Crystal Colon
Peacefully Organic is more than a CSA. The veteran-led farm on County Highway M offers former soldiers a community and a sense of stability.
“It’s therapeutic to put your hands in the soil,” says Peacefully Organic co-owner Stephanie Krueger.
Her husband and partner in the farm, Steven Acheson, is a veteran of the Iraq War. He was a forward observer — “those who do most of the calling in of field artillery and indirect fire and designating targets,” he says.
“Many vets come back very disheartened,” says Acheson. “Providing good food to my community is much better service than anything I did in the military.”
Crystal Colon works full-time at the farm, located across from Governor Nelson State Park. She volunteered there during its first season. “After spending several years in a destructive military culture, it’s refreshing to now be giving life to things,” she says. “I enjoy learning how to produce food for myself, my family and my community. And the farm has been a key part of my military-to-civilian transition.” Colon also values “being around other vets that may understand your struggles.”
Steven Acheson (above) and Stephanie Krueger started Peacefully Organic three years ago.
Peacefully Organic grows more than 190 varieties of vegetables, which are sold primarily as shares to 130 CSA members — mostly veterans, employees of the VA Hospital or Dryhootch, the veteran peer support group. The farm also employs two veterans full-time and has six veteran worker-share members.
The farm is also raising about 125 free-range meat chickens and 25 heritage turkeys. Five heritage hogs from Pecatonica Valley Farms are the latest addition. They are out on pasture and eat spent grain from the nearby Parched Eagle brewpub.
Krueger and Acheson also sell wholesale to restaurants, UW Hospital and Clinics and the Willy Street Co-op. They helped establish farmers’ markets at UW Hospital and Clinics, the VA Hospital and Meriter; at the VA Hospital, the vendors are all vets.
When Acheson was growing up on a dairy farm in the Fox Valley, he maintained a large garden for his family and grew sweet corn and giant pumpkins to sell to the public.
After the 9/11 attacks, Acheson, then 18, enlisted — hoping, he says, to “be close to the frontlines and go kill Osama bin Laden.”
While in service, he was injured (to date, he’s had three back surgeries). He also became disillusioned with the American presence in Iraq: “When you’re on the ground and see the carnage and the aftermath of what we did, that starts to wear on you over time. I saw the Iraqi people for what they are: Humans who want to be happy and provide for their families.”
Acheson was introduced to Iraq Veterans Against the War while still on active duty. In 2007, he came home and enrolled as a student at UW-Fox Valley, where he met Krueger, a full-time student and single mother.
Krueger had joined a CSA just before they started dating, wanting to know how her food was grown and that it was organic. She and Acheson started thinking about how they could combine her passion for good, organic, local food with his work with Iraq Veterans Against the War.
After Krueger graduated, the two headed to Madison. Acheson stumbled upon a job on the farm that they now run. At the time it was operated by a disabled veteran whose field manager had walked off the month before. The fields were all weeds, but with help from other veteran friends, Acheson got them producing again. However, their boss didn’t want to remain in the CSA business.
Local developer Terrence Wall owns the land; he approached Krueger and Acheson and offered to lease it and the dilapidated house on it for free if they worked the fields. Acheson fixed the house. This is their third year on the land, and business is good. There’s a waiting list for shares next year.
Ron Arm, a Vietnam veteran, volunteers at Peacefully Organic. Working there gives him a way to deal with his PTSD pain, he says. “As soldiers we destroyed, but now we’re building and producing something of value to our country and community. That is the way we really ‘serve.’”
Steven Acheson at a market.
Peacefully Organic has held several fundraisers to underwrite the cost of providing vegetable shares to veterans. In 2014, the farm first teamed with musician and veteran Jason Moon and his nonprofit Warrior Songs project (which sets stories provided by veterans to music) and held a concert on the farm, funding 11 shares. The goal for this year’s “Veggies for Vets” fundraiser on Aug. 13 is to raise enough money to fund 20 shares and to help the “Farmacy” program at the VA Hospital, in which dieticians distribute vouchers to diabetic or overweight veterans to redeem at the farm stand at the VA’s market.
Veggies for Vets, says Arm, “fits in perfectly with our commitment to be of true service to our communities and of direct help to our veteran brothers and sisters.” He calls it “a tremendously uplifting experience, our way of encouraging our community to set aside the yellow ribbons and parades and support the troops in a way that is meaningful, healing and consequential for all of us.”
The day on the farm includes music from the Guitars 4 Vets Band, Greg Thornburg, Jason Moon, Tairis, American Feedbag and the Gambol; kids activities; tours of the farm; food; beers from the Parched Eagle, Karben4 and Next Door Brewing; vegetables for sale and more.
Acheson, who has been coping with post-traumatic stress (he doesn’t like calling it a “disorder”), says that the farm has “made me feel like things were going to be okay, like I could once again find a way to not only productively serve my country, but more importantly, our community.” He hopes Peacefully Organic will attract other veterans who feel the same way. “I feel like this farm is way more purposeful than anything I did while deployed, no question.”
Veggies for Vets
Aug. 13, noon-7 pm, 5101 County Highway M, Waunakee
