Troy DeRosier grew up on a dairy farm. Farming’s all he ever wanted to do. But before he went out on his own, he worked a non-farm job, at his father’s suggestion, just to make sure.

It wasn’t long before Troy was back farming. Troy and his wife, Barbara, run Crystal Ball Farms in Osceola, a small village on the banks of the St. Croix River in northwestern Wisconsin. Troy’s family had never really used chemicals for farming to begin with, so making the switch to becoming a completely organic dairy made perfect sense.

In 2003, the DeRosiers built the creamery where they process all the milk from their herd of 100 Holstein cows. Initially, Crystal Ball Farms just sold fluid milk in glass bottles. Whenever the dairy has more milk than it can sell, the milk gets turned into butter or cheese, including many raw milk varieties.

The route the DeRosiers have taken with their operation has paid off.

“We control everything from growing the crops to the finished product,” Troy said. “When you don’t sell in the finished form, you can’t control your price. You get whatever they give you.” You can find Crystal Ball Farms products at your favorite Outpost location.