Today I had the great opportunity to visit the Barthel Fruit Farm in NW Mequon. This fruit farm sells strawberries, apples, pumpkins, pears & plums and herb plants and seedlings. The Barthel family has been growing fruit since 1839! Having started out as a dairy farm, with a strong interest in orchards, the Barthel dropped the dairy aspect in the 1950s and went full steam ahead with just orchards. Now, Bob Barthel and Nino Ridgway are tending the greenhouse, 30 acres of orchard, 15 acres of strawberries and 40 acres of various fruit and field crops!
I first bought their apples at the wonderful West Allis Farmers Market. I’ve since learned that their products are also available at Outpost Natural Foods in Milwaukee and the Willy Street Co-op in Madison.
As you may know, I’m a big supporter of buying local; Rachel and I try to apply that philosophy to as many of our buying decisions as we can! We feel great about getting apples from Barthel’s and we’ve recently started getting our meat products Bunzel’s Meat Market on Burleigh. If you eat meat, make sure to check out their monthly meat special!
If you’ve got interest in supporting the “Buy Local” movement in Milwaukee, make sure to check out Local First Milwaukee, a local trade group that I belong to.
