Our 5 minute Farm Story at Savor the River Valley Event 10.15.2024

Stacey was recently invited to share a 5 min story about our farm.

from Savor's Facebook page promoting the event:

"We’re told that sharing stories helps connect us, but is there any science behind that? In fact, there is!

In honor of the Wisconsin Science Festival and its focus on agriculture this year, we’ll introduce you to Dr. Jules Reynolds. Jules’ 2024 dissertation is the result of a 4-year collaboration with local producers and Brix Cider, exploring how telling the stories of local food producers impacts food systems. Several Savor the River Valley members participated in the project.

This program will showcase local farmers and food producers. Panelists Stacey Feiner of My Fine Homestead, Andy Hatch of Uplands Cheese, Steven Shoemaker of Steadfast Acres, and Bob Wills of Cedar Grove Cheese will join Dr. Reynolds and share their stories, experiences, and insights.

This event is part of the Wisconsin Science Festival’s theme of agriculture. The program is a collaboration between the Spring Green Community Library, the Morrill Lecture Series, and Savor the River Valley."

Aidan thought to record me reading me. He missed the first few seconds but got the rest.

We'd like to share it with all of you who didn't get to hear it.

Enjoy!

My Fine Homestead Story

I grew up just a few miles north of here on my family’s dairy farm in Wilson Creek.

My husband Bill and I own My Fine Homestead where we grow not only as much of our own food as we can but for our CSA members and Spring Green Farmers Market customers. 

Our 56.5 acre Blue River farm is 30 miles away close to the Wisconsin River and only a few miles from the dairy farm where Bill grew up. 

When we got to know each other while both working at Arthur’s Restaurant years ago, we found we had similar dreams of getting married, living in the country, and raising children on a farm so they'd experience all the inherently valuable lessons we had..

Like:

• having a deep connection to place which fosters a love of nature

• taking responsibility for one’s self and actions

• doing one’s best, giving yourself a break when you find that’s not always enough, and then being willing to try again

• being present for the hard lessons of loss and death inevitable on a farm while still being open to the wonders of life 

• pitching in to help even when it’s not expected or it's hard or it's hot or your brother’s just a major pain in the butt! Amirite Marlee!?!

• and by growing self confidence by having purpose and doing all those things so you know that you’ll be able to figure out whatever life brings you later.

Our farm name comes from the first syllable of our last names. My for Meyer and Fine for Feiner. From the beginning we knew this union would be a partnership and that the strength of it would make or break not only our family but any farm business we created. 

So as we committed ourselves to each other when we married, we also committed to a future of farming.

And while we were clear that we wanted to farm, we weren’t quite as clear on what that looked like because we’d just witnessed the bottom fall out of the small cow dairies that used to line our respective valleys but didn’t anymore.

Wanting to stay in our comfort zone, we changed it up only slightly with a goat dairy. 

Goat milk was bringing a higher price than cow milk as goat cheese was popular. Besides smaller goats would be safer to have around our little kids than cows. 

Or so we thought – please don’t ask Liam about Pumpkin! A small black & white goat that was a master head butter.

A decade later, the push for bigger came to goat dairies too, and we didn’t see a feasible place for our small farm - one where we could continue to naming each goat and handle the work ourselves.

So we sold most of the herd and got off farm jobs working opposite shifts so we could continue caring for the kids without the cost of daycare. Even sometimes meeting along the side of the road to trade the kids from the vehicle of the one heading to a job to the vehicle of the one who'd just punched out and was going home to do chores.

We came up with different ideas for the farm, but none seemed quite right for us. It was one of the most stressful times of our lives. 

We worried we’d have to give up and sell the farm. Maybe it was the only way??? I mean, we could barely support ourselves and family, much less what had now become an expensive farming hobby! 

Plus all the separation and stress was taking a toll on our relationship. 

We often blamed each other for our predicaments even though we were both trying so hard. We wondered how stupid we were to even think we could work together as a farming family when the trend was to leave family farms. 

And it was hard to hang on to the things that had drawn us together in the first place. Bill’s strength and ability to fix almost anything, his capable dependability and curiosity to learn new things. The way he’d wink at me as if to say, “Don’t worry, we got this.” 

He says for him it was the sparkle in my eye, quick wit, optimistic can-do attitude, but mostly, my seemingly never-ending-patience. 

He wisely knew he’d need lots of that! But boy, I’m telling you, he’s tested it more than once! Just this morning, in fact.

There were days when it was all so overwhelming.

The kids would be playing Legos in the next room, and we’d just sit with arms wrapped around each other - heart to heart - and I’d say, “Let’s forget everything swirling around trying to make us doubt ourselves and each other and just be quiet and remember we love each other and that and those three kids in the other room are ALL that really matters.”

I don’t know, maybe that did it? Or the fact we’re both stubborn? Or most likely, both, plus a huge dollop of love, support, and encouragement from our family and close friends, but we did. 

And when Bill later got hurt at his job later, and it became obvious a more flexible schedule was necessary for him to heal, we decided it was now, or never, and scaled up our tiny garden to start our CSA and add vegetables to our market table 

While it took a couple years to learn the ropes -  and that was after the couple where we’d humbly had to come to terms with how little we actually knew about scaling up a vegetable farm - we’ve continued to not only hang on but develop the knowledge and skills necessary to be a still small, yet valued homestead offering a wide variety of high quality food. And along the way we discovered we grew at least one full-time farmer in Aidan. (I'm still holding out hope for the other two. 😉)

Aidan may be even more passionate about nutrient dense food and farming than the two of us, but maybe we’re just a little more worn out than he is? Who can say for sure?

What we do know for sure is that we’re still learning. We’re still stubborn. We still like each other.

 And we’re still committed to this challenging, but so rewarding, way of life because when you get right down to it, we’re farmers through and through . . .  until death do us part.

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