The farm lies about two hours away from the Shack but only historic inches away in concept. In the Driftless region of southwest Wisconsin, it bears upon it some of the beautiful contoured crop swirls of Coon Valley, telltale marks of Leopold’s influence. New Forest Farm, started by Mark and Jen Shepard, is restoration agriculture in action. The farm asks the land to do what it is tailored by nature to do best and then trains it artfully, holistically, and prodigiously for personal, natural, and commercial use. From the sky, it looks like a child’s fingerpainting in green, with curlycues and waves of varying shades, dotted with treetop spheres, winding around ridges and swells. Lovely, biologically diverse, and drought resistant. It has pocket ponds with connective rain-irrigation swales cut into the contours following gradual lines of gravity to disperse captured moisture into the roots and soil for storage. In the face of the worst drought since 1933, this farm stood out lush and lively, though the chestnuts, hazelnuts, and fruit trees produced a reduced harvest, saving their energies for survival. On the spring day we visited, three new shaggy, fawn-colored Highland cattle had just arrived—a mother, son, and calf—along with some new solar-powered electric fencing for pasturing paddocks. “The animals get to know the whole thing,” says Peter Allen, the land manager in his early thirties who expounds on the sequential grazing of the cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, and turkeys. “They stay for a day in the paddock, and they’re ready to move on to the next when we open the gates.” A PhD student from UW-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, Allen is applying precepts of wildlife and land ecology to the emerging field of restoration agriculture. He’s also a warm host and knowledgeable tour guide, handing out exciting details like the intoxicating cider made here.
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