At 90, Thimsen still growing raspberries

Chuck Thimsen’s birth in 1934 coincided with the planning stages of the first Hopkins Raspberry Festival that debuted in 1935.

It is only fitting that Thimsen spent much of last week tending to the raspberry bushes on his property in east Minnetonka. The Hopkins-Minnetonka area is well-known for its raspberries, and Thimsen has been attending the Hopkins Raspberry Festival for as long as he can remember. The 2024 edition of the community celebration ran from July 17-21 with a parade, a queen coronation, a softball tournament and the annual Raspberry Run 5K race.

“My dad had 10 acres at the intersection of Baker Road and Lake Street Extension,” Thimsen said. “I am 90 now, and I still live on a lot that my dad gave me in 1968.”

Seymour Thimsen, Chuck’s dad, was known for producing some of the finest raspberries in Minnesota and called his brand Holiday Hill. He also grew strawberries and flowers on his 10 acres.

“My dad was a good man,” Thimsen said. “He worked from daylight to dark, and I was up at 5 a.m. every day of the summer, ready to work. I suppose the one thing I inherited from him was work ethic.”

Chuck Thimsen had a setback at the age of 14 when he was diagnosed with diabetes.

“I remember the doctor telling me that a diabetic could lose limbs and eyesight,” Thimsen said. “He tried to encourage me by saying that if I took care of myself I might live to be 60.”

Still going strong at 90, Thimsen outlived that doctor along with several others who monitored his condition. “I got another new doctor last year and he’s amazed I’m still alive,” Thimsen said. A pacemaker keeps Thimsen moving.

The Minnetonka man is still growing berries, enjoying breakfast with friends and watching baseball games at Veterans Field. His grandson Nick is one of the Minnetonka Monarchs town team’s best outfielders.

Thimsen, a 1952 Hopkins graduate, sometimes wonders how his life would have been different if he had played high school sports. He knew the star players on the Hopkins championship basketball team — twins Dave and Dan Tschimperle, Jerry Porter and Bob Wagner, who was the Warriors’ first black player as the starting center.

“I went to the first two freshman basketball practices before my dad said, ‘Sorry, Chuck. No more basketball. I need you at home,’” he remembered. “So that was the end of that. The guys in my grade won the state basketball tournament in 1952. And Hopkins won again in 1953. I wish I could have played basketball and baseball in high school, but the family farm came first. Working was mostly a good experience. I knew the guys on the team, but we weren’t close friends. I was in a different realm because I was working on the farm all the time.”

What were his jobs on the farm?

“Pulling weeds, planting, cultivating the soil with a tractor, then picking the fruit in the summer,” Thimsen said. “Then we sold out products. All winter, we took care of flower bulbs. My dad hired some of my friends — boys and girls — to help us pick the berries.”

Chuck’s dad had a green thumb — or maybe it was a red thumb.

“He never lost an entire crop,” Thimsen said. “My mom Ruth fed us raspberries and strawberries in pies and shortcake. I ate raspberries on breakfast cereal, raspberries with cream and sugar.”

The berry bushes Thimsen now tends to are ready to yield a bountiful crop even though he no longer has 10 acres. There is a housing development on part of the farmland.

One of the challenges is keeping robins away from the berry bushes. “Robins like raspberries and strawberries,” Thimsen said. “But you don’t have to worry about rabbits or crows. They don’t like berries.”

Growing berries switched from a job to a hobby once Thimsen graduated from high school. He studied at Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis, went into the heating and air-conditioning business and was employed in that industry from the time he was 20 until he turned 60.”

Seymour Thimsen passed away at the age of 75 when he was, in his son’s words: “a relatively young man.”

Is there a secret to living a long life?

Thimsen said his longevity has a lot to do with his lifestyle — exercising, remembering to take his insulin and, of course, eating lots of raspberries and strawberries.