Meet the Land

We fell in love with our Land after 4 years of searching. We actually visited our Land and made an offer on the original entire farmstead in 2012 but were denied the loan since we didn’t make enough and I was not aware of the government farm programs that support farm land purchasing for beginning farmers. Then in 2016, we heard it was still for sale and made an offer on just half without any of the buildings/infrastructure: a perfect 45 acre blend of wild woodland and 15 acres of tillable, ready-for-organic-certification, and without any buildings or infrastructure. Our Land was previously tended by Dolores Kamm and her sisters who were one of the first vendors at the downtown Dane County Farmers Market and sold to bread for over 40 years to Willy St. Co-op. We are incredibly grateful for Dolores and her sisters for so lovingly tending the Land and waiting for the right buyer, like us, who would continue to organic land management and relationship building.

Here’s how the farm has evolved over the years:

In 2016, we erected the old pack shed and my tiny greenhouse
We built our farmhouse and the big high tunnel in 2017.
In 2018 and 2019, we took a break from building and we had our first child, Tillee in October of 2018.
In 2020, we took down the old pack shed and built a new barn, packing shed and work spaces. It has everything we needed but were missing to bring us out of the “dark ages” of farming like concrete floors, a covered lean to for washing and packing, and three different cold rooms set to 3 different temperatures for crops. We also packed the barn roof with 48 solar panels which covers our entire farm and home electricity usage.
In 2021, we took down our old rickety, leaky and way too-small greenhouse and built a new geothermal, passive solar, near-net-zero carbon emissions greenhouse. This state of the art greenhouse is 4 times larger than our old one, infinitely more efficient and allows us to grow year round.
We began to raise more animals in 2022 including pigs!
In April 2023, I gave birth to our second child, Dortheea.
In 2024, we built a new low tunnel for season extension.

What’s with the name?

When I was dreaming up and just starting my farm in 2012-2013, I talked with many farmers about how they choose their farm name. Remarkably, most of them regretted their farm name in one way or another after a few years or had to change it for unforeseen reasons. So I tried not to put much energy into choosing mine..and yet I knew that names hold energy and intention. I also knew I did not want the word "farm" in my farm's name. Acres felt much better because our future Land would not just be a "farm," she would be so much more!

At the time, I was deep into reading a book series called A Song of Ice and Fire (Travis and I are avid readers) which you might know now as the show called Game of Thrones. I loved reading about the northern castle called Winterfell that was built on hot springs that heated in castle and they could grow a lot of food during their long, sometimes almost unending winters in greenhouses. One day, Travis and I were in the car and I was processing with him the challenges of naming the farm when we didn't even have land yet to ask for a name. He jokingly said, " Why don't you name our farm: Ned Stark Farm?" This is the Lord of Winterfell in the series... of which I deeply rolled my eyes at him. But then it dawned on me, "No way, but Winterfell, Winterfell Acres sounds really cool and unique!" Thus was born our farm name. And little did I know then that Game of Thrones would become a hit show for a few years (and no I have never finished watching the show as it hurt too much to watch from how much it changed from the books).

Thankfully though our Land has received this name with open arms and fields. And now that we have our amazing geothermal greenhouse to match the castle in the books... The Land has really made the name her own :)