Labor Day was not a holiday for Dehn's Garden owners Bob and Bonnie Dehn.
Of course, every day Bonnie gets to spend with her husband and best friend is like a holiday, even though they work long, hard days. Monday, they were doing chores that the couple decided they'd rather take care of instead of passing them onto their daughters -- Jenny, the main grower in charge of the 18 greenhouses, and Norah, head of retail sales. The daughters, their husbands and their kids live in houses down the road from their parent's 105-acre Andover farm, which echoes with the sound of Bonnie's laughter.
She's a constant, pleasant presence, whether working those Thursdays at their farmers market stand on Nicollet Mall with Bob or back at the farm. I had no idea how hard Jenny and Norah work weekends at the Minneapolis Farmers Market. There's fresh cutting of herbs, which starts about 2:30 a.m. Then those herbs, potted herbs and plants are packed onto refrigerated trucks for the first trip downtown. On Saturdays, the Dehn's stand is replenished by eight to 10 truckloads of products brought down in vehicles running back and forth between Minneapolis and Andover.
Bonnie knows her way around all kinds of vehicles. She went to Bemidji State to become a secondary education teacher and used to ride a small motorcycle back and forth on weekends to help her late parents, Royce and Corrine Bennett, with their farm. When younger sisters got married before Bonnie, her dad joked he was about to put her on an auction bill. Along came Bob, who had to help Bonnie's dad work the farm on Fridays so Bonnie could go on dates Saturday night. They've now been married 39 years. Aside from Bob's 1979 health scare, life's been one laugh after another -- even about things some would find no laughing matter. "We named our daughters after his old girlfriends," said Bonnie (do I need to say with a laugh?). "Yes we did. He's not only handsome, he's smooth." My interview with Bonnie and a postscript with Bob:
Q Your herbs are prominent in Minnesota, but you had struggles with your business in the beginning.
A It was a hard sell. When we first started in 1979, fresh herbs were not used as much. A lot of dried herbs were used, but not as many of the fresh. Now today, look at us.
Q Do you still drive a tractor?
A I still drive a tractor. Not the big one -- the small ones.
