Diners enjoy a multicourse meal prepared by a chef on the grounds of Spring Lake Farm in Prior Lake. Photos: Jemma Killmer
Farm-to-table dinners encourage diners to taste the difference.
If you’ve ever wanted to sip spoonfuls of chilled cucumber soup alongside nibbles of bruschetta while watching the sunset over farm fields just minutes from downtown Prior Lake, now is your chance. Spring Lake Farm is preparing for a new season of farm-to-table dinners, highlighting the best of the produce grown on site. “Some diners have said that it’s better than a Michelin-starred restaurant,” says Matt Arends.
Arends is the brainchild behind Spring Lake Farm, a small vegetable farm on Panama Avenue, just a mile south of Highway 13. The farm focuses on bio-dynamic, regenerative growing practices and invites the public to taste the difference through their community-supported agriculture (CSA) boxes, farm store and stand at the Prior Lake Farmers Market, as well as high-demand, multicourse dinners.
“There was never a plan when this all started, and there’s still not a plan,” Arends says. “I just want this property to be utilized and enjoyed by the public. I want this farm to be shared by the community.”
At each of Spring Lake Farm’s dinners, a local chef creates a unique menu based on the ripest produce from the farm. Chefs can accommodate food allergies and dietary restrictions when requests are made in advance. Water and mocktails are served with the meal, and guests are invited to bring their beverage of choice.
Fresh Food Focus
Though farming is in Arends’ blood—he grew up in Prior Lake, and his family came from Iowa where they were dairy, corn and soybean farmers—it wasn’t until he was a student at Princeton University, studying in France for the U.S. Department of State, that he started really thinking about food sources.
“It started with an interest in nutrition,” Arends says. “I had access to local food every day of the week. It was very different than in the States.” Arends noticed the same thing when he was in Tanzania in 2018–19. “I could walk to a fruit or vegetable stand each and every day and know that that food was picked the day before,” he says. “It was fresh, and I knew the source.”
Arends wanted to give people that same experience in the United States, so when the opportunity to pilot a 3/4-acre farm in Prior Lake arose in 2021, he jumped on it. That first growing season, he grew more than 20 different varieties of vegetables, including carrots, green beans, kale, lettuce and radishes. “I ended up selling a ton of lettuce,” he says. “So, the next season I doubled down on greens.”
By 2025, Arends was producing 10 times what he did just four years earlier. “We’re known for having really high-quality greens,” Arends says, noting that Spring Lake Farm offers spring, summer and fall CSA boxes with a selection of 40 different products grown at the farm and microgreens year-round. “I didn’t know how receptive the community would be, but it only took two years to generate a profit,” Arends says.
That profit has been poured back into the business with Arends recently putting up two new greenhouses as well as purchasing additional land to expand the farm.
Gourmet Dinners
Arends started toying around with the idea of offering multicourse dinners in 2023. “We thought we’d try out some dinners and see,” he says. That year, they did three dates with an average of 21 diners at each. In 2024, they added two more dates and upped their capacity to 40 people. Last year, they invited 66 people to each of their five dates. In 2026, Arends says they are planning for five public meals on select dates from June through October.
Each dinner includes a farm tour where diners can see how they grow different produce items on the farm and learn more about their practices and how they work to provide optimal soils for their crops. “We want them to experience what it’s like on the farm,” Arends says. “They can ask questions. It’s an intimate way to get to know your food.”
On the menu is a five-course smorgasbord, including a soup course, bruschetta, salad, the main course and dessert. In the past, they have served elevated dishes highlighting ingredients from the farm, including Beet Risotto with seared fennel onions, Dill Pickle Chicken with pickled red onions, Flank Steak and Honeynut Squash Soup, finishing with desserts ranging from Beet Cake to Strawberry Cheesecake.
Dinners take place between a 1950s-era dairy barn and a granary with mocktails served at sunset. “Sunsets on the farm are spectacular,” Arends says.
The whole experience, including the meal and the tour, takes about three-and-a-half hours. One of Arends’ favorite parts of the experience is playing matchmaker. “I love to sit strangers next to each other,” he says. “It’s such a welcome, friendly atmosphere in a really cool setting. It becomes three hours of people conversing and laughing. It’s beautiful.”
Spaces for the dinners open up each December, but Arends says there is always a chance for spots to still be open and encourages those who are interested to visit the website. “It’s truly a special dinner and a special night,” he says.
Summer Fun
This summer, Spring Lake Farm’s Matt Arends hopes to create more ways for people to gather and interact with the farm. At press time, he was exploring options like outdoor movie nights geared toward families and free community nights. Check the Spring Lake Farm website and social media for updates.
Spring Lake Farm
Facebook: Spring Lake Farm
