Through Here, she connects folks with farm foods
While some look askance at produce that isn’t picture-perfect, Megan Klein saw opportunity.
As a lawyer in New York, she found herself interested in food policy. When she moved to Chicago to be closer to family in Milwaukee, she landed in the midst of the urban farm movement. She began working with vertical farming and hydroponics at FarmedHere, looking for ways to connect people to local food.
Turning an excess of “ugly” basil into an opportunity, FarmedHere created salad dressing. It was Klein’s aha moment. She could connect more people to farmers with convenient, value-added products. FarmedHere stopped farming and Klein transitioned to a new role as president and co-founder of Here, which launched in March 2017 with CEO Nate Laurell.
Created with the goal of making it accessible to eat local year-round, Here turns produce from farmers in Wisconsin (including Springdale Farms in Plymouth and River Valley Mushrooms in Burlington), Illinois, Indiana and Michigan into six salad dressings, five coldpressed juices and six bean dips (basil white bean, black bean tomato, bright beet, curry lentil turmeric, edamame pea sesame, and spinach mushroom).
Products are gluten-free, dairy-free and nut-free, $3.99 for juices and bean dips, $4.99 for dressings, and are available at 16 Woodman’s stores starting this month, plus Midwestern Whole Foods and select Pick ’n Save locations, including the Mequon MetroMarket.
From lawyer to local foods
I grew up in Milwaukee, I went to Divine Savior Holy Angels. I went to law school after college, because I had people in my family saying what are you going to do with an English degree?
I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I was passionate about environment and food. That’s the thread throughout my professional career.
Making her move
I moved from New York to be closer to my family, but also because Chicago had an amazing concentration of people doing urban and local farm work. One of those was FarmedHere. They were the first to take the idea of a vertical farm from academic books to make it a reality.
An ugly love
When we started, we were the only place growing basil locally year-round, with the exception of Growing Power, which I grew up working at.
What no one was doing was taking the local produce and creating valueadded products. Now we source ugly (imperfect) basil from other farms, including a hydroponic farm in Indiana.
Perfecting the product
We built all of our products on the availability of Midwest produce yearround. It is supporting a Midwest farmer.
Full of beans
Michigan has a particularly great climate for beans and thousands of acres of beans. We created our bean dips using Michigan beans, not chickpeas. You eat the bean dips like a hummus.
Label love
People know how to read labels, and most people are looking to eat healthier. We are really honest about the ingredients we put into things. I love it when people turn our packages over and read the label. Please do!
Functional flavor
I want good flavors and health benefits. We have a kale apple wheatgrass juice, and we work with Urban Canopy in the Back of the Yards neighborhood (of Chicago). Wheatgrass is the most potent thing you can juice. We’re one of the only juices that uses raw turmeric.
Finding farms
Then Urban Canopy was one of my clients when I was doing small-business law. Mighty Vine we knew from the local food movement. Eric (Rose) from River Valley Ranch in Burlington, he works the farmers market by me.
Growing local
We can reach about 70 stores with fresh product, but 500 stores with our salad dressing. You can reach more people doing value-added products.
We are our own food processor. We have a facility in Carol Stream, Ill., where we make everything.
Her Milwaukee eats
CrazyWater. I love Morel. My parents and my brother live in the Third Ward, and we’ll walk into the Fifth Ward. I love that area. La Merenda, they take sourcing seriously. Can’t forget Heather Terhune at the Kimpton (Tre Rivali).
Ingredient obsession
I am obsessed with wheatgrass. It can be a tough sell based on the word. People are like “I’m not drinking that.” The juice is so pretty.
Reading for inspiration
Jane Goodall’s “Harvest for Hope” really got me thinking about the sustainability of food.
Long-term goal
If we were to have four hubs in the U.S., we could reach 75% of the population within a day’s drive. We need to get it right in the Midwest first.