Annual Alternative Crops Field Day Follow Up: Photos, Resources, a Scone Recipe and an Invitation!

Every year, MFAI hosts a summer field day bonanza to showcase our latest research and connect with the community. It's always something that we as staff look forward to: the chance to show off what we've been up to, and spend the day with fellow farm nerds. This year’s Field Day on August 5, 2026 was especially meaningful because it was the first held at MFAI’s New Farm, a property in the heart of Wisconsin’s Southern Kettle Moraine.

We manage the production fields and research plots of the New Farm in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy, near its Pickerel Lake Fen Preserve in East Troy, Wisconsin. Fens are among the rarest wetland types in North America and depend on groundwater from natural springs. That makes careful stewardship of the surrounding Mukwonago watershed incredibly important.

At the New Farm, we use prairie strips, agroforestry, cover crops, reduced tillage, and diverse crop rotations to demonstrate how working farmland can remain productive while also protecting soil, water, and wildlife.

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Throughout this year's field day, nearly 80 guests experienced these practices in action as they traveled across the farm and explored research plots of proso millet, buckwheat, mung beans, Kernza perennial grain, and agroforestry plantings. MFAI staff Dr. Nicole Tautges, Dr. Esther Durairaj, and Nolan Burkard, along with farm associate Tim Megner, shared practical growing information on how these crops perform under Wisconsin conditions, where they may fit into Midwestern farming systems, and how they can give farmers more options in their rotations and new opportunities in the marketplace.

“I’m so proud and amazed that what started out as trials from small amount of seeds from USDA GRIN on our research farm has grown to a place where we are working on the supply chain issues now. There’s a lot more effort that we need to put in to educate consumers, but we care about these crops and their benefits to the crop rotation, and so we are willing to put in the work.” Dr. Esther Durairaj, MFAI Education Director

Interactive learning stations led by MFAI staff Christine Johnson, Dr. Mrill Ingram and MFAI Economic Policy Associate Dr. Success Okafor highlighted some of our latest outreach and policy work, including our newest publication on mapping Wisconsin’s meat-processing deserts.

Find digital versions of all of the research papers we have produced in the past year HERE.

“This was my first time presenting my research in a field-day setting, and I really enjoyed how different it felt from a traditional conference presentation. I was able to talk directly with farmers, hear their questions, and see how the research connected with what they were experiencing on the ground. I loved that it became a conversation, not just a presentation. For me, that is where research becomes most meaningful, when it gets back to the people it is meant to serve.” - Dr. Success Okafor, Economic Policy Associate

Of course, it wouldn’t be an MFAI Field Day without good food!

After seeing alternative crops growing in the field, guests had the chance to taste some of them at lunch. MFAI staff prepared a menu featuring South Indian millet cakes and dosai, French-style buckwheat crepes, South Indian chutneys, Kernza crackers with local cheese and honey, buckwheat soba noodles, and a salad topped with sprouted mung beans.

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The meal offered a delicious reminder that developing markets for alternative crops begins with helping people imagine how they can be used, not only as crops in a field, but as ingredients in our kitchens, restaurants, bakeries, and regional food systems.

We had LOTS of requests for recipes, especially for the gluten-free Raspberry Buckwheat Scones we had in the morning and for the Millet Dosa at lunch. However, Esther's dosa requires soaking, grinding and fermenting the millet and is a bit complicated. Maybe we'll do a class at the next field day! But Kriss's scones are pretty easy -

Click HERE to get a printable version.

Guests also visited the Fields Best Market Table to take home alternative crop flours and baking mixes made with grains MFAI researches and promotes. ORDER FIELDS BEST PRODUCTS EVERY DAY ONLINE - TO BE SHIPPED, OR DELIVERED IF YOU ARE NEAR THE FARM. One of the best parts of the annual Field Day is the opportunity to bring people with different perspectives into the same place. Farmers talk with researchers. Conservationists talk with food businesses. Community members and neighbors meet the people growing, studying, processing, and promoting crops they may never have encountered before. Those conversations are an important part of MFAI’s work. Building a more resilient agricultural system requires more than researching and refining crops that grow well. It requires farmers willing to experiment, researchers willing to listen, businesses willing to develop markets, conservation partners thinking across landscapes, and eaters willing to try something new. We are grateful to everyone who spent the day with us, as well as the partners, vendors, sponsors, and staff who helped make our first Field Day at the New Farm possible! We hope you'll come back to the farm for our Fall Fest on the Prairie family fun-raiser on October 17. Though we ran out of time to do a hayride during the Field Day, we'll be doing them at Fall Fest! Along with a Soil Pit, Kid's activities, local food booths, vendors, silent auction, campfires, s'mores and more! SEE MORE and RSVP to be registered to win one of many doorprizes.

See More Photos from MFAI's 2026 Annual Field Day