"The world is full of kind people. If you cannot find one, be one."

When my husband and I got married back in 2003, we knew we wanted to start a family together and raise them on a farm. We both grew up in Minnesota, raising farm animals and participating in 4H. We also share a love for homesteading, the outdoors, biological, natural, and environmental sciences.  So when the opportunity to buy a small 10-acre hobby farm in Wisconsin came along in 2013, we jumped at it. 

 I had just finished my Associate's degree and one of the central focuses of my studies had been an exploration into food deserts and how to reduce or eliminate them locally. A food desert is essentially a rural or urban area where fresh and healthy food is either not affordable or easily accessible to the public. (If you'd like more information on the topic, the USDA has a national food access map that can be viewed at this link): 

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas/go-to-the-atlas/

Initially, I wanted to develop a low-income or sliding scale CSA for the local community to help fill in those fresh food gaps that were missing in our area. However, the more I delved into the process, the more roadblocks I hit. Financially, it wasn't an option we could pursue further at the time, so we shelved the idea and focused on the kids' schooling, work, and college. A lot happened in those in-between years. The kids grew, we raised poultry, goats, rabbits, and honeybees. My husband went from running Grandma's marathon yearly with his mom, to running triathlons and finally completed an Ironman in 2017. He also completed his Associate degree and he started training to run ultramarathons. 

Then in 2020, the pandemic hit. I lost my full-time tenured position and was suddenly home full time with three kids who were all learning virtually due to state-mandated covid quarantine. My husband works with Minnesota State and his current department was also dealing with reduced staffing due to the pandemic, so he was transferred to work at one of the state-operated prisons. Between his new schedule and having three kids at home who needed school supervision, there was no availability to work outside of the home for me. So I kept applying for work-from-home positions and in the meantime, I also began researching again to see what I could potentially grow that could fill a need within our community and help provide a part-time income for my family. I had read an article in a scientific journal about how hemp and CBD were being used to help treat covid related inflammation. That caught my interest because I have family members who are immune-compromised or have other preexisting conditions that put them at greater risk of complications. So I began reading further into the topic and speaking to local farms, businesses, and experts in the field. Among other uses, I found that CBD is also helpful for managing anxiety, PTSD, muscle aches, and everyday inflammation. We took some field samples from our farm and discovered that our soil PH was ideal for growing hemp and the gravel would provide good drainage to prevent root rot. 

From there, I began talking with the Wisconsin DATCP about their Hemp Pilot Program and the process of licensure for the state. I paid an application fee in November of 2020, agreed to a background check, and had my fingerprints taken. My hemp grower's license arrived in the mail a few weeks after the fingerprinting was completed. So I began actively seeking out a local DATCP certified seller to purchase our seedlings from in the spring. We ended up selecting Future Farm Hemp in Baldwin, Wi. They have a mentor program where they teach you how to grow, offer resources, advice and also hold monthly meetings throughout the growing season to help make sure your crop is a success. If you live within an hour of their farm they even make in-person visits.  We decided on growing an acre our first year so we could focus more on learning the process of growing, harvesting, and processing on a budget and timeline that we could afford.

After that, I knew the most important missing piece was developing a professional business plan. I spoke with Andy from the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in Superior, Wisconsin. They had an online entrepreneurial training course. So every Wednesday evening for about 6 months, I attended classes and worked with their on-staff experts in legal, marketing, analytics, and business development until my plan was completed and approved. They even brought in a guest speaker from Sutherland CBD and he helped answer a bunch of questions that I hadn't been able to find answers for elsewhere. I would highly recommend taking one of their courses or certifications if you are a first-time business owner or startup. 

They also helped me after completing the course to seek out grants and potential loan options which can be difficult to obtain for beginning hemp farmers. Even though hemp was federally legalized in 2018, many banks have still not updated their policies and are not willing to work with or lend to hemp-related businesses or farms. This is also true of crop insurance companies. Most will not cover small hemp farms. The USDA has some crop insurance available for hemp but you must have at least 2-3 years of experience growing and more than 1 acre in production.

Getting the fields ready was our next step so we found a local farmer from Frederic through Facebook Marketplace. He did some tractor work to help move large objects and tilled up our fields for us twice. It was more involved than we originally thought it would be because nothing had been done on the property for over 30 years and you wouldn't believe all the things buried under the surface of the fields we had to pull out and remove. One of the largest was an 8 ft semi truck bumper from the 1970s!  

The one early setback we had was that our original irrigation order became unavailable on backorder.  So in order to get our irrigation supplies as quickly as possible, we opened a small credit account with Harris Seeds to pay for our drip irrigation system. From there I drove down to Future Farm Hemp and picked up our 1500 seedlings. They came home and were planted the weekend of May 28th. Our irrigation system didn't arrive until a few weeks later, so I spent those first 3 weeks watering all the plants by hand in that immediate heat we had at the beginning of June, Once we had the irrigation system set up it went from 2-3 hours of watering a day down to 15-30 minutes twice a day. 

We learned a lot our first season but on the whole, the growing experience was truly invaluable. There are indeed some things that are only learned through hands-on experience. No matter how much you prepare and plan, there will always be things you can't anticipate. For example: learning that your mulch and your drip lines will shrink when they fill with cold water and expand when they are laying out warm in the sun. So always give yourself that extra foot of drip line even if you think you don't need it. Or learning the hard way how aggressive bindweed can be in a field where it's been established for decades. Also, unfortunately dealing with thieves stealing from your farm and harassing your family.  That last one has been the hardest one to get through but we are determined. 

What we want to see Hen & Oak Hemp become is a resource for our community to have affordable access to CBD products that can help manage anxiety, pain, inflammation, hair, and skincare. We focus on creating zero THC products that optimize health and wellness. We would also like to develop a model that allows us to offer reduced rates for veterans, people on disability or on public assistance. 

Down the road, (If things go well.) we'd like to offer some open farm events and potentially open a health and wellness center here with a spa, salt room, CBD smoothie/coffee bar, and space for local instructors to offer fitness classes as well as for local artists to come in and teach classes on painting, sewing, traditional crafts and more.

Outside of the business, our oldest is nearing graduation with an interest in coding, our middle kiddo wants to earn a degree in animation, and our youngest loves to read and write poetry.  It's hard to believe they've grown so much in the seven years since we moved here. I did find a new job working from home as a Retail Service Representative. My husband is still running ultramarathons, marathons, triathlons, and fat bike races. If you live in the area you'll probably see him out in the summer swimming around Round Lake or Camp 26. He hopes to one day get a local ultra and winter triathlon started in the Danbury area. 

Apart from science, animals, and nature hikes our family also loves writing and making art. So from time to time, you'll find some of our creations available for purchase in the Artist's Shoppe. 

I hope that gives you a little more insight into who we are and how we got started with Hen & Oak Hemp Farm. Thank you for reading and supporting our small business! ~Christina