Category: Farming
Down on the Farm Since 1902: Henschel Farm
Going Against the Grain at Waseda Farms
Local Food Movement Brings Young Folks Back to the Farm
CAFOs Devalue Neighboring Property, Report Says
From a Hobby to a Lifestyle: Grasse Acres Goat Farm
The Advocates: Kewaunee CARES Fights for Air, Water Quality
Horseshoe Bay Farms Still Stands Tall
A Life on the Farm: The Haberli Family
Homesteading in Door County with Artist Pamela Murphy
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Kewaunee County CAFOs By the Numbers
16- Number of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources-permitted Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in Kewaunee County.
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What Came First: The Chicken or the Eggs?
Raising chickens on a small scale has been trending ever since commercial chicken farming protocols have been brought to our attention. More and more often I hear of families and individuals bringing food production back home. People are paying attention to what they put in their body, and they are jumping on the chicken train […]
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Local Food Movement Brings Young Folks Back to the Farm
Meg Goettleman apologizes as she breaks away from our conversation. A customer waves as she walks down the small hill behind Goettleman’s home, and now Meg has gone to greet her. She shares a big laugh with Meg, then a hug, as she approaches the small barn, inside of which the week’s treasure awaits – […]
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CAFO Expansion in Kewaunee Raises Concerns
Ericka Routhieaux thinks of her family as canaries trapped in a coal mine. Twenty years ago when they moved into a small, blue house in the town of Lincoln, the surrounding landscape was dotted with farms.
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Going Against the Grain at Waseda Farms
For most of his life Tom Lutsey didn’t pay much attention to his diet. He liked his steaks, had his favorite hamburger spots in Door County, and loved to stop for a couple of the famous burgers at Kroll’s in Green Bay. He was running his family’s hugely successful ice cream business, Gold Bond Ice […]
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Wisconsin farmers have learned to do more with less. From 1960 to 2004, the state’s agricultural output grew by an average of 0.72 percent each year, while land inputs dropped by 0.
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Gilbert Family Farm Meets Big Business
I lie to myself. When I buy milk, or an ice cream cone, or a hamburger at the pub, I like to imagine the picture of a Holstein in a pasture flanked by stone fences, happily grazing from the lush green grass of Wisconsin. I like to picture this cow basking in the summer sun […]
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A Life on the Farm: The Haberli Family
Joseph Haberli doesn’t recall a time when he wanted to do anything but farm. “I just always did,” he says. “I told my dad when I was a kid, ‘you either sell me your farm or I’m gonna go someplace else and buy one.’” There was no moment of inspiration, no time when he fell […]
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The Seaquist Family: Six Generations Raising Apples for 150 Years
The first Seaquist to raise apples in Door County was Anders, a native of Sweden, who came across Green Bay in the early 1860s with Sophia, his wife, two sons and a very seasick cat. He built a log cabin on a hill east of Ephraim and went to work cutting wood he sold to […]
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Apples: Door County’s Other Fruit
Door County is more than cherries. The peninsula’s orchard industry also boasts a bountiful fall harvest of apples.
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Valmy Thresheree Celebrates Life on the Farm
Subtly, over the last quarter of the 20th century, American farming as we had known it disappeared. Pastoral images of the family farmer in the heartland were supplanted by the logos and marketing slogans of corporate agriculture, high science, and maximized yields.
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Meg Goettelman recently discovered that her great-grandfather was a gardening fanatic. “Maybe it’s in my DNA,” says Meg, which could explain why she and her husband Adam launched a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm from their home in the Clay Banks area of Sturgeon Bay last summer. CSAs are a farming model in which community […]
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Man Vs. Pig at the Valmy Thresheree
Perhaps the most popular event at the Valmy Thresheree weekend is the Pig Wrestling Competition. Each year, 15 to 20 teams in men’s and women’s divisions compete in a foot or two of mud for cash prizes. Teams have come from as far away as Iowa, Southern Indiana and Milwaukee for a shot. […]
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THE Farm: A Living Museum of Rural America
I first went to THE Farm in 2003 or 2004, having avoided it for many years; I had ignorantly assumed it was some sort of hokey petting zoo for kids, and I hadn’t had kids yet. I agreed to go only because my cousin and his young daughter, Scarlett, were in town – THE Farm […]
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Door County Agriculture: The Gray-Aire Dairy Farm Among the Last Northern Door Dairies
In 1987 Door County was home to 14,000 milk cows, according to Door County Agriculture Agent Dean Volenberg. By 2002, the population had declined to 9,300. Of that dwindling number of dairy cattle, today 42 are to be found at the Gray-Aire Dairy Farm located near Baileys Harbor. Once milk farms dotted the top of […]
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Agriculture has played an important role in Door County’s economy, environment, culture, and social structure for more than 150 years. Today, the county is home to hundreds of farms – over 90 percent of which are individually or family-owned – as well as agriculture-related businesses providing equipment, services, and other products farmers need to grow, […]