery.

Things like even our peanut brittle, you know it stretches back a hundred years.

It's just loaded with these very very old recipes and formulas that have just been passed down generation to generation.

A lot of the ethnic foods that we do, these Scandinavian foods that are part of the Granite Falls heritage will have older patrons come in, you know, 70, 80 years old.

And, and they they're just glad to see these foods that they grew up with and knew, but they don't find anywhere else.

They're just thrilled to see these, these ethnic traditions.

And this is our heritage.

- It's a real privilege to just see a lot of the same faces day after day to be a part of big events in people's lives.

Weddings, funerals, graduations.

We get to know a lot of people in the community that we never would've gotten to to know if we hadn't bought the bakery.

And we formed a lot of really special relationships.

And our kids have gotten to know a lot of special people through our work here.

And, and that's a real joy.

- A lot of people will have a a bit of a midlife crisis when they turn 40.

And they, you know, they, they, they're like they're reexamining their life and they go do something crazy.

For us as a as a couple, you know, it was, it was saying, "Hey let's just do this crazy thing with our nine children and we'll just buy a bakery."

And we found it to be an absolute gift of the Lord.

We absolutely have, have loved the, the whole process of it.

It's a wonderful thing.

(wondrous music) (singer vocalizing) (inspiring music) - [Announcer] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Council's Arts Calendar, an arts and cultural heritage-funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7 KRAM.

Online at 967kram.com.

(calm music)