[Kohlsdorf] I'm here at Luna Valley Farm where it's pizza night.

And the ingredients are as fresh as they come.

People travel from far and wide for a locally sourced meal and the ambiance of outdoor dining in the Driftless.

Let's take a look at their operation.

♪♪ ♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Maren -- [Maren] Hi, welcome.

[Kohlsdorf] -- and Tom Beard were so inspired by their visits to three Midwestern pizza farms that they decided to create their own farm to table pizza experience at their property outside Decorah.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] The couple dove right in, transforming their barn's milking parlor into a commercial kitchen and installing an Italian wood-fired oven.

Luna Valley Farm opened for business in 2017.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] For people who don't understand what this is, or have never been to one, explain kind of that pizza farm concept.

[Maren Beard] Yeah, so many pizza farms serve pizza that use ingredients grown on that farm or are sourced from other small farms.

We take great pride in spending a lot of dollars locally with small farms that are growing ingredients for our pizza.

A pizza farm is a place where people come outside, eat a meal outside picnic style.

[Kohlsdorf] And I love that you have this shelter here so you can enjoy it rain or shine.

We've got rain today.

[Maren Beard] We do.

[Kohlsdorf] But a lot of days you have shine too, which is nice.

I'm kind of interested in this story.

You live on a working farm, but it's a pizza place.

So, was it a farm originally?

And is it still a farm?

[Maren Beard] I like to say we're primarily a farm and secondarily a pizza farm.

Tom works with the livestock and grows crops and cooks every single pizza that comes out of our oven.

And I love hosting people and so I am primarily responsible for pizza nights and managing staff and sourcing ingredients.

We're very much a working farm.

We love that and I think that a lot of the people that come out to eat pizza here love that we're a working farm and that their children and out of town guests can experience what it is like to be on a working farm.

[Kohlsdorf] How many do you serve on a weekend?

[Maren Beard] How many people?

[Kohlsdorf] Or pizzas.

[Maren Beard] We average just shy of 200 per pizza night, so it's pretty busy.

And it depends how much pizza people eat.

Our pizzas are big.

They're 16 inches.

[Maren] Holy Pep beetza and an GF beetza.

[Guest] Thank you.

[Maren Beard] In terms of numbers of people that come out, it's usually probably anywhere from 300 to 500 on a given night that we're open.

[Kohlsdorf] Wow, that's a lot of people enjoying this place.

[Maren Beard] It's a lot of people.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Crafted with seasonal, locally-sourced ingredients, Luna Valley's pizzas deliver delicious flavors with every bite.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Let's head into the kitchen and see how it all comes together.

♪♪ [Heidi Eger] Any good pizza starts with dough.

So, this dough gets mixed by Maren on Tuesday, rolled into balls on Wednesday and then it sits in the cooler to slowly ferment.

And we take it out a little bit early so it's warm and easy to work with.

And now we're going to start smooshing it basically.

And we're aiming for a pizza that is 18 inches.

[Kohlsdorf] So, you're not doing the throwing of the dough like they do in the old pizzerias?

[Heidi Eger] No, I would love to learn that.

[Kohlsdorf] So, is this good?

Is this a good dough, you think?

[Heidi Eger] That looks beautiful, yeah.

So, we'll go ahead and I'm going to grab this peel and then we'll move to the next step.

♪♪ [Bee Lutz] We're going to make a beetza.

[Kohlsdorf] Beetza.

[Bee Lutz] It's one of our seasonal pizzas.

So, Maren changes up the pizza menu fairly often to kind of keep with the seasonality of things.

We start with this garlic olive oil.

[Kohlsdorf] And the you add the ricotta, is that what this is?

[Bee Lutz] Yep.

Now you can go ahead and take the beets.

[Kohlsdorf] Okay.

Do you cook these beets beforehand?

They're not raw, right?

[Bee Lutz] We do.

So, then some fresh basil.

[Kohlsdorf] And mozzarella.

Is that how this works?

[Bee Lutz] Yep, we've got some shaved mozzarella that you can sprinkle on and then some shaved parmesan after that.

[Kohlsdorf] Is there such a thing as too much cheese?

[Bee Lutz] There is.

[Kohlsdorf] There is?

[Bee Lutz] On these kinds of pizzas, yeah.

Just because of the style of cooking, we tend to go a little lighter on ingredients.

You're really going for it.

[Kohlsdorf] I am.

Okay, I guess so.

[Bee Lutz] And then you can finish things off with the strawberry balsamic.

[Kohlsdorf] Okay, so just kind of circle it around.

[Bee Lutz] Yep, just a nice, beautiful spiral.

[Kohlsdorf] This is an interesting combination of flavors.

It's local.

It's different.

And I can't wait to try it.

Tada!

[Bee Lutz] Beautiful.

Well done.

♪♪ [Tom Beard] Okay, Brooke, let's cook this pizza.

So, what you want to do is slide the peel smoothly in the oven along the bottom and stop short and the pizza will slide off.

[Kohlsdorf] Okay, we are playing with fire here.

I'm going to give it a try.

Okay.

[Tom Beard] There you go.

Looks good.

[Kohlsdorf] All right, tada!

[Tom Beard] Looks great.

[Maren Beard] So, we had a few people early on say, who's going to drive on two miles of gravel to come eat pizza?

And it turns out people do.

And we are so glad that they do.

People who live in the Midwest and live in Iowa and even live across the country are up for adventures.

And I think this feels like an adventure, it's off the beaten path.

I've heard this experience described by many a person as magical.

And we live here and this place still feels magical to us and even more magical when it's shared.

[Kohlsdorf] Roadtrippers craving a slice can reserve spots at Luna Valley for Fridays and Saturdays May through October.

♪♪ ♪♪