Farm Shares: Full Circle Community Farm
FOR OVER 20 YEARS, Marbleseed’s Organic Farmers of the Year award has recognized farmers using innovative practices on their organic farms. Marbleseed’s organization helps and supports organic farmers to succeed in the Midwest.
This year a team of Seymour farmers at Full Circle Community Farm are relishing the title of Marbleseed’s 2024 Organic Farmer of the Year award and reflecting on their roots.
Based in rural Seymour, Full Circle Community Farm has been in the family since the 1890s and was operated as an organic dairy operation in the late 1990s by Valerie Dantoin and Rick Adamski.
“It was super cool to be honored by our peers and be validated that the kind of farm we’re doing is important.” Valerie says. “I t hink because the conference was titled ‘Roots and Rhizomes’, our farm was selected because us old dairy farmers are retiring. Our farm switched from dairy to beef and this generation came back with a new business model.”
Adamski’s son Andrew was joined by Scott Rosenberg in 2018 and Heather Toman to form an LLC. In addition to 100% grass-fed and certified-organic beef, they diversified with organic vegetables. “We’re happy the farm is transitioning and finding a new way to still be a farm on the landscape.” Valerie says.
Full Circle Community Farm sells at Saturday farmers markets in Green Bay and Appleton, as a CSA subscription through SLO Farmers Co-op of Northeast Wisconsin, and wholesale to other local food co-ops which serve area schools, restaurants and other organizations.
Full Circle grows everything from asparagus to zucchini, according to Scott. “Our special focus on this farm is that we have found a way to grow lettuce very successfully, so that tends to be a big highlight” Scott said. “We start our lettuce in the green house for about 30 days then put it in the ground for 25 days so what we have is succession planting.”
Full Circle’s biggest sellers are salad mix, spinach and many varieties of tomatoes.
“My greatest joy in working here is when I start to get anxious about our failures. Because on a day-to-day basis it’s easy to look at what you’re not doing right you get down on yourself,” he says. “But what really helps is that when you get close to the end of the season if you take a breath and take a look at the season as a whole you can see that there was much more success than there was failure. If you take a look further back at where we started in 2018 and where we are now it fills me with joy that I”m surround - ed by like-minded friends and co-workers whom I can rely on. We have a common vision but we also bring different ideas to the table to end up with the results we all want. Rick and Val have had many of the same experiences. We just keep looking forward and keep trying.”
