When Dale Secher was 5 years old, he stumbled on a patch of strawberries struggling to survive. He remembers being fascinated by the plant's natural drive for life, and the tasty fruit it produced when it lived. Decades later and with a master's degree from UW-Madison in water resource management, he was still in love with fruit-bearing plants, and began farming them on a plot in Oregon, Wis.
Carandale Farm has been in operation for 42 years. Throughout that time, Secher, his wife, Cindy, and their staff have grown and sold various crops, including tomatoes, pumpkins and apples. Today they focus primarily on strawberries, raspberries and Concord grapes. Their goods are sold every Saturday at the Offering only strawberries and raspberries doesn't cut it at Carandale Farm, however. Much of the land is used for growing and researching nontraditional fruit crops. "We want to find new fruits that can be grown locally and sustainably," explains Secher. Finding new fruits increases the diversity of crops that can be grown locally, and their research helps justify a need to grow and market them on a larger scale. A crop they are currently researching is Aronia, also known as chokeberries. Though chokeberries are too astringent to eat raw, they make delicious wines, jams and juices if processed. "The need for a processing phase is a drawback, but also positive because it creates jobs," explains Secher. They're also chock-full of antioxidants, a real plus on the health front. Carandale Farm received a grant from the Wisconsin Buy Local program to begin marketing the nontraditional fruits they have researched; several are available at their downtown market booth every Saturday. Carandale Farm works on many levels to be a sustainable business, but in the end it all comes back to one man's simple love of a delicious fruit. "We freeze a lot of berries and eat them on our cereal year-round," says Secher. "There's no bad way to eat a berry."
