A Minnesota couple built a business around rice harvested from lakes and rivers. Now it eyes $50,000 more in annual revenue

The husband and wife team Bruce Savage and Tawny Smith-Savage owns Spirit Lake Native Farms at Sawyer, Minnesota. According to the Entrepreneur Fund’s September 2026 report, the couple expect that a temperature-controlled storage upgrade could generate an additional $50,000 in annual revenue and support one new full-time job for the business.

For Bruce and Tawny, growing the business also means keeping traditional foods accessible and teaching younger generations how to produce them.

What is Spirit Lake Native Farms, and who owns it?

Spirit Lake Native Farms is a family-owned business in Carlton County, Minnesota. Bruce Savage and Tawny Smith-Savage process wild rice sourced from local lakes and rivers and produce maple syrup.

The couple purchased land off Spirit Lake Road in 1999 and gradually developed the facilities needed to harvest, process, store, and distribute their products.

“I’ve been finishing rice since I was 16 years old,” said Bruce, identified in the Entrepreneur Fund’s report as Tribal Chairman of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

Building the operation required patience and money earned elsewhere.

Bruce says, “There isn't a whole lot of funding available for lake and river wild rice. I had to wait until adulthood and invest my own off-farm income to build all of these facilities.”

Today, the farm includes a 20-acre sugar bush, a stand of maple trees tapped for sap, a wood-fired parching and wild rice finishing facility, and a storage building. Its maple operation uses more than 2,000 tapped trees.

How could better storage increase the farm’s revenue?

The grant-funded boiler system provides temperature-controlled storage, helping Spirit Lake Native Farms maintain product quality and hold more inventory. According to the Entrepreneur Fund, the investment is expected to add $50,000 in annual revenue and support a new full-time job.

The system made a recently constructed storage building fully functional. Bruce explained the importance of consistent conditions while holding up freshly finished wild rice.

“Look at how good this rice looks,” he said. “We want to make sure this is the quality everyone is getting.”

Who funded the upgrade, and how much was awarded?

Spirit Lake Native Farms received support through the Entrepreneur Fund’s Rural Field to Market Grant program, backed by the Wells Fargo Foundation.

In 2026, the program awarded a total of $450,000 to 26 small- and mid-sized farm and food businesses across EFund’s Minnesota service area. That figure covers the entire program.

How does Spirit Lake Native Farms support local harvesters?

The business works directly with local harvesters, connecting traditional food gathering with processing and sales. Tawny said those relationships help the couple make traditional foods more accessible.

“Because we work directly with local harvesters, we're able to bring traditional foods to the table at a reasonable cost,” she said. “We want people to have not only the knowledge to build a food system around traditional foods but also access to those foods.”

According to Whole Foods Co-op’s grant profile, Spirit Lake uses salvaged slabwood from a local sawmill to fuel its roasting process. The profile describes the farm’s wild rice as certified organic and says it primarily sells locally and across the Great Lakes region.

Why does local food infrastructure matter?

Local food infrastructure connects a harvest with the people who will eat it. At Spirit Lake Native Farms, that means having the facilities to process wild rice, preserve its quality, store inventory, and prepare products for sale.

For Bruce and Tawny, those practical steps also support food sovereignty: their community’s ability to sustain its traditional foods and food practices.

The Entrepreneur Fund’s report says experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the couple’s commitment to local food infrastructure. Their priorities include adapting to changing conditions and passing on skills to younger generations.

Beyond this farm, the story raises a broader question: how can local food systems prepare for disruptions associated with climate patterns such as El Niño, wars, and geographical barriers such as isolation or limited transport access?

“We have to adapt to these changes,” Tawny said in the Entrepreneur Fund report. “Every year we're hopeful and optimistic for a good harvest, but we're going to work just as hard for the poduct no matter what. We always want to keep it going, and that’s why we have our young people learning the operation.”



Sources:

Entrepreneur Fund: September 2026 farm and food business update

Whole Foods Co-op: Spirit Lake Native Farms grant profile.