Ashton Gerard/MDN  Co-owner and manager Julia Petrovic stands with one of her baked creations in the FARMtastic Heritage Foods Hub in Anamoose.

ANAMOOSE – Rural towns in North Dakota seem to be slowly dying off. Old railroad towns used to be booming but are now left in the dust. Two ambitious entrepreneurs are finding a way to revitalize rural towns while delivering fresh, organic foods and products.

Julia and Mirek Petrovic, owners and managers of FARMtastic Foods Hub, came to North Dakota off of a drive to be more self-sustaining and ecofriendly by organic farming. Originally, Mirek is from the Czech Republic while Julia is from Russia, but the pair have been in the United States since 1998.

The Petrovics are bringing their foods hub to Main Street in Anamoose and it is something they can see growing throughout small town North Dakota.

A foods hub is a concept that is completely new to the state, but is an idea that stems from some of the ideals that already exist in North Dakota. According to Julia Petrovic, the hub is a type of business that actively manages the aggregation, distribution, light processing and marketing of locally grown produce. The goal is to help local farmers and producers reach a bigger market by pulling small and medium-sized farms together.

While Julia and Mirek Petrovic have previously run successful businesses in states like New Jersey and Pennsylvania, they wanted to do something out of their comfort-zone and did what they thought would be best for their family.

“We wanted to teach our children to be responsible, do chores, run free without them being on a leash, and we decided it was time for us to take a move and go to live off the land,” she said.

The Petrovics signed up with a program called WWOOF USA, which is the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms in the United States. Through the program, the Petrovics were able to travel cross-country helping out on organic farms, gaining the experience and knowledge to start their own farm.

“You help with the chores, you do whatever needs to be done, you just volunteer four to six hours every day in exchange for lodging and food,” Petrovic said.

The family spent time all over the United States, but what really opened the Petrovics’ eyes to the organic movement was their time spent in Washington state in 2010.

“The organic movement was already so strong and so viable that whatever few farmers markets that we visited in Washington, I was just amazed,” Julia Petrovic said. “To see so many crafters, so many local producers … People are willing to pay a premium price for the product the producer is offering.”

The Petrovic family, Julia and Mirek and their four children at the time, “WWOOFed” across the country until they landed in North Dakota.

After helping out on two different farms in the state, the Petrovics drove past an old homestead. Seeing a project in desperate need of help and having gained enough knowledge to begin their own farm, the family decided to put down roots in North Dakota in 2011.

The Petrovics ended up about 15 miles northwest of Anamoose and began their journey with their own garden and getting involved in the local agriculture scene. The original goal was to simply live off the land and share their produce with other locals.

The idea of selling produce in a city like Minot or Bismarck was appealing, but the Petrovics didn’t think it would be viable to only sell their products. To drive hours for what they grew did not seem worth it.

The idea of a foods hub came to the Petrovics when they were participating in a Farmers Market and Growers Association conference in Bismarck in February 2014.

“A gentleman came and he did a workshop on a food hub, and he presented an idea of a food hub that he runs in Montana,” Petrovic said. “So that was the first seed that was planted in our heads.”

Julia and Mirek Petrovic then spent time planning their vision of a viable, thriving food hub in North Dakota. Not just something for the Drake/Anamoose area, but something rural towns across the state can adopt as well.

“We aggregate the locally grown products – vegetables, fruits, flowers, berries, grains – we aggregate them and then we distribute them,” Julia Petrovic explained. “So instead of just our farm bringing that leftover produce we haven’t managed to sell locally to the city, we bring six times the amount.”

Currently, she says the foods hub is working with seven different producers similar in philosophy to that of the Petrovics, which is growing food with “passion and integrity without using any chemicals.”

“We buy from (producers) and then we distribute. So for two years, that’s what we were doing,” Petrovic said. She said the Bisman Community Food Co-op in Bismarck had become a strong partner over the years.

They also offer a CSA, which is Community Supported Agriculture, for consumers to receive locally grown products from producers they know and trust.

“You pre-pay in the spring and become a member of the farm for the season,” Petrovic said of the CSA. “Then for 16 to 18 weeks, every week as we start harvesting, we deliver to you a box of fresh vegetables and whatever is in season.”

The idea for the physical location came out of a goal to use all the good produce, even those that have some blemishes that are hard to sell but still good enough to eat. Eliminating food waste and maximizing the produce grown by Petrovic and their farmers was the motivating factor.

“In 2015, the city of Anamoose had (the building) that was doomed for demolition. It’s a historical building,” Petrovic said. “In the time Anamoose was a vibrant community, this building used to be a post office.”

The Petrovics approached the city council about fixing up the crumbling building and turning it into a foods hub that could benefit the city and the area. With grants from the USDA and APUC, the Petrovics were able to renovate the building and equip the foods hub with a commercial kitchen.

“We were able to combine those two grants and restore the building and give it another chance for being an asset to the community,” Petrovic said.

The Petrovics now use produce they are unable to sell and turn it into fresh, home cooked meals and desserts that anyone can enjoy.

The menu changes every single week with what the Petrovics have to work with. Julia Petrovic said she loves to be ambitious and adventurous with the menu, and says she offers things some people might not even consider trying.

The Petrovics are also wanting to use their new location for educational outreach and cooking classes in the future. They also provide catering.

To learn more about the FARMtastic Foods Hub, visit their Facebook page at FARMtastic Heritage Foods Hub or visit their location at 707 Main Street in Anamoose.