by Jamie Sheridan
June is a perfect time to celebrate the best of Wisconsin when it comes to farming done right. The history of farming in Wisconsin is visible along country roads where perfectly spaced barns and silos represent a mix of old-school farming and sustainable ingenuity. Let’s take a closer look at how some of today’s dairy and community supported agriculture (CSA) farmers are following their passions in creating award-winning products while keeping it real and local.
Lamers Dairy
Dairy, cheese, and meat make Wisconsin among the favorite destinations, famously charming visitors back again and again to any of the Midwest’s food-focused events and attractions. When it comes to producing “Dairyland’s Best” milk, the greater Appleton region truly happens to be at the heart of it all with its beloved Lamers Dairy.
Originated in 1913 by the first generation of the Lamers family, Jacob and Petronella Lamers, in the newly incorporated village of Kimberly, Lamers Dairy, consisted of a small herd of cows that were milked to provide freshly canned and delivered nourishment to nearby neighbors. As years passed, milk carts were replaced with trucks and the second generation of the dairy, led by Richard and Emma Lamers, built its first bottling plant in Kimberly in the 1930s. It was at that time the Lamers bottles and refrigeration were introduced. In 1954, the first “Dairyland’s Best” logo was used. Dick Jr., who started working on the farm as a child, became a part-owner in 1959 when it was incorporated, and Lamers Dairy expanded its high-quality laboratory testing of all dairy products. Dick became the sole owner in 1986 with some of his children becoming part-owners in 1988. In 1998, the dairy built a larger bottling facility closer to Appleton on Speel School Road, prior to the construction of State 441. The area’s commercial construction tripled the dairy store’s foot traffic—a happy accident making it a self-sustaining entity. Dick sold his shares to his children (fourth generation) in 2009. Eric McGuire and Bryan Lamers became shareholders in 2015, and the company has been held by Mark Lamers, Tim Lamers, Eric McGuire, and Bryan Lamers since 2021. Today, the bustling dairy thrives and operates where passersby follow the beckoning call of the signature red barn proudly perched along that old-country bend.
McGuire, Vice President of Business Operations, started as the business manager with bookkeeping and office responsibilities, then as general manager of financial sales and customer service for routes and distribution. “My mother was a Lamers, and I am the oldest of the fifth generation,” says McGuire, who explains how the company maintains the quality of its milk from one generation to the next.
Lamers Dairy Partner Farm
For decades Lamers Dairy has worked with six small family-owned farms from Calumet and Brown counties all within 30 miles of Appleton, keeping the milk as close to the bottling facility as possible. The milk is picked up at a local farm by Lamers bulk trucks, delivered to the lab where it’s tested and pasteurized, and then bottled, all within 24-48 hours of milking! One farm, owned by Adam and Marie Vanden Wymelenberg, became the most recent source to provide milk to Lamers Dairy in 2021 when word got out about this impressive new farm located south of Shirley. “Adam is a unique farmer who had not grown up with farming, but worked on local farms to get the experience,” says McGuire. “He works in an old-fashioned way with a modern twist.”
Vanden Wymelenberg, who has been running his farm since 2016, is a first-generation dairy farmer, which, he says, came with its challenges, but also with a lot of determination, passion and vision to make it successful. The Vanden Wymelenberg farm has 400 acres designated to feeding its livestock and hires out the fieldwork. Wonderful neighbors and other established farmers generously offered to help with their custom cropping. “We are very fortunate to have that,” Vanden Wymelenberg says.
He values the outstanding job Lamers does in staying connected to its farmers, in building relationships with them, working together on decisions or changes, and sharing valuable insight. Everything becomes valuable to what is going on with the milk once it leaves the farm.
“I started working on a dairy [farm] at 13 years old for 10 years and really enjoyed it, then moved on to a larger dairy [farm] and it was a very different dynamic from the small farm, and I admired both,” explains Vanden Wymelenberg. “I learned so much in both places and knew this is what I wanted to do someday and got a lot of knowledge about the efficiencies. Either way, you have to make it a business, and my goal was the long game; something to carry on, be sustainable and to build it up to be more sustainable every year.”
He also learned when the cow is happy, she’s going to produce good milk! The quality of the Lamers Dairy product stems from cow comfort, a system he describes as constantly designed to always be as comfortable as possible. At his farm, 260 head of black and white, as well as red and white Holstein cows are housed in a free-stall barn, a loose housing shelter in a controlled environment protected from the elements for year-round comfort. Fans pull air through the barn keeping the flies off and 10-inch-deep bedded sand is easier on their legs, also keeping the cows cool, comfortable, dry, and cleaner in summer with better drainage. In winter, the ventilation stays comfortable and warm in a clean environment. The Holsteins are milked in a clean parlor three times a day to keep them from staying full too long. They always have fresh water and fresh feed. “We do a good job keeping the cows clean. The equipment used to milk the cow is properly cleaned and the tank and all equipment must meet a certain standard, which is our Thermoduric Count—the number of bacteria after milk is pasteurized and bottled,” says Vanden Wymelenberg. “We keep those numbers down to single digits and almost nothing, which makes the Lamers Dairy milk shelf life last longer. Nothing interferes with that milk!”
McGuire explains the science behind the Lamers Dairy pasteurization process known as the high-temperature short-time method, or HTST, which involves heating the milk and holding it at that temperature. The method allows more natural vitamins, proteins, and other milk components to better maintain their original molecular structures, but ensures dangerous bacteria are neutralized, while protecting certain good bacteria types. McGuire explains that other common methods used in the consumer world to increase longer shelf life include ultra-high temperature (UHT), which requires a minimum 280 degrees at 1-2 seconds to “flash pasteurize” the milk, which is used in items such as coffee drinks and nearly all mass-marketed organic milk. The downfall of this method is that it denatures naturally occurring components in the milk while destroying all bacteria. He adds, “Lamers Dairy uses the HTST method as we believe it allows milk to maintain a more ‘natural’ state while ensuring safety of the product.”
With happy cows and proven science, it’s no surprise Lamers Dairy, the only remaining Wisconsin dairy exclusively bottling Wisconsin milk, wins best of titles at the Wisconsin State Fair. In its first of many years of acknowledgements at the World Dairy Expo, it won first place!
Lamers Dairy milk is distributed throughout Wisconsin, in the Upper Peninsula, Iowa, northern Illinois, and especially in the greater Appleton region. The Lamers Dairy Store sells its complete line of milk products, heavy whipping cream, half and half, egg nog, orange juice, lemonade, and its featured original recipe soft serve flavors. Shoppers can also find fun Lamers Dairy branded merch and gifts, several cheese and meat labels, as well as local ice cream brands. Another item it distributes is Kosher milk, bottled weekly under the authority of Cholov Yisroel from the Chicago area, and certified by Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum. The Rabbi’s representatives oversee the milking process at the farm level and then oversee the bottling process before it’s delivered to the East Coast and Chicago. “The Kosher milk we process has varying degrees of Kosher certification and their version is amongst the most stringent in the country,” says McGuire.
As Lamers Dairy continues growing, developing and expanding on what it already does award-winningly well, it aims to make Wisconsin’s very own milk more readily available throughout the entire state of Wisconsin. It serves as a community advocate providing the best dairy products while supporting its family of local farmers.
Sustainable Local Organic Farmers Co-Op and Full Circle Community Farm
When it comes to locally grown produce and thoughtfully raised livestock, that’s where CSA farms come in. Providing vegetable and meat shares to members ranging from chefs to household consumers through pick-up and delivery options, CSAs have become increasingly popular, sustainable food sources from farmers who know how food should taste.
Full Circle Community Farm, located in Seymour, named the 2024 Midwest Organic Farm of the Year, is owned by Rick Adamski and Valerie Dantoin. It started in 1870 on 80 acres when their family came to the area as Polish refugees fleeing from war. The family farm is now on its fifth generation with more than 240 acres!
Andrew Adamski grew up on that dairy farm where he recalls getting to see the cows grazing on perennial forages in the pastures with geese and swans all around. When Adamski left home for college he got his degree in ecology, then earned his master’s degree in microbial ecology and plant microbe interactions from Northern Michigan University. He wondered what to do with his degrees when he decided to get back to work at his family’s farm. In 2017, he and his wife, Heather Toman, a graduate of Northern Michigan University with a master’s in phylogenetic biogeography and their business partner, Scott Rosenberg, a graduate of the NWTC program where Adamski’s mother is head of the alternative and sustainable agriculture program, planted a glorified vegetable garden. They first sold their produce at the Green Bay Farmers Market. By 2018, the team started Full Circle Community Farm CSA selling 10 shares and joined a co-op of small Sustainable, Local Organic (SLO) farmers in northeastern Wisconsin working together to pool their products for sale in the area. Toman launched the customizable CSA for SLO in 2019 as she came into management of the co-op.
With more than 200 shares sold last summer, the SLO Farmers Co-Op won the 2024 Good Food Hero Award and now offers farm-to-table produce and meat through four seasons while also supporting farm-to-school and hunger relief programs. “The co-op model provides an entry point for members to grow from,” says Adamski. “We’re stronger together, we work together, and we make it happen, not having to reinvent the wheel every time.”
Full Circle Community Farm switched from a dairy to a beef farm. It is the largest and primary contributor of fresh produce to SLO Farmers Co-Op vegetable CSA shares. It’s also the main supplier of grass-fed pastured beef for the meat shares and is one of the pastured pork providers. Chickens also come from a Wisconsin farming partner, each following humane standards and management intensive rotational grazing. All enterprises are certified organic. “The meat is part of it. No ecosystem in the world exists without animals and vice versa,” adds Adamski. “The members of the CSA can be assured our products are local and sustainable. We care for the world and other partners in the CSA. We always want people to eat food grown for them here from tending to the land.”
To sign up for the summer SLO Farmers Co-Op customizable CSA shares, available at pick-up locations or for delivery from June 15-Oct. 15, visit: slofarmersco-op.com, or to find out more about Full Circle Community Farm worker share volunteer options, email: info@fullcircle.farm.
Park Ridge Organics and The Farm Store
When “city kids” Dan and Linda Calvey bought some existing farmland near Fond du Lac overlooking the east side of Lake Winnebago, they were planning on raising horses. In 2002, when they decided to do something more with the fields other than growing hay, but with no farming experience other than growing small gardens, they decided to attend a Marbleseed Organic Farming Conference. They learned about organic agriculture advocacy and quickly became a certified organic farm. In 2003, the Calveys started a farm store selling veggies out of their garage to supplement their retirement income. Then, the store moved into a sectioned off area of their barn where they sold heirloom tomatoes.
When their daughter, Robyn Calvey, moved home from Milwaukee where she worked for an environmental non-profit, she wanted to get back to their farm after her boss had introduced her to the CSA farming concept. “I knew my mom and dad were starting something new during their retirement,” says Calvey. “I wanted to go back with the intention of seeing what the farming thing was all about!”
In 2005, Calvey attended a 10-week course to learn all the variables of farming and she says it was crucial. Shortly after, Calvey told her parents, “We should start a CSA and just try it!”
In their first year, Park Ridge Organics sold 30 shares, but all within the first harvest. Calvey knew she needed to learn a lot more. In 2009, the Calveys reintroduced the CSA and it grew exponentially, packing 30 boxes each week! Since then, its highest year was in 2020, when, at its peak, it sold 440 shares and has scaled back to 300-320 shares each year, which Robyn confidently calls the sweet spot—balancing itself and making it work with the right amount of labor.
The long-term success of Park Ridge Organics has a lot to do with the cooperative nature of the organic community. “We love sharing all our secrets,” says Calvey. “Small-scale vegetable production farming has so many nuances, we all need each other all the time. It’s a compliment to have somebody copy what you’re doing.”
Park Ridge Organics makes 30% of its revenue from The Farm Store, open to the public, where non-CSA members can stop in and buy local produce, potted garden plants, meats, baked goods and other Wisconsin-made items six days a week from the first week in April through Thanksgiving, located at: N8410 Abler Road in Fond du Lac.
“In our 23rd season, we can offer a boutique experience of eating local, while supporting farms, and getting fresh food that saves you money and is picked the same week of getting it,” Calvey proudly exclaims, “The flavor is hands-down amazing!”
The Park Ridge Organics CSA customizable share sign-ups open each October of the previous year. The 20-week season runs from June through October with six pick-up locations throughout the area, including Appleton and Neenah, or at The Farm Store at Park Ridge Organics. For more information, visit: parkridgeorganics.com.
To learn more about area farms and farmers markets, visit: localharvest.org/appleton-wi.
This article was originally published in the June 2025 issue of Appleton Monthly Magazine.