Farmer Training

Each week our Stateline Farm Beginnings® (SFB) class is fortunate enough to have guest speakers come and discuss their farming experience, first-hand. During the third session of SFB, on November 9th, the course topic was land access. We had several farmers come and give detailed accounts of how their farms’ each gained access to land. One of the farmer speakers, Chris Prchal of Trogg’s Hollow in Poplar Grove, Illinois provided the class with transparent and honest information which I and several others in class appreciated. 

Trogg’s Hollow CSA and Market Farm is a family-owned and run...

In Elkhorn Wisconsin, Tim Huth’s farm, LotFotL (Living Off The Fat Of The Land) Community Farm, is wrapping up its 11th year of production. LotFotL raises organically-fed and pastured hogs, grows organic vegetables and row crops plus obtains and distributes many different natural and organic foodstuffs. These goods are then distributed via a 150 member CSA and an additional 50 through their ‘Choice CSA program,’ which allows members to customize their CSA box to fit what works for them. The vision for LotFotL hasn’t changed much over the years, but their...

I drive out to a remote part of the City of Beloit, Wisconsin one breezy summer evening to talk to Ben and Meghan Snare. I walk into their house—a renovated farm house—and begin setting up my gear while they get their children ready for bed. We sit down at their kitchen table, the warm glow of a cloudy sunset pouring into their home.

Despite growing up around farms, they didn’t have much experience in farming; in fact both went on to take full-time jobs in the tech industry located in the suburbs of...

Over the past two years, Cliff McConville, owner of All Grass Farms, has supported his employees in pursuing their farm dreams by sending them to Stateline Farm Beginnings...

It is a warm and windy June afternoon when I give Stateline Farm Beginnings graduate Vanessa Quiñones a call to learn her farm story. Vanessa started The Victory Garden Farm in Fredonia, WI after graduating from the Stateline Farm Beginnings program in the fall of 2015. She also balances an off-farm job as a massage therapist with farming the land she shares with...