Go Farm Connect is an organization dedicated to reducing barriers for those interested in farming. On a sunny day in early fall they had field day at Verona’s Farley Center, a place where connecting people and land takes root.
“A place like the Farley Center, that’s an incubator that can give people a chance to get their business off the ground. It’s just such a great opportunity,” said Kriss Marian, an organizer of the event.
There’s probably no better evidence of that than Farley Center farmer Juan Gonzalez Torres. Over the years, he’s built a growing business providing fresh organic produce for his community-supported agriculture (CSA) subscriber base, numerous farmers’ markets and local restaurant kitchens.
Gonzalez was a newcomer to Madison when the sight of a community garden from a city bus reminded him of the agriculture that was always around him in his native Mexico.
“I’m from the state of Puebla and there we get many different herbs that aren’t available here. And here there are many people from the state of Puebla,” remembered Gonzalez.
He set out to grow those plants he missed, like purslane, similar to cilantro but stronger, and epazote, a powerful herb with both culinary and medicinal uses. Soon he would be selling them and other produce to his fellow immigrants. And looking for land that could offer more than the community garden.
Through mutual friends, Gonzalez met Doctors Gene and Linda Farley. They had a piece of land that they wanted to see farmed and a friendship was born.
“This doctor, he saw that I had the desire to work,” Gonzalez said.
Over many years, that work has gone well beyond Gonzalez tending his own garden. The collaboration between landowners, the Farleys, and eager growers like Gonzalez became a model for fostering new farmers. Dozens of hopeful farmers, often immigrants, have been assisted in their agricultural ambitions by the Farley Center.
“At the beginning it is not so easy to start a business here, because you don’t have land, you don’t have support,” Gonzalez reflected. “I was fortunate to have that support.”
Andy Soth is a reporter for the “Wisconsin Life” project who grew up in a neighboring state but now loves Wisconsin because it’s like Minnesota without the smugness. He joined PBS Wisconsin in 1991 and has spent time at work in the operations, digital, production services, history, news, and local...