Page 16 Stories of the Heartland • Sunday, September 21, 2025 hometownsource. com / heartland /
Wood-fired welcome:
Alpha & Omega Farm serves unity with every slice
BY CHLOE SMITH STORIES OF THE HEARTLAND
Nestled in the heart of Princeton, Alpha & Omega Farm is unique in its efforts to spread love, togetherness and community through immersive farm experiences.
Guests are treated to authentic agritourism with opportunities to connect with the land through farm-to-table, wood-fired pizzas and interactions with the animals.
Kim and Brad Hayes started Alpha & Omega Farm in the fall of 2020, but the couple moved to the property 11 years ago from Elk River after working in food service for 25 years.
“ I read about a pizza farm 25 years ago down in the Lake Pepin area, and I just thought that was really cool,” Kim Hayes said.“ I always had that in the back of my head. We found this place on a whim and it all fell into place. The goal was to have it be a pizza farm at some point.”
Before they could get their dream off the ground, the couple had work to do to prepare their new 38-acre property.
They started by renovating their home and, soon after, Brad built the farm’ s now-famous brick ovens.
The ovens can churn out about four pizzas every four minutes, allowing the farm to serve around 200 people each Thursday pizza night.
Guests can bring their own chairs, blankets and beverages to pizza nights. The farm also has some outdoor tables, a wire-frame building Hayes calls“ the bird cage,” and a modified grain bin turned gazebo called the“ grainzebo” that visitors can rent for larger groups and parties.
The pizzas are made with farm-totable ingredients, many grown right on the property, such as vegetables, greens and herbs. Anything not grown on site is sourced from other local farms, businesses and the farmers market.
“ Farmers are disappearing,” Hayes said.“ But their products are so much better for you, with much better quality. So, it feels like an ecosystem. If I’ m helping by buying meat products from( Walker Farms), he’ s helping a local butcher. It’ s just the right thing to do.”
Alpha & Omega Farm is home to a variety of animals including cattle, goats, pigs, donkeys and alpacas— but only one type of livestock is used for the pizzas.
The farm’ s pigs are used for pork toppings such as bacon, sausage and ham after a short trip to a local butcher.
Any beef used on the pizzas is outsourced from Walker Farms in Princeton. Other meat products often come from Milaca Meats.
Photo provided
Kim and Brad Hayes are the proud owners of Princeton’ s Alpha & Omega Farm, specializing in wood-fired pizza, farm-to-table ingredients and immersive experi-
The flavors and menus for the pizzas change with the seasons to reflect the peak growing periods for different ingredients.
“ In early spring, it’ s always things like asparagus and spring onions,” Hayes said.
Each pizza starts with freshly proofed, hand-stretched dough. While the dough is not made on site, Kim
Hayes has extensive experience with sourdough baking.
“ My sourdough starter is 30 years old,” she said.“ I took a class on sourdough baking way before it got trendy.”
Visitors pre-order the crust for $ 10 on the Alpha & Omega website days before farm events to secure a spot, as the farm often sells out quickly.
“ We sell out every week,” Hayes said.