Two people, fourteen acres, one ridge.
We're Nora and Dan Halvorsen. We've farmed this ground since 2014, certified organic since 2017, and fed between 120 and 190 households a year through the CSA since 2016. This is the short version of how that happened.
How we got here
Nora grew up on a dairy farm outside Cashton, left for Madison to study soil science, and spent four years managing the vegetable crew at a 60-acre CSA in the Twin Cities. Dan is from Milwaukee, was a line cook for a decade, and met Nora by buying the same farm's produce for the restaurant he ran. He was the one who kept asking why the carrots were so much better in September.
In 2014 we rented 3 acres and an old tobacco shed on County Road P from a retired couple, the Olstads, and sold at the Viroqua market out of a station wagon. The first CSA, 2016, had 38 members. In 2018 the Olstads sold us the 40-acre parcel on a land contract, and we put the first 10 acres into vegetables and the rest into pasture and woods. We finished paying it off last spring.
The name is the Olstads' doing. Mrs. Olstad called the ridge "prairie wind hill" because it's the only flat, open ground for miles and there's always a breeze. We kept it. The wind is real; ask anyone who's tried to lay row cover up here.
The farm today
14 acres
in vegetables and cut flowers, about a third under cover crop at any time. Two high tunnels (30 × 96 ft each) for early tomatoes, winter greens and the June cucumbers.
186 members
in the 2025 CSA across four pickup sites. We'll cap at 200 this year. Beyond that we'd need another wash line and a third delivery day, and we'd rather do it well.
240 hens
in a mobile coop that follows the vegetable rotation. They turn crop residue into eggs and fertility and they are the farm's best-loved employees.
Five people
us, plus Teo, Maren and Jules from April to November. Six worker-share members cover a shift each. Nora's dad still comes to pull garlic every July.
Twelve years, in short
- 2014Rent 3 acres from the Olstads. First Viroqua market, out of the back of a Subaru.
- 2016First CSA: 38 members, one pickup site, a lot of kale.
- 2017USDA organic certification. Dan leaves the restaurant for good.
- 2018Buy the 40 acres. Build the first high tunnel and the wash-pack shed.
- 2019The farm stand opens. Honor system from day one; losses have never topped 3%.
- 2021Deer fence around the whole farm. The second high tunnel. Hens arrive.
- 2023Permanent raised beds on 4 acres. La Crosse Thursday market and Westby pickup added.
- 2025186 members, two co-op accounts, land paid off. First year of the fall storage share.
- 2026Capping the CSA at 200. Trying castelfranco and sweet potatoes at scale. You're here.
What we're trying to do
Grow the best vegetables in Vernon County and sell most of them within 40 miles of where they grew. Pay ourselves and our crew a wage you could live on. Leave the soil better than we found it, measurably. Be the kind of farm that still exists in 30 years.
We're not trying to get big. Fourteen acres of vegetables is a lot of vegetables, and 200 households is as many as we can know by name. If the CSA sells out and you're on the waitlist, there are three other good organic CSAs within 20 miles and we'll tell you which ones.
Come see it
Members' potluck is the second Sunday in August. Farm tours for anyone, first Saturday of June, July and September at 10 am; meet at the stand, bring boots. School groups by arrangement in May and September. Email [email protected].