Diversity is Our Strength: Rising Sun Farm Weathers a Changing Climate
- Erin Thompson
- Apr 7
- 5 min read
Rising Sun Farm and Orchard is a diversified farm in River Falls, Wisconsin that has weathered over 50 years of changes. Now, facing climate change impacts on their farm, owners Lindsey Baris and Ryan Browne see diversity as the key to their sustained success.
The Rising Sun Farm was started in 1975 by Roger Browne. 50 years later, Roger’s son Ryan Browne and his wife Lindsey Baris have expanded the farm and are carrying on a legacy of resilience and diversity. Wisconsin Farmers Union members, Lindsey and Ryan, moved to the farm in 2012 after meeting at Evergreen State College in Washington. Ryan’s father had started Rising Sun as an organic vegetable farm, but was looking to retire. Lindsey and Ryan bought the farm and business, then expanded in 2016 when they bought a neighboring orchard.
“The farm was organic from the beginning and it's a really cool place,” Lindsey said. “After we took over the farm, the apple orchard and the veggies became one business. Later we also brought in pasture pigs, lamb, and grew the maple syrup operation.”
For Lindsey and Ryan, being a diversified farm means also having diverse sales channels.
“I started a CSA about five years ago,” Lindsey said. “We've been doing a farmer's market for the past 12 years. We sell to three grocery stores and two restaurants and it’s been my husband and my full-time job since we lived here and it has kind of become our identity in a way. We're known as the Rising Sun Farm people. It's pretty well known in this area because it's been around for so long and it's a community center point for a lot of people around here.”
Lindsey and Ryan always knew they wanted to farm and the fact that, at the time, Rising Sun Farm required little to no irrigation was a major selling point. In the ten years that Lindsey and Ryan have been managing the farm, they have noticed substantial changes.
“We only started having to irrigate regularly about five years ago and now at this point we can't not irrigate,” Lindsey said. “I think that this is one of those very obvious direct things about how we're being affected by climate change.”
In addition to irrigation changes on their farm, Lindsey has noticed an increase in insect pressure over the past few years which has been a struggle for her and the plants.
“We've been getting two or even three life cycles in certain insects,” Lindsey said. “Before we used to only get one life cycle. Now managing the insect damage and doing pest control is way more time consuming.”
The farm has been adaptable in the face of new hurdles, including trying innovative ways of growing.
“We did a bunch of stuff on our farm to help with certain weather situations,” Lindsey said. “We have raised beds that we stopped tilling. The raised beds make it so that they stay out of the standing water, if we do get those heavy spring rains. We stopped tilling because those heavy rain days would cause a lot of erosion on our tilled beds.”
Despite attempts to make changes to how they were farming, 2024 was a very difficult year for Rising Sun Farm.
“Luckily we were able to have a really good apple season, but we had a very poor vegetable season last year,” Lindsey said. “Walking around and just seeing crop failures left and right was very disheartening.”
The climate-related hurdles that the farm was facing, combined with staffing issues led Lindsey and Ryan to make major changes to the farm.
“The mixture of weather patterns, deer, insects, and the lack of help made me reevaluate what the heck I'm doing because it started affecting my mental health pretty heavily and I was having a really hard time with managing all of this. I really couldn’t do vegetables anymore, so we downsized significantly.”
Changing and adapting to what was needed for the farm and for herself helped Lindsey step into the next chapter of Rising Sun Farm. Lindsey had originally planned to spend the next season as a consultant for Big River Farms in Minnesota. Due to federal funding cuts, however, her position was eliminated and she had to pivot again.
“We have a very small vegetable operation this next year,” Lindsey said. “We're still doing the apples and we're still going to do pigs and sheep and maple syrup. But now I am working at a greenhouse called Rush Creek Growers and on my farm two days a week. We are still selling veggies to our local food co-op and at our on-farm store.”
For many farmers, adapting to climate change comes down to money. Given recent federal executive actions, funding freezes, and funding cuts, financial assistance is drying up for small to mid-sized farmers who are looking to farm with an eye towards resiliency.
“I do think that there are things that you can do to help mitigate climate change events,’ Lindsey said. “But it costs money, which is really hard for people. Having that funding for people to implement things to help their farm become more resilient is so needed. Grants and cost-share programs are really awesome and we just need more of that, not less.”
Assistance for small and mid-sized farms is dwindling, but supportive community organizations that are working to make small-scale farming viable still exist, Lindsey said.
“I think farming is just getting harder and harder and we're steadily losing support, but I do think that there are a lot of organizations out there that are helping, like Wisconsin Farmers Union, the Land Stewardship Project, and Renewing the Countryside,” Lindsey said.
For Lindsey, the way to remain resilient in the face of climate and market changes is diversity.
“When I talk about diversity, I'm not even necessarily talking about just the crops,” Lindsey said. “ It’s about how you sell your product too. You need backup plans. We're doing restaurants and wholesale and farmers market and CSA and have an on-farm vegetable store and we do U-pick apples. All of those aspects helped the whole, but I felt like we couldn't fall back on any one of those things to support the business.”
Through all the challenges and changes Rising Sun Farm has not only persisted, but flourished.
“It could be really difficult being diverse because if you spread yourself too thin it becomes a stressful situation,” Lindsey said. “But I do think that diversity is the thing that really has helped us in the end, because I feel like our farm is incredibly successful.”
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