Hannah Alden takes crates filled with potatoes, broccoli, beets, tomatoes, kale, and other produce and transfers them into the wooden shelves and crates at her farm stand on the corner of County A and King Road between Sugar Camp and Three Lakes.
By the time she’s done unloading all the produce, bursts of reds, purples, oranges, greens, and yellows pop against the gray-weathered wood of the covered farmstand.
Before the Moody Root farmstand even officially opens at 9:00 a.m., Alden’s first customer of the day has arrived. This is Alden’s first summer running the farm which she bought last winter.
“The local folks who come every week and shop with us have been incredible this year, and just getting to know them and getting to know what they like and what they're looking for has been really fun,” said Alden. “Everyone has been so welcoming and supportive, and that's just a really great feeling for a small farmer to feel.”
Moody Root Farm does online ordering with a midweek pick or delivery to Lake Tomahawk and Minocqua.
The farm stand is open Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Alden expects the last day of the season to be October 9.
While it was her first summer running the farm stand, Alden had an idea of what to expect from the previous owners. It’s kept her busy this growing season.
“It's nice to have a place where I can say, ‘Yeah, all this was grown 100 feet from where we are right now.’ One of the nice things I like about our farm stand too is I get to see our customers, so I remain up at the farm stand the whole time that we're open on Fridays,” said Alden. “To get to put a face to the food is really important to me, and get to chat with folks and talk about the weather and whatever they want to talk about.”
Alden says people like knowing who has handled the food their eating, which in Moody Root’s case, the produce is usually just going through one set of hands before the buyers: hers.
“I'm planting it, weeding it, harvesting it, washing it, and then handing it over to you,” said Alden.
Knowing where their food is coming from and who is growing it has been of great interest to people this year as food safety concerns like recalls and the record Cyclosporiasis outbreak have made major headlines.
“I have heard from people that there is kind of a mistrust even starting with certain things they're buying in the store, and it's coming from 1000s of miles away, we don't know necessarily how that has gotten here or how many hands it's passed through,” said Alden. “Hearing that from people and that they're coming specifically to buy things because they don't necessarily want to support those systems, we've heard that this year for sure.”
Tomahawk Farmer Matt Hau notice the same thing over at Pine Grove Pastures. They’ve been running a CSA for 12 years and regularly have a booth at the Tomahawk Farmer’s Market.
New this year, Pine Grove Pastures opened a farm stand. Rather than having it at the road near their farm, Hau worked with a downtown Tomahawk property owner to put the farm stand on Main Street.
“It's been going really well. I mean, better than I expected. There's a lot of appetite out there for local food, especially considering some of the concerns with food safety and stuff that's popped up this summer,” said Hau. “I think a lot of people are looking for something they can trust, or at least somewhere they know where it came from. I think that's also driving a lot of people to the farm stand.”
The Pine Grove Pastures farm stand is self-serve and open 24/7.
This summer, Hau’s been stocking it Tuesdays after the farmer’s market and on Friday mornings.
“A lot of produce flies off of the stand, so I'll probably try to supplement that more next year,” said Hau.
Hau started the farm stand this year as they transition away from their CSA. He says the farm stand offers people more flexibility in terms of being able to pick the type and volume of produce they want.
“We kind of are trying to meet the market where it's at, and I think that's what the farm stand will do for those people too. They're excited to go down there next year, get the same produce they've known for years by being subscribers to our CSA,” said Hau. “Being able to pick out if you just want five tomatoes and a cucumber because you're gone, or you want the whole what a box would be that week, and you want to take one of everything, that's available too.”
Locally grown food has been found to have a lot of benefits for communities.
With a shorter food supply chain, there’s fewer chances for bacterial or viral contamination. It also has a lower carbon footprint because it’s not traveling as far.
The produce often tastes better and has more nutrients since it’s consumed closer to when it was harvested.
“I think people maybe started with the safety stuff that they wanted to get more produce, but I think the flavor and freshness is actually going to be what keeps people coming back,” said Hau.
It also supports the local economy.
“That dollar comes from you, goes through me back into the community. I'm working with local people to repair things on the farm, to buy things for the farm,” said Alden. “It's kind of that circular economy flowing through the community, which is great.”
Hau says he’s seen a couple other people in the past year or so start a farm stand and he’s also had several people ask him details for starting their own.
“I think there's a lot of people that are at least interested in the idea. Whether that can work out for everybody, I'm not sure, but there's definitely been a pique in interest,” said Hau.
Both Hau and Alden say they, and many other local farmers, are open to questions about their produce and their process. Adding that the connection to a local grower is a key part in meeting some of the challenges with today’s consolidated food system.
“I think a lot of people are craving that connection now, and I'm hoping that we are a piece of that in this local area and kind of getting people back to knowing their neighbors, knowing what happened to their food and how it got to their table, I think, is really a critical piece to changing some of that food system problem,” said Alden.
While the growing season is winding down, both farmers hope that whatever reason brought people to their farm stand this season, the taste and freshness of their produce will see them coming back next year.
Find a local farm stand
WXPR is making a map of farm stands in the Northwoods. We're specifically looking for ones located in Oneida, Vilas, Forest, Iron, Price, Lincoln, and Langlade Counties in Wisconsin and Gogebic County in Michigan.
Please fill out this form with as much information as possible.
