Tim Zander grew up in Monona, WI. Although he grew up in a city, his father's family has a long history of operating small, successful dairy farms in the Cross Plains area of Western Dane County. When Tim was 13 his dad operated one of his brother’s farms for the summer. He took Tim and his brother, as well as some neighborhood kids, along to work with him primarily to help pick stones out of the field. After that summer, many of those kids continued working there off and on for many years. Three went on to receive degrees from the UW Madison College of Agriculture. From that first summer on, Tim worked, learned, and saved in order to start his own farm.

Emerald Meadows Family Farm was established in 1994 when Tim Zander bought his first 80 acres of farm land in Beaver Dam. He farmed that land organically from the beginning and earned his first organic certification in 1998 after the full transition period.

Over the years there have been several land sales and acquisitions. As of January 2021, we own 75 acres and rent 20 more. All of those acres are in either vegetable or grain production.

As investment has been made in land over the years, there have also been other changes for Tim and Emerald Meadows Family Farm.

In 2010 Two Good Farms CSA was established as a partnership between Tim Zander and Paul McDowell in Montello. Produce was grown on both certified organic farms, aggregated at Emerald Meadows Family Farm in Columbus, and delivered by both Tim and Paul to locations from Madison to Montello.

Eventually Paul made the decision to focus more on large crops that he could wholesale, and in 2015 Two Good Farms CSA evolved from two farms in Columbus and Montello to two farms in Columbus and Rio – both owned and operated by Tim and Becky.

In 2017 we formed Badger Organics LLC. We continue to operate our CSA as Two Good Farms CSA, and sell at markets and through wholesale as Emerald Meadows Family Farm.