A to Z Produce, Stockholm, Wisconsin Field Report

For my wife and me, if the weather is good, and the day is Tuesday, the usual question is, "Can we go to Stockholm, Wisconsin for pizza?" A to Z Produce is, as far as I know the original pizza farm.(I have collected many links about them here.)

When my wife and I visited on August 21, we got there early so we could avoid the wait, but there was already a great throng of cars. Still, I think we were still only pizza 38. We found a place to park pretty close to the ovens.

We were amused by the signage they had posted. The rules are few, but important. I told my wife that "Fences zap" is a warning most places would never post and most people would never see. It's a useful warning though because the location is a working farm with cattle, and the cattle fences have to work as intended, meaning live electric fences. (We arrived about 4:45.)

Since A to Z remodeled a few years ago, there is now more shelter over the ovens and for people waiting for their pizza. It is not so important on a pleasant summer evening, but when it's raining or cold, the shelter is very welcome.

The way to order is simple. They list the pizzas they are making, and you pick the kind you want. They will make you a pizza that half one kind and half another, but you need to accept what you get. It seems like every time we have gone there recently, the person taking order simply takes your order and says, "That will be 10 minutes."

Robbi operates the ovens herself. (People were not obeying the "NO FLASH PLEASE" writing over the ovens.) There are two ovens; there is basically a three-stage pipeline. About once a minute, Robbi moves a pizza from the second oven to a pizza box where the cashier will slice it. She then moves and rotates the pizza from the first oven into the second oven. Ted will carry a new pizza from the kitchen and put it into the first oven. When they are operating at full speed, they produce a new pizza in less than one minute.

So, when the person taking the orders says to everybody, "That will be 10 minutes," it is pretty much the truth. (If you come later, you may have to wait longer. The key is not how fast pizzas are made, but how fast people arrive. If a big crowd appears, the back up happens, but it's mainly handling the orders, not making the pizzas. One time when we got there later at 6:25 in the evening they were serving pizza 135 or so. Still faster than one per minute.)

This is the original oven, now used for the second minute of cooking.

They keep a lot of pizza boxes ready, but having them ready to go prevents a delay in boxing up the pizza. If you bring your box back, they knock a dollar off the price of your pizza.

This is Robbi turning a pizza before transferring it.

After we got our pizza home, I forgot to grab the camera to take a picture of it before getting slices out of the box. According to the time stamp on the picture, I took this picture at 5:16, which means we ordered the pizza, received the pizza, drove to where we staying, and then served the pizza all in 31 minutes.

This is the place that got me hooked on wood-fired oven pizza and the benchmark against which I compare all other wood-fired pizza places.

When we left, I checked the vehicles parked on the road around the farm. There were licenses representing five states, mostly Minnesota and Wisconsin, but also Iowa, Nebraska, and Ohio. This is a place that doesn't care if you find them or not; they already have enough business. (This was highlighted in a recent blog post by Mark Leslie that he called "Old MacDonald had a ... Pizza Farm??")

We are already fans, but we enjoy reading about how other people react when they discover "the Pizza Farm."

Portable Oven Class, Gale Woods Farm Park, Minnetrista, Minnesota, Sept. 8, 2012

I have an agreement with the farm supervisor at Gale Woods Farm Park to hold my portable oven-building class on Sept. 8, 2012, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Tim Reese, who organized cob oven-building classes at Gale Woods, has been kind enough to let me return to Gale Woods. While I have not had my oven-building class there, members of the Saint Paul Bread Club did build portable brick ovens there in 2009, as recorded in an Extras segment by KARE-11.

We are aiming to leave the oven up to help Gale Woods celebrate their harvest festival Oct. 6 and 7.

Update August 3: Registration is now available on-line.
Update September 4: Class is now full, with a waiting list.
Update Februray 15: Next class is scheduled for April 20, 2013.

Homeadow Song Farm, Cincinnati, Ohio

Sometimes you discover something that defies categorization. For me, Homeadow Song Farm, Cincinnati, Ohio, is one such case.

• First, it is has a cob oven.
• Second, it is a farm.
• Third, it is a school.
• Fourth, it is sometimes used as a community oven.
• Fifth, sometimes they teach baking classes there.

Vicki Mansoor told me a bit about how they have used their oven. (A new one is being built.)

I used the oven throughout the school year for an early childhood
program. The children are given dough, sing and talk and make all
kinds of shapes. They put them on the bread board and out to the
dragon oven they went. Sometimes the children stay and watch.
Sometimes they carry the hot bread back on their little boards.
We eat it with our butter and honey from our bees.

Our grade school program uses it at times. We roast corn, dry squash, make soulcake breads at halloween, pumpkin pies, etc.

I bake loaves for myself and a few others, along with dinner; neighbors add theirs too. We have had community festival/parties where we make pizzas. We have invited people to come bake their own loaves and bring one to share.

And, we have given bread baking workshops occasionally - with a guest baker and more.

It sounds like a real gem of a place.

Providence Farm, Duncan, British Columbia, Canada

I found a blog post that mentioned several businesses with wood-burning ovens on (or near) Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Posts like this are valuable to me because the identify several places at once, although they are also something of a burden for the same reason.



One of the ovens that was mentioned was, "the James Barber Memorial Oven at Providence Farm."


Providence Farm has an "Open Group" Facebook page.


Their home page is nice, except there is no search available. I didn't find anything about the oven there.


A Google search for the "James Barber Memorial Oven" turned up a few pages.


Apparently it was installed thanks to some fund raising. Partly it was a matter of moving an existing oven the size of a small cottage 200 kilometers. It sounds like an epic.


One page about the Canadian Chefs' Congress 2010 says, "Wet Saturday and Sunday nights were fueled by endless pizzas coming out of the James Barber Memorial Wood Burning Oven, a legacy presented to Providence Farm by the BC Congress Committee."


A blog post by Chef Jonathan Pulker has a picture of the oven. A different blog post had more information about the party.


There was a picture posted on Flickr as well.


This sounds quite incredible; I would love to see it.

Bread & Butter Farm, Shelburne, Vermont

While searching for information about another bakery, I came across the site for Bread & Butter Farm, Shelburne, Vermont. (They were mentioned in the Intervale Community Farm Other Products page.)

They have a separate page that talks about their bread and their oven.

Their bakery page says in part:

Our traditional German breads are unique, even in a state with such a lively bread culture. German bread baking focuses on whole grains, natural leaven, and moist dough. The resulting bread, baked in our wood-fired hearth oven is robust, nourishing, and long-lasting.

They also have a Facebook page.

LoveTree Farmstead, near Grantsburg, Wisconsin

Going over my information about "pizza farms," I thought should include that I discovered before I started blogging about what I have been finding.

The LoveTree Farmstead, near Grantsburg, Wisconsin, has been getting some mention in the Twin Cities' press. They started a "pizza by the pond" business to take advantage of their own cheeses. (As far as I know, this is unique among "pizza farms.")

Another difference between "pizza by the pond" and other "pizza farms" is that they have a cob, not a brick, oven.

It's a ways away from the Twin Cities, but there have been expeditions there.

They have a Facebook group.

J. L. Hawkins Family Farm, near North Manchester, Indiana

Another chance find on my Google search for "wisconsin brick oven pizza farm" turned up an on-line review for pizza nights at the Hawkins Family Farm,  near North Manchester, Indiana.

The review says in part, "HOPE CSA, in conjunction with Hawkins Family Farm, is pleased to announce the return of Fridays on the Farm, the weekly dining event featuring artisan pizzas made with all-natural, locally sourced ingredients baked in an outdoor, wood-fired brick oven. Pizza will be served most Fridays during the summer from 5:00p.m. -8:00p.m, starting Friday, May 6."

AtoZ Produce and Bakery, Stockholm, Wisconsin

Apparently modern times have caught up to AtoZ (or A to Z) Produce and Bakery, Stockholm, Wisconsin. They now a real web site, and not just a Facebook page (which is run by a fan, not by A to Z themselves).

As far as I know, A to Z was the original "pizza farm." One of their slogans seems to be, "Made where it's grown."

There is a section of my oven businesses links just for A to Z (currently here, but you may need to search for "Stockholm, WI" if the headings change).

They were also the first location that was a destination for a field trip by the Saint Paul Bread Club, way back in 2004, not long after the club was formed.

I think this the place that got me interested in pizza baked in a wood-fired brick oven.

A to Z had been trying to keep a low profile; they have appeared in newspaper articles, but without mentioning their address or giving directions.

Since they have their own web site now, and provide their address and directions, I feel like I can lift the embargo about talking about them.

7/7/11: A to Z was mentioned in an article in the StarTribune about food destinations south and southeast
of the Twin Cities.

8/2/11: Was told that there was a blog post about them on the Pizza Quest blog.

8/24/11: I was there on 8/23, and by about 6:25 p.m., they were serving pizza #131. They had been making more than 1 pizza per minute for the first two hours of business. The rate was probably about ready to drop because fewer people were showing up in line for pizza.

Wisconsin Pizza Farms, Midwest Living Magazine, June, 2011

For a map with all the Wisconsin wood-fired oven businesses that I know, see this blog post.

While I was waiting for my haircut, the table in the waiting room had the latest issue of Midwest Living magazine.   I never really noticed that magazine before, but one of the cover stories was, "A Slice of Country: Pizza Farms in Wisconsin." (You can only read the beginning of the article without registering at the Midwest Living site.)

They reviewed a couple of "pizza farms" in western Wisconsin.

The first was the Stone Barn near Nelson, WI, which my wife and I have been to. They have a page for their "artisan foods," which includes their pizza.

The second was Suncrest Gardens Farm, near Alma, WI. They have a specific page for their pizza business.

There are other, similar businesses in the area as well, but they were not covered in the article.

Usually when I see somebody searching for a "pizza farm" they are looking for A to Z Produce and Bakery near Stockholm, WI. They have their own blog post here; there are many news items about them (like this one); and I have many links about them collected here.

(If you are interested in all "pizza farms" then you should go to the list of labels on the right of this page and click on "farm" or for related alternatives, "vineyard". For Wisconsin pizza farms, I put a section about them on my Business Ovens page.)


8/11/11: There was a segment of Dining with Dara that covered two different Wisconsin pizza farms (here).

Greenbrier Farms, Easley, South Carolina

I got a Google Alert that included a web page update for Greenbrier Farms, Easley, South Carolina.

The photos that they link to includes a picture of a brick oven.

One of the picture captions says in part, "Greenbrier Farms in Easley held its Triple B event Saturday, Oct. 23, 2010. Greenbrier provided all-you-can-drink beer from Community Tap, plus all-you-can-eat brick oven pizzas and live bluegrass music."

The farms' events page mentions, "Our 5,000 sq ft farm house facility offers a fully-equipped kitchen, double brick ovens, and a welcoming porch, complete with rocking chairs, that offers an impressive view of the picturesque pond and sprawling farm."

Fire Fly Farm, Saint Albans, Maine

Billi Barker has a blog entry about her farm and related businesses with a 2010 year-end summary.

There are several pictures of a cob oven that she built on her farm. (There were no easily identified blog posts about the oven.)

Blue Oven Bakery, Williamsburg, Ohio

In a blog entry for a site called CityBeat, there is a review of Blue Oven Bakery, which has a blue, wood-fired oven on a farm.

The review says in part, "If you’ve never had Blue Oven Bakery bread, you are missing out on something truly extraordinary. Sara and Mark Frommeyer own and operate the bakery from their family farm in Williamsburg, Ohio, on the banks of the Little Miami River.... The bread is baked in, yes, a blue oven. More specifically, it’s a wood-fired oven, and with around 20 breads in the rotation, everyone can find something they love"