Tour Tent

Permaculture Tour – mIEKAL aND

mIEKAL aND, Co-founder of Dreamtime Village (www.dreamtimevillage.org), a hypermedia/permaculture eco-village project in West Lima, Wisconsin will give an informational tour of the Organic Valley Paradise Garden, Native Prairie Area and the CROPP community garden. Free tree seedlings to participants.

Tree Identification – Kickapoo Woods Cooperative

Learn how to identify local trees and shrubs, and learn about some of their uses and characteristics with KWC forester, Thomas Wyse

The Kickapoo Woods Cooperative is devoted to ecological forestry in the Driftless Region. We seek to:

ensure the availability of quality forestry services to members
facilitate sustainable woodland management and harvesting
enhance the ecological and economic value of members' woodlands
generate income for members
create jobs and spur economic development
minimize capital investment

Mushroom Walk – Craig Dunek

Come along on a mushroom foray with local area mushroom expert Craig Dunek. The foray will consist of a walk in the woods of driftless region. Mid summer species of edible and medicinal fungi will be identified and pointers will be given to those who would like learn to collect and identify wild mushrooms.

Craig completed his undergraduate degree at UW-La Crosse double majoring in Biochemistry and Microbiology. He continued his studies at UW-L where he earned his Masters Degree in Biology with a focus on Mycology (the study of fungi). Craig currently works at Organic Valley as the Product Development Group Leader. Craig is still active in the mycological world give multiple seminars each year on various topics regarding fungi. Craig and his family live just outside of La Farge where they also run a small maple syrup operation and produce much of the food they consume each year from their gardens.

Beehive Tours – Hands on Beekeeping

Optional tour following the beekeeping workshop: Join members of Hands-on Beekeeping, a local hobbyist club for a walk down to view the Organic Valley apiary and a 20-30 minute Q&A, maybe a peek inside the hives, weather permitting!

HOB (Hands-On Beekeeping) was started about eight years ago to help and educate and support the small and hobbyist beekeeper. The club meets monthly, traveling to the yards of members who have bees, or working the Organic Valley hives. We lend support and a helping hand while experiencing what to do in our own yards in a given month. Members do not need to have bees, in fact it's a good way to see if you enjoy the hobby before investing in a lot of equipment. HOB members also give educational programs and attend events throughout the Kickapoo Valley.

Foraging the Driftless – Sam Thayer

Sam Thayer was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, where he first learned to gather wild food in vacant lots, backyards, city parks, and at the edge of town. Later, his family moved to rural southern Wisconsin, and then to Madison. Sam’s first presentation on edible wild plants was to his seventh grade science class, demonstrating the foods that he collected regularly on his three-mile walk to school. He began “survival camping” at fourteen and led his first wild food walks when he was 19. After graduating from high school, he moved near the south shore of Lake Superior and built a rustic log cabin on an abandoned farmstead, chasing his childhood dream of “living off the land” while working part-time at a variety of jobs. Since 2000, when he won the Hazel Wood National Wild Foods Cooking Contest, Sam has been teaching regularly on edible wild plants, giving workshops across the United States. In 2006 he was inducted into the National Wild Foods Hall of Fame at North Bend State Park in West Virginia. His first book, The Forager’s Harvest, has won a Midwest Book Award, IPPY Book Award, and was a finalist for the USA Book News Best Books 2007 award. Along with speaking and writing, he is also a maple syrup producer, wild rice harvester, and owns a small organic orchard. Besides wild food foraging, Sam is an all-around naturalist with particular interest in reptiles, amphibians, bird watching, botany, and mammals. His passion for wild food extends to studying the origin of cultivated plants and the socio-economic history of the human diet.

Tour Organic Valley Headquarters

We are proud to show off our new addition, just open in 2012! Tour our new state-of-the-art R&D lab and check out the new power-generating solar windows. The three stories and 50,000 square feet of Organic Valley HQ are home to some 400 of the cooperative’s employees. First occupied in 2006, the building is oriented in the landscape to maximize daylight usage, composed of post and horizontal stick-frame and steel-clad materials, using sustainably harvested lumber, recycled steel, and other recycled, repurposed and sustainably produced materials. Come on in and experience the principles of green design in action. Tours depart at 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm from the HQ main entrance in the gambrel (the red barn-shaped structure front and center of the building).