After years of industrial farming, the Priskes wanted to take a more holistic approach to agriculture – and to life. “We share, we learn and we educate all at the same time. And we like to say that we use the good farmer’s approach to land stewardship and food production,” John says.

“We work just as hard at this type of farming as we did before, but we’re enjoying it a lot more, having a lot more fun,” Dorothy says.

Some of that enjoyment comes from the people who return to the bed-and-breakfast or their stand at the farmers’ market. “We built relationships that will last,” John says. “The community that supports us keeps us in business.”

Building a community

Other farmers cited relationships with customers as an important aspect to their success as well.

“We have very wonderful customers,” says Andrea Yoder of Harmony Valley Farm in Viroqua. Nestled in a valley beside the Bad Axe River, Harmony Valley is a certified-organic, community-supported-agriculture farm.

Community-supported agriculture is an agreement between farmers and customers who pay the farmer early in the growing season. That payment entitles customers to a portion of the food that is grown. Throughout the harvest season, customers pick up boxes of food, fresh from the farm.

Yoder says their CSA membership has grown from about 35 customers 15 years ago to 1,500 now, and multiple generations of customers keep coming back. “They’re used to eating good food,” Yoder says. “It always amazes me – we eat three times a day; if we don’t eat, we don’t live. We’re so out of touch with our food source when, really, it’s our life source.”

That sentiment is echoed by organic growers throughout the state.

“People like to know who’s growing their food and that it’s safe,” says Mat Eddy, who owns and operates Ridgeland Harvest in Viroqua with his wife, Cate. Ridgeland Harvest is a certified-organic and CSA farm. They grow produce, beef and pork on 70 acres, and business has grown by about 25 percent a year for the last eight years.

Despite greater awareness of organics among the public, Eddy sees reluctance among some browsers at the farmers’ market to try organic food. “They see it’s organic and think it’s dangerous because of E. Coli,” he says.

Still, he thinks more farmers will look to organic practices as a cheaper way of doing business. “Conventional farmers saw the cost of fertilizers triple because they’re petroleum based,” Eddy says. Eddy uses winter rye as a fertilizer at a cost of about $100 for five acres, compared to hundreds per acre for conventional farmers.

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