In the summertime pursuit of spending money, some kids set up lemonade stands, mow lawns or baby-sit the neighbor's toddler. But 12-year-old Rachel Kenley's business is a little more involved, and a little more profitable. She's a subscription farmer.

Every Tuesday afternoon during the summer, Rachel delivers a basket of homegrown vegetables, fruits and flowers to a dozen or so customers around the Valley. Depending on the week, the baskets include lettuces and greens, broccoli, carrots, turnips, tomatoes, peas, beans, rhubarb and raspberries, and a bouquet of colorful summer blooms, all grown in two large gardens by her house on Palmer Fishhook Road.

"I think I want to be an actress or maybe a writer," Rachel said earlier this week as she prepared this season's first baskets. Her long, dark hair tied back in a ponytail and her clothes smudged with dirt, she selected stalks of rhubarb from a wagon, trimmed them with a large butcher knife and slipped them into plastic bags. "I'm not all that interested in vegetables, but it makes a lot more money than lawn mowing or something."

Twelve-year-old Rachel Kenley has inherited a subscription farming business from her older siblings. This summer, she will make weekly deliveries of fresh vegetables, fruits and flowers to about a dozen customers. Photo by EOWYN LeMAY IVEY/Frontiersman.

In many ways, Rachel is a typical 12-year-old. During the school year she goes to Colony Middle School and enjoys drama, writing and sports. She adores Harry Potter. And like most kids her age, on hot summer days she'd rather be swimming in Wasilla Creek than pulling chickweed from rows of broccoli, carrots and turnips.

What makes Rachel different is that more often than not, she stays in the garden weeding while her friends are off splashing in the cool creek water -- she's got customers depending on her.

Rachel inherited the business, Kenley's Alaskan Vegetables, from her older siblings. Her sister Amy developed the subscription farm, and later their brother Keith ran it. Now, Rachel is the boss.

"It's me doing it by myself this year," Rachel said. "It takes a lot of work."

Many days she gets up at 7 a.m. to start working. There's weeding, watering, fertilizing, putting up fence to keep out the moose and domestic sheep, harvesting the vegetables, preparing the baskets ... the list goes on. Rachel admits she does get some help. She can't drive yet, so her mom and sometimes her older siblings help with the deliveries. In return for this and other assistance, Rachel divvies up the profits appropriately among the family members.

When asked what she especially enjoys about the business, she said with a shrug, "Watering isn't that bad, I guess." But then with some prompting from her mother, Rachel admitted, "Writing the letters is fun."

Along with each basket, Rachel gives her customer a cover letter and an envelope with recipes. This is where the girl's natural creativity is allowed to flourish. In one letter she described the week's vegetables as a weather forecast, with a heavy tomato storm moving in. And she decorates the outside of the recipe envelope with drawings or stamps of the main ingredients -- potatoes, turnips, etc.

But as Rachel can tell you, farming isn't usually so artistic, or clean. Her least favorite task?

"Taking out all of the rotting nastiness," she said with a wrinkled nose, referring to the end of the season when the plants are beginning to decay. "It's so gross."

Rachel isn't particularly fond of weeding, either. It's easier now, she says, since they use a green, plastic ground cover designed to control weeds. When her older sister was running the business years ago, Rachel was the weed control.

"I think I got a dime an hour or something, and I was worth way less," Rachel said. "I was supposed to be weeding and I'd just be lying there."

But Rachel has since been promoted from menial laborer to CEO, and she knows from experience that the days she spends with her back bent, her hands covered in dirt and the summer sun beating down on her aren't wasted. The profits are helping her go to several camps this summer, she gets a stipend of spending money each month and most of it is going into the bank for college.

And perhaps unlike some 12-year-olds, Rachel also seems to appreciate the non-monetary payoffs. She says she's learning a lot about managing a business, keeping track of profits versus expenses and hiring and keeping employees. Her cousin is working for her this summer.

Another attribute also sets her apart from many of her peers -- Rachel's love of vegetables. She actually likes kohlrabi and doesn't turn her nose up at beans.

"I can't stand it in the winter. It's like, 'What is this lettuce?' It's like fake lettuce or something," Rachel said. But during the peak of the season in the summer, the greens are crisp and flavorful.

"It's like the difference between corn from a can and corn on the cob," she said.

Whatever career path Rachel chooses in the future, it seems unlikely she'll forever walk away from the giant Matanuska Valley vegetables and rich soil. Her mother grew up on a farm just down the road, where Rachel's grandparents still garden, and many of Rachel's siblings have pursued occupations in agriculture science.

For now, though, Rachel is only committing to a few more years as a farmer.

"I think I'll do it until I'm at least 16 or so," she said, "maybe longer."