Visits to Two Sustainable Farms near Green Lake, WI

As promised the other day, we visited two of the half dozen or so farms in Green Lake County, WI who practice some form of locally-focused farming, selling directly to the public. The first was 4M Bison Farm, run by the Mildebrandt family. As the name implies, they raise Bison for meat. They practice rotational pasture grazing, moving the animals from paddock to paddock to keep the pasture grasses growing. This was our first visit to this farm, and first sample of their products. I loaded up on various steaks, and have already had several--they are excellent. Below are seveal pics, courtesy of my wife.

Here one of the herd of 27, just creeping over a hilltop to investigate the strangers talking to Mrs. Mildebrandt (us, that is). The rest of the herd was just out of site over the hill.

Here is a random shot of some of the pasture land. Too far off to show up in this pic is a glimpse of Green Lake.

Less than 10 minutes away, our next stop was Honey Creek Farm. This farm is operated by Jim and Ginger Quick, also using rotational grazing, but in this case it is beef cattle and poultry. They also grow a dozen or more varieties of garlic, leeks and challots. They are sold out of beef this time of year, so we bought a chicken, some eggs and a bunch of garlic and shallots. This is our second visit in two weeks. We bought the same things last time, and have eaten all but some of the garlic. It's all amazing. The cattle were grazing in the woods behind the house when we were there this time.

There are at least four more farms that sell direct and practice some form of sustainable methods in this county, and I am determined to visit them all yet this year. For future posts...