The Back 40 Family Farm

As we gear up for another lively Minnesota grad party season, we keep running into the HARDEST part of planning grads….answering this question: “How many people are ACTUALLY going to show up?” 😅 After years of serving grad parties, we realized almost every family struggles with the same thing… so we made a handy Minnesota Grad Party Guest Estimator Worksheet. And if you’d rather enjoy the party instead of spending the whole day in the kitchen, Back 40 Wood-Fired Pizza will roll in and serve a relaxed, crowd-friendly, tasty all-you-can eat pizza buffet Comment “GRAD” and we’ll send over the worksheet. (Also… our 2027 grad season is already over half full 👀, so don’t wait till last minute.) [Pictures below featuring a couple of our past graduates.]

A shoutout to all you fabulous mamas out there, from the Back 40 Family! Happy Happy Mother’s Day! 💐 • May your day be filled with good food, sunshine, and most of all, your favorite people! You work hard every day - caring for your family, for your friends, while juggling work, volunteering, learning, and busy households. Today, take a break, put your feet up, and know you are seen and appreciated. Sending you all lots of love! 🫶

It’s a bittersweet day here at the Back 40 Farm. Late last night, Farmer Al helped deliver a baby calf and saved her life. Little Hadassah the Heifer is doing well. But her mama is not doing well at all. Out here, on the farm, the miracle of life and the heartbreak of loss often stand side by side. We’re incredibly grateful for kind neighbors with a calf nursery who stepped in to help bottle feed Hadassah and give her the care she needs right now. Small communities still matter, and today we’re feeling especially thankful for ours. Welcome to the Back 40 family, little Hadassah. 🤍 #familyfarm #farmlife #grassfedcattle #back40farm

Don’t slumber your Sunday away this week! Get yourself over to Slumberland in Willmar for some hand tossed wood-fired pizza! Come for a couch, walk away with a couch AND a pizza! See you Sunday!!

Well, hello spring! You did remember to come to Minnesota! • The Back 40 family is super excited to have this nice weather, for many reasons: gardens, fields, …. Pizza! If you missed our wood-fired pizza as much as we missed making it for you, you’d be happy to hear that we are dusting off our peels, rolling up our sleeves and planning to make some pies for you all THIS SUNDAY, April 26, at Willmar’s Slumberland Furniture store parking lot, from 11 am to 5 pm or until we run out of supplies, whichever comes first. So stop on over after your church service is done, or your tummy starts rumbling for some good ole wood-fired pizza, made for you by us with much love.

I had a little bit of a scare just now. • A little backstory - today was FULL of replying to pizza requests for this summer. • I checked my email, I noticed a request from a really sweet past customer for a grad party in the spring in May. And my heart fell - love that family and so would have loved to serve them again but we are so full in the end of May! • Looked closer at the date - it’s 2027. Guys - if you want us at your grad party, our 2027 is getting booked and in a hurry. We want to serve you - get in touch!! • We still have some dates open this summer - get in touch soon. 🫶

Another Expo Highlight!! • We usually do not offer soft drink service due to catering space constraints while we cater. but if we did, we would want to feature Frontier Alaska Craft Soda. • This company has everything: a delicious product (Citrus Spruce Tip, Cloudberry Burst, or White Birch Beer anyone?!), innovating owners - a husband-and-wife team, (we were lucky to meet David and have a fun chat with him at the Expo), great passion, AMAZING story, and most wholesome ingredients you can imagine. If we still had a brick-and-mortar location, or were able to serve beverages, we would not even hesitate in our choice of a soda brand to serve. • I can’t WAIT to see this soda be locally available!!

Our FAVORITE moment at the International Pizza Expo? Seeing Ajith—the spark behind Fire Within! • Without him, our story might look very different. • 9 years ago: 8 kids, a newborn, a farm transition, busy cottage bakery and a dream to build something new. I stumbled on Fire Within’s Wood-Fired Pizza University while waiting for my bread customers to claim their orders… and even though the class was full, Ajith called me personally and made space for us. • We road-tripped to Colorado with babies in tow—and that decision changed everything. • We came home with more than skills necessary to launch our Wood-Fired adventure —but also with our Fire Within oven trailer. It’s perfect for the job: BEAUTIFUL, efficient, up to all the codes. • Ajith has cheered us on ever since. We are so grateful our paths have crossed! @firewithinmobileovens

Back40 Wood-Fired Pizza goes to VEGAS!! • If you know us well, you’d know that Vegas would not likely make it onto our normal bucket list for travel. However, there is one event that had been calling out to us the last few years, and that is the International Pizza Expo. • That’s right. • Two football fields worth of pizza, pasta, gelato and all possible ingredients needed to make them. • So, finally, this year we made a choice to make our already busy pizza catering enterprise even better by investing into some learning, exploring, and rubbing shoulders with world pizza champions and experts. • We walked MILES of isles and tasted pounds of all kinds of pizza, innumerable crusts, mountains of fresh Italian cheeses, buckets of sweet Italian tomatoes, and gallons of delicious GELATO. We watched the crust tossing championship and got inspired to up our crust tossing game 🫠… someday. • There were a few highlights that really fed our souls and I am pretty excited to tell you those stories in the next few days. • Thanks for your patience with my correspondence - I’m getting back to replying to your emails now that we are back in MN!! • By the way, we just had a last minute cancellation for Friday, May 22. There were quite a few requests for that day that I had to decline since it had been booked pretty early on. Well, that day is open now, so let me know if you’re still looking for a cool grad party food, because pizza is definitely 🔥.

Raised on grass - plenty of sass! 🐄 • Minor bruise for Farmer Al. Major proof these cows are thriving. • Stock your freezer—beef shares available now

Our beef is ready 🥩: grass-fed, grass-finished, organically raised right here, on our family farm. How is your freezer doing? • We only raise a limited number each year, and once it’s spoken for, that’s it until the next round. • If you’ve been thinking about stocking up, now is the time. • Message or call Farmer Al for pricing and availability: 320.212.8708.

Want to feel wildly prepared for life? Step one: Fill your freezer with Back 40 Farm beef. • We’ve got beef shares available right now—raised right, tastes amazing, and turns “What’s for dinner?” into “Dang, this is good.” • Besides, it’s practically grilling temperature outside anyway and your grill is calling!