when it was apparent that halee and john, and their growing family, didn’t have a clear future farming family land, halee went on craigslist and searched for “organic” jobs in the madison area. they were lucky enough to have an opportunity to run a breakfast and lunch cafe called “dewey’s” on the square, at john’s home farm they learned how to bottle feed calves that needed a little help, grow enough vegetables to supply their restaurant, and tried their hand at growing edible dry beans, open pollinated corn, and wheat. After spending a combined ten years in New York City, they made the leap and moved back to John’s home town of lancaster, wisconsin. Food was what brought them together, and it is what they continue to be passionate about as farmers. John and Halee met cooking at one of New York City’s most beloved restaurants, Prune. Due to issues with stray voltage, Paul sold the cows in 2011 and left dairying, plowed under pastures and planted organic corn and soybeans. In the early nineties, when the confinement model started failing, Paul was among the first dairymen to establish pastures and start rotational grazing with 350 cows. His family had a dairy in the Sauk Prairie area, and Paul’s father helped him get started in Ridgeway. Paul Bickford started farming his land as a confinement dairy in 1978 with 250 cows.
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