Our Little Farm WI

Today I'm talking with Sharon and Ben at Our Little Farm WI.

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00:00
You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters, and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis.  A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Homegrown Collective, a free-to-use farm-to-table platform emphasizing local connections with ability to sell online, buy, sell, trade in local garden groups, and help us grow a new food system.  You can find them at homegrowncollective.org.

00:25
Today I'm talking with Sharon and Ben at Our Little Farm, Wisconsin. Good morning, you guys. How are you? Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for having us this morning. Yeah, thanks. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for being here. I appreciate it.  What's the weather like in Wisconsin this morning?  Sunny and warm. Although it's not too bad. It's only going to be like 82, I think, today. Yesterday was pretty hot and humid and... But great for the crops.  Awesome. Good.

00:54
our very handsome weather guy on WCCO here in Minnesota.  His name is Joseph Dames. My son just laughs every time he sees him because he's a very pretty, this guy's a very pretty boy.  Says that it is  a top 10 weather day in Minnesota today.  Wow.  That's something to on the calendar. Let's see if it's actually true though. I think it's going to be okay. 84 degrees, breezy, sunny.  I'm going to this.

01:23
Right. Okay. So is your your farm actually little? Is your farm actually little? It is we're at five acres compared to around us. have three large cash croppers and they have, you know, I don't know. 1500 acres to 2000 acres each.

01:44
Well, you've got us  by two acres with your five. We only have three acres.  There's a reason  we're called a tiny homestead because we consider ourselves to be minuscule compared to a lot of people. Exactly. That's how we're little just because everybody else is so big in this area.  Okay. And where's the biggest city near you?  We're actually located not just too bad.  Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and there's Manitowoc.

02:15
Oh, Green Bay. Everybody knows where Green Bay, Wisconsin is. Right.  40 minutes  southeast of Green Bay. Okay. So you're closer to,  I'm blanking.  Illinois is below you. What's to your right? lake? Right. So Milwaukee, we're an hour and a half  north of Milwaukee.

02:40
Okay.  All right. Cool.  Awesome. So what do you guys do at your farm?  We are we are into a lot of things. We're trying to figure out how to scale down. We like to do everything. So this is always our dilemma of what to do and what not to do. So  yeah, so primarily our crops on on the bulk of our land, we have a little bit of rented land as well. That's  again, small four acres.  And we use that for growing our

03:10
Einkorn wheat, which is an ancient wheat,  which was really kind of the start or the spark, you know, for us three years ago to create our little farm and get going with what we wanted to do.

03:25
And then we also do fruits and vegetables and then our baked goods is what we  pretty much primarily do at this point. And then we're going to be adding animals to our little farm, hopefully sooner than later. Okay. I want to get back to that, but  do you guys grow the einkorn  wheat for yourselves or do you have a market to sell it at too?  So that's a good question. Yes,  we

03:55
We are currently growing it ourselves. This is our third cropping year. had the first year was a failure trial and error year. It turns out that it's not just like growing regular wheat where, uh, I mean, we don't spray, you know, it's all regenerative agriculture. So  that, was a huge learning curve.  Uh, so the second year we did much better and the third year now it's looking really good too. Uh, so yeah, we,

04:23
Our goal with the einkorn is to bring it full circle. mean,  Joville was kind of an inspiration for us. when we landed on the einkorn, we just felt there should be a lot more of this available to everybody. So then we do sell the flour to people as well as we run it through our kitchen, through the baked goods.  Yeah. Do you grind it yourself?

04:50
We do. So we actually  sprout it first and then I dehydrate it and then we have access to a stone mill. So then we stone mill it fresh about every three weeks is what  is about what we need to do to keep it fresh.  Wow. Okay. Awesome. I love that because  I hear about Einkorn flour a lot. I've never tried it. I probably should, but I haven't.  And does it, does it look the same as the wheat that we grow today when you grow

05:20
einkorn wheat does it look the same as  a there's a word for it.  I can't think of it. The wheat that  a farmer would grow, you know, today. it's quite different. I mean,  if you had a handful of each,  it's,  you know, the differences are unmistakable. The einkorn, the berry itself is really tiny, okay. But then when you harvest, it's,  it's a hold.

05:48
wheat almost like oats has a hull on it. And then  it also has these little beards that stick off of the hull about half an inch or so.  So yeah, it's  amazingly different than a modern wheat.  You know, your modern wheat comes out of the combine. It's nice and clean. It's  the berries  is what you're harvesting.  So it's pretty much ready to go.

06:18
of the machine where einkorn, you know, presents a little bit of a challenge. There's extra cleaning, there's extra hauling.  So yeah, I hope that answers your question. Yes, it does. And the word I was looking for was conventional, conventional farmers.  Oh, yes. There you go. Because conventional is the way we do it  now.  And it gets confused with traditional, which is kind of what you're doing. So

06:46
Okay, cool. And then I want to get back to the animals you would like to acquire at some point in the near future. What are you guys thinking of bringing on to the farm? Sure. Well, back in 2010, we had a dairy cow that we milked and we love doing it, but we have another business and we were just too busy with that. So we had to actually sell it after about three years. So we want to start back with the another dairy cow, maybe up to five, and then also chicken eggs, layers.

07:16
Not like, yeah, they'd be layers.  We want to get those two. And then Ben does want to do pigs as well, but I'm on the fence on that one. So  right now, chicken layers and  dairy cow is our priorities.  We used to have also  steers too. This was back in 2010.  So we do want to get that footprint back on the ground because it is so much better for the soil to have animals on it then.

07:43
You know, we do cash crop or we do  cover crops and  composting on our field, but nothing can replace the animal.

07:53
No, you're right. You're absolutely right. Calminor is like the best fertilizer ever.  Right. And chicken, I've heard chicken is phenomenal. hopefully  we can just continue to grow our soil to be so much healthier and better. Yes. And I just misspoke. Actually, chicken manure is the best. Calminor is next best. We had, we did a garden one year and we put,  um,

08:22
Cooled down chicken manure because chicken manure is hot. can't use it right away. has to  sit for a good six months or you will burn your crops.  But we used  chicken manure one year for our garden and we had the  best produce that year. So  I lied. Chicken manure is the best that you can get it.  Interesting. Yeah, that's our goal.  Yep. We had like the most wonderful cucumbers and tomatoes that year.

08:49
We've had some good ones since, but  those were the best we'd  ever grown.  Do you not have chickens anymore? Oh, we do. We do. We put chicken manure in our garden, but  we also add in  goat manure from friends that have goats and cow manure if we can get it, because we just want to cover all the bases. You  can't just have one kind of poop. We must have multiple sources of poop. Exactly. Much have diversity in poop.

09:18
Right. Exactly. Okay, cool. And then the pigs. If you're on the fence about them, Sharon, just start with like two. And then if you don't love it, you can just slaughter them when they're big enough to eat and then you don't have to do it anymore. Oh, there you go. You don't know unless you try, I guess, right? Yep. Uh-huh. Never say never, as my grandma always said. Yeah. And I keep hearing stories from people that they're of one or two mindsets about it.

09:47
They either got pigs and they hate it or they got pigs and they love it because they love the pigs personalities. Right. That's what you hear so much that people, they're just fun animals to have around. They're supposed to be very smart. And there is a breed that we came across a few years back. don't remember it. is it? Yeah. So there's a breed out there. The meat and bacon, absolutely phenomenal. It's,

10:15
a Mongolista mulefoot hog.  And the interesting thing is they're shaggy. You know, they're very hardy in the winter.  Their hair is like four or five inches long. And so it's quite interesting. Ever since we had that pork from those hogs  that's been on our radar, if we ever do this, that's what we want to try and grow.

10:44
Well then you should find someone who has those. Are they common or not? They're not common. At  least not in our area. Not in our area.  I'm sure there's associations out there,  yeah, that'll be a little bit of a hunt, I think. Yeah, one of the worst parts about being involved in the homesteading farming life is that you get introduced to certain breeds  and therefore meet and you try it and you're in love with it.

11:14
because we ended up getting a half and it  was a steer and the breed was Flechtia,  F-L-E-C-H-V-I-A, I think was what, how it was spelled. And that beef was so good and nothing has lived up to its sense.  Interesting. What makes them so much different? they smaller, larger? I have  no idea.  It was just, it was the most tender meat.

11:44
I know how to cook beef so it's not really, you know,  um,  again, cannot think of words this morning. I'm sorry.  It was really, really tender. And I know how to make beef tender when I cook it, because there are ways to do that even with a terrible cut. And I didn't have to do anything to this beef. Every time  I pulled any cut of meat from this beef that we bought, it was just amazing. Wow. We're going to have to look that up and research.

12:14
Yes. And I mean, maybe the farmer worked some magic and was like, your meat will be tender. And it was.  I don't know, but it was great. We had bought a quarter of a steer from a local organic farm  and they have their  meat hung for three weeks.  Yeah. And not a lot of butchers do that in this area. And that was the best. That was where you could, I did a  roast just in the slow cooker. Didn't add anything.

12:40
to it and didn't need anything, didn't need salt and pepper, any seasoning. It was just so phenomenal, that flavor. So don't know if it was the hanging of it that made it extra delicious or what, but.  Yeah, I don't know enough about it to even offer up an opinion here. I just know that  I would give anything to get another half from that same variety and I haven't been able to find anyone who raises them.

13:08
engine. I'll keep in touch in case we decide to try it.  Okay, awesome. Thank you.  Okay, so did you guys have like farming background  before you got into this or not? Yes, so I, I grew up on a very small, like a 25 cow dairy, conventional small dairy farm.  So that was, that was all I really knew as a kid. And

13:35
left home, you know, out of high school and, you know, so here we are and all these years later and that's, you always think about going back to that and I guess this is our opportunity to try and do that.

13:53
Fantastic.  It's so funny when I ask that question of the people that I talk to on the podcast, I get either your kind of answer  or I get, nah, we were city people and we're just like, we're going to make the jump. We're going to go  buy land and raise some chickens. And there's no real in-between on it. It's very interesting to me.  And  I'm going to tell you guys a secret. And I haven't really said this this way on the podcast. I've alluded to it, but I haven't said it.

14:23
I don't ever want to live with people even 30 feet from me again. We have a quarter acre between us and our neighbors now.  And  I  love it. When we go back to the town that we lived in five years ago, all the houses are so close together. It  literally gives me anxiety when we drive into town.  I agree. I feel the same way, you know? Yeah. Once you're out in the country,

14:51
You just get those close confines and it's like, nah, that's not me anymore.

14:57
Uh-huh. can't. I mean, I'm sure I'm 55. I'm sure at some point I'm going to have to probably move closer to people because I will probably need help in my older years. But right now, I love it when our friends come to visit us here because there's space and they get to breathe in fresh air and they're like, this is so lovely. Thank you for having me. And I just, I love it. It's great. I agree. We have, I've got two sisters that are coming in August and

15:27
One lives in California, close neighbors, and the other one lives in Washington state, but she's got a little bit, not so tight neighbors, but  they just love coming out here. We live on a dead end road. It's quiet. It's peaceful, great scenery all around. You know, it's just,  you can tell it, they just come in here and they just breathe, you know, they just  sigh, just like,  so peaceful.

15:50
you watch their shoulders come down. exactly. You can almost see their stress just melt away. Yeah, after a few days, you know, working in the garden or going with us to markets,  they just, you know,  you can just see it melt away.

16:08
Yes, I got up at four o'clock this morning as I always do, because I can't sleep past four  a.m.  The Lord has made me an early riser for some unknown reason.  And I went downstairs to grab my coffee and we have this little porch that's off the kitchen. And I went out on the porch and the window was open and it was like 68 degrees,  no breeze. And it was silent except for the crickets and the bullfrog that was making noise this morning. That is awesome.

16:37
That doesn't happen often here. Usually there's a breeze. And I was just sitting there sipping my coffee. My son and my husband were still asleep. It was quiet. The dog was upstairs with my husband. And I was just like, I love 4.15 a.m. because it's quiet. It is seriously dead silent. Right. And it's still dark outside at four, so. Yeah.

17:02
It's just a lovely way to wake up. You know, when you first get up, you're not quite with it yet. That's great. I don't know about you, but I need to get that first sip of coffee in me before my brain really starts. Oh, right. I up at five and that's usually just to turn the coffee maker on. a better way.  Right. That's the best way to start the day.  Yeah. can't think of a better way to wake up fully than sitting on that cute little porch with my hot coffee and listening to the bullfrog sing.

17:32
Right, your own little concert. Yeah, absolutely.  And  the Fireflies are back. They just showed up about a week ago.  Oh. So we get a little show about 9, 30, 10 o'clock at night. If I'm still awake,  I'm not usually, but I try this time of year to stay up a little bit later so I can see the  Fireflies slash Lightning Bugs doing their dance. Yeah, that's, yeah. Ours come out a little bit earlier, I think, than that.

18:00
Yep, and I'm not saying this is for everybody. It is not. There are people who really love the hustle and bustle of  in town  or big cities.  And I am all for diversity, know.  Differences are what make the world an interesting place, but it's just not me. I can't imagine living in a city again. No, anywhere else.  Now, we, last fall we went to, was about Thanksgiving time or so.

18:28
We stayed in Milwaukee for what, three days? We to Acres conference. And yeah, I couldn't wait to get home. The conference was very good, very informational, lots of like-minded people, but yeah, I had had enough of the city. Yep. It's really hard to go back. Once you find what your soul wants and you

18:58
get it, it's really hard to go back to the thing that you didn't really want. Right. We were just talking this morning that when we're ready to retire, we want to just get a little tiny house, you know, on a couple of acres, just have our garden, our milk cow and our chickens. And Ben, of course, would have his little repair shop or a little shop there, but just simplify, but quiet. Yeah, there's a lot of peace in quiet.

19:27
I grew up in the woods of Maine, okay? Maine, the state of Maine. Right. And my favorite memory  was going to bed at night and we had the window open and we could hear the wind blowing through the pine trees, which is a whole different sound than the wind blowing through leaves. And it's kind of like a whistle and a hum. And  I miss that noise so much because we don't really have pine trees here where we live.

19:55
And I just remember curling up and listening to that sound and just falling asleep and knowing that everything was good. Right. You can't get that back.  Nope. Exactly.  So I feel like I'm just waxing nostalgic this morning and I probably am. I don't know. It's been one of those days where you're like, huh,  I remember when I was eight.  The long memory starts to kick in. short memory starts to leave.

20:24
Well, I hope that doesn't happen anytime soon, but I don't know. This is the time here we would usually travel and we're not.  More time for reflection then?  Didn't know I was going to do this. Sorry.  A little bit. Yeah. Yup. Nice. Give  me a second.  Wow. Definitely nostalgic this morning.  Okay. So.

20:53
What are the plans for the farm?  Are there bigger plans? Yeah, so right now we're  building a certified kitchen and a farm store. I spent all last week digging in the ground looking for a water line that I knew was there and found it.  Nice. I would literally wake up every morning and  drag myself out there and think, well, today's the day and

21:22
Did that for four days in a row  before we found it.  But  interesting part of our farm store is, so we decided to do this and we do farmers markets and the word kind of goes around and we have these other farmers that just kind of naturally started approaching us about having products that we don't have to fill in the blanks in our farm store.

21:49
We were just kind of surprised by that. We were like, wow, you know, this is something people are looking for, you know?

22:01
That's fantastic. So like a farm stand, farm store, or like a bigger building? Like a farm store, you know, retail space.  And it's not  big. Our retail space is going to be 20  plus feet long by 15 feet wide.  So we'll have a lot going on in a small area in there.

22:32
Yes.  I don't want to discourage you, but I will tell you what Minnesota is like with that kind of situation with people wanting to sell stuff on your property from their production.  My friend has ducks and she asked if she could sell duck eggs in our farm stand. And I said, of course you can. And as far as I know, that is totally fine with the state of Minnesota. If she asked if she could sell her baked goods as a cottage food producer in our farm stand,  we're not allowed to do that because the person

23:01
must be on property  who cooked the food. That's how our cottage law is too. But that'll be us. So I'll be selling my own baked goods  there. I won't have any competition.  So it'll just be me working through our certified kitchen. yeah, we're hoping like meat. We have the one farm that is  already checked into like wholesale licensing, all that.  we'll do that. And honey,  you know, stuff like that that you can

23:30
typically get in vegetables where we don't  grow. I'm hoping that... We might have a couple of very talented vegetable suppliers too to fill in.  You know, it's only the two of us.  It'd be nice to raise a few more acres of vegetables, but  there's a lot of activities already.  Yep. When there's only two of you, you only have so much energy and so many hours in the day. Right.

23:58
The only reason I brought all that up about the rules here in Minnesota is that every state has different rules about food production and selling whatever you grow or raise.  And  I want people to know that because it's not as easy as throwing up a building and being like, I'm going to sell everything I can get my hands on.  right. And the laws changed because we  purchased a freeze dryer. This was three and a half years ago, maybe four, just for our own garden, because, you know,

24:28
It's just a great way to preserve your food.  And it became legal in Wisconsin for five years or five months to sell it. And just like that, that cap made it illegal. You know, so you really have to be aware of your state laws and rules and regulations.  Yeah, because they change. Sometimes they change for a second.  Minnesota does not allow us to ship big goods anywhere. No.

24:58
They changed the law a couple months ago that in 2027, cottage food producers will be allowed to  baked goods.  I'm like, why 2027? Why not now?  Right. What's the two years? What's going to happen in two years?  Yeah. And I read it and I was like, I'm going to swear a blue streak, not on my podcast, but I did. I used every swear word I could find when I read it.

25:25
And it all came out of my face, so I never utter it on the podcast.  But I was just like, I do not understand what the hangup  is. And I never will understand it because I can't get anybody in our government to have a conversation with me about it, because that would be very awkward.  But  yeah, the laws change, things happen, and  it only takes  one really dangerous experience and the laws will change immediately.

25:55
Right.  So you got to work with your government and  I'm very excited that we're allowed to sell my friends duck eggs at our farm stand because somebody stopped in the other day,  bought duck eggs and talked to my husband and was like,  um, do they have  ducks or duck meat? Do they sell duck meat? And my husband was like, I don't  know. And then he said, do they have goats? And they do.  And he said,

26:23
Do they sell goat meat? And my husband was like, I don't know, but here's everything's on the little label on the carton of duck eggs. So feel free to email them or  call them because they'll be happy to answer your questions. So hopefully our friends will get some more business out of the back. They're selling duck eggs. Right. It's all about supporting one another. It's a tough gig to do farmers markets and trying to sell your own produce or products. But you know, if you have the other farmers with you, it sure makes the journey a lot.

26:52
easier and lot more friendly. Yes. And do you guys end up bartering with the other vendors? Absolutely. We do. And when we first started doing farmers markets, I mean, it was a big awakening for me. know, a couple of things I learned was, um, it's when you go to a market and set up a stand, it's not a competition, it's a community. And the other thing I learned is,

27:20
We're packing the car and I'm going there to shop.  Right.  It's like you come back and say, okay, I don't have a lot of cash left, but I got all this cool product or this stuff that's good for you. I'm going to try something new.

27:37
Yeah, my husband is the one that goes to the farmers market. I have anxiety. have social anxiety  and I don't want to go hang with a bunch of people that are strangers. It freaks me out.  So he will text me halfway through and say,  can I trade some of our lettuce for bagels or sourdough bread or cookies or whatever?  And I'm like, yes,  because then you're not spending the money that you made selling things. Yes, that would be great.

28:05
Right. I had like a vegetable producer that because they're always early on there, know, lettuce and everything. So cookies and  we'd do a vegetable swap for cookies. So that worked out great for me and for them. Yeah. And I don't bake a lot because it would just be gone in a day here. So  my husband will bring home like six molasses cookies from Elaine who makes them  amazing cookies.  And we each,  my son still lives here too. So we, all three of us, we each get

28:34
two cookies and that's it and they're gone. I don't have to worry about  my husband eating an entire pan of cookies, you know?  Right.  That's me. Uh huh.  Yeah.  Yeah. And  we all know that sweet treats are probably not great to eat an entire pan of in one day. So  I would much rather he barter for cookies. Right. Yeah. I do like that bartering system though, or even

29:03
Yeah, at the end of the day, it's like, you know, you have something that might not be good the next day, you know, just that it's not looking as nice or their packaging isn't great. You go around to the other vendors and you just give them out to them. Uh huh. Everybody appreciates freebies. Oh, absolutely. When we were rolling in tomatoes two summers ago, well, three now.

29:28
Not counting this year, last year  we were not rolling in tomatoes. Tomato season was terrible here. So the one before that,  we had tons of tomatoes and we were just giving tomatoes away because we just didn't have any way to use them all up. So yeah, I get it. You share the wealth when you have it. Right, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. How was your growing season in Wisconsin last year? It  was good. We did really well with everything.

29:58
think everything we had. Yeah, last year was phenomenal. This year we're looking good as well. We've had quite a bit of rain every few days. We get a good shower of rain so we didn't have to water much. Last year I think we ended up watering quite a bit but...  we watered a lot last year in July and August. But this year, boy, we're right on track. I feel bad for some of the farmers that have to make hay this year because every three days it's raining which...

30:27
I'm not complaining, I don't have to set up sprinklers, I'm okay with that.

30:34
Yeah, but it's bad for hay. How's your season so far then? This year has been fabulous. Last year, soft lemons.

30:50
Hmm. This year we had, we've, we've been picking peas for a week now.  The peas are huge. Wow. And, we have zucchini coming in. We have had lettuces coming in for a month. So it's been wonderful. And we're surrounded by a cornfield.  The corn is almost as tall as I am and I'm five foot nine.  Oh my gosh. Wow.  Yeah.

31:18
Then high by the 4th of July has been met.  Have you had quite a bit of consistent rain as well then?  Yeah, it's been really weird. Like we'll get a week where we get a little bit of rain every day, but the sun will also come out for a couple of hours. And then we'll get like four or five days where it's just sunny and reasonable. And then we'll get a couple of days where it's super freaking hot and then it'll rain again.

31:45
So it's been very up and down instead of either no rain or too much rain. Last summer we had so much rain. We lost like at least $5,000 last year because we just couldn't get anything to grow. That's heart, that's disheartening. It was terrible. I have bitched a lot on the podcast about it, so I'm not going to do that today. Let's just say I am so thankful.

32:15
for this year because my husband kept saying,  I'm not gonna be mad about it. I'm just gonna wait until next year, next year will be better. And it hasn't. Wow.  And that's farming really. Every farmer ever, you'll hear him say that. Yeah, thank God he has a jobby job or we would have starved to death this winter.  I hear ya.

32:40
All right, guys. Well, I try to keep this to half an hour. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me. And it was really fun.  you very much. We appreciate this. Same here. Thank you. And where can people find you? Follow us on Facebook. It's our little FarmWI. OK, are you on Instagram at all?  No, we are not that tech savvy yet. So we're still trying to figure out  YouTube. We would like to do a YouTube channel.

33:08
And eventually I'll get a website out there for it as well. But right now we're just  Facebook.  All right. Well, you guys heard it here first. You will find Sharon and Ben at Our Little Farm in Wisconsin. They're on Facebook. As always, people can find me at AtinyHolmsteadPodcast.com.  And Sharon and Ben, I hope you have a wonderful day. We wish you the same. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again. Bye. Bye.