Our neighborhood has no shortage of green thumbs and certainly, one of the greenest belongs to Mifflin Street resident Dave Waugh. In addition to tending a beautiful flower garden at his home on the 1200 block of East Mifflin Street, for the past four years, Dave has also been a regular presence at the Farmer's Market on the Capitol Square. Recently, Dave took a quick break from pulling weeds to tell me why he decided to dig in and get his hands dirty with farming.

In 1994, Dave and his wife, Michelle Green, started a small business growing and selling lettuce. Originally intended as a project for Michelle, who was then working at home to take care of their newborn son Andrew, "Green Farm" quickly grew on Dave and became primarily his pursuit. Now every year in early spring, he starts lettuce from seed and constructs temporary greenhouses of varying sizes in his backyard. Once the seedlings are big enough, he takes most of them to his parents' farm north of Poynette for transplanting. His interest has been in growing kinds of lettuce not typically found in grocery stores: romaine, Bibb, leaf - "some green, some red, some mixed", and specialty greens such as arugula and red mustard. Dave is usually the first vendor of the season to appear on the Square with lettuce and quickly attracts a large number of regular customers.

Although the venture does provide some extra income for the Waugh-Green family, a large part what motivates Dave is his commitment to the community. He pointed out that much of the produce available in grocery stores travels hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles before it's sold. "I think it's important for people to have access to locally-grown food," he explained, "More and more I think we need to get back to eating seasonally. You know, you can go into a grocery store and really, everything is available all-year round...I myself try to shop and eat seasonally. I try not to eat things that are out of season." Dave said that doing so can be quite a challenge at times but one reward of eating seasonally is enjoying greater awareness of and connection to one's immediate environment.

A fourth generation farmer, he is also keenly aware of the financial risks involved in farming. This year's early warm weather affected his small crop by making the plants grow too quickly and lose their potential to be sold as compact heads of lettuce. Dave improvised and sold bags of mixed greens instead. He reported being pleasantly surprised at - and grateful for - market-goers positive response to what he'd considered a potential disaster for the season. "These CSAs (Community-Supported Agriculture) that are sprouting up - it's really such a wonderful idea and I think it's the wave of the future because it means everybody is going to share in the risk that is so-called 'unpredictable weather'. People should, as much as they can, support local farmers because it boosts the economy," Dave reasoned, "The only way we can save small farmers is to support them...and you're supporting a way of life that is, I think, important -- especially for Wisconsin to maintain its heritage."

Dave involves everyone from family and friends to neighbors and co-workers in his efforts. Peg Brown, who works with him at one of the UW's libraries, has been a huge help, taking part in every phase: planting, harvesting, and selling the lettuce. She and Dave can often be found working the Green Farm booth Saturday mornings on the Mifflin side of the Square between Hamilton and Wisconsin streets. You'll have to wait until next year for any more of Dave's organic lettuce but you can look for him to be back this fall with ornamentals like Indian corn, dried flowers, and pumpkins. Stop by and say hello to this Tenney-Lapham neighborhood farmer!
-Angela Richardson


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