Andy Watson went ahead with pizza-on-the-farm by making it pickup only.
For the last few years, Wisconsin pizza farms have been a thing: idyllic evenings eating wood-fired pizza made on-the-spot with fresh veggies and local meats as you watch the sun sink low over the fields.
While most Wisconsin pizza farms are on hiatus this summer, we can still enjoy at least part of that experience — not the sitting in camp chairs, mingling and noshing part, but the farm-fresh pizza part. Sprouting Acres, an organic CSA farm between Stoughton and Rockdale, has been holding its twice-monthly Sunday pizza nights since May, as advance-order and pickup only. Now, the first tomatoes of 2020 are showing up as toppings.
“Actually, it hasn’t been too awful,” says Sprouting Acres’ Andy Watson. In fact, business has been great: “We’re selling more pizzas than last year, almost doubling the number.”
Sprouting Acres, which started pizza on the farm in 2019, was all set to do it again in 2020 when COVID-19 hit. At first, Watson says, they were hesitant, but after setting up an online ordering system, they launched virtually. Watson thinks that it almost works better this way: “We know in advance how many pizzas we’ll be making, and customers know when their pizza will be ready, avoiding wait times,” he says. Last year people would arrive, order pizzas and then tend to “stand around the oven waiting for their pizzas to be done.”
While Sprouting Acres could probably phase in onsite pizza dining for the final months of the 2020 season, Watson isn’t keen to try it. “Of course we miss having people at the farm, but in terms of distancing and bathrooms and so forth it doesn’t really make sense.”
Watson is considering continuing the online ordering going forward, even if COVID-19 concerns have faded for the 2021 season. Online ordering has also proven successful for the farm’s produce. Right now, customers can order tomatoes and peppers to pick up.
With the pizzas, customers “basically buy a time slot” when ordering, says Watson. Sprouting Acres can make just so many pizzas within a half hour; that’s the limiting factor. “We don’t run out of ingredients,” Watson says. “We’ll always have enough pepperoni.”
The menu of available pizzas goes up on Sunday for the following Sunday’s pizza night and orders can be taken until 4 p.m. or so on the Sunday of service. “Now that we finally got WiFi on the farm, that’s possible,” Watson says. He has even accommodated a few drive-ins, “people who drove past the farm and just saw the pizza sign, and we knew we had extra.” But ordering early is preferred.
Sprouting Acres makes its own sauce and uses its own vegetables on the pies; sources local mushrooms; and meats are from Dane County vendors. Local beers and WiscoPop can be ordered to accompany your pizzas. Vegan cheese and gluten-free crust are available. Desserts are also gluten-free. Meal deals include a family pack that comes with cheesy bread and cookies, and there was recently a two-pizza special with Giant Jones beer.
Pizzas must be picked up by car and eaten elsewhere. “Follow the signs and we will take your order number and run your pizzas out to your car,” read the instructions on the website.
Sprouting Acres is located at 1476 Hwy. 73; the mailing address is Cambridge, but is realistically just as close to Stoughton. “We’re about 25 minutes from Madison,” Watson says. Pizza is available from 3:30-8 p.m. and remaining dates for 2020 are Aug. 16, Sept. 6 and 20, and Oct. 4 and 18. The menu for the next pizza Sunday goes up Aug. 9.
