For Richard de Wilde and
Linda Halley, organic farming is more than a way of life – it’s
what brought them together.
But before their story together began, each had their own story to
live. De Wilde had farmed organically outside of St. Paul, Minn.,
for 30 years. He had always farmed his fresh market vegetable organically.
Halley started farming fresh market vegetable about 13 years ago in
southern Wisconsin.
De Wilde had moved to Wisconsin and started Harmony Valley Farm in
1985. He took his vegetables to the area farmers’ market, where
Halley was also taking hers. She was looking for a mentor to help
her get into organic farming, and one day she saw de Wilde’s
carrots and knew he could help her.
“What attracted me to Richard was this huge pile of beautiful
carrots at his farmers’ market stand,” Halley said. “I
thought ‘those are all too perfect, he can’t be organic.’
I had it in my head that there would be bug damage or leaves diseased.
It broke the myth that I had about what organic should look like.”
At this point, de Wilde had been attending that farmers’ market
for five years and Halley had been for two.
“My goal when I started farming was to learn how to farm organically,
but I didn’t really know how,” Halley said. “That’s
another reason I approached Richard. I realized people were looking
for produce without sprays…I was sort of his intern for a year
then I made myself indispensable.”
Halley moved to Harmony Valley Farm, and today they’ve been
married eight years.
“Farming’s a lonely business, so it’s a little less
lonely when we farm together,” Halley said.
Harmony Valley Farm is located in Viroqua, Wis., and consists of 80
acres where Halley said they have 60 different crops. Among them,
Harmony Valley specialties include baby greens, asparagus, edamame,
fennel, kales, spinach and beans. They also have stored crops in the
winter that include parsnips, celeriac and garlic.
More than half of their spring through fall business goes into their
450 member CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Their CSA has been
in business for about 12 years, Halley said.
“When I moved here, my goal was to start a CSA,” Halley
said. “Of course I was just coming to learn, and I guess I brought
my idea with me.”
They started the CSA as a joint effort with a group of consumers in
Madison, Wis., who wanted to get food fresh from the farm. The CSA
has been around long enough that Halley said most of their advertising
is done through word of mouth – and so far they haven’t
had difficulty getting members.
“They sign up between December and March and start getting boxes
in May,” Halley said. “Our limitation is how much can
we deliver in our truck. We think of maybe 450 to 500 members is our
maximum capacity. We’re not growing very fast. Every year we’re
growing just a little.”
De Wilde and Halley also have continued with the farmers’ market
stand at the Dan County Farmers’ Market.
“For sure my favorite aspect of farming is the direct marketing
to our CSA and farmers’ market customers because it’s
really an opportunity to get feedback,” Halley said. “They’re
so positive about the flavors and quality and they’re just so
appreciative – they think of us as a resource they’re
happy to have in their neighborhood. That’s probably what keeps
us going all summer long.”
Harmony Valley is certified organic, which Halley said involves some
paperwork and tracking.
“You have to be following organic practices for at least three
years before you’re certified, then you simply find a certifier
and meet their approval,” Halley said. “Records are a
big part of it. They want to see through records what your practices
are. You have to have an audit trail for every crop.”
With organic farming, Halley said there are some misconceptions out
there. For one, she said, the organic rules are not difficult to follow:
“We’re following them.” And two, she said, people
think they’re going to get low yield and poor quality. For this,
she refers to her misconceptions when she first saw de Wilde’s
pile of carrots at the farmers’ market.
“I think that it’s (organic) more management intensive
than conventional farming, but vegetable production is management
intensive anyway,” Halley said.
So why go through the paperwork and the intensive management? For
them, Halley said organic farming was a no-brainer.
“We didn’t want to work around the chemicals,” she
said. “If we could grow high quality, get a good yield and get
a good price without using chemicals, we were winning and our customers
were winning and the environment on our farm was winning.”
For those considering organic farming, Halley said she suggests finding
a mentor and not hesitating.
“I think it’s helpful to have a mentor farmer who’s
had experience growing those crops organically,” she said. “You
can’t just go to Extension and talk to them about it. Most often
they don’t know. I encourage people who want to grow organic
– it’s not impossible, but there is a learning curve.
The best teacher is another farmer.”
Halley said there might be one day in the future when organic vegetable
farming becomes the norm.
“The reason I say that is because it’s really consumer
driven,” she said. “Farmers are going to produce a crop
people want to buy. As consumers get more savvy, they ask for more
organic products and it’s available at more reasonable price.”
But, before this can happen, Halley said there would need to be more
information available to growers.
“Hand in hand with consumer demand will have to go research
to provide organic farmers with more tools,” she said. “Disease
control is really difficult organically – not impossible, but
certainly one of the hurdles. But as there’s more and more organic
farmers, people will do research on those things – it’s
a chicken and the egg kind of thing.”
For more information on Harmony Valley Farm, visit www.harmonyvalleyfarm.com.
