How in the heck did we get here? While I did grow up in the city of Monona, WI, my dad’s family and extensive extended family has a long history of operating small successful dairy farms in the Cross Plains area of Western Dane county. When I was 13 my dad operated one of his brother’s farms, taking me, my brother and the neighbor kids with him, primarily to help pick stones out of the field. After that summer, many of us kids continued working there, off and on for many years. Three of us went on to receive degrees from the UW Madison from the college of agriculture. From that first summer on, I worked, learned, and saved in order to get my own farm.

In 1994, we purchased our first piece of land. Then in 1997, we purchased the farm we are now located on. We have two homes here. My father in law George, who helps us out tremendously, lives in the old farm house ; my kids Claire ,Elliot, Lily live with me in the new house. This farm was pretty run down. We bought it from the estate of a woman that was 103 years old. So, as you can imagine, the farm was in need of serious cleaning, repairs, and upgrading after sitting idle for almost 30 years. You couldn’t even see the buildings, because of the vines and box elders growing up their sides.

When we moved here, we built a home for our family, followed by a shop, and then 4 hoop houses. We did most of the construction ourselves, with lots of pitching in and good advice from friends , and family. We built the shop , so we could buy machinery used ,in varying condition ,and rebuild it.

We immediately started converting the farm to organic production, having our first organic field in 1998.I believe in the organic model because of the whole model. Organic food is much more than having food free of synthetic chemicals. It is a complete system, that when followed keeps my well water , and my neighbors’ and customers’ water clean. It keeps my soil and nutrients on the farm, not in rivers , and streams. It allows for a more diverse habitat for wildlife. It requires no haz mat suits. It requires no cross continent hauling of nutrients. It doesn’t allow the use of genetically modified seed, so what you are eating is naturally healthy. In short the organic model allows us to produce natural, healthy, food for our community, without passing on the external costs of pollution, unhealthy foods, and a degraded environment to my neighbors.

Besides CSA we are at three farmers markets; Monona(Sun.), East Side farmers market (TUE.),and Sun Prairie farmers market (Sat.).We also wholesale green beans, onions, fall carrots, And other misc. vegetables to area restaurants /groceries.

Thanks for checking out our farm and CSA.