 "After 12 inches of rain fell in just five hours on July 11 the Marengo River broke its banks. Three feet of water converged from three different directions roaring through River Road Farm submerging everything in its path. Owners Todd and Kelsey Rothe, though terrified, were more concerned about their nine pigs and 16 chickens. Despite the danger, Todd risked his life to save them and discovered along the way that pigs really can swim.
"Nestled on the banks of the Marengo River, River Road Farm is a mixed-vegetable farm specializing in four season production under high tunnels." Written by Hope McLeod for the Bayfield County Journal. Read the full article here.
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 "Clare Hintz of Elsewhere Farm is a systems-thinker. She sees the world as a set of interlocking pieces that create the system as a whole. And this is clearly how she views and treats the land she lives and works on. We sat down with Clare during our first week of running to talk about paying attention to the land and what happens when you do so. As we broke from the heat of the day, our conversation opened up into more than just farming-talk. What follows is our edited conversation from that day.
"How does this farm fit into the broader western Lake Superior watershed? Because the only resilience that this farm is gonna have is if the whole region is resilient. So where is my energy coming from? Where are my foods going? And what’s coming back to the farm... So the work that I’m doing is not just about growing food. But also what are the economic structures? What are the financial structures? What are the community celebrations? How do those things become more vibrant? Because that’s just gonna help us weather the shocks better that are in process already." Written by Our Shores: Ultrarun for the Love of the Lake. Read the full article here.  "Landis and Steven Spickerman own and operate Hermit Creek Farm in Highbridge, Wisconsin and have been providing local vegetables to the northwoods for almost a quarter of a century. Their farm, a collage of hoop houses and open field surrounded by national forest, has become a rich and fertile plot after decades of careful stewardship. A few weeks ago, Landis baked us rhubarb pie and answered our questions about washing carrots and putting down roots. What follows is our edited conversation from that day.
"I kind of married into northern Wisconsin. I grew up near the Gulf Coast and wanted a big piece of water to live nearby, and for a lot of reasons you can’t live by an ocean and farm. But Lake Superior, you could. I was fascinated by it. We set out to homestead, and live a simple life and grow all our own food, but one thing led to another and really, we joke it always comes down to a garden gone wild – we just couldn’t help ourselves. We didn’t set out to farm; we set out to live simply. We homeschooled, we chopped firewood, we built our house, we wanted to grow our food and that’s what we set out to do and it just seemed really natural. Our passion turned into an occupation." Written by Our Shores: Ultrarun for the Lake. Read the full article here.  "There are distinct advantages to living in a state with a high percentage of third- and fourth-generation cheesemakers boasting Swiss and German descent who make some of the best Cheddar, Swiss, Brick, Colby, Havarti, Muenster (and of course, Limburger) in the nation.
"But a pair of cheesemakers in northern Wisconsin are on a mission to change Wisconsin's dearth in soft and stinky cheese. Michael Stanitis, owner of Sassy Nanny Farmstead Cheese, and Fred and Kelly Faye, owners of Happy Hollow Creamery, each make a variety of artisan sheep and goat milk cheeses at Fred's farmstead cheese plant near Bayfield, Wisconsin. Each has their own farm and their own animals, but share creamery space to make their cheeses." Written by Jeanne Carpenter for her blog Cheese Underground. Read the full article here.  "I feel really humbled to be able to grow food for people. That’s kind of a sacred thing.
"I feel all the people that live here, we’re all stewards of this land and by default, the water. I feel that farmers especially we’re directly, we’re like managing some land with our hands, intentionally. As farmers, there’s even more weight to do a good job. "I feel like as an organic farmer, it’s one more level of stewardship, of fitting into the bigger puzzle. I’m pretty pumped. We’re at the top of two watersheds, it feels good to be taking care of a piece of land that’s, you know, kind of got impacts to some other places. It’s just one piece of land, it’s one piece in the quilt." Written by Our Shores: Ultrarun for the Love of the Lake. Read the full article here.  “All of our fresh greens over the last three weeks are coming out of the Bayfield School high tunnel. The students in the Bayfield entrepreneurial agriculture program are currently providing us with spinach. Also we are getting fresh spinach, arugula and about three or four different types of baby kale from Bill Bailey and Gayle Chatfield,” Patty added.
A week ago Patty met with Rob Hartman from Twisting Twig Farm and Justin Rhoode from Rhoode Farm to discuss what to grow this year to fill the restaurant’s burgeoning orders. “They told me I source more local food right now than any other restaurant in the area,” Patty reported. You don’t have to go to Spain or Puerto Rico to eat great tapas. Just slide a table over to a friend at the Fat Radish and join in on this festive conversation, and maybe, if you can bear it for a few hours, even turn your cellphones off. Written by Hope McLeod for the Bayfield County Journal. Read the full article here.  "Duke concluded with the impact buying locally can make.
"'That’s regional economic development in a pretty big way,' he said. 'For an area like this, that can make a big difference. It seems like it’s not that big of a deal to just buy a little bit of local food here and there but boy, when it adds up with everybody in Ashland and Bayfield Counties, that can really make a big difference to our local, regional ag economy.'" Written by Sara Chase for the Ashland Daily Press. Read the full article here.  A record 3,600 participants attended the MOSES Organic Farming Conference held here Feb. 25-27.That turnout included over two dozen participants who traveled from the Bayfield area.
The three-day program included 65 workshops and inspiring and knowledgeable speakers. Wisconsin's tally of nearly 1,500 certified organic farms is second in the nation only to California. Written for the Ashland Daily Press. Read the full article here.  "Roll back the clocks to the 1950s, who could have imagined high tunnels in public schools or the sweet spinach in the middle of January in northern Wisconsin? What a godsend for farmers and students alike. Following a nationwide trend to promote a safe and healthy local food supply, both Bayfield and Ashland counties have made great strides in this regard. Thanks in part to high tunnels, farmers can now extend their earning and growing power during the shoulder seasons and students can explore potential careers in agriculture or plant science. And best of all, the community gets to enjoy more locally sourced food, even in winter."
Written by Hope McLeod for the Bayfield County Journal. Read the full article here.  "The traditional proverb states that through small steps are great strides taken.
That is a notion that the Chequamegon Food Cooperative’s Micro-Loan Program is based on. Since 2007, the program has made very small loans to area food producers, to aid those agriculturalists to become more efficient, expand their operations and provide more locally produced food for a hungry market seeking healthy, locally produced food." Written by Rick Olivio for the Ashland Daily Press. Read the full article here. |
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The F.E.A.S.T. by the Bay website is currently maintained through the community outreach of the Farm to School Programs in the Ashland, Bayfield, and Washburn School Districts.
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