High Grove Farm Journal – July 2026
Aug 05, 2026 (Westby, WI)
Heavy rains started the month of July here at High Grove Farm, ushering in several hot weeks of high temperatures and severe thunderstorms. Welcome to our farm! I am Jessica, and my husband and I are Westby Creamery farmer-owners. Every week, we share our farm life on Westby Creamery’s social media channels and our own, and each month I write a journal giving an even more in-depth look at what it is to be a Westby Creamery farmer!
Our family of four kids and Drew and I sure appreciated our central air conditioning in the house the last couple of weeks, as the humid-hot conditions reached their peak for the summer thus far. Our crops are growing like mad, both in the fields and in the vegetable gardens, and we are keeping busy haying in between rainstorms. We have been doing everything we can to keep our cows cool through the heat, only grazing at night time and letting them lay in the barn under fans all day long, and they’re doing very well since we aren’t pushing them for production in the least with these very low milk prices.
The kids have been enjoying the heat with trips to the pool and long summer afternoons lounging in the cool house, building Lego creations, and watching re-runs of Home Improvement, a family favorite. I started canning produce this month and have been trying to keep up with it ever since. I have cucumbers, peppers, and eggplant picked by the bushel this year from my hoop house and the favorable growing conditions. And the first tomatoes have been picked. Many nights a week, I quickly make homemade pizzas using as many fresh vegetables from the gardens that I can. And the family can’t get enough of my fresh refrigerator pickles, but I am still giving armfuls of fresh vegetables to anyone I can get to take it!
The rain kept the hay growing at a fast pace as well, and we are at the end of the 3rd crop now as we start up August! We have three farms to hay at, and it’s a family affair to get it all cut, raked, baled, loaded, wrapped, and stacked at the farm! Everything looks so lush and full right now, and our corn is just starting to tassel, putting that feeling of fall harvest in the air. We have six months until we are officially organic, making this the first time I’ve ever been excited for January to come in my life!
Thank you for visiting the farm! Next time I write it will likely feel a lot more like fall, so enjoy the rest of summer friends!
Jessica Rogers is a Westby Creamery farmer-owner who is sharing glimpses of farm life with us.
