Fall Pasture Update

By Richard de Wilde 

Muscovy Duck with ducklings.

While our focus is on growing vegetables, animals have always been an important part of our farm. At present we care for our small herd of goats and Angus cattle along with pigs, ducks, and chickens. Not only do they add ambiance to our farm, but they also help us better manage our land. Given our valley location, we have hillside areas that are too steep for vegetable production and are better managed as pastures. Without proper management, these hillside pasture areas can quickly be overtaken by undesirable “weed” trees and invasive species such as garlic mustard, honeysuckle and buckthorn which would choke out more desirable pasture grasses. Our animals also help us by fertilizing the land which keeps the pastures nutrient-rich and lush with vegetation to prevent hillside erosion. Pasture grass is also a great way to capture carbon and store it in the soil.

All of our animals, as well as the land they graze and live upon are certified organic.   Every year at our organic inspection, the inspector asks to see our animals, where they reside, records of feed purchases, etc. Our beef cattle are all grass-fed. We use managed or rotational grazing for our beef cattle, which means our pastures are divided into paddocks and the animals are rotated systematically through the different areas. They are only in a paddock until they have eaten the grass to 4-6 inches high and then we move them to the next paddock. After an area is grazed, the animals don’t return for at least 30 days which gives the grasses time to regenerate.  This system also provides a great habitat for grassland bird nesting!

Pigs hanging out in their pasture.

We choose to raise our animals in an environment that allows them to exhibit their natural behaviors and characteristics. We treat them gently and with respect so they do not live in fear of human touch or presence.  This creates a much more pleasant environment for them to live in and allows us to work amongst them more safely. Our pigs have a 20-acre pasture which they cover daily eating grass and clover as well as digging up roots with their amazingly strong snouts! We often only see glimpses of them moving through the woods throughout the day, but rest assured they return to their home base for dinner at night and they are front and center for breakfast in the morning! We feed them a modest ration of organic corn, barley, and flax seed, but they also enjoy a wide variety of vegetable trimmings that we take to them from the packing shed every day. In the fall they enjoy checking on the wild apple trees in their pasture where they gobble up the dropped fruit. They also fill up on hickory nuts, acorns, and hazelnuts. They have a pretty good life, eat well, and from time to time they appreciate a little scratch behind their ears.  

Cattle grazing in their pasture.

Our black Angus beef come to us each fall from John and Denise Hildegard who farm in Auburndale, Wisconsin. They are set up more appropriately than we are to raise calves. The young animals come to us when they are fully weaned and weigh about 500#.  Their farm and animals are also certified organic, but the thing we really appreciate about John and Denise is that they are excellent animal caretakers. The nature of their animals clearly demonstrates they have been raised with love, care, and gentleness. While they are very large animals, they are also very gentle and calm.  Our cattle are on pasture their entire lives. They eat only pasture grass and clover during the summer months and in the winter, we feed them hay that we bale from our hillsides. They also get a free choice mix of kelp meal and natural mineral salts mixed with garlic and diatomaceous earth (DE). This mix is kind of like their daily “multi-vitamin,” plus the DE acts as a natural wormer.  When they stick their head in the feeder their face gets wiped with a blend of organic sunflower oil mixed with citronella which helps to keep the flies away from them. They also meander down to the creek bottom each day to get water. They are large creatures to be respected, but we also appreciate how they contribute a serene vibe to our farm.

Healthy animals that are allowed to live in a natural environment seldom have health problems. However, sometimes in the cold of winter or during the changing of seasons they may get a little sniffle or a cough. During these vulnerable times, we feed them pellets containing aloe, garlic, and molasses. Sometimes we put them in a feeder, but some of the cows really like them and are tempted to take more than their fair share which leaves us feeding them by hand. 

While we do enjoy living amongst our animals and they serve an important role in helping us manage our land, we do also raise our pigs and cows with the intention that they will be harvested for meat.  We realize the decision to include meat in your diet, or not, is a very personal one and may be based on a variety of reasons. We certainly respect each individual’s decision and do our best to be transparent about our practices, so our customers have the information they need to make a fully informed decision when purchasing meat.  Unfortunately, there is a wide array of practices amongst meat producers, so it is important to make sure you know what your purchases are supporting. Our fall meat delivery dates are quickly approaching. At present, we do still have beef & pork available for November and December. However, we are likely going to sell out pretty soon for November delivery.  If you’re interested in purchasing meat this fall, we encourage you to send your order in as soon as possible!

In closing, we just want to reiterate how important it is for consumers to be well-informed with their purchases. Not all meat is produced similarly and there are some practices in the industry that are, in our opinion, unacceptable. We value our animals, the value they add to our farm and our lives, and we will continue to do our best to treat them with the respect they deserve. If ever you have a question or would like to see them for yourself, don’t hesitate to give us a call!

Late Summer Update

By Richard de Wilde

There is surely an expectation that farmers always talk about the weather…and it’s true, we do!  We check three different weather forecasts daily and plan our work schedule accordingly. The one thing we can say about the weather we’ve had this summer is that it has been pretty consistent…. consistently Hot & Dry! In fact, I think records have been set for both temperature and rainfall…or lack thereof. According to the National Weather service, many parts of southern Wisconsin are now classified as being in a D4 drought given the lack of rain for three months. Thankfully, on Tuesday morning of this week we woke up to the most glorious sound…. RAIN! We received three-tenths of an inch, and while that isn’t that much, we were grateful for every drop! 

Checking the "benchmark" point for one of 
our irrigation sites

The good news is that the dry weather greatly decreases disease caused by wet foliage.  The challenge is to get enough water to keep crops growing. We have seven irrigation permits from the Wisconsin DNR to pump surplus water from the North Fork of the Bad Axe River and two feeder streams. We have very strict rules to follow when pumping and a “benchmark” water level below which we would NOT be able to pump.  Fortunately, the underground aquifer system here is very stable and our benchmarks have remained well above the cut-off! In many states, including parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota, the underground aquifers have become depleted. If this severe drought were to continue for several years, that picture may change in our area as well. At this point we are pumping surplus water at very low rates, not measurable depth from water run-off to the gulf.   Without our ability to irrigate from surplus water, we would be having a very different year.  In years like we are experiencing now, irrigation is the difference between having or not having a crop. 

Jose Antonio, one of our 
irrigation experts!

We are also very much aware of the benefits we are reaping now from the many years we have invested in building organic matter in our soil, which increases water holding ability. As a result, we have been blessed with not only crops, but excellent crops! Additionally, I’d like to acknowledge and extend my gratitude to Manuel Morales and Jose Antonio (our two main irrigation guys) who have worked hard, long hours to try to keep up with our crops’ water needs. 

Manuel Morales making his rounds to set up
and check irrigation pumps, manage leaks, etc.

Throughout the summer we’ve had several extreme heat waves with temperatures in the 90’s and even some days that have topped 100 degrees!  Extreme temperatures presented us with some extreme challenges. In some crops, including melons, peppers, and tomatoes, we have observed that the plants did not set fruit during those extreme periods of heat. We can clearly see a gap between early set fruit and late. It’s really strange to observe healthy, lush plants with no disease that have a greatly reduced production of ripening fruit.  The high heat days were also a challenge for our production schedule and harvest crews. We always schedule harvests for greens in the morning when it’s a little cooler.  This strategy proved to be essential at times when plants were wilting in the afternoon heat! We also had to be cognizant of the impact extreme heat has on the health of our field crew. Even though our crew has a generous supply of drinking water in the field, there were several days when we started late and ended early to the benefit of the crops, but also to maintain the health of our crew members.  There were even several days when we had to cease harvests during the heat of the day, and we started the workday an hour earlier so as to maximize work in the cooler parts of the day.  Thankfully, we invested in air conditioning units for all of our employee housing several years ago, so they have a cool house to retreat to and get a good night’s rest. 

Using sprinklers to water a new seeding of 
fall storage turnips so they'll germinate!

We are now in the busy transition between summer crops and early fall crops. We have made some adjustments to our preseason plan, i.e., later planting in anticipation of warmer late summer and early fall temperatures. Every direct seeding and transplanted crop we’ve planted has had to have immediate water to germinate and survive.  A very challenging task!  We have mostly been successful as your boxes reflect. Our fall crops which have required irrigation from start to finish but are looking good! It has been a strange and challenging year for sure! We have invested in more irrigation equipment, gained three new irrigation permits, and we’re currently in the process of setting up a new well that we’ll be able to use for irrigation.  Despite the investment in time and resources, our efforts have proven to be a life saver!

We have good looking fall crops including lettuce, spinach, radishes, beets, carrots, parsnips, and turnips. We hope to finish winter squash harvest this week and we’ve already started harvesting what I consider to be possibly the best rutabaga crop ever!  All of these crop outcomes were achieved only because of timely irrigation.  We are now in the overlap of finishing up harvest of late summer crops i.e., peppers and tomatoes whilst we are initiating harvest of our fall crops.  It is an extremely busy time of the season and it’s been a challenge to find space in your CSA boxes each week for all the vegetables we have available!

One of our pumpkins ripening
while nestled in a bed of vetch!

Our Fall Harvest Party is coming up on October 1^st and we hope you’ll plan to join us!  We have some nice-looking pumpkins for you to choose from this year as well as other crops we’re excited to share with you!  This year we planted the pumpkins in a trial field that we did as no-till, so you’ll have the opportunity to see this farming strategy up close, complete with some hearty vetch cover crop!  As always, we thank you for your continued support of our farm and hope you’ve enjoyed the season so far.  We still have more exciting crops to send your way, so get ready for jicama, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts and more!

Inspections…Opportunities to Learn & Make Improvements

By:  Richard & Andrea

Operating a farm is not just planting, harvesting, washing, and packing vegetables. It’s also accountability, certifications, maintaining integrity, upholding standards and a lot of record keeping!  Over the course of a calendar year, we undergo several different inspections, a part of doing business for us as well as many other companies. Some of the inspections we undergo happen annually while others may occur every few years, spontaneously, or in response to an application or the like. Welcoming an inspector onto the farm can be intimidating sometimes, but we’ve come to look at inspections as opportunities to learn, grow and improve which means we walk away better than we were before!  Over the last month, we have undergone two on-farm inspections, so this is a topic that’s pretty fresh in our minds!  We thought we’d take a little time this week to share a glimpse into the inspection side of farming.  

We ease into the new year without any inspections scheduled for the month of January, but we take advantage of this first month to get ready for our first inspection which is usually scheduled for mid-February. The inspection I am referring to is our annual housing inspection with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. This is a required inspection and is a necessary part of our application process for receiving H2A work visas for our workers. Even though we’ve been doing these inspections for over 20 years now, we learn something new and make additional improvements to our housing every year!  In recent years we’ve added Emergency Exit signs near all the door and window exits…in both Spanish and English!  We also make structural improvements such as remodeling a bathroom in one of our houses to convert an old tub to a more useful shower and replacing kitchen cabinets and flooring. We also regularly replace light fixtures and ceiling fans that wear out, repair leaking faucets, replace worn out furniture, and washers and dryers as needed….which can be quite frequently given the amount of heavy duty laundry that moves through those machines each week!  Of course, we also take care of the usual things such as replacing batteries in smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, making sure the beds have mattress covers and all the required bedding components, check to make sure the water heaters are working properly along with all the plumbing, and a long list of other requirements.  We have a total of three properties where we house our H2A employees and the inspector visits each property.  It’s a long inspection process, but a necessary part of being able to move forward with our application to get our crew members here for the season!  

Fire Training and
Extinguisher Inspection!

We typically don’t have any inspections in March, but sometime in early spring we contact a local team to come out and inspect our vast collection of fire extinguishers!  We have so many that they usually camp out in front of our shop for most of the day and work out of their mobile unit. We take fire safety very seriously and want to make sure our fire extinguishers are available and functional if and when we need them! We have fire extinguishers in all of the buildings on our main farm, in all of our housing units as well as in nearly all of our sheds and outbuildings. Additionally, we have fire extinguishers in our delivery trucks and on the three pick-up trucks that have additional fuel tanks on them for refueling. That’s not all though, we also mount a fire extinguisher on our propane forklift, the flamer and the bulldozer.  We are really thankful that they can come to the farm to do these inspections as it would be quite an ordeal to have to take them all into town! While we seldom need to use them, thankfully, we do find great peace of mind in knowing they are accessible and in working order should we have an emergency and need to use them!

Color Coded Brushes to Prevent
Cross-Contamination!

Once the growing season is underway, we have to schedule our annual organic inspection with our certifier, MOSA. As a certified organic farm, this is obviously a big inspection for us and a critical one at that! The timing for our organic inspection varies from year to year as the certifier likes to see our operation in the different seasons of production. Some years we have our inspection in late April or early May so they can inspect the woods where we wild harvest ramps while we’re actively harvesting.  This year they came in late July, which gave the inspector the opportunity to see our happenings mid-season, including our peak summer grazing pastures for our animals. We have a pretty thick file and it takes one to two days of onsite inspection plus some follow up as needed to submit additional documentation as requested by our reviewer.  This is a very thorough inspection. We submit paperwork in advance of the inspection as well as having documents available at the onsite visit for review. The inspector looks at everything from water tests for the packing shed processing water to receipts for our seed purchases. Over the past two years they have focused more on the animal side of our operation and we had to provide receipts and documentation for all of our animal feed purchases as well as any additional supplements we gave them (e.g. aloe pellets and essential oils used for their face rubbers).  As part of the inspection we also undergo at least two audits.  One audit is done for our meat sales and the other for vegetable sales. We have to provide documentation that demonstrates we only sold what we produced, so the production records need to be in alignment with the sales records.  This is one way they verify our integrity and sniff out fraud in operations. Another main focus over the past two years has been verifying our integrity related to the seeds we are purchasing. As organic growers, we are required to purchase organic seed whenever it is available. If organic seed is available on the market but we do not purchase it, we have to provide documentation for why we did not use it. Sometimes the seed is in short supply, and we have to substitute untreated seed, while in other cases the quality of the seed may be compromised for some reason (e.g. low germination) and we opt to go with the untreated seed.  All of this needs to be documented! We have file folders, electronic documents, and binder after binder that we consult along the way to provide the inspector with everything they ask for. It’s intense, but manageable if we are diligent about keeping good records throughout the year.  We also care about the integrity of the organic label and wish for all organic inspections to be conducted so as to uphold the organic standards industry wide!

Irrigation Pump & Filter Trailer

Given we’re in a drought year, irrigation is a primary topic in our thoughts and conversations from day to day.  This is another area where we are held accountable with oversight to ensure we’re using irrigation water responsibly.  We can’t just go drop an irrigation pump in any waterway we want to and pump any quantity of water we want or need.  We have to obtain an irrigation permit from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for each of our different pumping sites. This can sometimes be a long application and review process that at times has taken up to three years to complete! They establish a benchmark, which is the level we use to determine whether or not we can pump water. If the water level falls below the benchmark, we cannot extract water from that site. They come out with their surveying equipment and measure the benchmark to a very tiny margin of error. Throughout the irrigation season we have to monitor and record the benchmark water level, along with detailed records showing how much water we’re extracting.  At any point in time the DNR or a member of the public may ask to see our records and at the end of the season, we upload all of our irrigation records, and it becomes public record.  We’ve been pumping irrigation water from the Bad Axe River and our smaller creeks for over twenty years with no negative impact to the ecosystem or the wildlife in our area that depend on this water for life, habitat, and nourishment proving that it is possible to work in harmony with nature!

A place for everything and
everything in its place!

At the beginning of August, we welcomed our longtime inspector and food safety advisor, Dr. Kolb, back to our farm for our annual food safety inspection. We’ve been working with Dr. Kolb and Ceres Certifications International for over twenty years now.  We have been voluntarily doing annual food safety inspections for many years before it ever became mandatory by law, and because of that we’ve been able to stay ahead of the curve and create a “culture of cleanliness” that we hold in high regard on our farm.  Every year he has given us new challenges, doable improvements, one step at a time. He has told us, “when I come around the last curve on the road as I approach the farm and see clean fields and perimeters, no brush piles, no junk piles, all is in order, I know it will be a good inspection.”  This year he concluded our inspection visit by telling us “you are a model farm!”  Wow, we appreciate hearing that from a man who has inspected many farms across the country! Now don’t think he let us off easy.  We have a list of improvements we need to make to our policies and practices over the next year, including implementing a new “Plasters Policy” which involves establishing a system for being accountable for every band-aid used on our farm! He also encourages continuing education, so over the next year we will be investing in additional training on HACCP analysis for agricultural operations and improving our processes and policies along the way.

In addition to the inspections I’ve already mentioned, we also expect a visit every few years from the state food safety team to complete an onsite visit related to the FDA’s enforcement of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).  Our insurance company also likes to keep us in check, so they set us up with a Safety Audit every few years. We’ve found this to be very helpful and educational.  Last year the inspector asked us to secure the propane tanks we use for our propane forklift in one of our storage facilities. Of course, she told us a story about another client that did not have their back up tanks properly secured and one tumbled over and exploded. Ok, point taken! Within a few days of her visit, we had installed a safety chain to secure the tanks! Thank you!

Inspections can be intimidating, but we have been fortunate to have inspectors who take our inspections as an opportunity to educate us and help us make positive improvements to our operation. Inspections help us see our farm from a different perspective which can help strengthen our processes and keep us on our toes.  There’s no way around inspections, so we might as well make the most of the experience and use it as a way to improve and expand.  For you, our customers, inspections, and third-party audits provide you with the reassurance that we are doing what we say we’re doing!  We value integrity and want others to be held accountable as well, so we’ll keep on showing up and doing the best we can!

As we wrap up this year and head into another calendar year and growing season, we’ll start our preparations for next year’s inspections.  Over the winter months we’ll consult our lists of notes that we’ve made over the course of the busy season for improvements we want to make to our record keeping systems, filing systems, procedures, policies, etc. to make us stronger and help us pass our inspections with flying colors!  One important thing we emphasize is that while we may prepare for inspections, we don’t do anything different while the inspector is here than we do every other day of the year.  When you operate to the standards, inspections are just a technicality. The day-to-day operations are in check, and you have nothing to fret or worry about! 

June 2023: Late Spring Farm Update

By Richard de Wilde & Andrea Yoder      

Onion field with cover crops planted 
in the aisles between the beds

Our world of farming, and all the decisions that face us on a daily basis, are often sculpted around the weather forecast.  As we look back on the past few months, we have to admit it has been a bit of a wild ride!  We had some nice, warm, sunny days back in March and early April, making it look like a promising start to the season. Overwintered parsnips and sunchokes were ready to be harvested, the mulch on the garlic needed to be loosened, and the greenhouses were filling up with plants that needed to go to the field. The only problem was we didn’t have our field crew!  Our H2A visa crew members were delayed by about two weeks this year. Delays with visa processing are commonplace this year and we’re just thankful they made it here without further delay! 

While we waited for our guys to arrive, we continued to do the best we could with our small winter crew and there were a few days when we were all in the field (Andrea and Richard included) harvesting parsnips! Rafael did some of our first direct seeded plantings as conditions were looking good.  Then, on March 31^st a storm passed through and nailed us with hail! We have never seen hail as big as we saw that day and by the time it stopped falling from the sky, there was a solid layer of hailstones accumulated on the ground. Unfortunately, the hail was big enough that it punctured holes in all four of our greenhouses which have sheets of plastic for covering. While we usually don’t see too much wind in our valley, the month of April was unseasonably windy.  With holes perforating the greenhouse plastic, it was hard to keep the houses inflated and the plastic was whipping in the wind. We did the best we could to patch the holes, but there were limits to what we could do. Thankfully, we were able to secure all the houses and keep them intact while we waited for more crew members to help us change the plastic!

June 13, 2023:  Frost on frozen strawberry leaves!

Shortly after our field crew arrived from Mexico, we were blessed with about 10 inches of heavy, wet snow!  It was time to harvest ramps, so there were a few days when we had to wait for the sun to come out and melt the snow before we could go harvest! Once we got past that snow event, we were able to carry on with our field operations.  We started putting transplants out in the fields, continued with some early spring harvests, did our direct seedings, and hoped everything was moving in the right direction. We had some warm days, but no rain. No rain, no problem (well, less of a problem), we’ll get set up to irrigate when and where we can.  But then on May 25 there was a threat of overnight temperatures dipping below freezing! What happened to our standard of the last frost happening by the 15^th of May?!  We scrambled to put covers on vulnerable crops for frost protection. Thankfully, our efforts paid off and we saved the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and basil. After the frost, the temperatures shot back into the 90’s and then we were scrambling to get the covers off, so we didn’t cook the crops!  We made it through that fiasco, but it was a little too close to disaster for our comfort level!  We thought we were past the point of frost, but earlier this week we woke up to another frosty morning!  This one took us by surprise and thankfully, no crops were damaged.  The strawberry leaves did have frost on them though!

Overhead irrigation using sprinklers to water 
a new planting of rutabagas so they'll germinate!

We are now in a state of dryness, as in one of the driest springs ever. Everything we have planted needs water, but we only have irrigation capabilities for some properties. We’re also limited by hours in the day and equipment.  So we’re doing our best to keep all of the crops in the game and we’re thankful for any bit of rain that may fall from the sky!

Despite the wild weather wave we’ve been riding, most of our crops look quite nice!  This has been a pretty good strawberry season with great tasting berries, one of the benefits of a dry year.  Our onion crop is also looking quite nice as is this year’s garlic crop! Garlic harvest will likely be happening within the next month, which seems unbelievable!  As you can see by the contents of your box this week, we’re at that point in the season where we’re starting to shift to more of the summer greens (kale, chard, etc.) as well as some brassicas (e.g., kohlrabi) and soon we’ll have some root crops coming in.  Beets and carrots are right around the corner! Despite the fact that it is technically not yet summer, some of our summer crops are starting to make their way into our harvest schedule.  For example, the zucchini in this week’s box and the cucumbers that just might make it into next week’s box! As for other summer crops, we have three plantings of corn in the ground, with two more planned. We have some nice crops of green beans and edamame, and our first tomato field looks great!  The melon and watermelon field look quite nice. Sweet potatoes are in the ground and have taken root, so cross your fingers that we have a bountiful harvest in 3-4 months!

June 2023:  First tomato planting!

In the midst of farming, we’ve also found some time to continue rehabilitation work on a new piece of property we are leasing.  We’re also doing some experimentation with planting a variety of vegetable crops into no-till soil.  We planted our fall pumpkin crop as part of this experiment, so be certain to come to the fall party and see how it turned out!

Yes, it’s been a wild, whirlwind of a ride this spring, but there’s one thing we can always say with 100% confidence—Mother Nature will always take care of us and keep food on our table!

Time to Wrap Up 2022 and Get Ready for CSA 2023!

By Richard de Wilde

It’s time to wrap up another year and move into the next!  While we’ve already been planning and planting for the 2023 growing season, this is the time of year when we simultaneously reflect on where we’ve been as we lay out plans for the year ahead.  We look back on 2022 and are grateful for all the things we were able to accomplish on our farm, the families we were able to feed, the tons of vegetables our fields produced and the 45 plus families our farm supported through bi-weekly paychecks.  Overall, it was a pretty good year and we close out 2022 knowing we did the best we could, learned new things and will come back ready to do a better job in 2023!  Before we officially close out the year, we wanted to share a bit of our reflections with you as well.  

Row covers laid out for
frost protection spring 2022

You know farmers like to talk about the weather and I am known to check the weather multiple times a day, so let’s start there.  We have come to accept that weather challenges are now the norm, and we continue to find ways to be resilient as we navigate whatever hand we are dealt! Looking back at our 2022 growing season, we started the year with the latest spring ever in my 40 plus years of farming.  Not only was it a cold, late spring, but it was one of the windiest springs as well!  It is not uncommon to for us to use row covers for heat gain in the spring, but this year we found ourselves using more than usual to protect some of our vulnerable early spring crops and transplants from a late frost.  It’s very difficult to put out covers in high winds, but there were times when we had no choice but to struggle through the process as the window of opportunity to get the cover on before the temperatures dropped was pretty narrow.  We also had to use more hoops under the covers to prevent abrasion injury to the plants and had to secure the covers in place with extra sandbags.  In fact, we had to fill over 1,000 more sandbags just to secure covers on the most essential crops!  

Manuel, one of our head irrigation guys--doing
his rounds to check for leaks in irrigation systems
(Summer 2022)

Once the season got going, we switched from cold to very hot temperatures!  Our late summer months were characterized by very dry, drought-like conditions.  While dry periods can be very intense and demanding as we try to get enough water to plants to keep them alive and producing, we actually prefer dry conditions over wet.  We had to invest a lot of crew time into irrigation, but thankfully we were able to keep all of the crops in the game.  One plus to having dry conditions is decreased disease pressure.  Humid conditions, especially in our valley, breed leaf disease which affects the health of the plant in the field, and, by default, production yields are usually lower.  When disease pressure is low, yields are high, and harvests are typically more efficient.  

Brussels Sprouts plants in early summer

All in all, 2022 was as good as we can expect.  We had some crop losses, as we will every year, but thankfully we did not experience any devastating losses.  As with every growing season, we had some shining star crops (such as our fall Brussels sprouts!) and some crops we’d prefer to forget (Parsnips).  We were prepared to put out covers when we needed to, had equipment ready to irrigate when it was necessary, and did the best we could to prepare for weather events to minimize the impact.  We had a very productive fall and left our fields in good condition as we tucked them away for the winter.  Most of our fields went into winter with an established cover crop in place and we were able to execute fall applications of minerals as well.  We planted garlic, horseradish and sunchokes which means we’ve already made significant investments into another year!  Our strawberry field looked great going into winter with a nice rye straw mulch cover.  We also mulched the garlic field and covered it with row cover for the winter.  Our overwintered spinach field is covered and fenced to keep the deer from nibbling on it over the winter.

Last year we acquired 40 acres of new land that we were able to certify for organic production.  Some of this land we were able to purchase, and the remainder is leased.  Any time we acquire new land there is likely some work that needs to be done before we can put a crop on it, but thankfully we were able to put much of it in production by the end of the season.  We spent a lot of time this fall trimming trees around the fields, which yielded greater access to the sun and gave us a year’s supply of firewood along with enough brush piles to create several tons of biochar for next year!  We still have a lot of improvements to make on this new property, but have made significant headway in a relatively short period of time.  Our hope is to secure better resources for irrigation options for this land which will offer us more flexibility in what we can plant on this property in future years.

After weather, the next topic of conversation in many business circles these days is likely something around the topics of inflation and the economy as well as labor. These are big topics for us as well and linger at the forefront of our minds as we try to forecast what the new year will hold.  As we reflect on this past year, it will come as no surprise to you that we are still experiencing obstacles in the supply chain that have made it difficult at times to source supplies, fertilizer, etc.  Thankfully, we did ok without too many issues, and we were able to get the majority of what we needed.  We tried to order early to allow for delays and did our best to manage tight inventories.  We’ve always tried to take advantage of volume discounts when purchasing supplies but have pushed the limits on this over the past 1-2 years in an effort to get the best pricing possible in the face of very steep increases in the cost of supplies.  In 2022 Andrea invested in a 5-year supply of the twist ties we use to bunch vegetables and purchased 3-4 years’ worth of other supplies in order to bump up to the next level of volume discounts.  Thankfully we have appropriate storage space to keep these supplies clean and in good condition, so they’ll be just like new when we take them out for use in 2025!  

Black gold....the potting soil we use to 
grow transplants in the greenhouse

Part of being able to weather the inflation is by trying to continue to take advantage of any discounts available to us by paying in advance for seeds, supplies, fertilizer and fuel.  We already purchased and accepted delivery on the potting soil that we’ll need to produce transplants in the greenhouse and by doing so we were able to secure 2022 pricing!  We are closing out 2022 in a pretty good place financially despite experiencing inflated input costs ranging from as little as 3% to as much as 43%!  

But our biggest challenge for 2023 appears to be labor!  The majority of our farm crew is comprised of seasonal workers who come on H2A visas.  Over the past few years, they have been contributing more by offering suggestions for new production improvements and by building their skills so they are able to achieve record setting harvest metrics!  We have one of the very best crews we could hope for!  They are dependable, skilled, efficient, timely, willing and eager to learn, and are overall very respectful, pleasant, positive people to work with.  Our situation is unique in that the Department of Labor (DOL) sets our wage rates because we participate in the H2A visa program.  The DOL has generally raised the wage by 3% per year for many years.  However, this year they are requiring an 11% raise for Wisconsin H2A employers!  The wage rate will be increasing by about $2 per hour to $17.43 per hour, in addition to our obligation to provide housing, transportation and visa expenses.  Our crew members work hard doing physical labor that many others cannot and do not want to do, but someone has to do this work or we don’t have food to eat!  

Most of our vegetables are harvested by hand, 
including bunched herbs, greens, radishes and more!

Farmworkers deserve a raise and should be compensated fairly for the work they are doing.  However, as employers we are faced with an extreme challenge as labor represents about 40% of our expenses and is by far the largest expense, we incur in vegetable production.  We also hope to hire two individuals to fill two vacant support positions, one in the packing shed and one to assist with office work.  One of these positions remained vacant for the entire of 2022, which was not ideal.  We could really use the help to assist with record keeping, social media management, and other office-related tasks that are necessary to help us meet the requirements for government programs and general good business practices.  

Harvesting ginger in early November

As we look ahead to 2023, we do so with optimism.  Yes, we face challenges, but we also know that the work we do is important and valued by you, our CSA members and our community of eaters.  We take pride in being the best growers in the Midwest and we are committed to continuing to offer our CSA members a level of freshness, quality and variety that is not readily available.  We also remain committed to supporting you by providing community, transparency and dependability.  Local food systems are essential to the sustainability of both farms and eaters.  Participating in CSA is one of the most economical ways to purchase food as the value you receive is nearly always greater than the price you pay.  That’s part of the relationship we share—you take care of us and we take care of you.  We plan to continue our unique potato, squash, tomato and pepper varieties as well as abundant sweet potatoes and sweet corn that prove to be member favorites year after year!  We are also planning to continue growing our carefully selected variety of edamame and hope to grow baby ginger for you again.  We are in the midst of ordering our seeds right now and are contemplating growing some special dried beans, globe artichokes or something else of interest that catches our eye and will keep things interesting.  

We are now accepting CSA Sign-ups for the 2023 CSA season and hope you will be joining us for a spectacular year of vegetables!  You’ll find current pricing and a list of all of our CSA pick up locations on our website.  Speaking of website, we are currently working on a new website which we hope to take live early in 2023!  Not only will we have a fresh, new look, we’ll also be able to offer you the convenience of signing up online along with the option to pay using a credit card.  We are also planning to enhance our vegetable resources to help you when you may have questions or need a little help learning about a new vegetable.  

Enjoy the final days of 2022 and we will see you in the new year!  

Summer Pasture Update

One of our pigs immersing itself
in a patch of chamomile!

By Richard de Wilde

While vegetables consume most of our energy, our farm would not be complete without our domesticated critters which enhance our lives in many ways.  Animals have always been part of our farm going all the way back to my early days here at Harmony Valley Farm when I farmed with horses, raised sheep and milked dairy cows.  Times have certainly changed and while I enjoyed working with horses, I’m also very thankful for tractors which offer a more predictable means of horsepower!  Animals are an integral part of our farm and offer many benefits to us and our land.  This week I thought I’d offer you a little insight into what’s been happening in our pastures.  So put your barn boots on and lets take a walk!

Our black Angus cattle grazing in their lush
summer pastures, July 2022

As CSA members, you may be most familiar with the fact that we raise grass-fed Angus beef and pastured pork which we offer for purchase through our CSA meat shares.  We recognize that some individuals choose to eat meat and others prefer to take a pass.  If you do choose to include meat in your diet, we encourage you to be informed about where your meat is coming from, how the animals were raised, etc.  On our farm, respect is a big deal.  We respect our animals and they in turn respect us.  Our cows and pigs are big, strong animals, but they are very gentle creatures as a result of receiving gentle, respectful treatment their entire lives.  As a result, we can safely work amongst  them without fear.  They don’t fear us and we don’t fear them.  Makes sense!

Young calves in January eating their
winter forage near the barn for shelter.

For the past few years we’ve been sourcing calves that come to us from John and Denise Hilgart’s farm.  We are very grateful to have the opportunity to partner with John and Denise as it is clear that they share the same value of respecting their animals.  They are very gentle animal handlers which is evident by the demeanor of the calves when they arrive on our farm.  They have what I call “angel eyes.”  When I look them in the eyes all you see is their sense of wonder, no fear.  In fact, they appreciate human touch and will easily eat an apple out of my hand.  Why is this?  They are used to interacting with humans because Denise spoils them by brushing them in her free time when they are babies!  While we do receive them as calves, they are gradually weaned from their mothers before they come to us.  Once they arrive they are eager to explore their new surroundings and acclimate very quickly.  It is not uncommon to see them playfully kicking up their heels in the pasture, which is super-fun to watch.  Most recently, they have been enjoying their new back rub apparatus that we put in their pasture this summer to help keep flies away.  We put organic sunflower oil and citronella on the rubber and the cattle can rub their backs on it which then helps deter the flies.  We also have a feeder that we put mineral in that works in a similar way to apply the sunflower oil-citronella blend to their faces to keep flies out of their eyes.  The end result is a herd of calm, peaceful animals enjoying quiet days grazing their hillside pastures.

The pigs know they can always get a 
little head scratch from me (Richard)!

Our pigs are also quite friendly and very happy animals.  I think that is the innate quality of pigs, especially when they are in an environment where they are allowed to exhibit their natural tendencies.  Pigs love to use their snouts to root around, searching for roots and tubers underground.  Our pigs have been spending their days exploring their wild, hillside pasture where they check out the apple trees, look for hickory nuts and acorns in addition to the other roots and tubers they find.  While they stay busy during the day, they can also sometimes be found napping in the afternoon sun or wading in the creek.  They are very curious animals and are quick to come when they see people approaching their area. You may not know this, but pigs enjoy ear and back scratches and are not too shy to let you know!  It is fun to watch their antics and right now we are getting a kick out of watching them munch on melons, tomatoes, corn cobs and all the other summer vegetable waste we take them from the packing shed!

We do raise our cattle and pigs for meat, and that issue of respect carries through to the end of their lives.  For many years we’ve worked with Lawrence who transports our animals to the processor.  I think “animal whisperer” is the best way to describe Lawrence.  He is always calm, always patient and very gentle with our animals.  We also have a specially designed corral that provides a very low stress way for us to sort and load the animals.  After working with Ledebuhr Meats for many years, we had a challenge finding a new meat processor that fit our criteria.  Thankfully we’ve had the opportunity to work with Crescent Meats for the past few years.  Crescent Meats is a family-owned operation and every year we continue to be impressed by their professionalism and integrity.  Their facility is designed to be very low stress for the animals.  Andrea had the opportunity to visit several years ago and they very willingly allowed her to walk through their facility including the area where the animals are unloaded and held when they arrive.  She was impressed with how quiet and content all the animals were as well as the calm demeanor of the workers.  The two definitely go hand in hand.  

Goats hard at working grazing in the
woods behind the packing shed.

In addition to our beef cattle and pigs, we also have a small herd of meat goats.  While they provide comic relief at times, they also have a job to do!  They have been doing a great job this summer of clearing some of our wooded areas of invasive honeysuckle and other brush.  They love working an area and find the leaves of the plants to be quite delectable.  It’s really fun to watch the larger goats rear up on their hind legs so they can reach higher branches, pulling them down to allow the smaller goats to nibble on the leaves.  Just like human kids, they do have spats from time to time, but overall they work together well and it’s fun to see them moving together as a group through the pasture and woods.  

Ducks heading down to the water
for a dip in the creek!

We also have some Muscovy and Mallard ducks which are quite entertaining. In the morning when we let them out of their house they have this little duck dance they do where they flap their wings, shake their hind end and make a bunch of noise!  They are part of our pest control program as they eat bugs and insects including wood ticks and fly larvae.  They share pasture space with our goats, chickens and sometimes the pigs and cows.  Some of them like to spend time hanging out in the creek and they too are very happy creatures.

We can't forget about our small flock of chickens.  We rely on them for personal egg production.  If you’ve never experienced a true “farm-fresh” egg laid by a hen that is roaming out on pasture and has little stress, then I’m telling you that you are missing out!  We don’t plan to start raising chickens to produce and distribute eggs, but we encourage you to be informed about where your eggs are coming from as well.  Not all eggs are produced equally and it’s very evident in the eating quality! 

Believe it or not, I do still do 
animal chores!  Someone has to feed the 
animals after everyone goes to Mexico for the 
winter.  As you can see, I like hanging out with
the animals.

It truly is a joy to have animals on our farm, to work with them and provide space for them to live peacefully.  They are an integral part of our ability to manage the hillside areas that are not appropriate for vegetable production, so in the end it’s a win-win relationship.  Our fall meat deliveries will be coming before you know it.  At present we still have both beef and pork available for November and December delivery dates.  We fill orders on a first-come, first-served basis as meat is available, so if you’d like to place an order we encourage you to do so as soon as possible!  Of course, if you ever have questions about our animals, how we are raising them or any questions about our meat, please don’t hesitate to ask!  Having the opportunity to talk to your farmer is just one of the benefits of knowing where your meat is coming from!

August Farm Update

By Richard de Wilde

Richard checking watermelons
to see if they are ready to pick!

Here we are in August, the high point of many of our staple, basic warm weather crops.  Sweet corn is one of our summer favorites.  We are finishing harvesting our second planting, three more yet to come.  The battle with nature is intense!  We have been successful with stopping damage from deer and raccoons with tall mesh fences around the fields and low electric wires, but the birds!  Mostly red-winged blackbirds and grackles are defying our two laser deterrents and an intermittent noise cannon.  Plus, we have scarecrows and scare-eye balloons in the field along with reflective streamers and decoy hawks and owls.  So, if you see some “shredding” on the tip of the ear it is those defiant birds that “know” a sweet corn field from field corn, which is much more available in the area.  The remaining three crops of sweet corn will continue to be challenged by the above, plus the corn earworm which is yet to arrive.  We have a pheromone trap in our field and monitor it along with reports from University of Wisconsin’s pest monitoring in hopes that we can stay ahead of it and keep it out of the crop!  The European corn borer was worse than ever this year and it is just a matter of time (and weather) that will bring the earworm moth from the south. 

Tomato yet to ripen in the second crop
of tomatoes 

Two more crops of beans remain.  We have sustained some deer eating before we could fence them, but without too much damage.  The first crop of tomatoes are ripening in mass now.  The second crop still looks good, but if you want to preserve tomatoes for winter, now is the time!  Check out this week’s Produce Plus offerings where you’ll find we’ve added Roma Tomatoes to the list!

The peppers are looking good, but a bit slow to mature and ripen.  Our fall brassicas including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, rutabaga and turnips are on schedule and looking good so far.  Carrots look good and have been hand weeded.  The potatoes and winter squash are also looking quite nice. Our fall lettuce was planted just before we got three inches of rain last weekend!  We’re almost finished with transplants, just escarole and radicchio remain and are almost ready to transplant into the field.  We have harvested most of the onions and they have been curing in the greenhouse.  The sweet potatoes look good and are now ready to start making tubers! 

Our happy pigs come in from foraging
to get a little scratch from Richard

I must say that our animals are doing very well this year.  Our Angus beef look the best ever and are benefitting from our new fly repellent back rub.  We put organic sunflower oil and citronella essential oil on the back rub and have it in their pasture.  The cows walk under it and it rubs the oil on their faces and backs, which repels the flies.  The pigs are enjoying their daily loads of vegetable waste including melons and tomatoes, sweet corn cobs and a lot of greens!  Of course they also eat organic grain and a fair crop of wild-foraged apples, acorns and hickory nuts they find in their hillside pasture.  They are very busy and very happy! As we approach fall, we’re happy to have all of our cover crop seeds in house and we were able to get all organically produced seed this year!   We are ready when the time is right, but as always, weather is everything.  We have done fine with a prolonged drought and survived two Saturday night storms with three plus inches of rain falling in a short time.  The next day, Nestor spent all day fixing wash-outs in our yard and on field roads. 

The Japanese beetles have been bad this year, but less so than last year.  Their populations have been so dense that for the past two years we’ve had to hang a lot of traps!  At present we have 25 traps and Alvaro empties them twice weekly.  Last year we trapped an estimated 500# total!    So far this year we’ve only collected about 200#.   Much to our dismay, one of their favorite crops is basil!  Basil is also plagued by a mildew which can strike any time if we have a wet, cool period.  So we have planted the new mildew resistant varieties for this time of year, but guess what?  The Japanese beetles prefer them to any other variety!  It has been a good basil year overall, but with these challenges it could end soon!

Monarch on New England Aster

While we do battle with many pesky insect critters, we also depend on insect critters to provide  pollination.  Sadly, most of them are endangered and may be lost if we, as a society, do not change the course.  Part of the problem is a loss of flowering habitat plants, but the greater issue is the heavy use of neonicotinoid seed treatments along with the extensive use of glyphosate weed killer.  In recent new research, glyphosate was shown to cause bumble bees to lose their ability to control the temperature of their hive and they were not able to overwinter.  We are always watching our crops and pollinator plantings and are observing a modest increase in native bees and butterflies this year, including the beloved Monarch butterflies.  While this is encouraging, it is still only a small fraction of what we were seeing 10-15 years ago!  We have a small native bumble bee, maybe a rusty patch or maybe another.  We see these bees humming in masses in our tomatillo blossoms!  They are non-aggressive and we’ve never been stung, thus we are happy to see them returning by the hundreds to help pollinate our crops!  We are also seeing them on the Joe Pye Weed, Bergamot and Brown-Eyed Susan flowers as well as on the Purple Echinacea.

Ouch! 

Bergamot on our farm

A mosquito just bit me!  I miss the old days when we had hundreds of bats in our bat houses.  Now we are happy to see a dozen!  That’s definitely not enough.  Is the population decline due to white nose disease?  No, more likely it’s due to compromised immune systems from eating neonicotinoid contaminated mosquitos.  What can we do?  Vote for an EPA that is not controlled by the chemical industry!  In the meantime, we can also plant pollinator friendly plants to better support our pollinator friends!  It is being done in communities across the country and it does help!  Check in with the Xerxes Society and see what they are doing.  Many cities around the world are planting “Corridors” of pollinator plants.  Monarch butterflies for example need nectar and reproductive sources across the country for a successful migration to and from their wintering sites in Mexico.

One of many pollinator habitat areas on our farm

We have been planting intentional native prairie plantings for many years.  We have some dramatic successes and some failures and some so-so results.  Our most successful is planting on the poorest sandy depleted soil!  Our plantings along stream banks can easily be overwhelmed with non-native reed canary grass and are sometimes difficult to establish and maintain.  Several times in recent years, we have grown plants for our CSA members to start their own pollinator gardens and of course we get to plant the extras!  Prior to putting together these “Pollinator Packs,” we exclusively did our plantings only from seed that we sowed directly into the area we were inoculating.  It takes longer to see results with direct seeding, as in years of management, mowing, etc.  The beauty of planting these plants in the form of a transplant that we start in the greenhouse is that they can offer greater short term success.    

Pollinator Packs in the Greenhouse, 2018

We are considering growing “pollinator packs” again next year, but we have to plan ahead since many require a 60 day cold treatment to germinate.  As we make our plans for the upcoming season, we would like to get feedback from you as to how much interest you have in planting and tending a pollinator garden.  Perhaps you are interested in adding to the garden you have already established or maybe you would like to start a pollinator garden for the first time.  Please let us know what plants you are interested in for next year as well as specifically what has worked for you from our previous offerings.  We value your input and this is for you!

I can list some of our favorites and what we are seeing over the course of the season.  It’s important to have diversity in your landscape to provide pollen sources and habitat from early spring to late fall.   

Echinacea hosting a bumble bee

We have some Prairie Smoke which is very early and a very early lance-leaf coreopsis that also has the benefit of being self-seeding.  The echinacea comes later along with black-eyed Susan.  Bergamot is a native champion.  The Brown-eyed Susan is late along with New England Aster and Pale Asters which are the latest.   

Please send us an email and let us know what has worked for you, what you would like to see and if you’re even interested!  Our hope is that, together, we can make positive change in our environment to support our pollinator allies!