women farmers

Bees Motivate Gratitude and Giving

November 4, 2019

I’m into my fourth year of beekeeping and while I still consider myself a newbie, I do feel I’ve come a long way. For one—and an important one at that—I can now find the queen.

Finding the queen—or queenspotting, as they say—is huge in beekeeping. There are books on the subject, like this cool Where’s Waldo-style QueenSpotting, by Hilary Kearney, or #queenspotting challenges on Instagram. These are basically where I learned to spot my queens.

We all know how important the queen is. She’s the heart and soul of a honey bee colony after all, and because she’s the only one who lays fertilized eggs, she’s the prime indicator of its productivity. No queen, no colony.

But did you know the other bees are equally important?

A honey bee colony is a superorganism, meaning its three types of bees—workers, drones, and the queen—are dependent upon one another. Each engages in a specialized division of labor that selflessly supports the survival of the colony. We can liken this to Aristotle’s “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” but in plain, everyday speak, let’s just say honeybees work together for the good of all.

What great role models honey bees are for us humans!

*A queen bee in her own right, this lovely lady walked ahead of me at an In Her Boots/Soil Sisters workshop. I love her message!*

November is Gratitude Month and Giving Month

Inspired by my bees and in thankfulness for all my clients do for me, November is the month I pass it forward. Each year Adunate accepts two pro bono projects for greatly reduced or no cost. These are projects I strongly support and believe will positively impact God’s creation, his people, or his ministry.

My areas of focus include, but aren’t limited to:

Agriculture & Animals
Architecture
Arts
Children
Environment
Faith
History
Humanity
Food & Drink
Sustainability

If your caring organization needs creative support in the coming year, click here for an application. Then, to guarantee your project’s success, be sure to click here!

My deadline for submissions is December 31, 2019. I will let applicants know of my decision in January.

By the way, did you find the queen? Here she is, that royal lady!

5 Reasons Business Cards are Still Relevant

October 24, 2019

I just returned from the W omen in Sustainable Ag Conference (WISA), followed by a glorious vacation. Now that I’m back, I’m cultivating relationships with all the wonderful people I met. The business cards I acquired make this an easy task.

Which leads me to ask, what do you think of business cards? Do you still use them?

In the Be a Better Self-Promoter workshop I presented, I specifically mentioned the importance of business cards. I greeted the attendees at the door with my card and asked them to leave theirs behind after the workshop. Even though some believe business cards are dead, here’s why I see lots of life in these small, printed exchanges of information.

1. Personal Touch

Yes, technology is all around us but there’s something truly personal about giving and receiving business cards. The tactile-ness of a card says you care enough to go the extra mile and give something of yourself. When receiving a business card and you take a moment’s pause to look at it—perhaps even comment on it—it says you care about the person doing the giving.

2. Tangible Expression of Your Business

When designed well and according to your brand, a business card speaks loudly of who you are. I had my cards printed on a heavier grade of linen stock and I love how it feels in my hand. A quality card reflects a quality business.

3. Physical Reminder of Who You Are

One of my attendees approached me afterward with a question on web design. She gave me her card and wrote her question on the back so I could respond later with more information. There’s no way I would have remembered otherwise.

4. Quick Exchange of Information

When attending events, conferences or meetings, there’s no quicker way to exchange information than business cards. Yes, you could get their email and type it into your phone, but that’s certainly not as fast. Plus you have to look away from the person to do so. How rude.

5. Opportunities for Repeated Connection

The more ways we can connect with people, the better relationships we can build with them. The physical act of exchanging business cards is a wonderful debut to digital followups in the future. Those followups then become a permanent way of managing contacts. Unless they’re exceptionally creative (I am a graphic designer, after all), I don’t keep my contact’s business cards. Instead, I make a digital input and have all the information I need right at my fingertips.

Need new business cards? I’d love to help you with a great design and advice on cost-effective printing. Drop me a line!

Expanding Our Octoberfest to Minnesota

September 9, 2019

We certainly love our local brews. However, a few weeks ago my husband received a birthday gift of assorted Oktoberfest beers from outside our WiscoBeer realm. They say it’s good to expand your thinking, so in preparation for our upcoming Octoberfest Brewery Tour we’re “working” to expand our palettes. Yes, sigh, it’s a tough, tough job.

This year we’re also expanding our brewery tour. In addition to our annual celebration of sipping and scenery, we’re including the Women In Sustainable Agriculture (WISA) Conference in St. Paul, Minnesota.

What a great conference this will be—fabulous women from across the country gathering to exchange ideas, find resources, and network. I’m super proud to be amongst them and presenting the workshop Be a Better Self-Promoter. Do join us!

But For Now, Let’s Talk Beer!

The Mississippi River region is truly glorious in October. After sampling the Twin Cities’ great selection of brews, we’re heading downstream to Fountain City, a cozy community nestled between the river and Wisconsin’s towering bluffs. Here we’re planning a few days of river exploration, state park hiking, and, of course, more sampling.

So Many to Sample

To the delight of beer enthusiasts everywhere, the number of craft breweries continues to grow. Each year as I plan our tour the number of venues seems to have doubled from the year before. Most interesting is the creative entrepreneurship of these small businesses; like, for example, the symbiotic partnership between taprooms and food trucks, which is a tasty win-win for breweries, food trucks and customers alike.

This all leaves us with a hardly-unfortunate dilemma: With so many breweries in Western Wisconsin/Eastern Minnesota, how does one choose? I’ve decided to prioritize our sampling to 1) interesting ambiance (I do like my historic architecture, you know) and 2) if the brewery was featured in Taproom Travelers videos (again, gotta love that creative entrepreneurship).

Promo of My Own

In the spirit of practicing what I’ll be preaching at the upcoming WISA Conference, may I present my 2019 Octoberfest Brewery Tour poster!

Each year as a personal exercise, I design a poster commemorating our tour (check out more of them here). This keeps me in touch with the industry and brings an added element of fun to our travels. Posters are great keepsakes for any event.

Perhaps you have an event you’d like to promote? Or maybe a new line of beverage you’d like to brand? Drop me a line!

Lots of Summer Ramblings: Strawberry Moon to Strawberry Festivals

June 19, 2019

Several years ago the bulb in our yard light burned out. It was one of those dawn-to-dusk lights set high on a line pole and even though my husband’s job is to regularly climb such poles, he just never got around to climbing ours.

At first, I’d go out at night and it seemed unnervingly dark. We don’t have immediate neighbors so nothing but the celestial sky lit our yard. Oh, but let me tell you, there’s no going back. The event of that burned-out bulb has totally heightened my appreciation of the night sky and I’m now a moon-gazing habitué.

Given that, here’s to a happy Strawberry Moon (Tuesday night) and upcoming Summer Solstice (Friday night). I love them both. With the full days of summer ahead, it’s a wonderful time of festivity and adventure.

Speaking of Strawberries…

They’re finally here! We live on a windy hill and it seems my patch is always a bit behind. But they’re here now and as delicious as ever. Just look at how red and juicy they are, unlike those so-called “strawberries” you find in the grocery store.

Hey folks, shop your local farmers! Eat real food!

Strawberry Festivals and More

One of my tastiest childhood memories is of a strawberry festival we attended while camping in northern Michigan. If I recall, it was a community church serving shortcake piled mile-high with strawberries and cream. Oh, so good!

Quite often such festivals are benefits for a specific cause (like these upcoming festivals here and here). Joining the celebration not only creates fun memories but also supports grassroots working together at its finest.

Food festivals have become one of the fastest growing forms of tourism and there’s a good reason why. They offer a sensory overload of the landscape, ethnicities, history, and food cultures of their given community.

Food lovers love food festivals; ask me how I know!

Which Leads Me To…

When it comes to festivals, I’m proud to help promote two Wisconsin biggies: The Soil Sisters in August and Fermentation Fest in October. These are annual celebrations that each draw thousands of people and have great social and economic impacts on their rural communities. Needless to say, a lot of organizing and marketing goes into these events.

Do you know of a festival looking to grow in its success? I’d love to help. Let’s talk about what makes a good festival and how to get the word out to all those fun-loving, destination travelers!

Where We Talk About Women and the Difficulties of Self-Promotion

November 5, 2018

My cousin JerriLynn is an amazing woman. When we were both barely into our 20s, she was an audacious entrepreneur with her own whole foods store. Since then she’s succeeded in a variety of ventures, always with moxie and always with finesse. These days she’s in real estate and even though I’m a Great Lake away from her Lansing, Michigan market, I love following her work.

I’m bragging about my cousin because just about the time Lisa Kivirist and I were taping our In Her Boots episode on the difficulties women have promoting themselves, JerriLynn’s quarterly newsletter came in the mail. I was blown away by how skillfully she announced her latest achievements, all the while keeping to her genuine and unpretentious self (and anyone who’s met JerriLynn knows this is who she truly is).

No matter what industry you’re in, tooting one’s horn is a necessary component of running your own business. It’s marketing, after all. Interestingly, many women think of self-promotion as a necessary evil. Maybe you do too? I admit I have to push myself, but I’ve also learned ways to make advocating my work easier and more authentic.

So here’s our In Her Boots, episode 60. Lisa and I share great first steps for telling your story and effectively promoting what you do. Listen up and then share your own ideas!

Marketing Beyond Your Comfort Zone

November 2, 2018

Okay, we hear this all the time: life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Like when you explore places you’ve never been. Or hang a shingle for your own business. Or, in my case, do a podcast for some of the coolest ladies ever.

That was me recently when I was interviewed by Lisa Kivirist, host of the In Her Boots Podcast. This is a great series celebrating the collaborative spirit of women farmers and, yes, I was a bit outside my comfort zone (who doesn’t cringe at the sound of their own voice?). But Lisa is awesome and her talented son, audio engineer Liam Kivirist made me feel right at home. It was super fun.

Lisa and I talked marketing—specifically marketing for small farms and women farmers. Both entities are unique and often find marketing to be outside their comfort zone. For some it’s a time constraint, for others it’s not in their personal nature. We discussed how marketing overall has changed and how we can adapt these new strategies to better fit who we are.

Stay tuned in the weeks ahead for each of these episodes!

Speaking of small farms and women farmers—last week my husband and I explored the cranberry regions of western Wisconsin. Neither of us knew much about this industry and we found it fascinating. While touring the Wisconsin Cranberry Discovery Center, a great place to learn all things cranberry, we asked where we could buy fresh cranberries (certainly the one and only item not in this well-stocked gift shop). We were directed just up the road to Wetherby Cranberry Company (ahem, strategic marketing happening right there, folks).

Wetherby Cranberry Company has been in business since 1903. It’s been owned by Nodji Van Wychen’s family since 1972. They’re one of the few farms—or marshes, as cranberry growers call their land—that sell their product independently rather than through cooperative giants such as Ocean Spray. I’m in awe of how Nordji promotes her cranberries.

Guess what I’m serving for Thanksgiving this year!

Love My Market, Love My Farmers!

August 8, 2018

It’s National Farmers Market Week and I couldn’t appreciate it more, having just attended a workshop on Raleigh’s Hillside Farm. Oh, my goodness, the arduous, hand labor that goes into producing high-quality, organic vegetables. Let’s take a moment right now and send out a #lovemymarket and #lovemyfarmers!

The Raleigh’s Hillside Farm event was one in a series of In Her Boots Workshops put on by the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) and was held in conjunction with the inspirational Soil Sisters weekend (all clients for whom I’m honored to design).

The focus was on hopeful and beginning farmers, and as you can see by the long line of cars, the interest was huge!

Lauren Rudersdorf, Raleigh's Hillside Farm — Raleigh’s Hillside Farm, Brodhead, WI, provides high-quality, organic food to CSAs, area restaurants and schools.

Lauren Rudersdorf is half the husband-wife team of Raleigh’s Hillside Farm and an enthusiastic Soil Sister (she’s the group’s millennial social media whiz). She presented us with a wonderfully authentic day in the life of an organic vegetable farmer and covered the nitty gritty of starting from scratch.

Lauren and her husband, Kyle, began their farm in 2013 on leased family land. She readily admitted they had little experience and even less money. Listening to her now, she’s a wealth of information on farming practices, soil management, produce handling, finances, growth projections and marketing. On top of that, she’s a barefoot bundle of positive energy, which shows in her social media and blog The Leek and The Carrot.

But, hey, farm life is more than romantic Instagram imagery. There are fields to cultivate, weeds to conquer, produce to harvest, wash and chill, and consumers to acquire and deliver to. Lauren and Kyle now run four acres and as I overlooked those beautiful rows my heart palpated thinking of the day in, day out physicality of such a business.

Even a farm tour didn’t deter Kyle from a day in the field.

Now into their sixth season, Lauren and Kyle have begun investing in their farm. They purchased a Kubota tractor and built a pack shed for washing and storing produce. They also added to their hoop house, which they use for starting seedlings in the spring and extending their growing season.

Becoming Educated and Taking Action

Most people, myself included, don’t realize how much goes work into that gorgeous display of produce at a farmers market. How naive we are. So on this National Farmers Market Week—and every other week for that matter—what can we do to keep these farming super heroes in business?

Unless you live under a culinary rock, we all know the physical and psychological benefits of eating quality, organic, local food. So let’s support those who produce it!

We know the conventional food-to-store system is broken. Farmers markets are an alternative and more sustainable way to put food on our tables. So let’s shop there. Here’s a directory of markets near you!

We know food brings people together. The same can be said for farmers markets; they bring value to the community and unite its people. So get to know your farmers! Talk with them and learn how they produce their food. Share recipes. Farmers markets are so fun!

Happy Farmers Market Week! Get out there and love your farmers!

Women’s Farm Groups, Then and Now

June 26, 2018

One of the great things of old house living are the gifts that come with it. Ours bequeathed to us an extraordinary collection of scrapbooks compiled by the lovely woman from whom we bought our farm. For nearly five decades, starting in 1941, she devotedly clipped, pasted and immortalized whatever and whoever captured her interest. Just imagine the local history we have treasured away in our walk-up attic.

Fireside Homemakers Club 1955 — Fireside Homemakers Club, Lake Mills, WI, 1955

I was recently browsing the scrapbooks and came across this photo—a women’s homemaker club, circa 1955. Homemaker clubs began in the 1920s as a way of bringing the latest home economic research to rural areas. In the early days of my marriage I joined my mother-in-law’s club (no, not the group in this photo and not in 1955…just saying:-). I was a naive 19-year-old back then but I still recognized the importance of these ladies getting together. They were hard-working farm women and their once-a-month sisterhood was as much an emotional necessity as it was social.

Brandi Harris and Emily Harris, Wylymar Farms, Monroe, WI — Wylymar Farm owners Brandi and Emily Harris talked tools and machinery. Emily previously studied mechanics while serving in the Navy and now maintains all their machinery.

Last week I was honored to be part of a rural women’s group of a slightly different nature—an In Her Boots workshop on Wylymar Farms. In Her Boots and it’s counterpart Soil Sisters provide support for the growing number of women in farming and food-based businesses. Yes, they cover home economics—the renewed interest in domesticity is huge, after all—but the greater focus is on farming.

Last week’s gathering was a far cry from those I attended decades ago. For starters, In Her Boots met under a tent in the hayfield, which, because of a steady rain, we quickly obliterated. Wind, rain and all, we covered topics ranging from organic dairying, to tractor mechanics, to selling cookies, to marketing. And lunch, don’t let me forget that delicious lunch!

Mud-slogging brought new meaning to the name In Her Boots.

Women’s farm groups are not the only things that have changed. According to the USDA Census of Agriculture, the number of farms owned and operated by women is on the rise (interestingly, the census didn’t fully count women as farmers until 2002, when it finally allowed entry for more than one family farm operator). This means women are taking on more leadership roles, whether on the farm or on ag-related boards. They’re insisting seed salesman and implement dealers talk to them. They’re in the media everywhere. Yes, farm women have gone from invisible to invincible, as Lisa Kivirist says in “Soil Sisters: A Toolkit for Women Farmers.”

The unveiling of a cottage-food-safe frosting, in celebration of Betty Anderson’s birthday.

In all of this, there’s something special that hasn’t changed. That neighborliness of 1955 is still with us today in more ways than we realize. Women, by nature, recognize the need for camaraderie. They still come to together for sharing and encouragement. They still learn best from one another.

As a woman, and one with her hands in the soil, and a marketing professional, I am so proud to be part of women’s farm groups, both then and now. So very, very proud!

Bees Motivate Gratitude and Giving

November is Gratitude Month and Giving Month