One of our family traditions for the last several summers has been biking to a local pizza farm. Pizza is an easy crowd-pleaser, but it tastes even better in a woodfired oven at the farm with ingredients that were just picked.
Farm to Fork Retreat is a pizza farm that is the perfect distance for a dinner bike destination. We live in the middle of Eau Claire and it’s about 20 miles door-to-door. This gives us plenty of time to work up an appetite while taking in the gorgeous hills, overlapping farms, and woodsy country roads that we love about Wisconsin.
Biking With Mom
Just a few weeks before this trip, our family got a trail-a-bike. We already do a lot of biking and our 3-year-old has learned how to ride a pedal bike by himself, but the trail-a-bike gives us the freedom to go much further than he could ride in one trip.
After installing the trail-a-bike we realized his feet couldn’t quite reach the pedals so we strapped on a few wooden blocks and, voila, we were in business. I (Dad) pulled a Burley trailer with our 10-month-old twins and got to take some video shots of our son spending quality time with Mom on her maiden voyage pulling the trail-a-bike. He didn’t exactly offer a lot of physical assistance propelling the bike, but was definitely an entertaining sidekick.
The bike adventure to the pizza farm was pretty exciting for him. He sang songs, talked about imaginary wild animals the whole trip, and didn’t even complain about getting too tired.
Halfway through the trip, he said, “Mom! I know a faster route to get to the pizza farm!”
And she said, “What’s that?”
“Yeah, driving!”
Getting To The Pizza Farm
When we get over the last hill, and can see Hwy 10, the thought of wood-fired farm pizza gets real. And it’s a good thing that we’re excited for pizza because the gravel driveway is steep and we need a little boost to make it up to the farm.
We’re always welcomed by familiar faces, friendly farm dogs, and a cold beer from the beer barn to reward us for our journey. We usually meet up with friends and run around the farm throwing a frisbee, racing across the lawn, or, on this trip, flying a drone overhead for some aerial video shots.
Wow! What a beautiful area.
Leaving is hard
In just a few hours, we settle into enjoying life at “farm” speed. The giant campfire is roaring. Dessert pizza is making us feel tired. The setting sun makes the fields glow. But we’ll be back.
Sure, we could just order Dominoes.
But pizza tastes better when you bike to it.
