By Lauri Lee
Northside News
Renaissance Farm, an award-winning artisanal food producer since 1985 owned by Mark Olson, is known for handmade cinnamon rolls and herb-based specialty food products which are perennial favorites at the Dane County Farmers’ Market on the Capitol Square in Madison. The business sells seven varieties of all-natural pesto, herb-infused extra virgin olive oils, super premium pesto vinaigrettes, pasta salad dressings, and Zalta herb-infused sea salts which are also distributed in the upper Midwest.
The delicious, melt in your mouth cinnamon rolls are made by hand the old-fashioned way. The dough for the cinnamon rolls is made in small batches, rolled out, and spread with pure, real butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon — with nothing artificial. It is then rolled up and the spirals are baked in pans of four.
A few new rolls that have been added to the booth have found success with customers at the Dane County Farmers’ Market, and the Monona Farmers Market, where Olson also sells each season. The savory dinner rolls, which are filled with basil and cheese, are a great addition to a meal. More recently, Olson created a Turtle Sweet Roll, which has brown sugar, butter and chocolate rolled on the inside. His Turtle Swirls, which are as big as his cinnamon rolls, are topped with chocolate sauce, salted carmel and salted pecans. Keep an eye open for a new line of savory tarts in the future.
I asked Olson for a look behind the curtain for how he got started as an entrepreneur and the challenges he’s faced during nearly four decades in business. With every long-term success story, there are also stories of challenges that had to be overcome. “Around 40 years ago, I decided I wanted to farm and work for myself,” shared Olson. “I would have made a terrible employee working for someone else with this burning desire to strike out on my own. I grew basil and made pesto and other basil products.”
For Olson, all went well until 12 or so years ago “when basil crops were hit with powdery mildew, a worldwide problem with no known cure. Even grocery stores started selling whole plants in the produce section and moved away from selling fresh basil. Then four years later, a completely different crop failure made me relearn how to farm basil. Up to that point, I had been shipping 2,000 pounds of basil a week to the Baraboo CISCO, and had to give it up. It was frustrating because the basil looked good when shipped, but four days later after it got there the mildew expressed itself by turning dark. Of course, this was a huge problem, because fresh basil needs to look and taste good. I fell back on creating and distributing a food service product, which is basil blended with olive oil that I froze and sold as an ingredient to restaurants, such as Ian’s Pizza, Roman Candle, and the Willy Street Co-op offsite kitchen. This became the permanent way for me to process and sell basil. I also diversified and began to grow rosemary, lemon basil, cilantro, a little thyme. and green garlic which is like an onion scallion.
I worked on figuring out how to get the flavor and color of fresh herbs into sea salt so I could add this to my product line. Olson’s farm is located in Spring Green, Wis., and he is licensed out of FEED Kitchens for making his product in a commercial kitchen. “It is an awesome setup at FEED Kitchens. The quality of the equipment is as good as it gets in Madison. I was a little apprehensive to be here before I started because I was used to working alone and there can be a lot of activity in a shared-use kitchen. At first, I found it distracting. Now it’s become a wonderful work community where I’m surrounded by like-minded entrepreneurs. I love working with people who know how to problem solve and get things done. We’re always helping each other and make sure each member has the space they need to get their work done. It’s extremely supportive. I was a part of starting a shared-use kitchen in the early 90s and it failed miserably. So I have a great appreciation for what a great job FEED manager, Chris Brockel, does of coraling independent folks who don’t want to follow directions and are strong=minded individualists. Of course, this is the same trait which makes them successful entrepreneurs.
Olson is a problem-solving entrepreneur. In his fields of basil the plants are grown in rows like a corn field. “I’m on my third incarnation of a basil harvester that I developed with takes the top two-inches off the plant. Because there can’t be any weeds in between the plants, I’m doing transplants in a paper chain pot.
Is there ever spare time for fun when you’re a busy entrepreneur? When not rolling out many, many thousands of cinnamon rolls, Olson loves rolling through the waves enjoying the adventure sport of whitewater kayaking. He’s paddled 61 consecutive months in Wisconsin by using a dry suit.
“I’m starting to think about what’s next for the business. It’s hard to find help and I need to plan ahead to transition this business to someone else so I can retire. I want to sell it, with the ultimate goal of it being over a period of time. The Dane County Farmers Market rules dictate a five-year transition to new ownership of a business if they want the same prime location such as mine at the top of State Street. If anyone is interested in this type of business transition plan, they can contact me at renfarmarket@gmail.com. The website for Renaissance Farms is www.renfarm.com.