Country Blossoms Organics with 172 Years of Family Agriculture Legacy

One of the reasons I started the local farm series for this summer in our three local papers was that I have a personal connection to the importance of farming and the need to tell stories of our local farms.
My personal farm journey has multiple parts: first, as a youth growing up on a dairy farm with 30 milking cows and around 70 head of cattle, bailing hay on warm summer days, picking fields of stones for countless hours and enduring many cold winter mornings on our family farm.
That story was typical for most kids on farms in the area during the 1980s and 1990s and most of us had no thoughts of the future on our family farms until we were drawn back to the farm at some point in our lives.
After being a dairy farm until 1997, my parents made the hard decision to sell the dairy herd made up of Holsteins and Brown Swiss, ending 143 years of milking cows at the farm.

Our family farm drew me back in 2014 for a few reasons, but the main one was family legacy due to my grandmother (Agnes), my mother (Doris), and my uncle (Les) to give new life to the farm.
The second part of my farm journey began in 2014 when Country Blossoms Organics LLC was founded with the planting of our first garlic after receiving encouragement from my mom, Doris, and my wife Jenny.
Country Blossoms Organics was important for building a new legacy on the farm for our three children (Carlie, Gabe and Margaret).
The farm had a long history of producing good-quality crops during its first chapter as a dairy farm with corn, alfalfa, wheat and vegetable gardens.
We decided to go back to our farming roots of growing vegetables, garlic, herbs and flowers as a Certified Organic Farm, which has been certified organic since 2010.
County Blossoms Organics does most of our business through home delivery, farm pickups and grocery stores, with our garlic, produce and flowers going to our customers over the past 12 years.
The farm business helped start the Dodge & Fond du Lac Farmland Frolic as an annual event in July and will host our tenth annual Garlic Day on August 15 at our W281 Rolling Dr, Lomira farm location.
The pull back to the farm gave me a purpose in life, which is something bigger than yourself, because you are working the same land as past generations did for 172 years, which is an amazing experience to be a part of the agricultural community.
Farmers are the best people to have on your side because we are strong-willed, problem solvers and positive thinkers.
The farm is like our fourth child, who we are watching grow up and become something great in the future, because a farm is an active part of our family with the effort and time we put into each year.
We have a great sense of pride in our products in all aspects of our family business because we are the customer service, delivery, harvesting, marketing, planting, sales, watering and weeding teams.
The sixth-generation farm peaked at 500 acres when the family farm was owned by my great-grandfather Frank Schwartz in the 1920s.
The farm currently has 125 acres of farmland and wooded areas with a creek flowing through it, which connects to the Rock River on its way to the Mississippi River.
Country Blossoms Organics LLC currently has three generations working on the farm with: Doris Priesgen (grandmother), Ben & Jenny Priesgen (Doris’ son and daughter-in-law), Jolina Priesgen (Doris’ daughter) and Carlie, Gabe, Margaret (Ben & Jenny’s kids), plus Collin Wantz (employee).
One of my favorite memories during my farm journey was talking to my uncle a couple of years ago, since Les ran the family farm for over 40 years.
He said to me after seeing the new life the farm had taken on, “You have done well with this farm.”
That goes back to the main reason we wanted to give new life to our family farm: honoring the legacy of the family that came before us and showing our kids, as the new generation, how to love and preserve the land for future years.