There are many benefits of buying local in addition to supporting your local economy.

By supporting local farms, you are helping to preserve open spaces. Purchasing products from local farmers helps to keep them in business. In return, this helps to protect farmland from becoming developed.

Buying local also reduces the use of fossil fuels and helps to protect the environment from harmful exhaust fumes. When you buy local, your produce will not have traveled hundreds or even thousands of miles.

By buying local, you are receiving the freshest possible produce, picked just hours before delivery to your local store.

Our products are sold seasonally through their offered CSA subscription, Slow Pokes-Local Foods, Riverwest Co-op, The East Town Association Farm Market, and the produce can be found in meals prepared by Buckley’s Kiskeam Inn restaurant in Milwaukee. In the future, Willoway Farm may have more produce that can be found at other restaurants in the Milwaukee area to be updated as this unfolds

Willoway Farm is dedicated to using non-GMO seeds, heirloom seeds, biodynamic seeds, certified organic seeds and our own saved seeds.

Organic means produce and other ingredients grown without the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, genetically modified organisms, or ionizing radiation. For Animals produced for meat, poultry, dairy products, fiber, they are raised without use of antibiotics, growth hormones, and are fed strictly organic feed. Because the word organic was beginning to be used to market foods, concerned advocates of organic products pursued the certification of organic products to ensure those claming to grow their products organically are true to their word. The NOP (National Organic Program) has their own definition that can be found on the internet.

Small organic farmers do not receive federal subsidies like conventional farmers do. Whether you buy conventional or organic products as a taxpayer your money already is paying for conventional foods before the food is put on the market shelves. Therefore the price organic reflects the true cost of growing organic foods. The price of conventional foods does not reflect the cost of environmental cleanups that we pay for through our tax dollars. Organic farming is more labor and more management intensive.

Besides the low environmental impact our produce is derived from we believe without any scientific testing our vegetable are healthier and more nutritious then conventionally grown vegetables. How we grow our vegetables, the soil we grow it in, what we feed the soil all contribute to the composition of our vegetables. The food system used on our farm is using fertility from the natural material we put back into the earth, but also creating the habitat for the micro-organisms which in themselves provide nutrients not received by a synthetic fertilized vegetables living in dead soil without diverse micro-organism. We grow our vegetables within a nutritional loop. The nutritional loop includes energy from the sun used by the plants. The plants also using energy from the earth we supplement with sun enriched natural plant life or animal life. This energy then is passed to the consumer, you. Following harvest, our own consumption of the vegetables, and arranging flowers we use all the waste material and compost it again using the sun to decompose the compost pile. Composting creates rich humus over time to be reused for fertility in the garden. There is no petroleum based nutrition used on farm. So our foods contain no petroleum sourced nutrients.

Heirloom vegetable/flower seeds are handed down from generation to generation through family, friends, and neighbors. Heirlooms seeds originate from about 50 or more years ago pre World War 2.

We do not sell honey. We keep only a couple of hives for a variety of reasons. The main reason is to ensure pollination in all our flowers and vegetables. A lot Of the honey is save for feed for the bees over the winter and come spring. If there is a surplus of honey we will harvest it but it is usually enough for just us. Our honeybees do not get treated with any conventional chemicals. We try using natural remedies to deter mites etc.

We have yet to have a successful year over-wintering the honeybees. For the past to winters they have frozen. We do use straw bales for insulation for the winter but it just is not enough. So every spring, for the past two years, we have purchased new queens for new hives. Our goal is to be able to over-winter the honey bees to strengthen the hive and get the bees more acclimated to this region. We have improvement to do in raising the bees and just keep trying. We believe honeybees are an intricate part of the garden and they add their own special magic to the garden that is irreplaceable.

A fantastic book to learn more on saving the honeybee and raising honeybees is “Toward Saving the Bee” by Gunther Hawke.

We do use a walk behind rototiller to incorporate compost and green manures.

Besides hand pulling weeds we use several sized hand hoes for maintaining the smaller weeds.

We also use a broadfork, which has five 18 inch tines. You push the broadfork into the ground in an upright fashion and lift the soil around to reach deep into the soil loosening the soil and aerating it. In soil inhabited with trees, shrubbery, and other perennials such like in the uncultivated nature a natural aeration and soil structure formed by the permanent root system. Using the broadfork loosens the soil to give some encouragement for annual roots to penetrate the deeper soil and it allows the nutrients from the each the soil where the plants will receive their nutrient supply. The broadfork minimizes damage to the living strata flora and fauna of the soil providing nutrients for the vegetables and plants.

We do use scythes to cut the clover footpaths, fields, weeds, and small grassy areas.

Spade Forks for harvesting, pulling out weeds, removing bulbs and many other creative garden ways. Garden hand trowel used mostly for planting.

We planted White Dutch clover for several reasons. It is a clover of shorter height that can hold up to tread of feet and wheels. When in bloom it provides great forage for the honey bees. Having the clover between garden beds suppresses weed growth. The clover once cut when it matures creates good mulch and green manure for the raised beds. The clover also fixates nitrogen in the soil. The clover between the raised beds also soaks up water from rains preventing soil erosion. The clover creates nice flooring for the barefooted farmer.

GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organism. These seeds have had their DNA genetically modified unnaturally by scientist. In nature the modification of the seed would have not occurred. Willoway Farm promotes using seeds saved for generation so the seeds are not lost forever. There are several reasons why we stay away from genetically modified seed:

• The technology is so new in GMO seeds that we have no way of understanding the radical long term impacts of genetically altering the living organisms. The public is being used as guinea pigs for this dangerous experiment. Doctors say problems with allergies and other complications can and will take years to develop.
• Genetic escapees are polluting the gene pool, rendering many non-GMO crop seed sterile. The result is a major threat to natural genetic diversity that has developed over a long period and it is fundamentally necessary to the long-term genetic viability
• Terminator genes implanted in genetic make up make seeds sterile after one generation therefore making it impossible for the farmers to save seeds. Seed saving is one of the longest standing and most important practices in sustainable agriculture. Because GMO genes are patented it makes it illegal for the farmers to save the seeds or liable for lawsuits if GMO drift into their fields and plants.
• GMO Foods destroy diversity, sustainable agriculture; making developing countries dependent on receiving seed from the USA, every year taking money away from local farmers, local economies, and sending profits overseas.

French Intensive Gardening was developed outside of Paris, France in homes with limited growing space. The farming method was brought more into the public eye when a man named Alan Chadwick implemented these French Intensive Farming Methods with Rudolf Steiner’s Biodynamic Farm Methods. The French Intensive Gardening Method uses raised beds and create microclimates around crops by sowing the plants close together. The varieties of plants are selected to compliment each other in the field (companion planting). This helps keep in the moisture and reduce weed growth. French Intensive Gardens and Biodynamic gardens use organic fertilizers, cover crops, green manure (till in such crops as clover), compost, and biodynamic preparations to provide healthy food for the microorganisms and the plants growing there. This method of farming ensures our microorganisms in the soil are thriving. Alive soil is soil that can provide for healthy plants. This is the big difference between our garden soil and conventional farmland soil. Our garden soil is alive and the conventional soil is dead, relying on fuel based fertility products to grow such crops as corn and soybean.

I will give a definition Mark L. Shepherd (permaculture designer and Agroforest research farmer) paraphrased from Bill Mollison.

Bill Mollison writes: Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive systems which have the diversity, stability, resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way.

Permaculture design is a system of assembling conceptional, material, and strategic components in a pattern which functions to benefit life in all its forms. The philosophy behind permaculture is one working with, rather than against, nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than asking only one yield of them and allowing systems to demonstrate their own evolutions.

Willoway Farm uses preventative measures to deter plant disease and plant pest. Most importantly we return nutrients and minerals to the earth with animal and plant byproducts. We aim for healthy soils to promote healthy plants and by doing so preventing disease and giving strength to plants to withstand pest that may encroach the garden. Willoway Farm does conduct soil tests every two years to understand what nutrients including trace minerals if any are low. Willoway Farm rotates crops and keeps detailed records to maintain the rotation. Plant residues of diseased plants are removed from the garden. If any product is used on the plants for pest problems it would be natural, biodegradable, and a non-broad spectrum product. For instance for flea beetles and Cabbage worms we have tried and used rye flour or Diatomaceous earth on the plants with these pest. Willoway Farm also uses remay, a cotton based physical barrier that not only keeps pest off the plants but can prevent early frost damage. Companion planting is also used to deter insects. The garden is packed with diverse plants creating habitats for beneficial insects and creatures such as toads, frogs, and snakes all adding to the circle of life in the garden. Our farming strategies promote microorganism activity in the soil. Healthy soil promotes healthy plants and strong plants. Our aim is to do minimal tillage to maintain a strong and healthy conglomerate of soil habitat for the earth’s beneficial insects.

Sustainable agriculture is when on e produces abundant food without depleting the earth’s resources or polluting the environment. It is agriculture that follows the principles of nature to develop systems for raising crop and livestock that are like nature self sustaining.

Biodynamics originated with the work of Rudolf Steiner. Throughout humanity’s long descent into materialism, there have always been individuals who, by means of natural abilities and/or special training, have maintained an intimate connection with the spiritual world and would thereby give guidance to humanity. Rudolf Steiner was such an individual. With remarkable clairvoyance and highly disciplined training and research, he explored both the natural world and the world of spirit. Biodynamics was developed through Steiner’s collaboration with a circle of European farmers and Scientists. The principles and practical recommendations that have guided the biodynamic work can be found in a series of lectures given by Steiner in 1924 which was later published. “Agriculture” by Rudolf Steiner. (info gotten from a article written by Barbara Sullivan.)

The idea of biodynamic farming is to create a close farm systems where off farm products are unneeded to have the farm be a success. For example, raising cows and using their manure to fertilize the land; then growing feed on the land for the cows and saving seed from the crops grown to ensure regional attributes in the crops. A complete circle of life is where one part of the farm is intricately connected for the other part of the farm to succeed.

• Preparation 500: Essentially cow manure is stuffed in a cow horn and buried in the ground over winter to be uncovered the following spring. This enhances the life forces in the soil. Includes Phosphoric Acid, Potash, and lime which is created from the process of making the preparation.
• Preparation 501: Made from finely ground, fermented silica crystals. Cow horns are filled with moistened silica and are placed in the soil in the spring. The silica is allowed to ferment through the summertime. The horns are dug up in the fall. The preparation can have beneficial effects on growth and quality.
• Yarrow: adds sulfur and Potassium
• Chamomile: Works on calcium and stabilizes nitrogen
• Stinging Nettle: Adds calcium and Iron, and overall a great benefactor for plant growth
• Dandelion: Ads silica acid and potassium, plus enables the plant to draw nutrients from a wide range
• Valerian: relationship to phosphorus
• Oak Bark: adds “living” calcium and helps ward of plant diseases