Jim and Deb Barron have been selling at the River Fall Farmers Market since 2002. In 2010 their big (unusable) dairy barn went down, so the decision was made to build a new shed. While it would be just a metal pole shed, they decided to give it a little flair so it wouldn't look like all the oher pole sheds. They gave it a gambrel roof, a little porch, and of course, it had to be red. And Red Barn Farm was finally named.
Deb grew up in Kaukauna, WI and graduated from UW River Falls with a degree in Business. her grandparents were all farmers, but she grew up in a small busines. She has always loved to garden, and has extensive perennial gardens asurrounding the house. Deb also loves to preserve the harvest by canning, freezing and dehydrating. Her goal at one time was to recreate her grandmother's root cellar with the shelves lined with jars of the summer's bounty!!
Jim Barron grew up in Waukesha, WI and graduated from UW River Falls with a degree in general agriculture. Although he grew up in town, he was always a country boy at heart. He has grown vegetables since he bought the property outside of River Falls in 1978. He started growing heirlooms before they became the 'in' thing. With his background in agriculture and the seed industry, saving seeds was second nature. Deb and Jim both took the Master Gardener training in 1997. In about 2000, their friend Betty Schultz started bugging them to sell their excess produce at the River Falls Farmers Market. With a little bit of encouragement and various job changes, they decided to take the plunge. The rest is history!!!
Together Jim and Deb, their kids Andrea and Jay, son-in-law Todd, grandson AJ, and their business partner Betty Schultz of Bella Collina Farm, have four acres that they rent from a neighbor. Jim and Deb also have a vegetable garden at home and all of the dahlias and smaller flowers are behind the barn. Betty grows the sweet corn and pumpkins on her farm located on Happy Valley Road. They have become specialists in heirloom vegetables, most notably tomatoes, although they are responsible for introducing River Falls to Dragon tongue beans, Red Freckles lettuce and many more!!!
Jim has saved seed from up to 150 different varieies of tomatoes and about 50 different lettuce varieiies. He starts about 10,000 plants in the basement every spring with about 3,000 of them going into the ground. More are sold at the market or at the River Falls Garden Club spring sale. The remainder he has to throw away- usually a taumatic event!! he tries to tart at least ten of every heirloom variety that he wants to plant.
Deb and Betty concentrate on the flowers - 3,000 Glad bulbs, approximataely 100 dahlia tubers, sunflowers, zinnias, ageratum, rudbekia, cosmos, statice, bachelor buttons, eucalyptus and much more. Every Friday they make beautivul bouquets for the Farmers Market. They delight in bringing buckets of gladioulus with tons of color to the market. Sunflowers are sold by the stem, in bunches or in beautiful bouquets mixed with dreadlock amaranth, purple millet, grasses and Rudbekia. Dahlia and Zinnia bouquets are each different and can be monochromatic or explosions of color. EVERY bouquet that they make is different. No two are ever the same!!
Todd and Jay have become the farm handy men. If it needs to be built, plumbed, or even remodeled they can find a way. They turned horse water tanks into wash bins, metal great door into washing and sorting tables, and many other projects around the farm. They also keep most of the equipment running. Andrea helps with the picking, prepping veggies for market, and helps with some of the flower work. She has a background in design that comes in handy with any marketing and the booth display. If you catch them at market during set up you can often times hear the weekly debate about strait lines and seminary. AJ is still learning and currently is the grunt doing much of the heaver lifts, oh to be 16 again.
They have also started doing weddings and special events. You can come to the farm and pick your own flowers and arrange them yourself, or let Deb, Betty, and Andrea know what you need and they can do bridal bouquets, boutonnieres, table arrangements, whatever you need. They will also have broom corn and dried fall arrangements. If you are interested in corn shocks, jut let them know. They can provide the corn, or make the shocks - all dressed up for fall! And then there's Oscar! Be sure and ask them what their special name is for this unique dried plant.
We forgot the most important members of the farm, our little M’s, Max, Mischief, and Minny. Ok so we have an issue with naming (even Andrea’s kitten, Marten). Max keeps the rabbits at bay, Mischief keeps the rodents out of the barn and house, and Minny (Todd, Andrea, and AJ’s small dog) keeps Jim company in the front of the TV after a long day in the field on the weekends. Every farm needs a few animals and ours are the best and well spoiled too. They are all rescues, even Marten. With a little love they have all become great hard working members of the family farm.
We hope to see you at the River Falls Farmers Market - Saturdays from 8 am to noon, and Tuesdays from 4 until 6:00pm. The market will be open from June to October. If you have a special event, please feel free to give them a call at 715-425-8926.
