PUPOSKY — If one saw the quaint Wildflower Farm north of Bemidji, they would never know that the owners had little farm experience before moving to the area 13 years ago.

But that is the case for Anna and Mike Lauer, who are not farmers in the generational sense but have set their kids up to claim such a title in the future.

This hard work to transform Wildflower Farm did not go unnoticed. On Sunday, the Lauer family of seven was recognized with the Beltrami County Farm Family of the Year award, a University of Minnesota Extension office program that celebrates one farm per county each year.

"Neither one of us came from a farm ... I had a couple chickens in high school. That was the farming experience," Anna said. "And so to kind of start from the bottom, and not knowing a whole lot, an

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