THE FARM WE CALL HOME
In the spring of 2017 we had just returned from our honeymoon where we fell in love with the 4 day farm and vineyard stay. Where you could walk out the back patio and pull fresh limes off the tree and wander the labyrinth of farm plots and nibble your way through the gardens. By the time we ended up at the Greenhouse for lunch, we had already had our first course! Supper was freshly picked that day and artfully designed.
This vision stayed with us and we daydreamed together about a future property where we could bring a fraction of our honeymoon home to Wisconsin and share with our family, friends and neighbors!
SO… THE SEARCH BEGAN
There were many properties we drove by on Sunday afternoons. Sometimes we drove those winding country roads to calm our newborn and help her sleep. Many of these spaces didn’t speak to us and so we kept looking. Some had beautiful old barns, but most had structures that a sneeze could topple and time for restorations that we didn’t have.
We were on a two year search and starting to feel hopeless when a property we kind of liked didn’t work out. We knew that was not meant to be, because 2 days later where we now call home came on the market.
we moved in the summer of 2019 and running hills farm was born!
The full 55 acre property came with an established half acre vineyard of cold hardy grapes and about 25 acres of tillable land to transform into our dream. The remainder is wooded with some hiking trails and home to lots of wildlife. Some nights we listen to the coyotes calling and wake up to deer meandering through the front yard.
What happens next is the story we are writing together with family, friends and community!
SO HOW DID WE COME UP WITH OUR NAME?
Why, that is how we met! Running on hills! Madison is deceptively hilly and everyone’s favorite hill to groan at is Bascom Hill, in the heart of the UW-Madison campus. So what better way to move your body then to gather a group of strangers that quickly became friends and close family and run it every Wednesday morning. Tim and I met on that hill and challenged ourselves on that hill. We knew that hill brought out the best in us and pulled on strengths deep down that we didn’t think were possible.
The farm name came easily, but finding the equally hilly property was the challenge. So off to the Driftless Region we searched!