By Elizabeth Baier, Minnesota Public Radio

NORTHFIELD (AP) — Early in the day at a small farm just outside town, Maria Sosa approaches several dozen rows of black bean plants that cover about two acres.

On her first visit in two weeks, Sosa, of Owatonna, shuffles through the knee-high, leafy plants to check on the beans hanging below. The beans need to be fully dried before she harvests them, so she’s trying to figure out when to come back.

“These aren’t ready yet,” she said. “They’re still tender. They need more sun.”

Sosa admits that a couple years ago she didn’t know much about growing beans — or other crops. But her dad had been a farmer in Mexico and when she moved to the United States in 1995, she yearned to follow in that tradition.

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