Little Sprague Farm

Little Sprague Farm Little Sprague Farm is a small farm nestled in the farmlands of northern Wisconsin.

First shoots of asparagus making their way to the surface...Let me know if you are interested in some. In a short couple...
04/26/2026

First shoots of asparagus making their way to the surface...

Let me know if you are interested in some. In a short couple of weeks I'll be drowning in it!

First plants out to the greenhouse!
04/21/2026

First plants out to the greenhouse!

Another new month - another new goal! April's goal is all about finding what feels right for your journey. Those who hav...
04/02/2026

Another new month - another new goal! April's goal is all about finding what feels right for your journey.
Those who have followed me for a while know that Little Sprague Farm has been a lot of things in the short couple years it's been around. And while I really love baking, canning, growing vegetables and sharing these things with the community, I found myself dreading the long days in the kitchen trying to prepare for week after week of farmers markets. I started to realize that the dread was turning the love I had for these hobbies into a chore.
I'm definitely not writing off doing pop up events in the future, but my journey has taken me down a career path that doesn't involve a bakery.

In my time reflecting on what might be next instead of the bakery, i kept coming back to my time at the Chamber of Commerce helping out business owners. Marrying that with my CPA experience, I launched Greene Accounting, a business that focuses on helping other small businesses navigate accounting, bookkeeping and finance tasks.

Yes - this is a shameless plug for that endeavor, but what I want to express is an example that often you think your life is going to take you one way, but along the way the path changes and you end up somewhere completely different but hopefully spectacular nonetheless.

So the goal for April - find the things that bring you joy and don't be afraid to alter that list as life unfolds before you.

03/28/2026

Another project checked off the list just in time! The inside of the greenhouse got a fresh coat of paint - not that the mismatchy vibe was bad - but I gotta say that I am in love with this coffee color! Rolling tables are next on the docket - then it's time for seedlings!

It's been a flurry of activity around here with the warmer days! It was finally time to prune the trees. And this year I...
03/25/2026

It's been a flurry of activity around here with the warmer days! It was finally time to prune the trees. And this year I went with just a couple, major cuts instead of a lot of smaller trims. See the before (snow on the ground) and the after (no snow) for a visual on how to open up the inner portion of the tree. This pruning style crates a cup shape, encouraging good air flow in the middle of the canopy.

March was going to be all about setting aside time for your favorite hobby outside of homesteading but nature has had ot...
03/18/2026

March was going to be all about setting aside time for your favorite hobby outside of homesteading but nature has had other plans.

My non-farm hobby is horse back riding. I've jumped back in the saddle this year taking lessons.....or trying to at least. This one lesson has been rescheduled five times due to the extreme weather this winter!

Can't wait until this scene is a bank of raspberries instead of snow. Bring on the warmer temps!

I'm a little behind the ball from my normal Valentines Day seed starting schedule thanks to the timing of a very much ne...
03/09/2026

I'm a little behind the ball from my normal Valentines Day seed starting schedule thanks to the timing of a very much needed vacation. I am so excited to have put in about 125 seeds this morning and dropped the sweet potatoes into their jars to start growing slips!

02/25/2026

From lakeside property to ice rink....this is why we wait until March in Wisconsin to prune.

Our pruning saga continues! Temps were nearly perfect last weekend for pruning, but fool me once mother nature and I cat...
02/21/2026

Our pruning saga continues! Temps were nearly perfect last weekend for pruning, but fool me once mother nature and I catch on to your tricks!

I did no cutting since I knew in my gut we still had some 20 degree days on the horizon. What I did do is mark the trees for the future cuts to be made.

As you can see, in this example, I'm taking a few larger limbs off to really open up the center of the tree. This tree is about 5 years old and ready for some heavier pruning to ensure that the apples it sets this year don't crowd each other.

We have a couple varieties of raspberries at the farm and while the technique varies slightly, the overall idea is the s...
02/14/2026

We have a couple varieties of raspberries at the farm and while the technique varies slightly, the overall idea is the same : Cut the spent canes to promote new growth and manage the suckers that arise naturally from the bush's desire to spread.

Start by determining if your canes are Summer or Fall bearing.
Summer bearing canes will produce fruit earlier in the year and should be thinned to just the canes that are green or maybe slightly brown. These canes are called first year, and are what grew up last year without producing fruit. The fruit producing canes from last year can be cut down, as can any canes that might be getting unnecessarily tall and bending back over towards the ground.

Fall bearing (sometimes called everbearing) canes produce fruit later in the year and are even sometimes cut back in the Fall after the harvest. This variety is a little easier to manage because you'll just cut all the canes down to ground level. The canes grow up during the summer and produce at the end of the year.

Not sure what kind of variety you have? The easiest thing to do is to not prune anything this year (except obviously dead or diseased canes) and make a note when the plant begins to set fruit. Then make a plan for next year to prune away and reap a bigger harvest!

Unlike the orchard, I did not seek outside guidance on my grape vines until the year where the entire, luscious tangle o...
02/11/2026

Unlike the orchard, I did not seek outside guidance on my grape vines until the year where the entire, luscious tangle of vines sprouted powdery mildew.

Learn from my mistakes - mainly that grapes LOVE and NEED to be pruned, like a lot more than anything else I've ever grown. But worry not my friends, the pruning goes quick and pay bountiful dividends. The year I did no pruning got me something like 5 pounds of grapes, last year I hauled in over 25 pounds.

So here's the scoop - you will likely feel like you are taking so much of the plant that there is no way it will come back, but that feeling probably means you took just enough. Grapes love to be pruned back by about 2/3's of the new growth from the prior year. In a nutshell, old growth looks like papery bark, peeling and falling away from the vine and new growth looks like brown, spidery vines. Look up photos to be certain before you start cutting, but chances are that if this is your first time, you're in no danger of cutting into the old growth because your gut will tell you not to take that much.

Remember that grapes thrive on having ample air flow between the leaves and the fruit, and that as the season progresses, you'll be trimming back the leaves to expose the grapes to sunlight so they can ripen, removing vines now makes more room for that.

My experience of having my vines ravaged by powdery mildew and the devastating amount I ended up cutting back ended up being the best lesson I could've ever learned. And sometimes mother nature is cruel like that just to remind us that while we may try to manipulate the land, it is the land that always wins.

Let's start our pruning journey with the biggest project to tackle on the farm - my orchard.When we moved to the farm, t...
02/07/2026

Let's start our pruning journey with the biggest project to tackle on the farm - my orchard.
When we moved to the farm, the previous owners had planted a couple dozen beautiful varieties of apple trees, and even a couple pear trees. But life got away from them and the trees were overgrown.

I remember thinking I was so smart and picking up a pruning book from the library....Well let me tell you that my trees looked nothing like the ones in the book. Where were the examples of the 20 foot trees with 80% of their branches on the windward side missing? How does one top a tree where the leader was allowed to grow to its heart desire, and that desire was sideways?

Below are my top do's and don'ts for pruning, and later on in the month (weather willing) I'll walk you through my experience in wrangling down these trees to a manageable size.

If you are a fortunate one who bought saplings - I strongly encourage you to go to the library or bookstore and start your trees right. A little yearly pruning goes a long way in avoiding saws and ladders later when things get out of hand.

Address

Comstock, WI
54826

Telephone

+17154191058

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