On Saturday, March 9, 2013, the Urban Ecology Center-Riverside Park in Milwaukee hosted the 11th Annual Local Farmer Open House. The public was able to get up close and personal with 17 local Wisconsin farmers, learn where their food comes from, take in a few free workshops, and sign up for a CSA.

The following is a list of 17 farms that were on hand:

Backyard Bounty

Full Harvest Farm

HighCross Farm

JenEhr Family Farm

LotFotL Community Farm

Old Plank Farm

Pinehold Gardens

Rare Earth Farm

Rubicon River Farm

Stems Cut Flowers

Stoney Meadow Farm

Three Sisters Community Farm

Tipi Produce

Turtle Creek Gardens

Wellspring

Willoway Farm

Young Farmers CSA

The Riverside Park Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee, is hosting the 11^th Annual Local Farmer Open House on Saturday, March 9, from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Over 15 farms will be on hand, including Backyard Bounty, Full Harvest Farm, HighCross Farm, JenEhr Family Farm, LotFotL Community Farm, Noel Farms, Old Plank Farm, Pinehold Gardens, Rare Earth Farm, Rhine Center Vegetable Club, Rubicon River Farm, Stems Cut Flowers, Stoney Meadow Farm, Three Sisters Community Farm, Tipi Produce, Turtle Creek Gardens, Wellspring, and Willoway Farm.

Besides getting to know the farmers, the event also consists of three workshops throughout the day. Jamie Ferschinger, the Urban Ecology Center’s Riverside Park branch manager, will explain how Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) works; Annie Wegner LeFort, chef and master food preserver, will share ideas for more efficiently using the contents of a weekly CSA box to prepare quick, healthy meals; and Warren Porter, of UW-Madison, will share what research shows about how and why to avoid pesticides in your food.

If you live in the Madison area, FairShare CSA Coalition’s 21^st annual CSA Open House is being held on Sunday, March 10 from 1 to 4 p.m. at Monona Terrace.

This year FairShare doubled the space of its event to create a more relaxing atmosphere. Meet with CSA growers serving the Madison area and attend several free workshops, including “CSA 101: Nuts & Bolts of Community Supported Agriculture” by Erika Janik, CSA Member & Dennis Fiser, CSA Farmer from Regenerative Roots; and “CSA 201: Making the Most of your Seasonal CSA Produce” by Laura Gilliam of Local Thyme, a CSA Menu Planning Service.

For more information on these events, visit http://urbanecologycenter.org and www.csacoalition.org

All of Steve Pinnow’s sheep at Pinn-Oak Ridge Farm in Delavan, Wis., are raised on pasture and are fed a vegetarian diet. Pinn-Oak Ridge is at the Milwaukee County Winter Farmers’ Market every Saturday except the third Saturday of the month.

Live in the Milwaukee area and in search of fresh, local produce during the winter months? Well, you’re in luck. Every Saturday morning from November to April, local farmers and food producers set up shop indoors for the Milwaukee County Winter Farmers’ Market in the Tommy G. Thompson Youth Center on the Wisconsin State Fair Grounds.

For the last four years, Milwaukee area residents have taken advantage of the easy access to locally-sourced food as if it were the summer months. From vegetables to fruit, grass-fed beef, free-range eggs, artisan cheeses and bakery, the options are delicious and plentiful. Really, there’s no better place to do your grocery shopping on a chilly winter morning.

“Our market’s mission is to promote local, sustainable agriculture; increase economic opportunities for small family farms and innovative food businesses; provide equitable access to wholesome food; and build a vibrant gathering place for metro Milwaukee residents and visitors,” says Deb Deacon, the market manager.

Besides being an avenue for purchasing local, the market, in its fourth year, also thrives on supporting small family farms during the otherwise unreliable winter months.

The evolution of the market

The initial development of the Milwaukee Winter Farmers’ Market was formed by Bill Stone, co-owner of Brightonwoods Orchard in Burlington, Wis., and then president of the Wisconsin Apple Growers Association (WAGA). Inspired by the winter version of the Dane County Farmers’ Market in Madison, Wis., and Harbor Market in Kenosha, Wis., Bill had hopes of building a successful winter market in the Milwaukee area.

Springdale Farm, Plymouth, Wis., brings fresh produce to the market all season long.

In January 2009, that dream became a reality as the WAGA agreed to be the funding agency for development of the new urban winter market. The market’s first year drew 30 vendors, 21 of which still attend the market.

Throughout the market’s first two years, it operated under the oversight of WAGA’s executive director, Anna Maenner. Maenner worked on the logistics for the market and managed a special Farmers Market Promotion Program grant from the Agricultural Marketing Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Because Maenner had experience running the Apple Growers’ booth at the annual Wisconsin State Fair, she was able to secure the market’s venue, the Tommy G. Thompson Youth Center, located in the northwest corner of Wisconsin State Fair Park. The Center continues to be home for the market today.

Thanks in large part to Deacon, who has been a part of the market since the beginning, the market’s mission hasn’t changed.

“Diverse, small-scale family-owned farms from southern Wisconsin have access to a more reliable and consistent annual income and realize they have a market that justifies extending their operational season,” says Deacon. “It also provides a low-cost experimental venue for new value added products.”

Aleka’s Kitchen, Sheboygan, Wis., sells traditional home-made gourmet Greek pastries every Saturday at the market.

Tasked with vendor recruitment and market promotion, Deacon has initiated the market’s website and Facebook pages, and also visits vendors’ businesses and farms.

As the market continues to grow in size (50 producers this year whose attendance ranges from three to 22 weeks), Deacon says a future goal of the market would be to secure a larger space to accommodate all of the vendors.

Market Breakfast

The market hosts a market breakfast each year. Milwaukee area chefs that specialize in using local ingredients come in and create a menu that uses the products and ingredients from the market’s producers. Wisconsin Foodie documented last year’s market breakfast on a recent episode.

Click to view slideshow.

What you can find at the market

Products available at the market include:

• Grass-based meat: lamb, beef, goat, pork, elk, and bison; charcuterie
• Pastured poultry and free-range eggs
• Trout raised in artesian fed ponds
• Artisan cheese, ice cream, butter
• Apples, vegetables and fresh herbs
• Breads and baked goods
• Oats (in a variety of formats), granola
• Wine
• Specialty food producers that make fresh pasta, seasonal jams & jellies, pickled vegetables, salsas, pasta sauces, herbal teas/butters/pestos, frozen soups, organic caramels, and savory ethnic cuisine (Greek and Mexican)
• Honey, Maple Syrup, Sorghum
• Coffee and apple cider
• Fresh flower arrangements
• Stone ground flour
• Dried edible beans
• Frozen corn
• For your four-legged friends, you can also find elk antlers, beef bones and other treats.

For a full list of the local producers who attend the market, visit http://www.mcwfm.org/producers.html

The market welcomes the QUEST Card.

Milwaukee County Winter Farmers’ Market

Indoor Market
Saturdays, 8 a.m.-Noon
Nov. 3, 2012-April 13, 2013
Tommy G. Thompson Youth Center
Wisconsin State Fair Park
Ag Village, Gate 5
640 South 84th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53214

Website: http://www.mcwfm.org/index.html
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Wellspring is a certified-organic produce farm and a not-for-profit education and retreat center located in West Bend, Wis.

Watch our “On the Farm” video with Francie Szostak, education coordinator at Wellspring on YouTube.

By Nick

At the end of the long gravel road at 4382 Hickory Rd., in West Bend, Wis., is a 36-acre utopia that is home to wildflowers, winding nature trails, ponds, a registered bird habitat, and 100 varieties of organic vegetables. A place like this is often only dreamt about. For Mary Ann Ihm, it’s a dream that became a reality and a place she has rightly named Wellspring - a certified-organic produce farm and a not-for-profit education and retreat center.

Founded on March 1, 1982 by Ihm, a former educator, she wanted to create a learning environment that would “help people live in harmony with themselves and the earth.” She started out small, holding workshops and working out of a community garden in Milwaukee. But Ihm, who grew up on a farm, had a bigger vision for Wellspring. She wanted land where she could create a farm and a retreat center. Her dream would come true fives years later in 1987, but it involved a lot of heartbreak and some divine intervention.

Mary Ann’s number one supporter and husband, Wayne, passed away from cancer. Just a week after Wayne’s funeral, Mary Ann was given an ad for a property in West Bend. The description called to her, and upon visiting the land, she fell in love. She knew it was the perfect fit for what she wanted to accomplish with Wellspring. One problem: she didn’t have the money to pay for it. She thought her dreams were dashed, that is, until a surprise came in the mail later that same week. Unbeknownst to Mary Ann, Wayne had a life insurance policy and she received a check for the exact amount of the property’s down payment. Wellspring purchased the property and moved Wellspring to West Bend in the spring of 1988, forming what is the longest running CSA in Wisconsin. It’s here where she and all the faithful employees work hard at educating and informing the public about wellness and healthy food choices.

Introduction to Farming: 101

Wellspring is located on 36 acres of property, but only grows on six. So, to feed the farm’s 110-member CSA and restaurant customers, they really have to get creative and make great use of the available growing space.

Wellspring incorporated permaculture into the design of its field where crops are planted in a curve pattern that mimics the natural flow of the land.

As a result, the farm incorporated permaculture into the design of the field where vegetables are planted in a curve pattern that mimics the natural flow of the land.  Farm manager Alissa Moore says this method helps to mitigate erosion during heavy rains in what is a fairly steep slope.

The farm also takes advantage of growing in multiple hoop houses. This helps the farm get an early start on seedlings in the spring and extends the growing season beyond the typical fall harvest time.

Moore oversees the farm’s 40 different types of crops and 100 different varieties. At the same time, she also is mentoring the farm’s interns. In fact, she estimates that 90 percent of her job is devoted to taking the interns under her wing.

“We all work together side by side each day,” she says. “Most of them have never farmed before, so they are learning what it means to be involved in day-to-day activities at an organic farm.”

Interns live and work on the farm from March until October. Each year a new batch of interns come in, while some have the opportunity to stay for two growing seasons. Activities on the farm vary from month to month. In April and May, Moore is teaching the interns how to seed and plant. In May and June, planting, weeding, and harvesting. In July and August the planting comes to an end but weeding continues and most of their time is spent on proper harvesting techniques. In September, harvesting is still going strong and weeding begins for the fall crops. Infrastructure for the different crops is also taken down at this time. In October they continue to harvest the hardiest crops, and prepare the farm for the winter.

Educational Workshops

Wellspring’s mission is to not only grow organic food but to also help teach the public the importance of growing, eating, and living sustainably. Francie Szostak, the educational coordinator at Wellspring, says many educational opportunities are available throughout the year.

A home gardening demonstration area on the farm.

Wellspring offers a host of home gardening courses that teach novices how to plan a home garden. Everything from caring for the soil, preparing garden beds for transplanting, the basics on companion planting, maintenance (weeding, mulching, natural pest control), harvesting, and food preservation techniques.

“We teach people things like with a carrot, how do you know when to pull it out of the ground. Or broccoli, do you just rip it off or remove it from the stem,” says Szostak.

Wellspring also offers seasonal cooking classes where each month a different vegetable that is ready to be harvested is selected and featured from the garden. Each class is led by Chef K.C. Thorson who develops and demonstrates four healthy recipes. In 2012 classes focused on salad turnip and radishes, chicory bitter greens/Asian greens, culinary herbs, beets, root veggies, brussel sprouts, and Thanksgiving dishes.

Visitors to Wellspring can get hands-on in the vermiculture worm composting bin.

Workshops are also offered regularly throughout the year. In 2012 the farm hosted workshops on wild edibles, foraging for mushrooms, native pollinators, gluten-free cooking, and a cheesemaking workshop.

Groups that visit the farm for a workshop also can take advantage of Wellspring’s bed and breakfast, which is among the top Travel Green Wisconsin Certified Businesses.

Teaching Youth/Farm to School

The farm is also very big on educating youth. As a result, the farm encourages K-12 schools and community groups (adult groups, too) to schedule a field trip to experience life on an organic farm. Szostak says that children experience farm life and connect with how food is grown through hands-on lessons and activities, and each visit is tailored to students’ ages, learning levels and classroom goals.

Farm field trips typically last two hours and include a farm tour, gardening activity, a picnic lunch, and a snack that is harvested from the gardens. Szostak says kids that visit the farm more often than not are not afraid of vegetables like most people want to believe.

The Agricorp garden at Wellspring.

“They come out here and when they’re in the dirt, using their hands, growing it themselves, they are so excited to taste it,” she says. “Even little kids that are 2 and 3 that came out here, I had some beets to try and they said ‘no,’ but then they popped one in their mouth and their faces just lit up. Kids really aren’t afraid of vegetables.”

Wellspring also has a program on the farm called Agricorps that teaches youth ages 12-17 best business practices using sustainable agriculture. In this program, youth participate in six weekday instruction sessions and two weekend sessions during the summer months, says Szostak.

Francie Szostak is the education coordinator at Wellspring.

“They come out, pick a plant that they tend to all season long, and they learn the things that go into growing organically, like pest control, weeding, as well as the business marketing side of farming,” she says. “So they have to plan their garden, plan out the costs, learn about marketing skills, decide where they’re going to sell their product and then after all that they go to the Wauwatosa Farmers’ Market and they get to sell the produce that they’ve grown all season.”

In 2012 the youth planted eggplant, squash, tomatoes and peppers. The proceeds they received from their sales at the Wauwatosa Farmers’ Market were then donated to the charity of their choice.

In 2013 Szostak’s hope is to expand the farm’s reach and incorporate some youth from the inner city and teach them the self reliant skills of growing their own food and marketing skills.

“These business marketing techniques can be applied to any ventures they go into their life,” she says.

Besides teaching classes on the farm, Wellspring also visits select schools with a “Farm to School” program. In 2012 Wellspring began partnering with Grafton and Kewaskum schools where they started sampling fresh organic produce in the lunchroom.

“They get to each sample one and if they like the dish that the chef created using that produce, they all get a vote, and then it will be on the lunch line the next week,” says Szostak. “It’s really involving them instead of just shoving some veggies at them and saying ‘eat this.’”

Where To Buy

Wellspring offers a CSA for 20 months that begins in the first week of June through the third week of October. The farm offers three different share sizes: Full, half, and community. The full share is delivered weekly while the half share is every other week.

Members who want to receive a discounted price on a full share and get their hands dirty at the same time, can choose to do a community share and commit to work two four-hour shifts on the farm during the season.

New in 2012 is the addition of a winter share that will be three larger shares that are distributed two weeks apart in November in December.

Wellspring holds farm festivals for its shareholders and families throughout the season, including: an Earth Day Celebration, Herb Sale, the Taste of Wellspring, and Agri-Culture Fest.

Wellspring sets up shop every Saturday during the growing season at the Wauwatosa Farmers’ Market and every other Saturday at the Fox Point Farmers’ Market. A popular item among the market-goers is the farm’s lettuce mix. Wellspring’s produce is also found regularly on the menus of Milwaukee restaurants La Merenda and Allium.

Wellspring
4382 Hickory Rd.
West Bend, WI 53090
Website: http://www.wellspringinc.org/
Phone: (262) 675-6755
Email: wellspring@hnet.net
Like Wellspring on Facebook
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As a non-profit, Wellspring relies on donations. If you are interested in donating to Wellspring, visit http://www.wellspringinc.org/Main/Donate

Jeff Preder, owner of Jeff-Leen Farm, Random Lake, Wis.

Watch our “On the Farm” video with Jeff Preder, owner of Jeff-Leen Farm on YouTube.

By Nick

A fifth-generation farmer, Jeff Preder was born into dairy farming. And from the day he purchased his family farm from his parents in January 1977 up until September 1997, dairy farming was all Preder knew. That is until the owner of Jeff-Leen Farm in Random Lake, Wis., ventured off the beaten path into raising beef cattle.

Preder started with Holsteins, but little did he know what he truly was getting into. He quickly discovered that raising Holsteins without the use of growth hormones was not economically feasible. It was at that same time in 1997 that a friend from Missouri turned him on to Piedmontese cattle. The friend preached about the low-fat, low-cholesterol nutritional characteristics in the beef animal, and because Preder was gravitating towards a healthy lifestyle, he thought it was just a natural fit to start raising the breed.

He started with seven Piedmontese cattle and finished one out for his family.

“When we got the first Piedmontese cattle and we butchered it, my wife Kathleen said never a Holstein again,” Preder says. “There was such a difference in the quality of meat going from the Holstein to the Piedmontese.”

They quickly swore off raising Holsteins, phased out the remaining few they had, and turned their attention solely on Piedmontese cattle.

Piedmontese Cattle

The name Jeff-Leen Farm, a mashup of Jeff and Kathleen’s first names, ironically works well because of the lean Piedmontese beef it sells.

Jeff-Leen has raised Piedmontese cattle since 1997. Nutritionists say the beef has less fat, cholesterol and fewer calories than skinless chicken.

Piedmontese, a breed of cattle that originates from the region of Piedmont, in northwest Italy, and brought to North America in 1979, is naturally lower in fat and cholesterol because it is a double-muscled animal. This means that the cattle have more cell mass per muscle and less fat, says Preder.

The genetic characteristics of Piedmontese cattle have been studied by scientists, and nutritionists have documented their health and nutritional benefits. They’ve found that a 50 percent or greater Piedmontese cross is a perfect source of high quality protein, the beef has eight essential amino acids, is an excellent source of B vitamins such as niacin and riboflavin, and a great source of zinc. Nutritionists also say that the beef has less fat, cholesterol and fewer calories than skinless chicken.

Jeff-Leen’s cattle are raised under strictly controlled growing conditions, with a heavy emphasis on a healthy environment. The cattle, which have been 100-percent grass-fed since 2005 are ensured a healthy diet of quality forages as they are moved to a new pasture every two to three days to ensure they have fresh grass and alfalfa.

“To me it’s important that we only let them on an area for a short period of time so that they don’t destroy the habitat,” says Preder.

Preder has the cattle on a rotational grazing pattern that divides the farm’s nearly 300 acres of rolling hills into 14 different paddocks. Even though implementing this system delays the time to finish an animal, he is fine with that.

“Going grass-fed it takes a little bit longer to finish the animal out,” says Preder. “We figure somewhere between 24 to 30 months and we feed them on strictly grass, alfafa, and our own hay because it has higher nutritional value.”

Preder says he takes great pride in raising cattle that are absolutely free of growth hormones, steroids, antibiotics and animal by-products. He also relies on an old-world approach of keeping the animals out on pasture all-year long.

Cattle are rotationally grazed in 14 different paddocks.

“They never go inside the building,” says Preder. “We have trees around that block the prevailing winds during the winter and if it’s in the wide open space, we’ll set extra bails of hay out for them to trash the bail, and then they’ll either lay against it for a wind break, or lay on it. We’ve never lost an animal due to a weather issue.”

Jeff-Leen’s cattle meets all USDA inspection standards, as well as the rigid specifications and regulations in the Certified Piedmontese Beef Program, a program that is approved and audited by the USDA. The farm also holds certification from the Piedmontese Association of the United States.

The farm raises 25 Piedmontese cattle that it finishes yearly. Preder says he’s looking to grow that number to 40 by adding 10 more cows to the herd, in large part due to demand.

The beef is processed at Kewaskum Frozen Foods in Kewaskum. Although it is 100 percent raised organic, Jeff-Leen can’t label it organic because it is not processed at a certified organic facility. Preder’s hope is that as other farmers like himself begin encouraging the processor to gain certification that the organic label can someday make it on his beef products.

“Right now, everything is raised here organically, but we can’t label it as such because it’s not full circle,” says Preder.

In 2002, the otherwise strictly beef operation of Jeff-Leen opened up to include chickens and eggs.

Free-Range Egg-Layers

Just as the cattle are free-range on pasture, so too are the laying hens. All day long the flock of nearly 200 Production Red hens are allowed free range of the farm where they are foraging on grass, legumes and insects.

Laying hens are free-range on pasture and nest inside a mobile wagon.

As a result, Preder says under normal circumstances the hens will produce anywhere from 150 to 160 dozen brown eggs a week with rich, orange yolks. However, this summer’s dry spell and extreme heat wreaked havoc on the flock’s production.

“The heat really took a toll on them and the production just went downhill,” says Preder.

Besides foraging on greenery and insects all day, Preder feeds the hens a whole grain organic diet. This includes corn raised on the farm that gets ground up, coursely-ground oats, soybeans, soybean meal, root-seed meal, and diatomaceous earth.

“Because of the customer base that we have, we want to have as healthy a diet for the chickens so therefore our customers are eating as healthy products we know we can provide them,” says Preder.

This spring, Preder built a mobile wagon for the hens to nest and lay their eggs. Inside it’s equipped with dozens of nest boxes, feeders, water and areas where hens can perch. He also mounted a water tank on the front that stores enough drinking water for the hens for four days. The wagon gets pulled by tractor or four-wheeler to a new area of pasture for the hens daily. Kathleen does the egg gathering twice a day. She also washes the eggs and packs them.

Hens inside the mobile wagon.

The hens go into the wagon at dusk and the door is closed to protect the flock. The door is opened at dawn.

“In the morning it’s really a sight to behold,’ says Preder. “I come out here at 5 a.m. and open the door and some of them are flying out, some of them are jumping down the steps and then they take off everywhere. It’s really neat to see. And then at night it’s like a parade of chickens, they all go back in.”

Because the hens are free range, there is the risk of losing some of the flock to predators. So far, Preder says that hasn’t been a problem due to the fact that he places roosters in with the hens. He says their loud crows help deter intruders.

Pastured Chickens and Turkeys

Besides raising laying hens, Jeff-Leen also has a flock of approximately 700 Cornish Rock chickens at a time that are sold for meat. These chickens are raised as chicks (purchased from Sunnyside Hatchery in Beaver Dam, Wis.) in the barn and are moved onto pasture at an early age where they rotationally graze in movable pens.

Pasture-raised chickens in movable pens.

“What I believe is if we can get them out on the pasture early, that I think is a big plus,” says Preder. “We don’t want them in the barn any longer than we have to – just to get them feathered enough that they’ve got enough feathers to keep themselves warm.”

Each pen is spacious enough to hold 100 chickens where they can perch, nibble on insects, grass, legumes, and snack on organic feed. Each day the chicken pens are moved onto a new patch of pasture to ensure the chickens are getting appropriate nutrients.

This year the farm expanded its chicken production from 1,700 to 2,700 to fulfill a 600-chicken order placed by Bruce Evans with Milwaukee Area Technical College’s Culinary School, and also to meet demand by restaurants and customers.

In 2011, a demand centered around Thanksgiving dinner brought Preder into the new realm of raising turkeys on the farm. As a result, he purchased 25 baby white broad-breasted turkeys from Sunnyside Hatchery.

2012 marks the second year Jeff-Leen is raising turkeys.

Because it went over well, Preder decided to double his production in 2012. Just like the chickens, the turkeys are raised from chicks inside the barn for a few weeks until they’ve built up enough strength to go outdoors. They are then moved onto pasture into three large movable pens that hold 17 birds. These pens get moved daily. Preder says the turkeys are processed a week before Thanksgiving.

“Some people say I should raise heritage breed turkeys, but I talked with Chef Jack Kaestner and he said ‘Jeff, they’re really tough to raise, so maybe just getting into it you might want to do the white broad-breasted, which are a little bit easier.’ We opted to follow that advice.”

Jeff-Leen gets both its chickens and turkeys processed at Quality Cut Meats in Cascade, Wis.

Wind Turbine

A wind turbine allows the farm to get a reduced rate on its electricity.

It’s hard not to miss the large white wind turbine smack dab in the middle of the farm. The wind generator is a partnership between Jeff-Leen and its neighbor. Preder says his neighbor has the investment in the turbine, but the farm partnered with him and gets a reduced rate on electricity.

“We pay for it yet, we don’t get free electricity, we get a reduced rate,” says Preder. “And when we put it in, there were certain upgrades that needed to be done on the farm and that he paid for upfront. Plus, it looks nice and fits nice with our customer base.”

Preder says he believes wind energy is a good way to go, but they can’t go 100 percent because it’s still unreliable.

“Some days it’s dead calm, but as an alternative source that helps supplement the energy source that’s out there, why not,” he says. “Take advantage of a natural resource and generate as much as we can to help offset some of the petroleum usages.”

Sixth Generation and Beyond?

When Jeff and Kathleen, who have four children and five grandchildren decide to hang up their boots, their hope is that the next generation will take over. Right now it looks like their son Michael, who is in his 30s and is currently in charge of the farm’s planting and harvesting will step in and take over as the family’s sixth generation.

Making the transition easier and putting the best interest of the farm first, Preder has had a full-time job away from the farm at a steel mill in Saukville since 1997.

“My heart is really in the farm, but the health insurance, the 401(k) with matching funds for retirement, those are the things you look at because I want to hand this down to the next generation. My son would really love to step in but I know that at today’s land prices he couldn’t buy us out,” Preder says. “So you out of the goodness of your heart, hand it over to him. You can’t be greedy when it’s a family operation.”

Where To Buy

Jeff-Leen sells eggs, chicken and beef products at several Wisconsin farmers’ markets. They are at the Fox Point, downtown West Bend and Sheboygan Farmers’ Markets on Saturdays, and in the winter at the Milwaukee County Winter Farmers’ Market and Sheboygan Winter Farmers’ Market.

Preder encourages the public to come out to the farm and purchase products as well. He says he’ll be glad to show the public around and answer any questions. Just remember to call ahead of time.

“We’ll have people come to the farm and pick up numerous cuts of meat from us. We have individual steaks, roasts and we encourage people to come to farm and buy it because it’s cheaper for them. Anytime we go to the farmers market, its going to cost more because we have to pay the market fees, we have transportation, we have coolers and freezers, and those are the things we have to add cost to and it has to be paid for.”

The farm accepts phone-in orders, can take cash and check payments, as well as debit, credit cards, and also accepts EBT/food stamps at its farm and at markets.

Besides selling to the public, Jeff-Leen also works directly with many local chefs and restaurants. Jeff-Leen is part of Chef David Swanson’s Braise RSA that supplies many Wisconsin restaurants, and supplies the Oconomowoc Lake Club, La Reve in Milwaukee, as well as La Merenda, to name a few.

Customer Appreciation Day

Sept. 16, 2012, is Jeff-Leen’s 9th Customer Appreciation Day. The farm will have live music, food, refreshments, local cheeses, hay rides, and much more.

This is an opportunity to get up-close and personal with the Preder family farm and see the operation first-hand.

“We’re not trying to hide anything from customers. That I think is so important to people. We’ll show exactly what we got going on,” says Preder. “It may not be the most modern facility, but we enjoy what we’re doing and we’re trying to provide customers with as much of a wholesome product as we can.”

Jeff-Leen Farm
Jeff and Kathleen Preder
N254 Highway I
Random Lake, WI 53075
Phone: (920) 994-9502
Email: jeff@jeffleenfarm.com
Website: http://jeffleenfarm.com/

Chalet Cheese Cooperative

Chalet Cheese Cooperative in Monroe, Wis., is managed by master cheesemaker and America’s last traditional Limburger maker, Myron Olson.

By Nick

Dubbed the “king of the stinky cheese,” Chalet Cheese Cooperative in Monroe, Wis., is America’s only producer of Limburger, the famous surface-ripened cheese with a pungent aroma. In fact, the 127-year-old company owned by 21 dairy farmers in Green County, produces and ships 500,000 pounds of the stinky cheese annually across the country.

Limburger bricks are hand washed with a B-linen bacteria solution and are turned twice over a seven-day period.

Managed by master cheesemaker and America’s last traditional Limburger maker since 1992, Myron Olson has been making cheese for the last 43 years. At Chalet, he manages 24 employees and mentors eight licensed cheesemakers. Since the 1930s, Olson is just the third manager at Chalet.

Made the old-fashioned, labor-intensive way as it was over a century ago, Limburger is a cheese that originated in Belgium. Once formed, the individual pieces of cheese, which are molded into the shape and size of small bricks, are laid side-by-side on specially cured pine boards. Bacteria grows on the pine boards and it inoculates the cheese and protects it from other bacteria that could grow.

Chalet Cheese is America’s only producer of Limburger.

Kept in Chalet’s cool and moist cellar, the white Limburger bricks are hand washed with a B-linen bacteria solution and are turned twice over a seven-day period. During this time, the bacteria introduced on the surface of the cheese ripens the cheese from the outside in and begins Limburger’s transformation into a buttery, pungent, aromatic cheese when fully aged. Finally, each piece of cheese is hand-wrapped in parchment and waxed paper and readied for shipping.

In addition to its notorious flagship Limburger, Chalet also produces national and international award-winning Swiss, Natural Smoked Swiss, Baby Swiss, German Brick, Muenster and petite Muenster, as well as traditional Cheddar cheese varieties.

Chalet Cheese Cooperative
N4868 Highway N
Monroe, WI 53566
Phone: (608) 325-4343
Find them on Facebook

Hook’s Cheese

Tony Hook, owner of Hook’s Cheese in Mineral Point, Wis.

There aren’t many husband and wife combos in Wisconsin who are married to cheesemaking like Tony and Julie Hook. With over 70 years of cheesemaking experience between them, the owners of Hook’s Cheese Company in Mineral Point, Wis., take pride in producing 40-plus varieties of cheese that consumers across the state of Wisconsin have come to appreciate.

A supporter of family farms, Hook’s purchases all of its milk from small dairy farmers in the Mineral Point area.

Tony and Julie formed Hook’s Cheese Company in 1976 and began producing Cheddar and Swiss cheeses. In 1980, they expanded into Colby, Monterey Jack, some flavored Jacks and Marble Jack.

Julie Hook is the only woman in the history of cheesemaking to win the World Championship.

In 1982, Julie’s Colby won the “Best of Class” award in the World Cheese Championship. It was also judged the “Finest Cheese in the World,” defeating 482 other entries from 14 states and sixteen countries. To date, Julie is the only woman in the history of cheesemaking to win the World Championship.

In 1987 Hook’s outgrew its rural Mineral Point cheese factory and moved into a larger facility in the historic “Shake Rag” district of scenic Mineral Point. The new home, which was built into the hills of Mineral Point over 150 years ago during the area’s mining era, has allowed Hook’s to store and cure larger quantities of cheese.

Hook’s curing caves are temperature-controlled, which allows for a slow curing process. Every few months each batch is taste-tested to ensure that only the highest quality cheeses are saved to age.

Known for their moist and creamy aged Cheddars, they have Cheddars that go from one year all the way to 15 years. In 2015, they’ll have a 20-year Cheddar available. In 2006, the 10 year cheddar won first place from the American Cheese Society.

Blue Cheese being aged.

In 1997, Hook’s began producing Blue Cheese. The cave to cure the blue is kept at a higher temperature and a high humidity to allow the blue mold to develop. In 2001, the company began making Gorgonzola. In 2004, the company developed two new blue-veined cheeses – Tilston Point, a drier, washed-rined blue, and Blue Paradise, a double-cream blue.

Hook’s currently sells over 40 varieties of cheese. Besides aged cheddar, they also produce several varieties of Swiss and blue cheese. Three newer cheeses are Little Boy Blue (took first place at the 2011 American Cheese Society Competition and third place in the 2010 World Cheese Championship), Bloomin’ Idiot, a mild creamy cheese that is Blue only on the outside, and Red Errigal, a sheep’s and cow’s mixed-milk cheese that is a mild and somewhat sweet cheese.

Hook’s Cheese Company, Inc.
320 Commerce Street
Mineral Point, WI 53565
Website: http://www.hookscheese.com/index.html
Phone: (608) 987-3259
Email: hookscheese@yahoo.com

Andy Hatch, cheesemaker and manager of Uplands Cheese Co., in Dodgeville, Wis.

By Nick

A common adage among Wisconsin cheesemakers is that happy cows produce better milk, and that better milk makes a better cheese. Uplands Cheese Company in Dodgeville, Wis., takes it a few steps further. The farmstead, managed by cheesemaker Andy Hatch, operates on the belief that great fields for happy cows leads to even greater milk, and that milk paired with great cheesemaking leads to highly decorated and award-winning artisan cheeses.

Home to 300 acres of rolling landscape in the Driftless region of southwestern Wisconsin, Uplands uses an old-world model lifted from the French and Swiss Alps, where it produces cheese with fresh, unpasteurized milk from its own cows. In order to produce artisanal cheeses that boast unique flavor complexities, special attention is paid to what the suppliers of the milk are fed.

Happy Cows

The location of the farm, coupled with the nearly 40 inches of rain it receives annually, is ideal for growing a diverse range of grasses, legumes and herbs. It’s this steady diet that the farm’s nearly 150-cow herd feeds on from spring until the final days of autumn, giving Uplands a high quality milk. In order to ensure the herd is getting its proper nutrients each day, the farm rotationally grazes the cows in 20 different pastures and never in the same field for consecutive days. Moving the cows from one pasture to the next allows the cows to feast on new patches of grass and legumes, while allowing the previous day’s pasture to rest and recover.

Uplands’ cows are rotationally grazed on 300 acres of pasture.

Managing a closed herd, the farm only uses its own bulls and raises its own calves. It does not purchase cows from outside the herd. In fact, Uplands crossbreeds nine different types of cows. Because the cows spend their life outside grazing pasture, Uplands’ cows need to have athletic and robust characteristics. As a result, the farm breeds less for size and more for mobility and efficiency in converting grass into milk. The farm has found success crossbreeding larger breeds like Holsteins and Brown Swiss with smaller breeds such as Jersey and Tarentaise, says Hatch, cheesemaker and general manager at Uplands.

“We’re after a few things with our cows. Physically that they’re outside grazing all the time,” Hatch says. “We’re also looking for a flavor complexity. Different breeds of cows give different kinds of milk. They have different fats and proteins. The other end is the flavor you can develop in your cheeses is how those fats and proteins are broken down in the aging process.So our thinking is the more complexity you begin with in your milk supply, the more flavor complexity is available. It’s a luxury and we can approach it like that because we use the milk just from one herd. If someone is buying milk, they can’t pick and choose. But everything we do here, how we breed the cows, how we manage the farm, how we age the cheese, it’s all aimed at flavor complexity.”

Cheese is placed on racks and is moved into the ripening rooms.

Uplands’ philosophy is that its herd should go through a natural calving pattern, so the cows have their calves in the spring and are allowed to go dry throughout the winter, meaning they don’t get milked. This allows them to build body reserves for next year’s calves. As a result, cheesemaking does not occur in the winter months.

“It’s the old school way of dairy farming and it’s a natural way of farming,” says Hatch. “A cow is meant to have her baby in the spring when there’s abundant food and then hibernate when she’s pregnant in the winter. It’s not practical for most dairy farms but because our focus here is that grass-fed milk in the summer, we’re able to make it work.”

Hatch says the cows are milked seasonally in the spring, summer and fall, twice a day, once in the morning and once at night.

“We don’t get very much milk out of our cows,” he says. “A holstein kept in a barn fed hay and corn will give you 100 pounds of milk a day. We get about half of that out of our cows. It’s because they’re eating only grass and their genetics aren’t geared towards volume. The volume is much smaller and the flavor properties are much different.”

From May through October, while its cows are grazing fresh pasture, Uplands is busy making its highly decorated Pleasant Ridge Reserve, a hard cheese made in the tradition of coveted Alpine cheeses like Gruyere and Beaufort.

Cheesemaking

The traditional practice in cheesemaking was to make cheese on the farm using milk that was as fresh as possible. That’s exactly what Uplands does. Moments after the morning milking is done in the barn (which is 10 yards from the creamery), the milk is pumped directly into the cheese vats in the make room and the cheese making begins.

“It’s pretty much straight out of the cow,” says Hatch. “We don’t pasteurize it or homogenize it or anything, it’s about as fresh as you can get. We get more flavor complexity out of raw milk.”

Pleasant Ridge Reserve cheese forms

Making Pleasant Ridge Reserve takes Hatch about six hours and the last step is to put the curd into forms. The cheese gets pressed over night and the next day the 10-pound wheels are removed from the forms, salted and placed on racks where they are then moved into the ripening rooms. Here, the cheese is hand-washed every two days in a brine solution, which encourages the development of certain cultures on the cheese rinds. These cultures, along with the micro flora that is indigenous to its unpasteurized milk, develop flavors in the cheese over time. And as the cheese ages, the flavors become more complex and concentrated.

Hatch says the cheese is aged a minimum of four months, and after 12 months it’s considered extra aged and is sold at a somewhat higher price.

“A large part of our work is ripening it and deciding if we can sell it,” says Hatch. “Each batch is a little different. We use raw milk, so each day cows are in different pastures the milk can be variable. It’s just a part of working with raw milk. So the name of the game is how do you ripen each batch differently and how do you sell it at its peak. It’s almost like dealing with different vintages of wine.”

By the time the cheese wheels are shipped across the country, they get turned and washed an average of 60 times. In fact, it takes more labor to age the cheese than it takes to make it. Hatch says washing rinds rarely occurs today because of all the labor it requires, but doing it this old fashioned way creates wonderful flavors during the maturation stage.

Cheese is hand-washed every two days in a brine solution.

The results have spoke volumes. In 2001, 2005 and 2010, Pleasant Ridge Reserve was named “Best of Show” at the American Cheese Society competitions, and is the only cheese to have ever received the honor more than once. It was also named U.S. Grand Champion at the 2003 U.S. Cheese Championships, making it the only cheese to have ever won both of the national competitions.

Building on the success with its Pleasant Ridge Reserve cheese, Uplands began producing its other highly-coveted cheese, Rush Creek Reserve, in the autumn of 2010. Previously, the farm always sold its milk to another cheesemaker in the autumn when the cows start transitioning to eating hay because the milk produced is less than ideal for Pleasant Ridge.

Instead of producing a hard cheese like Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Rush Creek Reserve, which is made from September to mid-November, is a soft cheese that, since being produced, is a hot commodity across the country.

“We like to say that Pleasant Creek is made in the pastures and Rush Creek is made in the caves,” says Hatch. “The flavor that you find in Pleasant Ridge is very much a product of the inherent complexity of the milk itself. Rush Creek on the other hand develops its flavor much more through the ripening process and the yeast, the molds and the microflora.”

Rush Creek Reserve is designed to show off the richer texture of the hay-fed milk and the delicate ripeness of a soft, young cheese. Made with unpasteurized milk, it is aged side-by-side Pleasant Ridge in the ripening rooms. It’s a smaller wheel, weighing 12 ounces, roughly an inch thick and wrapped in spruce bark.

Hatch says Rush Creek Reserve is inspired by the French Vacherin Mont d’Or, and is bound in spruce bark, which gives shape to the soft round and imparts a sweet, woodsy flavor to the cheese.

Pleasant Ridge Reserve in its early stages.

“Rush Creek’s flavor is a product of how its ripened, what molds are growing on the rind,” says Hatch. “The idea is you’re working with less flavorful milk, so you have to generate flavor somewhere else.”

The savory flavors born from the rind gives Rush Creek’s custard-soft paste a deep but delicate richness, reminiscent of beef broth or finely cured meat. Hatch says it’s best enjoyed by removing the top crust and scooping the cheese with a spoon or a nice crusty bread.

The award-winning cheeses that Hatch produces at Uplands is coveted in households and restaurants from coast to coast. In fact, the cheesemaker, who says he stumbled into the profession, says the company’s biggest market is San Francisco, followed by New York and then Chicago.

City boy turned cheesemaker

Growing up in Whitefish Bay, Wis., Hatch’s family was not a farming family. But somehow, he was always attracted to the profession. In the early 2000s, he began working for a corn breeder at the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute in East Troy, Wis. But corn breeding wasn’t an ideal job for Hatch who was looking to go a different direction.

In a rather strange turn of events, Hatch was whisked into cheesemaking.

“The corn breeder I was working for had married into a Norwegian cheesemaking family, and right about the time I was getting ready to leave his lab, his elderly father-in-law in Norway died and he sent me over there to help out,” Hatch recalls.

While in Norway Hatch was taught how to make cheese. He then spent a couple years in Europe apprenticing for a few different cheesemakers. Upon returning to the states, Hatch decided to enroll at the University of Wisconsin to study dairy science. He then apprenticed with a couple cheesemakers near Madison and became a licensed cheesemaker. It was in 2007, when he was hired by Uplands’ owners Mike and Carol Gingrich and Dan and Jeanne Patenaude to head the operations.

Pigs

On top of raising a herd of dairy cows and cheesemaking, Uplands also raises pigs. In fact, it sells about 50 Berkshire pigs, which are pasture-raised, yearly to restaurants in Wisconsin.

“We fatten our pigs on whey – whatever is not incorporated into the curd from the milk,” ” says Hatch. “They go nuts over the whey. Most of the lactose is still sent out in the waste, which is sweet, sugary, and they just go [crazy] over it. They’ll drink five gallons a head a day.”

When the farm gets the pigs in the spring each year they are about 35 pounds. When they get butchered in November, they’re 400 pounds.

“That’s like 180 days and like 350 pounds,” says Hatch. “We finish them on acorns because there are a lot of oak trees around here. And then we sell them to chefs.”

Hatch says the pigs are sold to restaurants such as Sanford Restaurant, Rumpus Room and Lake Park Bistro in the Milwaukee area and to L’Etoile in Madison.

“The fat in this pork tastes like maple syrup. All of the sweetness in the whey gets concentrated in the fat,” Hatch says. “The fat is like three inches, it’s really amazing.”

Uplands Cheese Company, Inc.
5023 State Rd. 23 North
Dodgeville, WI 53533
Phone: (888) 935-5558
Email: contact@uplandscheese.com
Website: www.uplandscheese.com

Watch our “On the Farm” video with Tim Huth and April Yuds, owners of LotFotl Community farm on YouTube.

By Nick

Don’t confuse the name of Tim Huth’s farm, LotFotl, for a text message abbreviation. There’s actually a meaning behind the tongue-tying, six-letter name. LotFotl, which rhymes with “tot bottle,” is an acronym that Huth, a former sociology major turned farmer, crafted based on the phrase “living off the fat of the land.”

When Huth enrolled at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wis., in 1999, he knew he wanted to help people in some fashion. He just didn’t know that it would eventually lead him to farming. The seed to becoming an organic vegetable farmer was planted by a group of farmers who came to speak to his class on the importance of local food.

Inspired by the farmers, Huth started growing vegetables on his porch and rented small garden lots. He also began working at Good Harvest Market in Waukesha, a grocery store that sources from local farmers. Working on a community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm in Whitewater was his next stop. It was in 2007, while working on the farm, that he was encouraged to attend classes and workshops at the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute in East Troy. Soon thereafter Huth was given a proposal he couldn’t refuse – he was asked to take part in Michael Fields’ business incubator program.

Through the incubator program, LotFotl Community Farm was born and Huth was molded into a farmer. During the four years of running a successful CSA on leased land at Michael Fields, Huth also learned business planning, financial analysis and feasibility, debt management, and received basic administrative mentoring on how to run a farm.

Huth and his electric tractor.

“You move there, you have a business plan to some degree and some level of competency. They allow you to establish business there using their equipment and their land, and your first year you get a pretty decent price,” Huth says. “Your rent price is slightly subsidized and your equipment use isn’t all that expensive. And then gradually over time, they want you to leave there so they raise the prices more to full and you’re encouraged to find another place.”

In April 2011 Huth left Michael Fields and moved LotFotl to historic Quinney Farm, a 144-year-old farm (1868) located at W7036 Quinney Rd., in Elkhorn. It’s here, where the farmer in his early 30s, alongside girlfriend April Yuds, is managing 20 acres of produce that sources 350 CSA households, as well as grocery stores, restaurants, and farmers’ markets across southeastern Wisconsin.

Moving On Up

2011 was the first year LotFotl wasn’t operating on land leased from Michael Fields. That meant the farm had to essentially start over with a clean slate. On top of moving, Huth had new land to learn, new loans for equipment purchases, and new elements to fight.

The location of Quinney Farm is notorious for high tail-end winds, so planting crops in the first year was a trial and error process. Because of the high winds, Huth says LotFotl isn’t able to start growing many of its crops in the fields. Instead, the farm does a lot of transplanting from its several greenhouses on the property or risks raising unharvestable crops.

Transplants inside one of LotFotl’s hoop houses.

“We used to just try and transplant on overcast days or early or late in the day because the sun can beat them up,” says Huth. “But now, we have to play against high wind. Last year we planted three-quarters of an acre of broccoli and we planted on the right day, it was cool, and the next day it wasn’t all that hot but it was seriously windy and the plants were wind stressed.”

A new location also meant getting the farm up to speed and ready for the first CSA delivery. That meant transforming the barn, which previously was set up for a dairy farm, into a workable area for washing and packing produce. It also involved installing a large walk-in cooler, which was ready just in the nick of time for the 2011 CSA season.

2012 is a new year and a new season, however, and with one year under his belt, Huth plans on improving the operations the best way he can through learned and shared knowledge.

A first generation farmer in his early 30s, Huth is learning what works and what doesn’t work with each passing day. Although he doesn’t have anyone to turn to for advice when something on the farm doesn’t go as planned, he says he has befriended other Wisconsin CSA farmers that he can exchange ideas with.

Because he understands that farming is a lot of work, Huth delegates his otherwise 15-hour a day workload in the fields appropriately to the farm’s six employees. He has made it a goal to train his employees on areas he has perfected, while freeing up time to focus on other areas he would like to improve.

“My work has really shifted. I used to like weeding. Now I delegate weeding out,” Huth says. “So now I took on harvesting. I can put together a bunch of radishes really fast. But now this year I’m not going to harvest anything. I’m going to delegate that out and I’m going to train it. Now I need to learn how to drive tractors better and cultivate better. That’s one thing that’s interesting about this line of work. Your role just constantly changes. There’s so much to learn and I don’t have anybody out here to teach me, so I have to fight my way through it and figure it out.”

LotFotl’s CSA

LotFotl offers a 26-week CSA season. In 2012, the CSA season began on May 31 and goes up until the week of Thanksgiving. The farm supplies 80-plus varieties of produce to fulfill 350 shares, of which, 325 are paid families. The rest are worker shares, where community members work four hours a week for a full size share of produce.

Hoop houses allow LotFotl to run a 26-week CSA.

LotFotl offers two different size shares: a smaller share (Small/Staple), which is a smaller box that has 26 weekly deliveries, and a larger share (Full/Gonzo) with 26 weekly deliveries. Customers also have the option of a large every other week share (Full E/O/ See Saw).

By providing different size shares, LotFotl is making it a goal to evolve its CSA so it’s accessible and fits just about any household.

“Our staple share, we’ll restrict the amount of produce that goes in it so it works for busy people that didn’t come from a family that cooked like mad and knows how to cook,” says Huth. “They just want onions, carrots, simple stuff in an amount that they can get through without having to throw it away or compost it.”

The farm currently offers 13 pickup sites in southeastern Wisconsin, as well as on the farm. The farm also has open hours on Sunday to purchase produce from its walk-in cooler.

CSA deliveries also can include more than just vegetables. LotFotl teams up with livestock farmer John Hall, who also rents land on Quinney Farm to sell free-range grass-fed beef and pork. Currently, customers can place beef orders for a half, a quarter or a 25 pound box. Pork will be available for sale in the fall. LotFotl also purchases broiler chickens and eggs from other local farmers and makes them available in shares as well. The farm also sells Bolzano Artisan Meats.

Fruit is sourced from Michigan and this year, the farm is hoping it is able to find certified organic growers. The fruit purchases are from farms that are having a hard time going to market. The farm also sells maple syrup from Wisconsin.

Honey Bee Sanctuary

Yuds stands among seven of the nine hives that make up LotFotl’s bee sanctuary.

Besides the 80-plus varieties of vegetables that are grown on the farm, a select product, honey, comes from the farm’s sustainable Honey Bee Sanctuary, managed by Yuds, who is in her fourth season keeping bees.

The bees are given biodynamic teas in the spring and the fall and are allowed to forage in locations on the farm that are free of commercial chemicals and pesticides. Yuds says the honey is not seen as a commodity on the farm, but rather a gift shared by our domestic bee friends. Currently, Yuds is managing nine different hives. On June 2, she hosted the farm’s second annual bee blessing and looks forward to educating the public on the importance of sustainable beekeeping.

“We’re hoping to make the blessing of the bees into an annual event,” says Yuds. “This year we really wanted to make people more aware of what we do out here, besides grow vegetables.”

Find LotFotl At These Markets, Grocers and Restaurants

Along with its 350 member CSA, LotFotl sells to Braise RSA, which supplies many Milwaukee-area restaurants, Beans and Barley on the east side in Milwaukee, Good Harvest Market in Waukesha, Sweet Water Organics in Milwaukee, and also sets up shop all season at the South Shore Farmers’ Market in Bay View. The farm also has plans to make a few appearances at farmers’ markets closer to their home base in Elkhorn and Delavan in 2012, but not for a full season.

“It is difficult to have our food run down Hwy 43 away from the community,” says Huth. “And we’re new here so it’s somewhat to be expected. But April is really pushing to try to set some better roots here. And a lot of the people out here are more receptive to what we’re doing.”

LotFotl Community Farm
W7036 Quinney Rd., Elkhorn, WI 53121
Phone: (920) 318-3800
or (262) 951-0794
E-mail: april@lotfotl.com
Website: www.lotfotl.com
Follow LotFotl on Facebook and
on Twitter.

Watch our “On the Farm” video with David Kozlowski, owner of Pinehold Gardens, on YouTube.

By Nick

Most people call David Kozlowski and Sandra Raduenz crazy for leaving their full-time corporate jobs for a life focused on growing organic vegetables. But the owners of Pinehold Gardens in Oak Creek, Wis., say they wouldn’t trade it for the world.

“We gave up paid vacations, we gave up good insurance plans and jobs we liked,” says David, a former magazine editor, who alongside his wife Sandra, retired into farming in their 40s. “But this is something we knew we wanted to do and this is something that we had an opportunity to do. It sounds trite and it sounds kind of 60s-ish, but we both really did want to make the world a little better place and we both weren’t getting that satisfaction or meeting that sort of goal in our other jobs. So we switched to this and we think we’re doing a little bit of that by producing organic food for people that seem to appreciate it and want it.”

David and Sandra didn’t start farming until the mid-1990s – the same time they jumpstarted their own community supported agriculture (CSA) program. The couple used a small portion of the land they previously rented for 14 years at 1807 E. Elm Rd., in Oak Creek, as well as two other small areas of land in southeastern Wisconsin to grow produce for their CSA program.

But as their CSA member shares began to outgrow their available land to harvest, the couple decided it was time to quit their full-time jobs and pursue ownership of the 21 acres of farmland in the shadows of Milwaukee. But with a price tag of nearly $1 million, David and Sandra’s aspirations were shot down initially because they couldn’t afford the high price tag of the property. So, they began a search for their own farm that took them all across the state.

“We couldn’t find a farm. It was too expensive in the southwest, it was too expensive in northern Wisconsin, it was too expensive in Door County,” says David. “Every place we went to, land prices had skyrocketed. They went from $200 to $2,000 per acre basically overnight.”

Pinehold Garden’s staple crop is garlic. Nearly 13,000 heads of garlic (12 different varieties) are planted by hand annually.

After a number of years searching for a place of their own, they were back to square one. Feeling a bit rejected, David and Sandra refocused their efforts on the farmland they had been calling home in Oak Creek. Their plan of attack resorted to penning letters, writing e-mails and sending the owner of the property a book on a man who started an urban farm in Los Angeles.

“We said, ‘this is what we want to be, we want to be near the city, we want to bring people out here, we want the kids to come out here.’ It was a hard sell,” says David. “We did that for about a year or so and then we pitched them again.”

The couple also upped their offer.

“We basically said, ‘we can pay $200,000 for this property,’” David recalls. “The [previous owners] said, ‘we like what you’re doing, it’s yours.’ So they took a big loss. They had paid $110,000 for it and that was supposed to be their nest egg.”

In December 2003, David and Sandra officially became owners of Pinehold Gardens. Today, the small organic farm landlocked by a newly-built sprawling Oak Creek suburb with supermarkets and big box stores, serves as one of the few reminders of the type of hard work it takes to produce good food.

Learning the Roots of Farming

Stewards for the slow food movement and sustainable agriculture in Wisconsin, David and Sandra have made it a goal to stay committed to providing the freshest, highest quality produce, and educating the public on healthy food options. Although Pinehold Gardens is not a certified organic farm, David and Sandra stress that they only rely on cover crops for fertilization, and avoid using any pesticides or herbicides.

Before starting their own CSA program in 1995, David and Sandra were gardeners that had no prior background in farming. Everything that they have learned over the last 18 years has been either self-taught through hands-on experience, reading books on farming, attending educational conferences, as well as sharing best practices with the close-knit network of organic farmers in Wisconsin.

In May of 2005, the farm installed a photovoltaic solar panel.

“There’s so much sharing of knowledge that there is very little reinvention of the wheel,” says David. “Every year you learn something new. You’re picking up something, you’re picking it up from another farmer, or you’re learning it on your own farm.”

David says every day on the farm is a new learning experience. David and Sandra take it as a challenge, while at the same time are constantly searching for sustainable methods to improve their operations, their land and the produce they grow.

The greatest resource they have on the farm is the sun. The sun not only helps grow their crops, but it also produces the electricity on the farm.

A member of the Midwest Renewable Energy Association for 20 years, David is a huge proponent for renewable energy. So first on David’s mind when they bought the farm, next to getting the land ready for planting, was putting in a renewable energy system. Initially he says he was going to put a wind generator in, but things just worked better for them to go to photovoltaics. So, in May of 2005, the farm installed a photovoltaic solar panel, a 2.5-kilowatt dual-axis tracker that generates electricity by converting solar radiation. They then followed that up in October 2008 by adding a larger second system that is 2.7 kilowatts and is mounted to the roof of the tool shed.

In October 2008, the farm added its second solar panel.

“What that has meant for us is savings in electricity,” says David, who has become a solar pioneer in southeastern Wisconsin. “Being a farm, we’re running wells, we’re running walk-in coolers, and then of course all of the household appliances and things like that. Last year we had a net positive electric account with WE Energies where they actually paid us $200. We had no electrical bill and made $200. So that’s a significant savings for us.”

David says a financial move was never their goal with the installation of the solar panels.

“Our intent was always to do what we thought was the right thing,” says David. “We wanted to produce energy with the sun and we wanted to supply that energy to ourselves and our neighbors. That was our first priority and to put less carbon in the air. The fact that we’re making money at it and the fact that the systems are actually paying for themselves, that’s the icing on the cake.”

Walking around the farm, there’s no shortage of experiments going on. This spring, David and Sandra have begun a new endeavor where they carved out vegetable beds that are 100-foot long, 4 foot wide, with strips of grass in between.

Pinehold’s mobile greenhouse

“What that means is I have less to cultivate, so I’m using less gas except for the mower to mow the grass down,” says David. “And then in two years it will get reversed. Then we should get good black ground. It’s an experiment. We don’t know if it’s going to work or how it’s going to work.”

Another undertaking on the farm recently has been its 30×75 foot mobile greenhouse that runs on rails like a train. Currently, it has the option to be moved in three different positions in the field.

“We can move it over crops rather than trying to grow the crops inside the greenhouse,” says David. “Nobody around here is doing it yet, so we’re the guinea pigs. But I’m convinced it’s going to be really useful.”

David has devised a two year plan that details each move and what types of produce the mobile greenhouse will help yield. His hope is that the greenhouse will be a source in helping supply more produce to the public year-round.

Produce, Bees, Chickens, and Peaches

Pinehold currently grows over 40 different fruits and vegetables, and in some cases has dozens of varieties of some items. The staple crop on the farm is garlic. Nearly 13,000 heads of garlic (12 different varieties) are planted by hand annually. While Pinehold takes advantage of the plant vigor and production quality of hybrid vegetable

Pinehold raises free-range heritage breed chickens.

varieties, it also seeks to preserve the genetic diversity and exquisite flavor of select heirloom varieties. The farm grows a number of items that have been recognized by the Slow Food Ark of Taste, a program that prevents the extinction of food and promotes them in the marketplace.

Besides growing fruits and vegetables, Pinehold also raises chickens on its land. The farm raises free-range heritage breed chickens, including Java, Ameraucana, Barred Plymouth Rock, Delaware, and Silver Laced Wyandottes, in a pasture lined with fruit trees and black currant bushes. In this pasture, the chickens feast on an assortment of clover, grass and insects. The chickens also get a nice supply of organic feed that consists of corn, soybean and flax. The flock produces a dozen to 18 eggs a day.

The farm also has several hives of Italian honey bees. David says the bees not only are used to pollinate the many crops, but as an added incentive, each hive produces 100 to 125 pounds of honey.

Peaches, the Ossabaw Island Hog, is the official farm greeter.

One of several family pets, Peaches, the Ossabaw Island Hog, is the official farm greeter. She is a rare heritage breed and descendant of pigs released by Spanish explorers on Ossabaw Island off the coast of Georgia (hence the name, Peaches) over 400 years ago. She was born at the turn of this century, coming to the farm by way of Old World Wisconsin. When she’s not busy munching on her pile of food scraps provided by area restaurants, she enjoys belly-rubs in the sun and chatting it up with visitors.

Pinehold Gardens’ CSA

Pinehold’s 16-week CSA share begins in mid-July and ends in late-October, with deliveries on Wednesdays (2012 shares are still available). Pick-up sites are in Cudahy, Oak Creek, Racine, Bay View, Greenfield, Milwaukee, Shorewood, Wauwatosa, and on the farm. A weekly newsletter keeps customers up to date on the farm as well as providing recipes and food preservation techniques from a Milwaukee area chef.

Since the farm’s CSA starts after the sugar snap pea and strawberry season, Pinehold gives CSA members the opportunity to U-Pick a certain amount of those items for free. The CSA share also includes a U-Pick of 10 pounds of tomatoes.

In addition, CSA members are offered a 10 percent discount on “Market Dollars.” The use of Market Dollars is an opportunity for customers to supplement the CSA box with fresh produce of their choice any week during the 2012 market season at the South Shore Farmers Market, at Pinhold’s farm stand, and at the Milwaukee County Winter Farmers Market.

CSA members and the community are also invited to the farm’s annual open house celebration, the End of Summer Harvest Festival, which will be held on Aug. 26, 2012.

Pinehold currently grows over 40 different fruits and vegetables.

Instead of paying the lump sum for a box of produce, Pinehold offers a limited number of worker shares. A worker share is an exchange of labor for a CSA membership. Worker shares receive a box of fruits and vegetables as a result of working four hours per week. The majority of the worker share hours are Tuesday mornings from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sandra says a worker share commits to a shift and works that shift for the entire season. All shifts are 16 weeks long for a total of 64 hours. The early season begins May 15th and the late season begins July 10th. The farm’s worker shares are full for the 2012 season, but schedules change, so Pinehold encourages the public to send them an e-mail and get on a wait list for possible openings.

“Because this is a job, we expect people to come on their shift every week. They have to make up their time and plan it and tell me ahead of time if they’re not going to be there,” says Sandra.

For those unable to meet the financial obligations of being a CSA member and are unable to partake in the worker share program, Pinehold offers an Assistance Fund. The fund is used to partially offset the difference in what a member is able to pay and the cost of a membership. In 2012, the farm is offering up to $100 off a membership. Flexible payment options are also available. For more information about Pinehold’s CSA program, visit the farm’s website.

How to buy from Pinehold Gardens

Pinehold currently sells its produce at the South Shore Farmers’ Market, through its CSA, and sells produce on the farm at its farm stand (2-6 p.m. Saturdays during the CSA season).

Each Italian honey bee hive produces 100 to 125 pounds of honey.

Pinehold’s produce is also found on the menu at several well-known area restaurants in Southeastern Wisconsin. These include La Merenda and Juniper 61. The farm also supplies MATC Cuisine and Oconomowoc Lake Club, among others.

“We like working with the restaurants, but it’s not the name of the restaurant or the popularity that matters to us,” says David. “The only things that matter to us are the chef, we need to bond with them, they need to understand us, we need to understand them, and the menu.”

Bonding with the chef means having a close interaction and understanding of exactly what type of produce is wanted for a particular dish. David and Sandra take pride in the food they grow, so they want to ensure that all of the produce they supply to local restaurants is being used in its entirety.

“That’s the other thing we like about chefs,” says Sandra. ‘A good chef is a cheap chef. He’s not going to waste anything.”

Pinehold Gardens

Sandra Raduenz and David Kozlowski
1807 E. Elm Road
Oak Creek, WI 53154
Phone: (414) 762-1301
E-mail: info@pineholdgardens.com
Website: http://www.pineholdgardens.com

Watch our ‘On the Farm” video with Eric Rose, owner of River Valley Ranch & Kitchens on YouTube.

By Nick

Operating a year-round mushroom farm, overseeing a commercial kitchen, and planning for 30-plus farmers’ markets every year results in a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and a whole lot of mushrooms. Just ask Eric Rose, it’s in his job description as the owner of the oldest commercial mushroom farm in the Midwest, River Valley Ranch & Kitchens in Burlington, Wis.

Even though he has experienced a fair share of ups and downs during the last 36 years of mushroom farming, Rose says he would have it no other way. In fact, every day that he steps foot on his 37-acre farm, he is carrying on his late father Bill’s vision of growing the finest mushrooms in the Midwest.

As a former restaurant owner in Chicago, Bill always had a tough time finding quality mushrooms for dishes on his menu. As a result, he purchased farm land in Southeastern Wis., and formed River Valley Ranch in 1976 with the impetus of providing the highest quality mushrooms to restaurants and markets. Just a few months later, Bill took Eric under his wing. Quickly thereafter, Eric was hooked and was soon tasked with running the operational side of the farm.

“I just found the whole process fascinating,” says Eric. “I really was drawn to it.”

When the farm was founded in 1976, Eric says there were 800 mushroom farms in the United States. Now, he estimates that there are less than 100; mostly in the state of Pennsylvania. What once was a two-man operation that only cultivated white button mushrooms, now employs 40 people, harvests five different certified organic mushroom varieties a week, and also grows 10 acres of pesticide and chemical free vegetables.

Mushroom Growing

Following the tenets of organic farming, River Valley grows five varieties of mushrooms (portabella, crimini, white button, shiitake, and oyster) year round in its five growing houses. In these dark mushroom houses where temperature, humidity and airflow are carefully controlled, the farm harvests nearly 7,000 pounds of mushrooms on a weekly basis – all picked by hand.

Mushroom beds in one of River Valley’s growing houses.

In each house, mushrooms begin growing in 40-ton batches of compost, produced on the farm using sustainable methods. Every 10 days the farm is supplied with 30 tons of fresh stable bedding. The farm uses this as a base for its compost, which is produced on an ongoing basis. The compost is a mixture of straw-bedded horse manure, a few different protein supplements, non-GMO soybean meal, a poultry fertilizer, gypsum, and calcium phosphate. In the beginning stage, the compost is a bright yellow wheat straw. Two weeks later, it breaks down into a dark aromatic blend that is then packed into mushroom growing trays.

Rose grows all of the white buttons, portabellas and crimini mushrooms in trays. One crop represents 176 growing trays, 22 square feet each. The trays are stacked four high just like bunk beds. After the trays are filled with compost, they get moved into a temperature controlled room for pasteurization. Pasteurization occurs as the temperature of the compost is regulated to 140 degrees for a period of seven or eight days. When the process is complete, the material gets cooled down and then the mushroom culture is introduced, says Rose.

From there, the mushrooms go through a 20-day incubation period where the temperatures are maintained to encourage mycilium, a lacy white filament, to grow. Eventually when the crop starts showing some maturity, the environment is changed, which stimulates the mushroom myclium to reproduce. Rose says it’s similar to how green plants sense and respond to daylight.

Compost is prepared on site.

“Because mushrooms are not light sensitive, they don’t have that trigger, but basically if everything is done well, we see mushrooms 10 days later and pick two cycles after a 14 day period,” says Rose.

After two cycles of mushrooms have been picked, the trays are emptied, the houses are sterilized with steam, and the process starts over again.

The 40 tons of compost does not go to waste either. The farm packages it and sells it to the public at its retail store. Rose says it is an excellent fertilizer for home gardens.

For oyster mushrooms and shiitakes, the process is a bit different. Although they are also grown in mushroom houses, they don’t grow in beds like white buttons, portabellas and criminis. To grow oyster mushrooms, compost is pasteurized,

Oyster mushrooms sprouting from plastic bags filled with compost.

cooled, mixed with spawn, and packed into plastic bags. Holes are punched into the bags to allow the mycelium to breathe and the bags are set on racks in the growing houses. After about two weeks, the mushrooms pop out through the holes and can be harvested. Rose says the farm harvests 500 pounds of oyster mushrooms a week.

For shiitake mushrooms, oak sawdust is packed together into a brick shape, sterilized, mixed with spawn, and placed in environmentally controlled rooms. Mushrooms can then be harvested in about seven weeks.

Even though temperatures, airflow and humidity can be easily controlled in the inside environment, the growing process doesn’t always go as planned. Mushroom flies and diseases can easily decimate a crop so careful monitoring is very important. Pleasant surprises also arise, as was the case back in 1990 when Rose walked into a mushroom house where he was growing criminis.

River Valley’s portabella mushrooms are popular at farmers’ markets.

“I started growing portabellas by accident some years ago when my air conditioning shut down and all the crimini mushrooms blew up into giant portabellas,” he says. “I had no idea what to do with them.”

He took them to a farmers’ market outside of Chicago and people were amazed at their size. A woman identified them as portabellas, and told Rose that chefs in Chicago were getting these mushrooms, which are a hand-sized version of a crimini mushroom, shipped in from the East Coast.

The next week he brought more to the farmers’ market and people lined up 20 deep to buy them. Rose says it was then that he started to grow portabellas on a regular basis.

Pickling

Even though Rose grows mushrooms year-round, their demand in the winter months face a significant drop. With farmers’ markets pretty much non-existent due to the cold weather in the Midwest, he was often left with a large portion of mushrooms that he ended up having to sell at less than production cost. It was not healthy business for a farm that was already struggling at the time.

An assortment of River Valley’s pickled mushrooms.

Fifteen years ago, he thought that there had to be a better way. He came up with his own unique way of pickling the leftover supply of mushrooms. What started as just two different flavors of pickled mushrooms has expanded to more than a handful over the years. And it didn’t stop there.

In 1997, Rose opened a licensed commercial kitchen on the farm. He began producing artisan sauces, dips, salsas and pickled vegetables, using the vegetables grown there.

He takes pride in producing a superior product, so he does not use chemical preservatives or thickeners. Rose says he lets the freshness of the product shine instead. Each jar is prepared and packed by hand.

The farm’s kitchen also produces a veggie burger that is vegan and gluten free and was recently a hit at the music festival Lollapalooza in 2011. Another popular item among customers is the farm’s portabella bratwursts (a regular bratwurst that combines portabellas and Swiss cheese). Newest to the kitchen this year are vegetarian-friendly portabella tamales.

Grow your own mushroom kits are available through River Valley Ranch.

The superior quality of River Valley’s products have gained recognition by the Chicago Tribune in December 2007 as one of the 16 must-have foods for the holiday table. The farm was also featured on the Food Network’s “Food Finds” television show, where its Portabella salsa was highlighted for its unique ingredients and outstanding flavor.

River Valley’s fame and success isn’t dependent on just one person. Rose says it takes a lot of hard work and dedication from all of his employees.

“This business doesn’t operate without a lot of really good people giving 110 percent,” says Rose. “I feel real fortunate that I’ve been able to grow as a business and provide opportunity for people to do some great work and produce some good food. Employees are excited and energized and sometimes it’s hard to get people to go home.”

Where to Buy

River Valley Ranch & Kitchens’ farm store is open 364 days a year (closed on Christmas), from 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; summer hours are 9 a.m.-7 p.m.

Mushrooms and other jarred products can also be purchased on the farm’s website and at 30-plus farmers’ markets in Southeastern Wisconsin and Illinois. Click here for a list of the markets River Valley attends throughout the year.

The farm also sells a ready-to-grow mushroom kit. The kits come with everything needed, so all one has to do is follow the instructions. The kit will yield up to 10 pounds of mushrooms.

River Valley Ranch & Kitchens

39900 W. 60th St.
Burlington, WI 53105
Phone: (888) 711-7476
Email: info@rivervalleykitchens.com
Website: www.rivervalleykitchens.com