The Twiehoffs' pickup truck sits outside their produce-filled pole shed in eastern Faribault.
Old-fashioned gladiolus are a mainstay at Twiehoff Gardens.
Perhaps it is the down-home goodness of the folks who run the place. Or maybe it’s the unpretentious way fresh fruits and vegetables and other merchandise are displayed in the no-frills pole shed. Whatever, the specific reason, simply put, I love Twiehoff Gardens along St. Paul Road in Faribault.
This is the kind of place where fresh means fresh.
Dried dirt still clings to freshly-dug potatoes and to the papery skins of onions. Sweet corn, picked from the field that morning, fills wooden crates. Gladiolus come clipped from a garden that lies only yards from the shed. Apples are from the orchard across the road.
There’s nothing glitzy about merchandising. Onions in a weathered trailer. Piles of fresh beans and cucumbers tossed in cardboard boxes. Tiny pumpkins on a shelf. Sweet corn displayed in old wooden crates. Crude, hand-lettered signs listing products and prices. Glads stuck in recycled, water-filled plastic buckets scattered around the cement floor.
Everything here speaks to wholesomeness, to an appreciation of the earth, to the Twiehoffs, who tend the land, reap the harvest.
There’s nothing fancy about this place. Nothing at all. And that’s exactly how I like it.
Bags of birdseed are always available.
Squash awaits customers.
Summer squash by the box full.
A homemade sign indicates the produce available.
© Copyright 2009 by Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
Good10/24/’14 Morning Steve, Am I amazed at all the websites and beautiful pictures of my favorite vegetable garden and Watkins products. How I miss it – I loved driving across the viaduct to St. Paul Rd. and looking at all the gorgeous produce at Twiehoff’s. That was quite a picture of the trailer filled with Squash – all kinds. I even spotted my favorite Hubbard Squash. Keep up the good work. Talk to you here in Phoenix. Fr. Jim Murphy
Twiehoff’s is beloved by many.