Come For The Viral Fame, Stay For The Chocolate Zucchini Cake
get to know Helen Kees of Wheatfield Hill Organics farm, whose persona online has drawn visitors to the farm's harvest markets
For Helen Kees – grower and co-owner of the Wheatfield Hill Organics farm in Durand – most of her days begin well before the sun breaks on the horizon. She is often already out in the fields, harvesting the season’s ripe offerings from the very landscapes which raised her.
In late summer to early fall, zucchinis and cantaloupes become her closest companions. Of course, Helen also works alongside her family, including her husband, “farmer Bob,” her daughter Chris Kees-Winkler and many other helping hands.
Over the past few years, viewers online have adopted the humble farm stewards as their “chosen family,” thanks to Helen’s virality on social media; videos where she talks Wheatfield Hill Organics have reached tens of millions of views, with thousands of comments from fans.
But let’s be real, locals get the good stuff right here at Wheatfield’s recurring Thursday market hangouts and Downtown Eau Claire Farmers Market booth every Saturday. As the season turns to crisp cool autumn, Wheatfield will host two harvest markets on its farm, from 10:30am-2:30pm on Sept. 20 and 27.
For a brief moment in between pulling sweet corn, we caught up with Helen for a behind-the-scenes look into her viral moments online, local food systems, her roots in biology and the beautiful communities her farm nourishes.
V1: What is your earliest memory of the Wheatfield Hill Organics Farm? How have things changed at the farm since then, or remained the same?
HK: “My earliest memory... I wouldn't say I was working, but my earliest memory of being immersed in the farm, of the farm, was a distinct order – and any other dairy farm child could probably tell you the same thing. That odor was a well-fermented silage, haylage in particular … combined with the other earthy smells of a dairy barn.”
“Now, that was probably, let’s say (when) I was five or six and at that time, my dad was milking 22 dairy cows in a tie stanchion barn. Since then, we’re no longer a dairy farm; that dairy barn is still being used but it is being used to house and work beef cattle. What used to be the hay loft – which stored winter’s worth of feed – now stores machinery. The farm (today) really is a farm that produces seasonal produce from May through October.”
“I don't know if my grandma and grandpa would recognize the farm if they came back, but I hope they would approve. I think they would approve. We still try to protect this water and cherish it as fiercely as my dad and granddad did. We still feel as though we don't own the farm – we are just stewards here.”
V1: Do you have a favorite season for produce, or a particular Wheatfield product you can't get enough of?
HK: “I thought long and hard about this question, too. We begin the season with asparagus in May; the produce season runs all the way through October and ends with things like red raspberries and squash and pumpkins. I appreciate all of those seasons, I appreciate all of those crops. But, if I was left unbridled, if I wouldn’t have anybody impeding me, I would fonder on our holiday seasonal products: pecan turtles and English toffee.”
Fall Harvest Markets At Wheatfield Hill Organics
When: 10am-2:30pm on Sundays, Sept. 20 and 27
Where: Wheatfield Hill Organics (N5457 State Hwy 25, Durand)
What:
The farmstead will have hundreds of etched pumpkins, unique gourds, heirloom squash and pumpkin topiaries just in time for fall decorating
Market tables will be laden with certified organic tomatoes, peppers, squash, red heirloom popcorn, beef and more
River Valley Raptors will host two shows at 11:30am or 1pm on Sept. 20 with their rehabilitated birds of prey
Guest vendors will join Wheatfield growers with artfully hand-crafted goods:
Sept. 20: Two Ovens Sourdough Bakery and Mary Dirty Face Apples
Sept. 27: Wool & Feather Farm, Kaiserson Bee Co., David Gerhart Woodworks, The Faerie Gourd Mother and Two Ovens Bakery
V1: What is one thing about Wheatfield Hill Organics locals might not know, that makes it a "hidden gem"?
HK: “Every person that attends our Thursday markets on the farm and purchases $35 worth of product – whether it be produce or meat – is welcome to build their own ‘do-it-yourself’ bouquet from the flower bar. It is the only certified organic flower bar that I know of. There is no limit to the bouquet each person can build.”
“A lot of customers have really come to look forward to it, they’ll do whatever they have to get to that $35. Children can build a bouquet for free with an accompanying purchase by an adult; we really have come to enjoy watching young people build their bouquets.”
V1: When you think about the harvest seasons at Wheatfield, what is one thing locals keep coming back for?
HK: “We are the only farm that I’ve ever come across that offers a 100% certified organic tasting plate to every attendee at our fall harvest festivals and also at every one of our Thursday markets on the farm – no purchase (necessary). If they walk in, they’re entitled to a tasting plate.”
“We always try to have Chris’ now famous chocolate zucchini cake. We try to always have a grilled burger and grilled zucchini. Whatever we’re putting on that plate is produce we are selling. It is an introduction to, I hope, just how fresh and how good these local organic products are.”
V1: Tell us more about Wheatfield’s etched pumpkins and gourds, and what that process looks like during the growing months?
HK: “All of the credit for all the etched pumpkins and gourds goes to Chris. Of course, we all help with the planting and the weed control, but all of the artistic work done on those pumpkins, Chris does. The important thing there is timing.
“You want that etching done when that pumpkin is full size; in other words, it’s about as big as it’s going to get, but not mature. What you’re doing is wounding or scarring the pumpkin or gourd. You want it to still grow enough and be actively growing to heal … and of course that makes your writing appear. It’s like invisible ink.”
“When you’re doing etching, you do it for about two or three hours at a time. That’s about all (Chris) can take because sometimes you have to stand on your head to do this – depending on if the pumpkins are growing right-side-up or upside down.”
“(Chris) also does custom etchings; people order a season ahead with what they want their pumpkin to see and then she will often build them into topiaries … and they are gorgeous!”
V1: You’ve become quite the star on the Wheatfield Hill Organics social media page. Could you offer us a glimpse into some of those candid, off-camera moments from the farm?
HK: “I barely know how to turn the cell phone (on). I don’t get Instagram (but) yeah, I do watch Facebook and Chris said, ‘Mom, you’ve got to answer these questions’ and I said, ‘I’ll answer two questions a day.’ So, I will try to answer two, if I get time.”
“We’re not doing anything we didn’t do before but all of a sudden … the beast is getting larger for her to control.”
“If we’re in the pasture, the cows are famous for bellowing or being noisy at the wrong time and sometimes I tell (Chris), ‘just let it be.’ That’s the environment we’re in. Your viewers may as well know that this is the environment where this all happens!”
Wheatfield Hill Organics: A Century-Plus Of Farming In The Chippewa Valley
Certified organic since 1997, Wheatfield Hill Organics remains a small, fifth generation family farm located in western Wisconsin.
“In 1887, my paternal grandfather, Robert Simpson, emigrated from Ireland and eventually found his way to Elroy and from Elroy to Pepin,” Helen Kees shared with WEAU 13 News amid the farm's 100-year anniversary. “He moved to this farmstead in august of 1919.”
Helen has an educational background in biology, thanks to her time at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Fast forward to the early 1990s, she and her family became invested in a battle over chemical aerial spraying. These two forces became catalysts for Wheatfield Hill Farm to transition and grow 100% certified organic produce to this day.
“That’s when I got serious about farming – and once you get serious about farming, you gotta get serious about the soil,” Helen shared with the Real Organic Project. “Under one of your footsteps is more soil life, individual soil life than there are people on Earth. That’s pretty hard to comprehend and it’s pretty mystical.”
V1: If you could impart one piece of advice for readers who want to support local food systems, what might it be?
HK: “I’m certainly not satisfied with the local food systems – there’s a lot of culture that could be added into our food systems locally. But, I think if it could be one piece of advice, I think we are so lucky to have two local food cooperatives. I would encourage anyone to support those local food co-ops – that support and feature local producers and growers – as much and as often as they can.”
“It is the eater that is driving the food systems, what the eater purchases is what the producer is going to make sure is on that shelf. Farmers love to produce, farmers love to sell a product…”
“It all comes from groundwater, so we have to protect our groundwater. This is a lifelong mission and passion of mine. I have a daughter, she has two sons, I am hoping they carry the baton after I’m gone. If they can’t change the world, we can change this farm.
“It’s like John Muir said, when you pull one thread, just one thread, you discover it’s connected to everything. That’s why it’s such important work. In the end that may save our water, (that) may save our soil. And, if the consumers are driving the bus, it could happen.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Wheatfield Hill Organics farm is located at N5457 State Hwy 25 in Durand. The farm will host two harvest markets from 10:30am-2:30pm on Sept. 20 and 27. Follow along with Helen Kees' recurring video updates, online via social media (@wheatfieldhillorganics).