The Wendelin Grimm Farmstead is a historic farm near

Victoria, Minnesota Victoria is a city in Carver County, Minnesota, Carver County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 7,345 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , ...

, United States, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. The farm is located within the boundaries of Carver Park Reserve.

History

The owners of the farm, Wendelin and Julianna Grimm, immigrated from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and settled in

Carver County, Minnesota Carver County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The county is mostly farmland and wilderness with many unincorporated townships. As of the 2020 census, the population was 106,922. Its county seat is Chaska. Carver County is named for ...

in 1859. Wendelin Grimm cleared a section of land, which was part of the

Big Woods Big Woods refers to a type of temperate hardwood forest ecoregion found in western Wisconsin and south-central Minnesota. "Big Woods" is a direct translation of the name given to the region by French explorers: . Trees and native vegetation ...

, and established his farm using native farming methods from Germany. He practiced

seed saving A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm pl ...

and brought a box of seeds named "everlasting clover", which was actually

alfalfa Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, and silage, as w ...

. Over the next 15 years, he selected the seeds of the alfalfa plants which survived the harsh Minnesota winters. The result of this process was the first truly winter-hardy alfalfa in North America. By 1890, Carver County had more than of alfalfa under cultivation. Grimm convinced some of his neighbors to use his seed, and after a number of severe winters around 1895 when all the common alfalfa died, his alfalfa crop started to attract more attention. In 1900, two professors from the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, Willet M. Hays and

Andrew Boss Andrew M. Boss (born 1988) is an American composer. He completed his Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Texas and his masters at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. His teachers include Dan Welcher, Donald Grantham, Rus ...

, visited his farm and were impressed by the thriving crop. A few years later, Hays, who had become the assistant

United States Secretary of Agriculture The United States secretary of agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture. The position carries similar responsibilities to those of agriculture ministers in other governments. The department includes several organi ...

, named the variety "Grimm" alfalfa. Hays recommended the continuing improvement of alfalfa through breeding efforts through the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

, and Grimm alfalfa provided the

germplasm Germplasm are living genetic resources such as seeds or tissues that are maintained for the purpose of animal and plant breeding, preservation, and other research uses. These resources may take the form of seed collections stored in seed banks, tr ...

that provided winter hardiness to new

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

s. Grimm alfalfa became a very important crop, and is now the source of all modern varieties of alfalfa grown on of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

(an area only slightly smaller than the U.S. state of

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

), with a value of $10 billion annually.

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...

professor Lawrence Elling called Grimm alfalfa the most important crop development in North America until the invention of hybrid

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

Preservation

Hennepin County Park Reserve District (now

Three Rivers Park District Three Rivers Park District is a special park district serving the suburban areas of the Twin Cities including suburban Hennepin, Carver, Dakota, Scott, and Ramsey counties. Three Rivers's mission is "To promote environmental stewardship through ...

) acquired the farm property in 1962 when Carver Park Reserve was established, and the farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Since the land was no longer a working farm, the farmhouse was in a process of decay, and trees had begun to grow in the former pastureland. In 1993, the

Minnesota Historical Society The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehoo ...

noticed that the state was losing historic agricultural sites, and it identified the Grimm farm as a high priority for stabilization and preservation. The Minnesota

State Historic Preservation Office The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) is a state governmental function created by the United States federal government in 1966 under Section 101 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). The purposes of a SHPO include surveying an ...

and the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources conducted a reuse study and soon began emergency stabilization of the farmhouse. This involved vandalproofing the windows and doors, replacing the roof, and rehabilitating the foundation. In 1998-99, the interior restoration began, and was completed in 2001. On October 6, 2001, the completion was celebrated with an open house. Located in Carver Park Reserve, the site is now known as Grimm Farm Historic Site and is open to the public during education and special programs.

References

External links

Grimm Farm Historic Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grimm, Wendelin, Farmstead Farm museums in Minnesota Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Houses completed in 1876 Museums in Carver County, Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Carver County, Minnesota 1876 establishments in Minnesota