From the Fields: Jason Maloney

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Wild rose hips dry for winter tea. The hips were gathered in late November from rose bushes the day before the first big snowfall of winter 2025 along Wisconsin’s Lake Superior shore.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Turkeys in December follow the leader into a forest along Burlager Road near Washburn, Wisconsin.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Wild red apples hang frozen in a tree along Bayfield County Road J near Bayfield, Wisconsin.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

The Hoopsnake Farm Store stands in December snow at the edge of Brule, Wisconsin. The store is open year-round with a selection of pasture-raised meat, as well as garlic and honey.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Snow blankets a boreal forest remnant in December along Lake Superior’s Chequamegon Bay. December days lend themselves to reflection on the year almost past, and the year to come.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Corn is harvested in late November near Klondike, Wisconsin. Many farmers reported good harvests of both corn and soybeans this season.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Sheep graze on short pasture in a northern field. Drought returned to Wisconsin late in the season.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Wisconsin-grown pumpkins await carvers and pie makers in October at a roadside stand.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

A ripe thimbleberry awaits picking as summer moves into full swing. A good crop was reported by those who make the berries into delicious jam.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

A sign points to a summer event at the farm market in Hurley, Wisconsin.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Standing water appears in mid-summer in a cornfield on the Bayfield Peninsula in Wisconsin. Enough rain fell at mid-season to banish drought from the state for a time.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Wild blackberry blossoms promise good picking to come. Wild-berry pickers reported damage to berries from fruit flies.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Oyster mushrooms sprout from a dead aspen tree in a county forest near Chequamegon Bay in far-northern Wisconsin. Foragers reported several blooms of oysters during the wet parts of summer.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Customers gather early on a summer Saturday at a farmers market in Ashland, Wisconsin. Farmers across Wisconsin offered locally grown bounty all summer and into autumn in northern Wisconsin.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Marsh marigolds, called cowslips by some, bloom in early spring along Bodin Road between Washburn and Bayfield, Wisconsin. For many the yellow flowers are a sure sign of spring.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Smoke fouls the sky on a summer morning between the mainland and Madeline Island on Wisconsin’s Lake Superior coast. Smoke from the fires that raged in the boreal zone across North America and northern Minnesota were an inconvenience in Wisconsin. The fires caused millions of dollars of property damage, loss of life, and weeks or months of evacuation orders on both sides of the international border.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Strawberries ripen on plants at North Wind Organic Farm in the Bayfield Fruit Loop near Bayfield, Wisconsin. The berries mark the start of the berry season, and summer.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

A monarch-butterfly caterpillar munches on a milkweed leaf. There was a noteworthy absence this year of the caterpillars in most northern fields, roadsides and fence rows.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Apples ripen during late summer in an orchard near Bayfield, Wisconsin.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Corn is harvested in far-northern Wisconsin as forest leaves turn to autumn colors.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

A lilac blooms at an old farmstead. Often the hardy plants mark the site of a farmstead long after other traces disappear. This year many noted lilac bushes with severe cases of blight. The rate of mortality remains to be seen.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Dust rises as spring tillage progresses in far-northern Wisconsin. Dry conditions early in the season provided easy access to low fields.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Dust rises as a disk cuts plowed earth on a northern-Wisconsin field.

Jason Maloney/For Agri-View

Jason Maloney For Agri-View

As the days continued to grow shorter – and with the span of time before the end-of-year holidays also shortening – many in northern Wisconsin were reflecting back on 2025. Old Man Winter by early December had taken charge, with snow on the ground and temperatures see-sawing above and below zero. Snow on the ground means time for stories around the fire in Native American communities, and other northern settlements as well.

Jason Maloney From the Fields mug — Jason Maloney

Jason Maloney from Washburn in northern Wisconsin lives between Lake Superior and the orchards and farms of Bayfield County. The retired soldier and educator grew up on a family farm in Marinette County.