WINONA, MinWINONA, Minn. (AP) - Eric Klein knelt in a canvas-covered barn one Saturday morning and reached into a watering trough to scoop out chunks of ice that had formed overnight on his farm near Elgin. A hundred curious pigs looked on, steam rising around them from the deep straw lining.

In a heated barn, a massive sow lay on her side, exhausted from giving birth the day before to a litter of piglets that tottered around her, jostling for a teat.

The pink Yorkshire piglets were smaller than the black and white barn cat enjoying the warmth of a heat lamp, but by September they will have porked out to 260 pounds on corn and soy meal and whatever they can root up in Klein's pastures, and will be ready to butcher.

But Klein's pigs aren't destined for a big meat processor. Once they are butchered nearby, they will end up in restaurants like Signatures in Winona; Sonte, a new tapas bar in Rochester; or Nosh, where chef Greg Jaworski grills the loins and serves them with a fresh apple and cream sauce.

Klein and his wife, Lisa, who run Hidden Stream Farm, are part of a growing network of farmers pioneering a very old form of husbandry - raising high-quality foods using traditional practices - no hormones, natural feed, pasture-grazed livestock - and selling directly to nearby consumers. For small farmers, it is a way to get top dollar for their produce, for consumers, a way to get fresh, tasty food grown by people they know, without fossil-fuel intensive shipping and while supporting their local economy.

Quality and proximity attract chefs like Matt Schoeller of Signatures, who tries to buy as much locally grown food as possible.

"You've got to try to get the best quality stuff you can, he said. That means "local, fresh and best."

And while it may be more work pursuing multiple vendors than placing a single order, Schoeller doesn't mind.

"I like to go out there and see what they have going on," he said. "The work is much more gratifying when you get to shake the hand of the person who's raising your animals."

Both Kleins grew up with farming - Eric on a hobby farm in New Jersey, Lisa on a dairy farm. They studied farm management at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Eric, 38, found work on a huge cattle farm in North Dakota, eventually taking over the trucking operation. Lisa, 39, worked for Dairyland Laboratories in St. Cloud.

Ten years ago, they took over Lisa's father's farm.

With only 180 acres, they knew they weren't going to get by on quantity, so they would have to do it with quality, raising their pigs, cows and chickens without hormones or antibiotics, grazing them in pastures.

They started out selling at farmers' markets, joined a regional distribution network, and word spread. During the first week of March, Lisa was preparing a newsletter that would go to about 500 customers.

"Our goal is to provide quality meat," Lisa said. "We knew the only way we were going to make it is to direct market to get a better price."

They are not a certified organic farm, although they follow mostly organic practices.

Lisa Klein said the cost of certification - and having to buy expensive organic feed when their crops don't last - doesn't make sense for their size. And with their direct sales model, they don't need it.

"Once the customer knows what you're doing, that piece of paper doesn't matter," she said.

In 2004, while preparing to open Nosh in Wabasha, Greg Jaworski spent a month scouting area farms, including Hidden Stream, where he buys his pork.

Jaworski said it was important to see where his food came from and to know it wasn't coming far. He estimates that in the summer 90 percent of his menu is local - everything but seafood and some imported rice.

"I would prefer local over organic for environmental reasons," said Jaworski, the son of an environmental consultant and professor of land-use planning.

Jaworski doesn't think his customers come to Nosh for a locally grown meal, but he thinks they notice the freshness.

People often ask, "What do you do to your broccoli?" Jaworski said.

Of course, getting fresh local produce isn't always possible in Minnesota.

"I'm no purist by any means," said Signatures' Schoeller, who admits he relies on twice-weekly visits from his food service vendor's truck during the winter months.

"If somebody does want asparagus (in February), it comes from Peru," Schoeller said. "I just don't think it should be the staple of what we eat. I think we should be eating what's here."

Eating local isn't only about eating fresh. It's also a matter of keeping money in the local economy.

"We haven't really tried to calculate any economic benefit," said Linda Grover, advisor to Winona County's Economic Development Authority.

But others have. According to "Finding Food in Farm Country," a 2001 study of southeastern Minnesota's economy, the area's farmers were spending more to grow food than they made selling it, while the area's residents spent more than $500 million a year buying food mostly grown somewhere else.