Before Jim Oppermann met his wife, Mary Sue, he had never stepped foot on a farm.
Now, after 34 years of marriage, the senior vice president for finance and management services at Alverno College in Milwaukee spends many of his summer mornings and weekends on a farm near Madison growing and harvesting sweet corn.
With Mary Sue, their two sons, daughter-in-laws, daughter and soon-to-be son-in-law, Oppermann runs Stoneman Sweet Corn, a business rooted in family tradition.
“It’s really a family thing and it’s great family time, but it’s a lot, a lot of work,” Oppermann said.
The business is based at the Stoneman Family Farm, a 150-acre plot of land in Fitchburg that Mary Sue’s grandparents bought in 1918.