Of the 212 total acres at the farm, located off Froemel Road in Hayward, Wis., 74 acres are tillable and planted with varieties of native and non-native species of plants and produce. Many of the species are found locally, and “local” is an important term these days for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Farm Manager Todd Brier.
“The produce you’re seeing now – you really don’t know what you’re getting. People can start using sustainable practices and the thing is it’s cheaper. It just takes a little more time and effort, but you know what you’re eating and where it came from,” Brier said. This was evident at the feast where each community dish was credited to a local farm or homestead where it was produced, all within 100 miles, all delicious.
And it’s not just a catch term these days to eat local, grow local and buy local, the study of sustainable farming has caught the attention of universities across the Midwest. Brier currently has three ongoing research projects collaborating with the universities of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Purdue University from varying soil and “bio-char” tests to how some plants react to colder temperatures.
Student interns shoulder much of the work at LCO College Farm under the careful guidance of Brier and are the true heart and soul of the operation.
“We have some really great interns – even going so far as to spend their own money or come in on their days off,” he said. “It’s really a pride of ownership; when you watch things growing and developing, it creates a passion.”
“The elders who want to garden, but can’t really get down on their knees anymore to tend the plantings can use these new beds,” Brier noted.
Community-supported agriculture (CSA) is essential to the operation at LCO College Farm. In the 16 years the farm has been open to the public, it wasn’t until 2011 when a CSA program was put into place.
A recent addition to the farm includes a hoop house, which allows plants to survive further into the fall season, some even through the winter. In the spring, the LCO College Farm receives a great deal of community support to help get started for the year, including Northern Lakes Cooperative which helps the farm by occasionally donating seed or plantings.
Brier keeps his eyes aloft however, ever-searching for that much needed rain. The rains received in northern Wisconsin in June assisted this year’s growing but, Brier admitted, there’s been more water needed this time later in the season. For that he points to numerous, large, blue barrels flanking every downspout around the farm.
One of the goals of the farm includes tying back to the classroom and building into college courses that experience best learned at the farm.
“We are working to tie into more classes at the College with the farm, whether biology students or business students,” Brier said. “Even a sociology class where they are working with food systems and how they relate to cultures.”
Important to the operations at the farm is the practice of utilizing recycled and re-claimed materials which can be seen scattered and put into use throughout the farm.
“We try to make everything sustainable. We use rain barrels, pallets, or even an old ice house that was turned into a chicken coop with a little TLC,” he asserted.
A day at the farm is not for the faint of heart however, as multitudes of bees call newly-installed hives their home. Farm staff even provide watering holes to bees who crowd and twitch drinking from the edges of placed rocks. Bees, as farm staffer and tour guide Sue Menzel expressed, are systematic to the farm and essential to all mankind while keeping bees adds to the educational offerings as well.
“We had a bee keeper come out last year and show how to make honey,” Brier said, coincidentally with an unnoticed honey bee flitting on his shoulder.
After a long pause and deep breath on this August afternoon, Brier smiles, “and sometimes I come out here just to read.”
