Pizza Farm

i don't know much about Wisconsin, but now i know one of their best kept secrets!
Pizza Farm.
they don't have a website, they don't even advertise. they don't really need to; word gets around. its a working farm, growing wheat, corn, veggies galore, cows, goats, chickens. on tuesday nights in the summer they make pizzas in a wood fired brick oven right on the farm, using ingredients grown right on the farm!
fantastic combos like: italian sausage, kalamata olives, green olives, mozzarella, onions and tomatoes. a killer veggie including beets and eggplant!
a friend found this sweet little video that my kids love watching
we've been talking about taking the hour and forty minute drive to visit the farm, but the idea of that drive AFTER the feast (and more importantly after bedtime) with my two kids sounded terrible. so we decided to camp. our good friend shirley agreed to drive a few of us in her RV and the dinner date became a vacation!
tuesday morning we piled in the RV and tried to keep the kiddos from bouncing off the walls as we otherwise rode in climate controlled luxury. we drove to a beautiful campsite right on lake Pepin, had a little lunch and swam in the unnaturally warm water. it was hot, teetering around 100F! we were so grateful to have a ginormous tree shading out entire campsite. after setting up tents, having a little lunch and taking a dip in the unnaturally warm water, we set off to check out the little town of Stockholm. we spent an hour in the cutest little gallery and came out with a bargain find, already giving us plenty of laughs!



a little ice cream, a little window shopping, train spotting, herb spotting, so much fun with friends, you wouldn't know we were skipping a nap!




we made our way past corn and soybean fields, truly in the middle of nowhere, just a few minutes after the farm opened. we weren't alone - we were order number 73!
it was easy to pass the time waiting for our pizza, wandering around the farm, checking out the animals, feeding lambsquarters to the lambs, having some for ourselves, watching the pizza making, and finding a nice shady spot to picnic. a trip to the Bran Can, a bucket toilet system i had read about in the Urban Homestead - cover your business with a cup of bran - the cleanest, nicest smelling outhouse i have ever been inside, complete with running water for the sink.
the kids were starting to loose steam, so by the time the pizza was ready they were literally running circles around our blanket. i didn't exactly savor the pizza i was so aware of the kiddos, but even with my distracted attention, i found it to be delicious!








back at the campsite, the kids were way overtired, hot and sweaty. one friend helped jackson take a cold shower while i began putting claire to bed.
one of my first glimpses of claire's temperament was on the night she was born. it was winter, and like a good mama, i had her swaddled, but she would not stop screaming. not until i unwrapped her and let her sleep in just a diaper. in the minnesota winter. she knew what she wanted, and it was to sleep coo.
so lying in the hot and steamy tent with a screaming claire brought back memories.
jackson joined us after a little popcorn with the ladies. he, on the other hand, could sleep in a sauna (and since his bedroom has the worst air circulation, he often does) but he is super sensitive to noise. i sang songs, told Beyond stories, prayed, talked about our special day, but nothing was helping them settle down, in fact, their differences were clashing like cymbals.
i left them for a few minutes to gather my bearings and get some water, heading to the RV to consult my friends who were in the middle of a game of sequence. "i don't know what to do!", i exclaimed and jessie replied, "claire is running out of the tent, should i go get her?"
let's just say Shirley got her way and we all ended up sleeping in the RV. we turned off all the lights and claire was asleep in a few minutes. jackson, the social little night owl that he is, managed to stay awake for an hour of back rubbing before exhaustion overcame him.
this was a perfect example of my village raising my children with me!
so to my community, THANK YOU!!! i really couldn't do it without you. i would have packed the kids up in the car and drove back home just to have a few hours of sleep in their own bed if it weren't for you.
most of the time i love being with my children, but times like this are so draining. they take from me so much of my energy. and time! it was close to 2 hours of bedtime. i was really looking forward to that evening of hanging out with my friends. it is hard not to feel resentful.
claire was awake at 6:30. we wandered the beach, spotted two bald eagles, a heron, a few geese, an old school playground (you know, the kind that really provide challenges) and a friendly neighbor who offered me a cup of coffee. the resentfulness slips away with those sweet hours with my girly. i am reminded that she isn't trying to make my life miserable. she is trying to figure out what her dad has learned; when the party is going strong and you are ready to go to bed, its okay to say goodnight, excuse yourself from the group politely, and go to bed.


we passed a sign and i laughed: "danger mosquitoes". yeah, yeah, that's what they say. in 7 years i haven't found them to be bigger or more in number than base camp at Beyond (where my ankles were constantly bitten). i have thought that Minnesotans talk about the mosquito and the winters like Seattleites talk about the rain. apparently in Wisconson, the mosquitoes really are vicious! i thought i just had camping eyes that were taking more time than usual to deflate. i came home with 7 bites on one foot, 5 on the other, 3 on my neck and 13 on my forehead!!! if i had painted my face blue i could have tried out for the Avatar sequel.

the rest of the gang woke up, we made wonderful breakfast sandwiches, broke camp, headed for home. for naps. memories made.



i learned three things:
1. here in the midwest, it might be best to camp in spring or fall, but not summer
2. i want to be a camping family, but we will probably need to wait until our kids sleep well at home.
3. trip #2 to the Pizza Farm will be a date without the kids!