Written in the dirt

UPSALA, Minn. — Because farming is a way of life for Nick Herzog, it was only fitting that he proposed to his girlfriend, Ella Harren, using a field and some imagination.

“I knew there would be a lot of options (to propose) that were farming related,” Herzog said.

Herzog, his brother, Matt, and their parents, Allen and Diane, milk 165 cows in a double-12 parallel parlor near Upsala.

This spring, Herzog and Harren went on an airplane ride with some friends. The trip sparked an idea.

“I thought if I could write it (Marry me?) in the dirt, that would be easy to see, and we have to do it (tillage) anyway,” Herzog said. “But that was a long time to wait because I was willing to propose this spring already.”

Herzog patiently waited all spring and summer for the crops to be planted and grow. Then, as soon as the family chopped some corn off a field in early September, Herzog hooked up the chisel-plow and got to work.

“I was shaking when I first started, but by the end of it, I was having fun,” Herzog said.

Initially, Herzog said, he thought about hiring someone with GPS to write the letters in the field to make sure they were legible. In the end, he decided he wanted to be the one to do the writing in the field. To write “MARRY ME” in the 22-acre field took about 20 minutes, he said.

“I was scared when I was starting out with the M because I wasn’t sure what angle to make it,” Herzog said. “Then I was worried I should have measured it out first and flag off where to turn, but that would take so much more time. So, I decided to just wing it, and it actually worked out pretty well just going off the rows.”

Herzog used the rows to guide his turns, and each letter was 30 rows wide. Once Herzog got the letters written out, he realized there was no room for the question mark at the end.

“I didn’t want it to sound like a demand instead of a question, so I went out there on foot and wrote a question mark with my feet,” Herzog said. “It is hard to see from the air, but it is there.”

That weekend, the young couple attended the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church Fall Festival. Herzog had made plans with a friend who is a pilot to take them up in his airplane later that afternoon. However, at 2 p.m., the pilot texted Herzog saying that weather conditions were not cooperating to fly that afternoon.

“My heart just sank,” Herzog said. “I didn’t have a backup plan, and I had my mind made up that I was going to do it that day. I had been thinking about this for six months.”

The couple left the bazaar and went to Harren’s home and hung out with her family while Herzog debated what to do next. After a while, Herzog said that, since the plane ride was not going to happen, he needed to go home for chores. Harren offered to come with him so that they could still hang out together.

Herzog decided that just driving by the field would have to do, as the words were still legible from the ground. As they made their way to the farm, Herzog turned down the road that led not to the farm but toward his parents’ place where the field was located. As Herzog pulled into the field approach, his passenger started to question what was going on.

“We started driving really slow by the field, and as soon as she saw the ‘MA’ she said, ‘Oh boy,’ and I said, ‘Wait until the end before you say anything,’” Herzog said. “When we got to the end, I parked the truck and we got out. By the time she came around the corner of the truck to my side, I was already down on one knee.”

Harren said yes. The couple is planning an Oct. 23, 2027, wedding.

“I knew she was the one after dating for about two months,” Herzog said. “Everybody joked that if she said no, I should finish chisel plowing the field to drown out my sorrows.”

The two belonged to the same friend group for years but never talked one-on-one until 2025, when the group was meeting up at a local bar. Herzog and Harren started talking there, and their relationship quickly grew to more than friends. 

The pilot who was scheduled to take Herzog up in the air went up the following day and took a picture of the field and posted it to TikTok. It received more than 200,000 views in a matter of days.

“That was kind of cool,” Herzog said. “There have been at least six airplanes that have flown by and circled the field before we chisel-plowed the whole thing up. All in all, it went really well.”