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Timber Lake lets teens take center stage Local recording artist redeems himself Carroll County Fair fun through the lens
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Publisher Don T. Bricker General Manager/Advertising Director Jennifer Heintzelman Editor Jeff Rogers Magazine Editors Lucas Pauley Rusty Schrader Page Design Lucas Pauley Published by Sauk Valley Media 3200 E. Lincolnway Sterling, IL 61081 815-625-3600
Articles and advertisements are the property of Sauk Valley Media. No portion of Carroll County Living Magazine may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Ad content is not the responsibility of Sauk Valley Media. The information in this magazine is believed to be accurate; however, Sauk Valley Media cannot and does not guarantee its accuracy. Sauk Valley Media cannot and will not be held liable for the quality or performance of goods and services provided by advertisers listed in any portion of this magazine.
Area teens take talents to Timber Lake
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More inside 8
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5 – Local musician Aaron Remrey Carroll County native set to release his third full-length album
8 – Carroll County Fair Truck and tractor pulls, rodeo highlight fun at annual event
20 – The Butcher Shop
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Chadwick couple team up with Sterling farmer to revive business
25 – Baar & Sons Potato Farm Take a journey outside Carroll County to see a unique local farm
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Rapper on the rise Local recording artist Aaron Remrey (A.Rem) poses for a photo at Straightaway Productions in Morrison. Read about his story of redemption on page 6.
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Local musician overcomes past, looks ahead
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Story By Phillip Hartman & Photos By Michael Krabbenhoeft For Carroll County Living
aron Remrey isn’t afraid to share his journey. Parts of the 31-year-old hip-hop and rap musician’s latest music video, “Save Me,” are set in a cemetery in Carroll County between Lanark and Mount Carroll, as he reflects on surviving a 2013 car crash with a semi. In one scene, Remrey sings as he sits beside a tombstone with the name “Remrey” on it: “Something had to go wrong / for me to write this song ...” Remrey nodded as he and his producer, Steven Bearsley of Straightaway Productions in Morrison, watched the video on Youtube. “2013 was a real eye-opener, with my daughter being born and the car crash. It’s to redeem myself from everything,” Remrey said of why he’s so focused on his music career. Redemption wasn’t always a theme of Remrey’s songwriting. The son of Bryan and Angie Remrey of Lanark, Aaron grew up attending Eastland and West Carroll schools, and started writing music
in junior high. He also played basketball and baseball in high school. “I started at third base varsity as a freshman. I had a lot of community support. I was planning on playing college basketball,” Remrey said, looking into the distance as he sat in the control room at Straightaway. While Remrey was on a track to a bright future in sports, he felt differently inside. “I’ve always felt misunderstood my entire life. If you’d ask before who I was, you’d get 10 different answers,” he said. When he was 18, things took a sharp turn. Remrey was charged with three felony burglaries. “I felt like I let everybody down,” he said. Remrey did 120 days in jail, and underwent 6 months of drug and alcohol treatment at
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Find A.Rem on Facebook for more information. Find Aaron Remrey on Facebook or email arembooking@ gmail.com for booking information.
Sojourn House in Freeport before another 6 months of house arrest. He then started 7 years of felony probation. “If at any point I would have slipped up in those 7 years and got arrested again, I was facing 3 to 5 years in prison,” Remrey said. Remrey started over, working as a restaurant manager at Applebee’s, Sonic, and Pizza Hut from until he was 28. He completed his probation, which expunged the felony counts from his criminal record. Remrey’s youthful interest in music returned in 2011 as a hobby, but he almost didn’t get the chance to pursue it as a career. “In 2013, my brother, Andrew, and a friend and I all had the day off work. We were working 6 days, 50 hours a week,” Remrey recalled. Their friend fell asleep behind the wheel, and by the time Remrey was able to reach for the wheel, they’d hit a semi head-on. “I awoke 2 hours later. The car was in pieces, and everybody else was in the ambulance. The paramedics had brought three body bags. All we had were stitches and bruises,” Remrey said.
The near-fatal crash served as a wake-up call, and Remrey started working harder on his musical career. He began performing concerts in Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison and Janesville, Wisconsin, Lansing, Michigan, and Detroit, and toured a lot in 2015 and 2016. “The touring’s pretty much in the Midwest. With social media, your promotional budget’s more beneficial when used there. Every 10 years, the game changes, and it’s not all about selling mix tapes out of your trunk,” Remrey said. Remrey also met Bearsley, and they later discovered they were distant cousins. They’ve produced three albums in 3 years – “Still Here, Still Standing,” “Middle of Nowhere,” both already released, and “Letting Go,” planned for release before the end of 2018. “‘Middle of Nowhere’ put us on the map. We’ve had downloads in all 50 states and 60 different countries,” Remrey said. He had 12 songs on “Still Here, Still Standing” and 18 on “Middle of Nowhere,” and has seven of 12 planned tracks recorded for “Letting Go.” “I’ve had seven on the radio. I go mainly for Pandora and Sirius XM. They’re more nationwide. I’m really trying to take this as mainstream as I can,” Remrey said. While Remrey is focused on his future, he’s not forgetting what drives him to succees. He’s
Recording artist Aaron Remrey (left) and Steven Bearsley, chief engineer and owner at Straightaway Productions in Morrison, pose for a photo at the studio.
trying to provide for his daughter, Brielle, 5, and sons, Ashton, 2, and Aaydon, 3 months. “My daughter made me change my life, keeping me out of things I shouldn’t do. My kids play a big role in my life,” Remrey said. Remrey’s determination to set his life on
the right path has carried over into his musical work ethic. He’s set weekly, monthly, yearly, and 5- and 10-year goals. “I break them all the time. I’m extremely hard on myself. I constantly have to remind myself, I have to look how far I’ve come.” s
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Fueled up for fair fun
Aaron Near pushes his 1987 Chevy Silverado for a pull Aug. 7 during the stock gas truck class at the Carroll County Fair. Near won the class with his pull of 306.44 feet.
The Carroll County Fair offered a showcase for 4-H’ers and other folks who put their talents and hard work on display from Aug. 7 to 11. Popular events included the demolition derby, chainsaw carving, pedal and tractor pulls (from pedals to garden to the big machines), wrestling, and more. See some of the fun our photographers captured through page 13. Go to carrollcountyfair.info for more information.
Photos By Alex T. Paschal and Michael Krabbenhoeft For Carroll County Living
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Mike Fidder pulls the Mechanical Mule sled with his 1983 Chevy on Aug. 7 during the Illini State Truck Pull and Mini Rods show at the Carroll County Fair in Milledgeville. Fidder got the stubborn mule to move 297.30 feet.
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ABOVE: Here comes The Judge, slow but sure. Jeff McCulloen pulls The Judge sled with his mini-rod, Hog Wild, on Aug. 7 during the Illini State Truck Pull and Mini Rods show at the Carroll County Fair in Milledgeville. TOP RIGHT: Aaron Near pulls the Mechanical Mule with his 1987 Chevy Silverado.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Jay Butson pulls The Judge sled with the Ethanol Express mini-rod.
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Mackenzie Dravis hangs on tight during the kids sheep-riding event at the Carroll County Fair. The small-scale sheep scrappers wowed the crowd with their mutton bustin’ techniques.
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ABOVE: Austin Gregory gets the boot during the rodeo’s bareback riding event Aug. 9 at the Carroll County Fair in Milledgeville. TOP RIGHT: Chase Adamson leaps from a sprinting horse to take down a steer during the IPRA rodeo.
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Job Dunleavey’s buckin’ bronco wasn’t doing much buckin’ Aug. 9, prompting a rodeo clown to joke that the horse must be stuck in neutral as it stood its ground in the stall. After a redo at the rodeo, Dunleavy managed to hold on for 8 seconds.
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Teens have what it takes
Emalia Dunkel, playing Gabriella, rehearses a scene from “High School Musical� at Timber Lake Playhouse.
Local students have a ton of fun bringing Disney production to Timber Lake stage
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Martha, played by Mackenzie Arndt (center), sings to the “brainiacs” during a rehearsal of Timber Lake Playhouse’s “High School Musical.”
Story By Phillip Hartman & SVM file photos For Carroll County Living
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he crowd of teens chatted with each other, separated by cliques, with a few brave souls attempting to break out of the expectations their friends placed upon them. Then, members of each clique stood up and sang “Stick to the Status Quo” to their friends who were attempting new hobbies, before the entire group went into an intricate dance number on the stage at Timber Lake Playhouse. The scene was from Disney’s “High School Musical,” an area all-teen production at the theater, which hit the stage in July. This year’s performance included 26 teenagers from Milledgeville, Lanark, Savanna, Mount Carroll and other area communities. This was the third year for an all-teen production at Timber Lake, educational director Robert Fletcher-Jones said. “It’s a service to have as many kids here as possible,” he said.
Director Robert McFletcher-Jones coaches the cast of “High School Musical” on at Timber Lake Playhouse.
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The musical, based on a Disney Channel original movie, tells the story of Troy and Gabriella, two East High students who audition for the school’s musical, upsetting the school’s status quo but also opening doors for other students. The cast members were no strangers to high school life. Brady Partington, 15, of Dixon, starred as Troy Bolton, and Sterling’s Emalia Dunkel, 17, played Gabriella Montez. Hannah Brigham, 17, of Savanna and Kendrick Fisher, 17, of Sterling played siblings Sharpay and Ryan Evans. The original movie came out in 2006 – and in the teen world, 12 years is like a lifetime – so aspects of Timber Lake’s production were updated for life in 2018. For instance, during one scene, teacher Ms. Darbus spoke like a teacher from the “Peanuts” cartoons, so Sharpay used the translation function of her Siri personal assistant to understand what Darbus said. The other students also had phones on stage. The cast also demonstrated their talent beyond the theater, performing the song “We’re All In This Together” on Main Street in Savanna on July 6.
“I cannot tell you how proud I am,” Fletcher-Jones said of the cast. Many of the actors were familiar with the performing arts. Partington said this was his third musical at Timber Lake. “I always enjoyed acting. I’m big into music, too. It’s something I’ve loved since I was little,” Partington said. A Newman Central Catholic High School student, Partington said tons of teachers came from his alma mater of St. Anne School in Dixon to watch the play. Dunkel started her performing career with dance at age 5. At 7, she played the role of a Brainiac in a “High School Musical” production at Woodlawn Arts Academy in Sterling. “It’s been a dream role of mine. It’s really great, having little girls come up to me after the shows,” she said. Dunkel’s also performed in “Hairspray,” “Grease,” and “School of Rock” at Timber Lake. Brigham’s been in four shows at Savanna High School, but “High School Musical” was her first at Timber Lake. She said she’s always loved the play. Continued on page 19
MORE INFORMATION
Go to timberlakyplayhouse.org, call 815244-2048 or email info@timberlakeplayhouse. org for more information about the theater.
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Cedarville: Kami Steil (Cheerleader) Clinton, Iowa; Lily Leding (Susan) Dixon: Brady Partington (Troy) Lanark: Torey Leverton (Moderator) Lena: John Jurkovic (Jack Scott) Milledgeville: Alexis Dublo (Ms. Darbus), Hunter Gallentine (James), Isabella Pena (Brainiac) Mount Carroll: Natalie Limesand (Cathy), Daisy McCray (Mongo) Savanna: Hannah Brighan (Sharpay), Brennan Cavanaugh (Jason), Serenity Verdadero (Cyndra) Sterling: Emalia Dunkel (Gabriella), Kendrick Fisher (Ryan), Jaguer Heier (Chad), JJ Lobdell (Taylor), Daxtun Heier (Zeke), Makenzie Arndt (Martha), Brayden Rodriguez (Coach Bolton), Cabot McLaughlin (Drum Major), Logan Moreno (Ripper), Allysin Reiger (Cheerleader), CeCe Ryan (Kratnoff) Stockton: Allison Kiehl (Cheerleader) Warren: Emily Raab (Kelsi)
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“I want to study acting in college,” Brigham said. Fisher started acting in Polo Area Community Theater, and has acted at Sterling High. “In a great way, it’s a lot tougher than anything else I’ve done in theater,” he said. Hunter Gallentine, 14, from Milledgeville, played James, part of the thespian clique. “I’m having fun. I get to do the ‘earthworm,’” Gallentine said, demonstrating how at one point he has to crawl like an earthworm across the stage. Daisy McCray, 15, of Mount Carroll, played “Mongo,” one of the skater clique members. “I was in ‘Grease’ last year. I’m having a ton of fun. We get involved with the crowds and the crowds get involved with us,” McCray said. “Musical” had plenty of teen talent off the stage as well. Assistant director Jasmine Elam, 19, of Tolono, was doing community theater herself 2 years ago. “These are all kids who love theater. They want the show to be the best,” Elam said. s
Troy, played by Brady Partington (left), and Gabriella, played by Emalia Dunkel, rehearse a group number for Timber Lake Playhouse’s production of “High School Musical.”
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Pattie Farley displays a tray of steaks from The Butcher Shop in Rock Falls. Pattie and her husband, Kent, of Chadwick, opened the business with Sterling cattle farmer Dale Pfundstein.
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Straight from the farm Chadwick couple backs butcher shop in Rock Falls with Sterling farmer Story By Jessie Kern & Photos By Alex T. Paschal For Carroll County Living
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he Butcher Shop is back and serving quality meat to the community after closing almost 10 years ago. David Hoffman was forced to close The Butcher Shop, 3309 W. Rock Falls Road, back in 2009 due to a recession. The Butcher Shop was part of the Rock River Provision meat distributor and the family business had been running for more than 50 years. Fast forward nearly a decade and three locals decided to pick up where the business left off and bring back a local source for quality meat, with Dale Pfundstein utilizing cattle from his own farm. Pfundstein, 65, brought the idea to his livestock nutritionist, Kent Farley and wife Pattie of Chadwick. Together the three reopened the shop and the response has been good so far. “The people are unbelievable [and] supportive of the butcher shop, because I’ve raised cattle all my life,” Pfundstein said. Pfundstein said he considered opening a restaurant, but decided on a butcher shop so that he could provide restaurants with meat. He said The Butcher Shop has been providing Triple P BBQ, 3312 W.
THE BUTCHER SHOP
Address: 3309 W. Rock Falls Road, Rock Falls Phone: 815-632-3931 Email: thebutchershopsrf @gmail.com Online: butchershopllc.com and Facebook Hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday Rock Falls Road, with most of its meat. “I’m still running the farm and the butcher shop,” Pfundstein said. “I’ve got good employees and my son at the farm and then I’ve got Pattie at the butcher shop.” Pattie Farley said reopening The Butcher Shop has been a lot but fun overall. She said she and her husband had to think about the idea for a while, but ultimately decided to go into business with Pfundstein. “It’s progressing well,” Farley said. “We have a good team; we have good employees.” Farley said the retail is easier than wholesale, but they have been trying to expand to sell to other restaurants.
Kent Farley, co-owner of The Butcher Shop in Rock Falls, talks about some of cuts of beef.
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Continued on page 22
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“We’ve done taste tests at restaurants,” Pfundstein said. “You take my burger compared to what they were using and there’s no comparison, taste, flavor and weight.” He said the best animal you can get is the whole animal ground into the patty, rather than a certain cut. Pfundstein said he never had the opportunity to see the other side of raising cattle, and in the meat business he has been learning more every day. Farley said construction and regulations were the harder aspects of re-opening the business, but the group has been able to overcome any hiccups in the process. “It’s a whole learning process,” Farley said. “Well the farm is your own business, it’s kind of the same thing,” Pfundstein said. “You have your regulations on the farm like you have regulations here.” Pfundstein said regulations for The Butcher Shop are stricter than for the farm, but they have made it work. He said most grocery stores sell fresh meat, but The Butcher Shop sells fresh and frozen. He said the way meat is aged affects the flavor, whether it is hung to age or put in a box to age. “There’s wet aging and there’s dry aging.
Dale Pfundstein will pick out five to six Angus cattle every week to process for The Butcher Shop in Rock Falls.
Ours is dry aged 21 to 28 days,” Pfundstein said. “A box is just cut the piece up, put it in the box and ship it.” He said when the meat is hung to age the blood and juices drip down, but when it’s aged in a box the meat sits in the blood and juices.
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“We do get some box meat in but not very much,” Pfundstein said. “It’s mainly all mine.” He said his farm typically has around 14,000 head of cattle at any one time. The Butcher Shop is currently focused on growing, as many people are still unaware it has re-opened.
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“[We’re] just trying to grow and get more customers, because we still have people who don’t know we’re here,” Farley said. She said some people are confused about the business – one group of women came in asking if they sold sandwiches. “People think it’s just for the restaurant or don’t know it’s open,” Pfundstein said. “It’s still getting the word around.” He said business picked up for the summer because it is barbecue season. “I told Patti after Memorial Day weekend, ‘Boy, it’d be nice to have Memorial Day weekend every weekend,’ because people really stocked up,” he said. “Of course, we had graduation at the same time, too.” Pfundstein said beef is most popular among customers, especially filet mignon and rib-eyes. He said reopening hasn’t been easy, but the people are happy to see the shop back up and running. Farley said that through the process of reopening, they have met a lot of new people and made some new friends, and it’s been fun“to see the people that come in, the customers that come in, and to hear their stories.” Pfundstein was a previous board member of the Illinois Beef Association, and his family has been nominated for the Family
If it comes from a cow, chances are The Butcher Shop in Rock Falls has it.
of the Year Award. He said on top of running the farm and The Butcher Shop, his son runs a cow and calf operation and they also have a compost opera-
tion, turning manure into fertilizer to sell. “When I started this I went from a plate to a platter. It’s just a few more things going on that’s all.” s
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Gwen (shown here) and Steve Baar grow a wide variety of produce on their farm near Fenton.
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Popped up from the peat
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Baar & Sons Potato Farm offers more than just potatoes to area produce lovers Story By Cody Cutter & Photos By Michael Krabbenhoeft For Carroll County Living
S
teve Baar’s grandparents didn’t have much when they emigrated to the United States from Holland in 1933. More than 85 years later, Baar and his wife, Gwen, do business with a variety of plants and vegetables using the same soil his family found along a bottom around Rock Creek near Fenton. Potatoes remain the specialty at Baar & Sons Potato Farm, 12712 Fenton Road. The large sign leading to the driveway reads “Baar & Sons Potato Farm,” but there’s more than just potatoes popping up on their peat. Different kinds of potatoes and a wide variety of vegetables can be found at the farm, owned by Steve’s parents and maintained by the third generation of Baars. “His grandfather came over on the boat through Ellis Island with a rake or a shovel,” Gwen said. “They were broke, and started farming.” About 100 acres of property is set aside for corn, and 65 acres are for potatoes. “It’s potatoes, corn, beans, and
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10 acres of garden,” Steve said. “It’s a pretty good-sized garden. It keeps us out of trouble.” The most common image of a potato is brown and oval-shaped, but there are more kinds of potatoes. The Baars raise red, white, Yukon gold and Russet potatoes – the latter the more-common brown-skinned variety – and raise more red potatoes than anything else. Yukon golds are a wetter and pastier potato with yellow, sweet flesh. Many stores like to carry the red potatoes because the others can turn green under fluorescent lights. They are the first potatoes to be grown and should be ready by mid-August. “The red potatoes are a wetter potato, and are great for potato salad,” Gwen said. “The whites ones are good for baking, mashing and frying. They’re a drier potato and they’re flakier. They’re along the lines of a russet. We sell a lot of russets for multi-purpose potatoes, because they’re big and [people] like the size.”
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Gwen and Steve Baar pose for a photo at their farm.
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None of the potatoes have to be transported on road to the barn; rather, wagons traverse the many strips of dirt roads to collect the produce. Potatoes are dumped from wagons to a rear room of the barn and go through a potato grader. After passing through a dirt eliminator, the potatoes go up and through a sizer, where any that are less than 2 inches get weeded out. They then go through a washer and through dryer rolls, and a pair of workers grade them at the end of the line. Anything odd-shaped is a No. 2, according to Steve, and thrown into a different spot and bagged in 50-pound bags. The larger ones eventually get stacked onto 2,000to 2,200-pound totes. “If a potato sits dead on the ground, the skin toughens up,” Steve said. “We have a machine to make it a nice looking product.”
Potatoes and cabbage were the original specialties, but Steve’s mother, Neva, expanded the farm to include a wide variety of vegetables. Asparagus, cauliflower, green onions, leaf lettuce, okra, peas, radishes, spinach, and tomatoes are among the common vegetables grown in the garden near the barn. The vegetables are Gwen’s specialty, and she likes them hand-picked. In addition to the farm, Gwen has a table at a farmers market in the Quad Cities every Wednesday and Saturday. “I didn’t really want to do it,” recalled Gwen, who didn’t grow up on a farm. “We had a child and I needed another job, and I knew [Steve] wanted me to become a part of it. I ended up loving it.” Among the vegetables difficult to find fresh at most stores are lima beans and kohlrabi, both are raised and sold at the farm.
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Potatos sit in a container inside one of the buildings Baar and Sons Potato Farm.
“People like it,” Gwen said of the kohlrabi. “It’s a member of the cabbage family. Most people eat it raw.” The secret to the Baars’ success lies in the soil – actually, it’s peat, which is light, spongy and can retain water better than regular soil. The area around the Baars’ farm was once part of a slough of the Mississippi River thousands of years ago when the river bed wound a few miles east of the current channel. Peat farms surround the Baars’ property on three sides. Upon entering the Baars’ property, a long driveway leads to a raised, atgrade Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway crossing. The peat, and most of the farm, lies east of the tracks, and the Baars have noticed a difference in the freshness of their produce depending on the type of ground. “The peat grows good crops,” Steve said. “Wet years, not quite so good; it can get back quick. It’s a high mineral soil. It’s good ground.” “Steve’s mom realized that the soil helped grow good root crops
such as beets and carrots,” Gwen added, “Someone would say to her, ‘Can you raise my beans?’ and she started to do all these vegetables.” Baar & Sons Potato Farm is open from early May to late October, or until produce runs out. The Baars have a staff of four employees when potatoes are not in season, and around 15 during season – most of whom are friends, neighbors, or other farmers. Machinery keeps the potato farm operating efficiently, but there are signs of the original way of doing things on the property. The original barn sits to the left of the railroad crossing; half of it was razed recently. “It had one grader, and my husband’s grandmother would turn a crank on it all day so that it would roll to grade the potatoes,” Gwen said. “They were 100-pound bags, hand-sown with twine.” Times have changed, but the peat has not – and its kept Baar & Sons Potato Farm prospering and growing. s
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