Tag Archives: Amery

Apple River Farm Tour, July 15, 10AM – 4PM Visit our Farms!!

Well, we’re just one day out from our first annual Apple River Farm Tour – yahoo!!

Pack your sunglasses, grab your insect repellent, and your sunhat for a great day of self-guided tours of up to 9 local regenerative farms. We’re beekeepers, flower growers, humane livestock stewards, chicken keepers, and mushroom growers, apple and berry producers, maple syrup producers, and lots more!

Brochure & Map

Scan the code or click here for your brochure and map.

And after the day of tours, there’s a relaxing event at Dragonfly Garden, just south of downtown Amery.

 

 

 

The participating farms include:

  • Blackbrook Farm
  • Bull Broom Keep (that’s Dave and me)
  • Northwood Mushrooms
  • Schoen Valley Orchard
  • Threshing Table Farm
  • Turnip Rock Farm and Cosmic Wheel Creamery
  • Two Bees and a Bud
  • White Pine Berry Farm
  • Z-Orchard

See you soon!!

It’s Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Week! 9/27-10/3 Time to take an ag-adventure!

Governor Tony Evers proclaims Sept. 27-Oct. 3, 2021 Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Week. Yahoo!

Looking for the Great Pumpkin

And what a perfect time of year to celebrate the hundreds of farmers and agribusinesses that invite visitors throughout the growing season, and beyond. Enjoy the fall colors as you to pick crisp apples, wander through a corn maze, pet baby farm animals, sip wine among grape vines, try some hard cider, or take a pasture walk.

Governor Evers’ proclamation

The Governor’s proclamation recognizes agriculture’s impact on the state economy: nearly 64,800 farmers on 14.3 million acres; 435.7K jobs; and a $104.8 billion impact on the state’s economy.

Many thanks to the Governor and to the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association for this formal recognition.

Our farm, Bull Brook Keep is a small, grass-fed-grass-finished cow/calf operation, and we market our beef directly to consumers in Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota. Visitors are not only welcome to Bull Brook Keep, they’re fundamental to our mission. Dave and I intentionally established our farm as a platform for conversation, education and recreation. We welcome over 200 adults and children every year. We appreciate every opportunity to explain why we’re committed to regenerative practice, and to farming in harmony with the seasons.  We like walking the pastures, introducing visitors to the moos, and learning about your food journey. 

We hope you’ll come out to the farm some time this week. Just give a call. We’d like to hear from you.

You can learn about ag-adventures near Amery, WI:  amerywi.gov/703/Agritourism. For venues all across the state, visit wiagtourism.com.

 

Sylvia and Dave Toftness
We’d like to be your farmers
651-238-8525
sylvia@bullbrookkeep.com

Woman entrepreneur makes Wildflour – a small town natural foods store – rebloom in time of COVID

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Deep Roots Radio
Deep Roots Radio
Woman entrepreneur makes Wildflour - a small town natural foods store - rebloom in time of COVID
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There’s hope!

COVID 2020 – a year of pandemic, illness and isolation. We all learned about social distancing, working from home, and how to make sourdough bread. We clocked hundreds of hours on Zoom for professional meetings and family gatherings.

Lots of us dusted off our sewing machines and made face masks.  Our hearts broke as we learned about the hundreds of thousands brought down by the coronavirus. Businesses shuttered, and schools closed, and opened and closed again. Home-schooling was redefined.

Vaccines are on their way, but it appears distribution may take many months, and lots of political haggling.

It was in this chaotic context that Tessa Ingham purchased the local natural foods store, changed its name to Wildfour Market and set to work for the health of her community – Amery, Wisconsin, population 2,902.

Wildflour joins the steadily growing movement of agriculturally-based businesses in this small city just 70 miles east of the Minneapolis/St.Paul, Minnesota metro area. In the last 10 years, numbers of organic farmers have moved to the area to grow and market produce, meats, eggs, artisanal cheeses, mushrooms, fleece and fibers, and certified organic herbs and medicinal herb products.  The Amery area is also home to farm-to-table restaurant, microbrews, wineries, coffee roasters and distilleries using many locally-grown ingredients.   

I hope you enjoy this Deep Roots Radio interview with Tessa Ingham about hope and imagination, investment and grit in the time of COVID.

Sylvia Burgos Toftness

Growing agricultural tourism – good for farmers, good for visitors

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Growing agricultural tourism - good for farmers, good for visitors
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A well-established tradition in Europe, agricultural tourism is now growing rapidly in the United States. In this Deep Roots Radio interview, Steve Peterson, President of the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association, describes the educational, entertainment and economic benefits of this sector.
He recommends farmers explore resources at luv-r-ag.com.
Similarly, if you want to visit to a local winery or micro-brewery, or find a weekend farm-stay, travelwisconsin.com.

Cows in shade

Enjoying the warm at Bull Brook Keep

If you’d like to visit our sustainable grass-fed beef farm, Bull Brook Keep, just give a call, 651-238-8525. We’d love to walk our pastures with you, and explain why we’re committed to raising our herd on grass, and only grass. No grains. No growth hormones. No sub-therapeutic antibiotics. We hope you’ll visit.
Sylvia