Fortunately it turns out that the Last Night’s Pizza Box Camping Trip group is a flexible bunch, because it felt like we changed a majority of our plans. We had a plan on Saturday and we drove out to our reserved site at Black Lake Campground. Almost immediately we decided to find somewhere more suitable. Unlike the previous night, the campground was at least inhabited. It also wasn’t the mosquitoes of intimidating size, just as the Eau Claire co-op cashier had warned, that kept us away. They even followed along outside our rolled up car window as we navigated the windy dirt roads, hoping for any chance to eat us up! But the real reason why we decided to keep all our camping gear in the car and head to Hayward to make another plan was the unmarked and unpaved windy, bumpy, pothole ridden miles of forest road. The idea of having to drive back on them after dark was too much for me. Finding out later that it is a haunted campground confirmed for me that we made the right choice.
Our back up plan wasn’t perfect, but we did get to enjoy some ice cream at West’s Hayward Dairy, find a spot at a campground 15 minutes from the Pizza Farm, and, of course, enjoy one more new Pizza Farm experience that ended up with our highest ratings of the weekend!
Farmstead Creamery and Café, also known as North Star Homestead Farm, is technically in the Chequamegon Forest. They serve pizzas from 12 – 8pm, and it felt like the crowd was evenly spread out. There was space to sit when we arrived. We chose a table on the 
patio area between the hummingbird feeder and the front yard flower garden, so literally about half a dozen hummingbirds zoomed back and forth between the flowers and the feeder. I stayed outside resting my head on the table and let Bea and Robin buy me a drink. The pizza farmers learned that we were the bloggers who had emailed (and accidentally called) to ask about camping in the area and made a point to provide us with tidbits about the farm and their mission. It was fascinating to learn about everything going on at North Star.
The Pizza area and store is a tiny corner of the 250 acre farm that came into the family 49 years ago from the original owners. At this point, the farm is owned by two Pizza Farming sisters and they certainly keep busy caring for livestock, growing produce, and making pizza and gelato! In the little corner that is open to the public on Pizza Nights there are a few farm animals hanging out, an area for live music, a pizza oven of course, an aquaponic greenhouse, tables and chairs, and the beautiful flowers that I mentioned above. The Farmstead Creamery and Café family was so gracious and welcoming to us as new guests. We were introduced to The General, a turkey who doesn’t get along with others, and Van Gogh and Hemingway, the heritage breed pigs that are lucky enough to get the kitchen scraps. We also learned about the aquaponic greenhouse and the balance of the tilapia living inside and the produce that they are helping to grow without soil. Farmstead Creamery partners with other farms in the area, but only after they feel they truly know the farmers. They function at a very high level of sustainability and ethical practices and they look for these attributes in their partners.
North Star’s pizza received the highest ratings for our weekend, which is especially impressive considering we were eating it as our third pizza dinner in a row. The crust was advertised as being made with spelt and we had a moment of skepticism, but after the first bite, there was no doubt! The toppings and sheep’s cheese were also deliciously fresh. And despite having ice cream earlier in the day, we had to sample the sheep’s milk gelato, that also tasted amazing. One of the pizza farmer’s had trained with an Italian gelato master specifically to develop a way to make sheep’s milk fresh gelato. Make sure you try it if you go.
