MONROE - Richard Dauck grew up on a dairy farm near Barneveld and remembers eating bulbs of green onion straight from the garden, rinsed at a water pump and sprinkled with salt.
Even though he technically retired in 2008, the 74-year-old Monroe resident can't keep himself from continuing to garden and enjoying the bounty of his labor.
"I've always loved gardening, workin' with the good earth," he said.
In 2007, Dauck bought and started cultivating a 3 1/2-acre plot on Aebly Road just outside of the city. He calls the venture Aebly Acres and operates it with his partner Eileen Meyers. He does most of the gardening; she does most of the selling.
For the fifth year now, they're bringing produce from this garden to the Monroe Farmers' Market, which runs through October on Wednesdays, 3 to 6 p.m., and Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Dauck managed dairy farms in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana until 1991, when he soured on the logistics of big dairy operations. He never got out of gardening, however, for himself and for others. He managed Churchhill Wood Apartments in Monroe full-time for most of the last decade and still found time to grow a garden for the residents there.
Aebly Acres got its start during a rough period in Dauck's life. He underwent heart surgery in 2008 and "came out of it just a'flyin'" but then fell sick from overmedication in the months that followed. That fall, nine days after he retired from Churchhill Wood Apartments, he cut off two of his fingers at the lower knuckle in a saw accident.
In a way, Dauck lives for challenges like this. Farming in general means rolling with unexpected hits - hail, blight, windstorms, drought - and he likes that it never gets monotonous.
"You rely on the weather," he said. Up-and-down temperatures this spring, for example, budded his strawberries too early and then frosted them over before berries could develop. "They really got hit by frost and never recovered. It's been a bad spring, a real bad spring."
His other crops are in the ground (or soon to be) and growing well: gourds, rhubarb, broccoli, cabbage, squash, French Breakfast radishes, green onions, asparagus, pumpkins, peppers, potatoes, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, sweet corn and tomatoes.
Dauck alternates his rows of produce with strips of lawn on the hilly acreage to keep the topsoil from eroding and washing away. The lawn helps in another way, too. He uses the grass clippings from it to mulch the garden.
Dauck says he works on the garden usually eight to nine hours daily.
His itch to work isn't confined to gardening. On the Aebly Acres property is the mother of all hobby shops. Evidence of Dauck's many passions and works-in-progress are everywhere in this pole barn, including a 25-foot work bench scattered with tools and projects.
Almost every inch of the space is taken up - piles of garden equipment and machinery, marigold and zinnia seedlings for his yard at home, lawn ornaments he makes with his son, pails of walnuts waiting to be hulled and baked into cookies.
There's even a room just for displaying his toy train sets and the 100-plus jigsaw puzzles he and Meyers have assembled, each lacquered and mounted on wood.
Dauck explains his shop the same way he explains his garden.
"I'm somebody that has to keep busy."
Rhubarb Pie
Richard Dauck's mother used this recipe, and he still follows it to this day to bake with his spring crop of rhubarb.
Mix and pour into a 9-inch pastry-lined pie pan:
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cups flour
- 4 cups rhubarb
Dot the filling with 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter and cover with a top crust with slits cut in it. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 425 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes or until crust is nicely browned and juice begins to bubble through the top crust.
Even though he technically retired in 2008, the 74-year-old Monroe resident can't keep himself from continuing to garden and enjoying the bounty of his labor.
"I've always loved gardening, workin' with the good earth," he said.
In 2007, Dauck bought and started cultivating a 3 1/2-acre plot on Aebly Road just outside of the city. He calls the venture Aebly Acres and operates it with his partner Eileen Meyers. He does most of the gardening; she does most of the selling.
For the fifth year now, they're bringing produce from this garden to the Monroe Farmers' Market, which runs through October on Wednesdays, 3 to 6 p.m., and Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Dauck managed dairy farms in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana until 1991, when he soured on the logistics of big dairy operations. He never got out of gardening, however, for himself and for others. He managed Churchhill Wood Apartments in Monroe full-time for most of the last decade and still found time to grow a garden for the residents there.
Aebly Acres got its start during a rough period in Dauck's life. He underwent heart surgery in 2008 and "came out of it just a'flyin'" but then fell sick from overmedication in the months that followed. That fall, nine days after he retired from Churchhill Wood Apartments, he cut off two of his fingers at the lower knuckle in a saw accident.
In a way, Dauck lives for challenges like this. Farming in general means rolling with unexpected hits - hail, blight, windstorms, drought - and he likes that it never gets monotonous.
"You rely on the weather," he said. Up-and-down temperatures this spring, for example, budded his strawberries too early and then frosted them over before berries could develop. "They really got hit by frost and never recovered. It's been a bad spring, a real bad spring."
His other crops are in the ground (or soon to be) and growing well: gourds, rhubarb, broccoli, cabbage, squash, French Breakfast radishes, green onions, asparagus, pumpkins, peppers, potatoes, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, sweet corn and tomatoes.
Dauck alternates his rows of produce with strips of lawn on the hilly acreage to keep the topsoil from eroding and washing away. The lawn helps in another way, too. He uses the grass clippings from it to mulch the garden.
Dauck says he works on the garden usually eight to nine hours daily.
His itch to work isn't confined to gardening. On the Aebly Acres property is the mother of all hobby shops. Evidence of Dauck's many passions and works-in-progress are everywhere in this pole barn, including a 25-foot work bench scattered with tools and projects.
Almost every inch of the space is taken up - piles of garden equipment and machinery, marigold and zinnia seedlings for his yard at home, lawn ornaments he makes with his son, pails of walnuts waiting to be hulled and baked into cookies.
There's even a room just for displaying his toy train sets and the 100-plus jigsaw puzzles he and Meyers have assembled, each lacquered and mounted on wood.
Dauck explains his shop the same way he explains his garden.
"I'm somebody that has to keep busy."
Rhubarb Pie
Richard Dauck's mother used this recipe, and he still follows it to this day to bake with his spring crop of rhubarb.
Mix and pour into a 9-inch pastry-lined pie pan:
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cups flour
- 4 cups rhubarb
Dot the filling with 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter and cover with a top crust with slits cut in it. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 425 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes or until crust is nicely browned and juice begins to bubble through the top crust.