Each week I find something different in the box: fat, juicy strawberries in June; crunchy snap peas in July; mouth-watering sweet corn in August; and a bountiful fall harvest of cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, watermelon and onions. Even as winter approaches, the produce keeps coming: beets, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, cauliflower.
So many veggies, so little time.
These treats are freshly picked, grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides and delivered every Tuesday to a pickup site just a few blocks from my home. It’s almost as if I have my own personal greengrocer selecting the most tantalizing produce just for me.
My weekly treats come from Springdale Farm, a community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm about an hour north of Milwaukee in Plymouth, operated by Peter and Bernadette Seely and their four children.
Springdale’s 25 acres are nestled in the lush, gentle hills west of Highway 57, the land of the “Sundown Coon Hunters and Beagle Club” and “Fryers, Roasters & Rabbits 4 Sale.” Wild turkeys frequently wander in the road.
The area near the Seely house is cluttered with buildings and equipment, including chicken coops, tool and equipment sheds, greenhouses, a bunkhouse where interns live during the season and a massive stone barn that stays cool even on the hottest days.
In the warm months, Springdale hums with activity. Clusters of two and three workers dot the fields. One group pulls weeds, another transplants delicate shoots from one of the five greenhouses, another spreads compost. Two teenagers stand near the chicken coops washing the eggs they’ve just collected. Three young children bounce up and down on a trampoline near the house.
In the center of the hubbub stand Peter and Bernadette, calmly giving directions and answering questions. The couple has managed Springdale for the past 15 years, when they founded it as the first CSA in Wisconsin. For seven months each year, Springdale provides me and nearly 400 other southeast Wisconsin households with a variety of fresh produce. We have become members of the farm, also called shareholders or subscribers, by purchasing a “share” of each season’s produce.
Sometimes I have to stretch my culinary imagination to figure out how to prepare some of the vegetables that arrive in my box. Rutabaga, for example, had not been a regularly on my table before I joined Springdale. Ditto for kohlrabi, kale or edible soybeans. Fortunately, in their biweekly newsletters, the Seelys provide recipes for the more obscure veggies. Thanks to them, creamed rutabaga was a big hit at our house, as were stir-fried kohlrabi and kale-potato soup.
If I really am not up to the challenge of preparing an unfamiliar vegetable, I can place it in an exchange box at my pickup site for others to enjoy. And if I want more of a particular vegetable – say, carrots for juicing – I can put in a special order.
Not only does my membership in Springdale Farm bring me fresh organic produce in season, it also brings me the satisfaction of supporting an approach to farming “sustainable agriculture,” in which farmers treat the soil and the land in an environmentally sound fashion.
“During the last half-century, agriculture has become addicted to chemicals, fossil fuels and soil-depleting practices,” says Peter, 43, “all of which threaten our health, our future generations and our ecosystems.” Seely and other CSA farmers use both old-fashioned and cutting-edge practices to ensure the long-term preservation and natural fertility of the soil. These include planting cover crops to renew the soil over the winter, rotating crops and adding compost, minerals and microbial inoculants (microorganisms intended to revitalize the soil).
This caretaking is important to Susan Bliffert of Mequon, whose family has been a Springdale shareholder for 14 of its 15 years. “Any time anyone is very conscious of recycling compost back into earth to keep mineral content up, the outcome just has to be better,” she says. “Taking care of the earth is a priority to me.”
Taking care of the earth is definitely a calling for the Seelys. Peter, who grew up in suburban Tenafly, New Jersey, became interested in sustainable agriculture after reading the books of nutritionist Adele Davis and working on an organic farm in Maine during his college summers. After graduating from Swarthmore College with a major in philosophy (“I had planned on making that my career,” he says with a smile), he took a job as a teaching master in a small boarding school in Iowa, Scattergood Friends School. The school had a farm, garden and orchard, and as part of its educational program, the students had to work in them.
“I liked the philosophy of the school, which gave teachers a lot of leeway to be innovative,” he recalls. Teachers could create their own courses and students could shadow employees at a business or nonprofit. “I saw the need in education for bringing kids alive vs. deadening their enthusiasm,” he says.
There he met Bernadette, now 42, a native of the Netherlands who had graduated from a physical educational program there but came to the United States to find a job. During their time at Scattergood, the Seelys, who by then were married, visited numerous organic farms in the United States and Holland, including the first CSA in this country, founded in Massachusetts in 1985. To further learn the ropes, they interned at an organic farm in Missouri.
The young couple was eager to manage their own farm, an opportunity that arose when Peter joined the board of directors of High Wind, an intentional community founded in Plymouth in the 1970s. The High Wind board had bought an abandoned dairy farm adjacent to it and was looking for someone to operate a produce farm based on the principles of sustainable agriculture. In 1988, the board agreed to rent the land and the house on it to the Seelys for a year to see if they could make a go of it.
At that time, there were only six CSAs in the country, none of them in the Midwest. “We said, ‘Let’s try it out. We’ll see if people are ready for this concept,’ ” recalls Peter. To get the word out, the Seelys organized informational meetings, sent announcements to newspapers and developed a simple brochure. They knew they wanted to make a living by sustainable farming – some CSA farmers, in contrast, have a day job as well – so they calculated how many shares they needed to sell each year. The magic number, they decided, was 75; they attracted 40 shareholders in the first year, mostly Milwaukeeans who valued organic produce.
“Were we scared that first year?” asks Bernadette. “No, we had such a vision, we just went at it.”
But the first five years were difficult, she recalls. At first, they worked only five acres, which they had to clear of rocks and weeds. And because they were hesitant go into debt buying equipment in case the “experiment” wasn’t successful, they did most of the work by hand – plowing, hoeing, planting, transplanting, fertilizing, weeding, harvesting and forking piles of compost and hay. They had to borrow a tractor, and because they had no cooler, the produce had to be picked and shipped the same day. In the second year, when their oldest daughter, Anneke, was 2, Bernadette became pregnant with Jim, so she couldn’t do a lot of work, yet they couldn’t afford to pay anyone to help.
“Did we think about quitting?” asks Bernadette. “All the time. We were so tired. We kept asking ourselves, ‘Is this worth it?’”
The answer came back time and again, “Yes.” Over the years, as membership grew and the farm’s income increased, the Seelys could gradually afford the equipment that would allow them to farm more efficiently. Today, the farm boasts four greenhouses, two coolers, a skid loader and a Dutch tractor that moves so slowly they can plant and weed without having to hop off and on. “Looking back, it was all pretty amazing,” says Peter. “It still is.”
In 1993, the Seelys bought the house and the five acres, and in 1998, they bought the additional 20 acres; only 15 acres are kept in production each year, allowing the others to “rest.” Springdale’s membership is now at capacity, with nearly 400 shareholders, making it the largest CSA in the Milwaukee area. Seventy-five percent of the shareholders live in the Milwaukee area and 25 percent in the Plymouth-Sheboygan area. To get the work done, the Seelys periodically take on apprentices and interns, hire local high school students on an hourly basis and offer “worker shares” to people who exchange labor, about three hours a week, for all or part of the cost of their share.
One worker/shareholder, Elise McKinch, moved to Plymouth from South Milwaukee last year with her husband and five children. “As city folks moving out to the country, we wanted to be involved and learn more about gardening,” says McKinch. “We also wanted our children to see how food moves from field to table. It doesn’t just get dropped off at the supermarket.” The oldest McKinch children, ages 13, 9, 7 and 4, are all part of the packing days.
Packing days, Mondays and Thursdays, are particularly busy at Springdale. Eight to 10 workers – the Seelys, volunteers and paid help – begin picking at about 5 a.m. Huge buckets of lettuce, spinach, mixed greens and herbs are taken immediately to the barn, where another three or four workers stand ready. The greens are then washed in one of two 400-pound stainless-steel bulk tanks, spun dry in a large spinner, sorted, weighed, put in plastic bags or tied in a bunch and stored in a walk-in cooler. “Washing not only gets the dirt off but helps cool down the greens, which can wilt easily in the heat,” says Peter. Root vegetables, such as carrots and beets, are washed in a separate barrel.
This process takes most of the morning and early afternoon. Around 3:30 p.m., another crew of seven or eight gathers in the barn to put the produce in boxes. This is done literally as an assembly line: worker number one puts scallions in a box and pushes it down the rollers to the next worker, who adds spinach and pushes it down to the next worker and so on. The final worker puts each box on a pallet, and when the pallet has the appropriate number of boxes for a pick-up site, according to Bernadette’s checklist, she wheels it into the cooler for storage overnight. The next morning, two or three workers load the pallets onto the Springdale pickup truck, which heads toward the city to distribute its load of goodies.
The three older Seely children, Anneke, 16, Jim, 13, and Marika, 10 (baby Esther is 2), are a critical part of the Springdale operation. In addition to the farm chores that everyone pitches in on, Anneke types in and prints the biweekly newsletter and handles contacts with subscribers. Jim manages his own farm-within-a-farm business, raising chickens for consumption. This requires him to understand everything about the business – from ordering seeds to getting the chickens to market. At 10, Marika is skilled at driving the skid loader.
The Seely children are home-schooled. “It’s the parents’ duty to educate them, not the state’s,” says Bernadette. Adds Peter: “We have an aversion to what is happening in the public schools. Bad habits, peer pressure. There is a lot of excitement when you are learning on your own.” The children do most of their formal book learning in the colder months. “And when they’re working on the farm, they’re learning, too,” Bernadette points out. “Animal husbandry, time management, problem-solving.” The Seely children also participate in church groups, arts programs and sports teams.
Thanks to the family’s hard work, Springdale Farm has now reached a plateau: They have run out of land. To expand, the family would need to acquire more, but there isn’t any close by. “We are not actively looking,” says Peter. “This is enough for me to manage.”
And as with any farm, the challenges are legion. Just growing the crops can be a struggle, dealing with irrigation, pests and diseases. “Once you think you’ve got everything handled, a new pest or weed appears,” says Peter.
Timing the output is tricky to start with, so that there is enough (but not too much) for the boxes each week. And then there are the inevitable disasters. In the 2001 season, for example, their greenhouses got hit with a tobacco mosaic virus that drastically cut back on tomato output. In 2002, for reasons the Seelys never figured out, the first field planting of cucumbers withered and died. Later that season, the fall cabbages did not have enough time to develop fully before the first killing frost and were barely worth picking.
Peter says that because organic farming is such a small part of the American agricultural economy – only 2 to 5 percent of American farms are organic, compared to 10 to 12 percent of European farms – there simply isn’t the infrastructure that supports other types of farming, such as dairy, for example. “The horticultural experts in Madison can’t tell us anything,” he says. “Most of us out here are pioneers. We have to figure things out for ourselves.”
He adds: “People think farmers are dumb. Far from it. I wish I had more training in microbiology because what’s going on in the soil is very complex.” He keeps abreast by reading organic farming publications and exchanging ideas with other organic farmers.
Recently, though, the Seelys stopped referring to their produce as “organic,” even though it is raised organically, because in October 2002, federal law governing the use of the term went into effect. While such a law is somewhat helpful when purchasing food – such as bananas, which are shipped over long distances – the cost and hassle of becoming certified as an organic farm is not really useful for farms such as theirs, which supplies local markets, says Peter.
“If anyone doubts our sincerity or commitment to farming organically, simply come out to the farm and see how we do things,” he says. “We would rather have an ongoing debate with you than an annual inspection and a year-long paper chase from an ‘organic policeman.’ ”
The second challenge is retaining shareholders. “People give up on CSA, so there is more turnover than I’m happy with,” says Peter. He cites several reasons: People don’t cook as much as they want to believe they do, some shareholders don’t like that they have no choice about what arrives in their box each week, people end up throwing out produce they don’t use and then feel guilty and picking up can be a hassle.
Nonetheless, the Seelys have been able to attract the largest shareholder base of any Milwaukee-area CSA, in large measure because they are so thoughtful about their farming. Ruth Triesman, a longtime shareholder whose home is a pickup site, joined another CSA two years ago when the Seelys took the year off to visit the Netherlands.
“There was no comparison in terms of the variety and amount that we get from Springdale,” she says. “And they are always checking with me to make sure everything is going smoothly at the pickup site. I’m very happy with the arrangement.”
As a result of the dedication and time the Seelys have invested in their farm over the years, their finances have gradually improved. They are covering their yearly expenses and even starting to save a little. They purchase health insurance with a high deductible and pay for routine healthcare matters from a medical savings account.
“If you count up the time we put in, Bernadette and I are earning less than minimum wage,” says Peter. “This is not a highly profitable endeavor.”
But there are many benefits, he says. “We get to be with our kids, we get to be outside and we believe we are doing something useful.” Adds Bernadette: “Growing produce is pretty neat in itself, and it’s nice having our own business.”
And nice to knock off work when they feel like it. At the end of a hot summer day, the family dons bathing suits and heads for the half-acre pond Peter and Bernadette dug during their second spring on the farm. “You can’t put a value on these things,” says Peter.
Carolyn Kott Washburne is a regular contributor to Milwaukee Magazine.
Helping Out the Neighbors
For a greater variety in Springdale Farm’s weekly produce boxes, and to support other organic farmers, the Seelys include a few products not grown on their farm. Mushrooms, for example, come from Gourmet’s Delight, an organically certified mushroom farm 12 miles west of Springdale. Maple syrup is supplied by the sugar maple trees of the Seelys’ neighbors, the Drewerys. Oranges come from the grove of the Seelys’ beekeeper in Florida and apples from Barthel’s orchard in Mequon, which uses a minimum-spray I.P.M. (Integrated Pest Management) program. Shareholders can place a separate order for naturally raised beef from Little Creek Farm in LaFarge.
Shareholders can also order “beefalo,” raised organically by Beefalo Bill’s Ranch & Market in St. Cloud, 12 miles west of Plymouth. Beefalo, a cross-bred combination of bison and domestic cattle, has more protein than beef from ordinary cattle, fewer calories and significantly lower levels of both total fats and saturated fats.
“The Seelys have a good distribution system that I can take advantage of,” says Beefalo Bill, whose real name is Bill Thackray, a dairy farmer turned beefalo raiser in his 70s. “And the fact that they’re such a nice family makes it easy to have a good business relationship.”
Face of the Farmer
The concept of community-supported agriculture originated in Japan in the 1960s with a group of women. Concerned about the increase in food imports and the corresponding decrease in the number of farms, these women established a direct growing and purchasing relationship with local farms. The arrangement was called teikei, which translates as “putting the farmer’s face on food.” Similar movements were developing in Germany and Switzerland around the same time. Years later, in 1985, the concept traveled to the United States to the Indian Line Farm in Massachusetts, where it was named “community-supported agriculture.” Today, there are an estimated 1,000 CSA farms across the United States and Canada, with an estimated 65 in Wisconsin.
Come and Get It Where to get your fresh produce.
Troy Backyard Bounty
Laura Comerford, W4873 County Road U, Plymouth, 920-892-4319; ljcomerford@hotmail.com.
Vegetables, herbs and some fruit grown organically. Poultry and eggs available at extra cost. Work shares available – 40 hours for a half-share, 80 hours for a full share. Work anytime during the season; bring friends or family to meet the time requirement. Each half-share is $250 and feeds one to two people. Deduct $25 if you subscribe before March 1. Milwaukee-area delivery sites. 20 weeks of produce.
Full Harvest Farm
Chuck Frase and Terry Vlossak, 7112 County Road S, Hartford, 262-673-6760; fullharvestfarm@yahoo.com.
Organically grown fruits and vegetables. Couple share: $325; family share (four people): $425; farm share (produce self-selected each week at the farm): $300. Other sites: Ocono-mowoc, or where six members are gathered in one area. Same price guaranteed for three years. Pro-rated rates for joining mid-season.
Genesee Community
Farm Cooperative
Patrick O’Day, 513 Grove St., Waukesha, 262-542-8973.
Produce grown by organic and biodynamic methods. $250 per person plus labor require-ment once per week on pickup day. No delivery. 18-20 weeks of vegetables. Members vote and set prices.
Nature Creek Farm
Dan and Connie Conine, 2684 County Road D, Belgium, 920-994-2365, dconine@dotnet.com.
Seeking experienced subscribers to help start a CSA. Call for share information or go to www.naturecreekfarm.com.
Pinehold Gardens
David Kozlowski and Sandra Raduenz, 1807 E. Elm Rd., Oak Creek, 762-1301.
Vegetables grown organically. Eggs and free-range natural chickens and turkeys available at additional cost. 18-week season. Small share: $225 (feeds one to two people that cook half the time); large share: $335 (50 percent larger; feeds a couple who are vegetarian). Delivery on Tuesday to three Milwaukee-area locations or pick up at the farm late on Tuesday.
Prairie Dock Farm
Greg David, W4512 Riverdale Ln., Watertown, 920-262-9996.
Organic vegetables, flowers, herbs and fruit. Free-range chickens, pigs and geese at extra cost. Share is $250. Pickup at the farm only. End of April until mid-October.
Rainbow Farmer Cooperative
Will Allen, 5500 W. Silver Spring Dr., Milwaukee, 527-1546, will@growingpower.org.
Cooperative, year-round CSA with products from local, regional and national small farms. Fourteen kinds of fruits and vegetables; additional charge for chickens, beef, cheese or eggs. Educational programs and recipes available. Shares are $12 or $24 per week, paid on a monthly basis.
Rare Earth Farm
Steve Young, 6806 Highway KW, Belgium, 262-285-7070; www.rareearthfarm.com.
Organic vegetables and strawberries. Eggs/poultry available for sale. $470 single share for two to three people. Pickups in Sheboygan, Grafton, Port Washington, Mequon, Shorewood, Bay View, Waukesha, South Milwaukee and Wauwatosa. Monthly newsletter. Salsa-making festival in August and fall festival in October (pumpkin carving, pot luck and bonfire), both open to the public for a small fee.
Springdale Farm
Peter and Bernadette Seely, W7065 Silver Spring Ln., Plymouth 920-892-4856; pseely@excel.net.
Produce grown organically. Full share (three to five people): $495; half-share (two to three people): $330. Eggs available separately. Several Milwaukee sites, Sheboygan, Plymouth (at food stores or homes).
Stella Garden and Farm
Kim Bair, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, W2493 County Road ES, East Troy, 262-642-3303, X-111; www.michaelfieldsaginst.org.
Produce grown biodynamically, certified organic. Large share: $400; small share: $275; winter share: $225; flowers $100. Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, Waukesha, Oconomowoc, Hartland. Winter share: East Troy only.
Wellspring Gardens
Mary Ann Ihm, 4382 Hickory Rd., West Bend, 262-675-6755; wellspring@hnet.net.
Certified organic fruits, vegetables and herbs grown biodynamically. Eggs available separately. Full share: $335. 25 weeks. Milwaukee sites including Outpost Natural Foods. Full educational facility, including international hostel, B&B, Earth Day, herb sale and fall festival.
Learn More
On February 17, 2004, at 7 p.m., the Urban Ecology Center (2808 N. Bartlett Ave.) will host an informational meeting led by representatives from the area CSAs listed here. For more information, call 964-8505 or visit www.urbanecologycenter.org.
A Share of the Harvest
Over the course of a season, which begins in early June, my family and I receive a weekly box containing a variety of freshly picked vegetables. Beginning in late October and continuing until the first week of December, we receive a box every two weeks, with produce coming either from the Springdale Farm greenhouses or from their coolers and storage rooms. Shareholders have the choice of two sizes – a full share is designed to feed two to four adults, while a half-share is designed for one or two adults.
Each box typically includes seven to 10 different vegetables and fruits, except in the beginning of the season, when there is less variety. The “storage share,” delivered in the third week of December, comprises at least 30 pounds of carrots, garlic, potatoes, onions, leeks, cabbage, beets, rutabagas and oranges, plus two dozen eggs. In addition to the produce, for a separate fee, we also receive eggs every other week from the farm’s free-ranging and organically fed chicken flock.
Springdale uses 12 pickup sites for shareholder boxes, in Mequon, Bayside, Whitefish Bay, Shorewood, Wauwatosa, Menom-onee Falls, Sheboygan and Plymouth. Most of these are private homes, where the boxes are stacked in open garages; three health food stores are also sites. We return our empty boxes and egg cartons to the pickup site the following week.
