There is a farming alliance in southwest Wisconsin that brings out the best in each other. Through companionship, networking and continual brainstorming, Soil Sisters is more than just a social or business organization. It is a sisterhood.
The group brings dozens upon dozens of women farmers together regardless of age or experience level. Someone is always available to bounce an idea off of, help guide business decisions, or even being there as a shoulder to cry on. In fact, one of the mottos the group displays on their website, soilsisterhub.org, is the phrase, “It’s a powerful force to know you’re not alone and someone — a fellow Soil Sister — has your back.”
“As the saying goes: It takes a village, or a sisterhood to succeed. Helping each other lifts us all up for success,” said Karen Mayhew of Oak Springs Farm, located between Argyle and Blanchardville in Lafayette County.
Mayhew and her husband started their sheep operation seven years ago on 25 acres of land near Argyle. She grew up on a 1,000-acre poultry and market vegetable farm in Maryland. She said starting from scratch was daunting, but Kriss Marion of Circle M Farm introduced Mayhew to Bird Cupps at a Soil Sisters event.
Cupps, she said, is an experienced shepherd and was willing to mentor her, and has continued to support her over the years — everything from stuck lambs to artificial insemination of her rare breed sheep.
“Thanks to Bird’s mentoring, I’m now a great sheep midwife and often get calls from other local shepherds to help out in emergency lambing situations,” Mayhew said. “I absolutely couldn’t have gotten through the first couple of years without her teaching and I’m grateful that she has become a dear friend as well.”
Another Soil Sister, April Prusia, offered Mayhew tips on starting up their farm stay through AirBnB.
“We Soil Sisters with Blanchardville farm AirBnBs often refer guests to each other’s guest rentals when we don’t have availability at our own place,” Mayhew said.
How it began
It all started in more than 15 years ago when a dozen women farmers in Green County got together for a potluck at Lisa Kivirist’s home, hoping to connect and share their experiences as women farmers.
“I am one of the few Soil Sisters who was at that first potluck at Lisa’s house in November 2008. I think there were 10 or so gathered that evening. We are all still friends,” said Della Ends, who along with her husband, Tony, has operated Scotch Hill Farm near Brodhead for over 30 years. “We had absolutely no idea that first potluck would evolve into all it has. At that time we really felt rural isolation. We weren’t digitally connected the way we are now. The potlucks were a safe place to talk about whatever women had on their mind, to share resources, to connect and have fun.”
From there, it got a name and continued to grow.
“Some of us started South Central WI Farmers Union chapter. Soil Sisters and SCWFU supported and bolstered each other,” Ends said. “Farm tours started around 2013. This began to bring some outside attention to our group. That eventually evolved into our weekend educational event which was so much fun. We got some pretty impressive press in print and on TV.”
A project of Renewing the Countryside, Soil Sisters began in earnest in Green County in 2008. The organization aims to bring together rural women to share knowledge, resources and expertise to collaboratively advocate for conservation, sustainability, local food and networking. Today there are over 225 women connected via the Green County area group.
A longtime partnership with the Wisconsin Farmers Union helped with on-farm workshops, culinary events and farm tours, which have grown into regular educational events open to the public throughout the summer in Green County and area farms in south central Wisconsin.
Dixie Stechschulte, Sue Nelson and Ellen Petrick are also serving as Stewardship Ambassadors via a sister program at Renewing the Countryside in partnership with the Women, Food & Agriculture Network, “Stewardship Ambassadors,” speaking at various events and sharing their inspiring conservation story. The three also have developed conservation land plans for their properties in partnership with another, separate RTC program, Wisconsin Women in Conservation/WiWiC, working with Tonya Gratz at Green County Land & Water Conservation.
Collaborating on new business ventures
Not only did small farm startups gain some help navigating their early days, various businesses were successfully launched, which has only continued to grow the network. Because of this Soil Sisters has been recognized by various organizations and has found a home as a project of the non-profit, Renewing the Countryside.
Edible Madison gave the group its “Local Hero Award” and Soil Sisters was named Wisconsin’s Top Rural Development Initiative by Wisconsin Rural Partners.
Among the startups is Mayhew’s new business venture she started with another local friend: Making Woollets, or wool pellets, which are used for gardens.
“Wool is the latest innovation in sustainable horticulture, capable of replacing peat moss and combating climate change,” Mayhew said. “The Soil Sisters at Driftless Tannery helped us with a starting location for the first few months, and several other Soil Sisters have been helping us with marketing, picking up wool loads, moving us into our new permanent location.”
The Driftless Tannery in Argyle is run by Bethany Storm and Danielle Dockery. Both are long-time Soil Sisters that have been deeply involved in the organization.
“My story started in 2013 when I was still living in the Chicago suburbs. I connected with Lisa Kivirist and Kriss Marion through email and Lisa got me set up on the listserve right away,” said Storm, who also owns Little Red Homestead near Blanchardville. “That listserve came in very handy when I was trying to find contractors while getting our homestead built.”
Dockery was also from the Chicago suburbs. A month after she and her husband moved to New Glarus in 2016, she told him she was “going to find my people.”
“I went to the small farmers market in town and met Betty Anderson from Brodhead. She quickly welcomed me into the Soil Sisters network where I then started attending potlucks and taking women up on their offers to come see their farms, meet ups for lunches and all kinds of helpful conversations,” Dockery said.
Storm began attending potlucks in 2014, Dockery in 2016.
“I met Bethany at one of the early potlucks where I felt an immediate connection to her, never suspecting that we would open a business together that would explode,” Dockery said. “Besides providing the entire country a much-needed service, I am also very proud of our ability to provide local jobs to our small community in Argyle.”
Storm said she had a built-in support group and was well on her way to making lifelong friends before she even had her house built. The first animals at her farm came from fellow Soil Sisters.
“LindaDee Derrickson and LeAnn Powers helped teach me how to milk my goats and gave me recipes on how to make delicious cheese,” Storm said.
Soil Sister Brandi Bonde helped Storm get through her first butcher date, and after a while, Storm started getting the hang of tanning and preserving hides.
“It was LindaDee that sparked my interest in a cleaner way of preserving hides,” Storm said.
After paneling some of her Soil Sisters and others with Wisconsin Farmers Union members, Storm realized she wasn’t the only one that wanted a “more natural option.”
“The feedback we received gave us the confidence to start our tannery,” Storm said. “We started in Brandi’s barn but quickly outgrew that space.”
Last year they tanned 1,700 hides for farmers from across the country, and they expect to do even more this year.
While Bonde moved on from the operation, other Soil Sisters continue to collaborate with the tannery. Anna Landmark and Anna Thomas Bates, owners of Landmark Creamery in Paoli not only at one point leased a space for the tannery, but were their first clients. Roberta Barham has taken sheepskin scraps and created woven rugs which are sold on the tannery’s website, and Heidi Carvin makes mittens with shearling sheepskin.
“The group has been our biggest cheerleaders. They share our story. They use our services. They buy our products,” Storm said. “With a group like the Soil Sisters, it feels like the possibilities for collaboration are endless.”
New to ag, but with strong sisterhood support
While among the Stewardship Ambassadors, Petrick is new to the group and the area. She moved to the Argyle area in April 2023 from Chicago “with absolutely zero farming background,” though she did begin thinking about moving to a farm some 15 years prior.
“It fit with our developing philosophy on health — of the environment and the people in it,” Petrick said. “We wanted to have a more natural space, to be able to raise more of our own food in a sustainable way, to keep livestock and cheese.”
She wanted to raise dairy goats to make cheese for herself. She said the determining factor to move to the area was simply the Soil Sisters.
“We looked at other locations — southern Illinois for instance, Michigan, Indiana — but I ended up on the Soil Sisters listserve and I wanted to be a part of this community,” Petrick said.
This is her first winter not only on the farm, but with raising livestock. With the recent winter storms and polar cold spell, it made things challenging.
“It was definitely a learning curve. As you might imagine, making a move from an urban existence to a rural one with literally no hands-on experience is a bit scary, but knowing these women absolutely have my back is what gave me the confidence to take the plunge. I have had numerous fiascos since our arrival and I have been able to reach out and get help, advice, and emotional support every time,” Petrick said.
Dockery said that since she joined in 2016, the Soil Sisters community has continued to be influential in her life.
“Since making these friends and connections, we learned how to raise and harvest sheep, turkeys and broilers on our own. Weve planted a fruit tree orchard, learned how to raise bees and harvest honey. The list goes on and on,” Dockery said. “This has been life changing raising our own food from start to finish, none of which would have been possible had I not met the Soil Sisters.”
Getting involved in the community
A Certified Exercise Physiologist by trade, Petrick specialized in working with people with chronic disease, joint pain and orthopedic injuries. Her background has helped her give back to the Soil Sisters in other ways than just agricultural advice.
“When various soil sisters mentioned issues they were having — wrist and hand problems at the computer, back pain, etc. — I started offering advice where appropriate,” Petrick said.
At a Soil Sisters event last summer, Kivirist asked if Petrick would be interested in a project funded by a USDA grant through the Farm Labor Dashboard on proper biomechanics for female farmers. That has led to a series of workshops that Petrick co-developed with another female farmer and was attended by people from all over the country, from Alaska to the Virgin Islands. It was so popular that they are already applying for more funding to continue these workshops for another two years.
She is holding her first talk at the Argyle Public Library on Feb. 12, and then has another talk set up to be held April 20 in Monroe.
“People from all over the country have come to our summer workshops. Over the years that resulted in families moving to the area because they were so impressed and excited by what we were doing on our farms,” Ends said. “Personally, the group has given me some really close friendships. Support comes helping each other through illnesses, injuries, aging parents, death, so many life circumstances. We try to support each other’s businesses. Many have started over the years. We encourage each other to become more involved in our local governments.”
Ends is in her third term as her local town clerk, and got involved thanks to the encouragement and support of her Soil Sisters.
“There are big issues too like fighting CAFO’s and seeking justice for rural entrepreneurs through changing cottage food laws. Lisa, Kriss and I, founding Soil Sisters, have worked for Cottage Food justice for a long time,” Ends said. “Having challenging causes to face with a solid group behind you is empowering. Things do change. Together we do make a difference.
Ends said that while Soil Sisters has never had a formal structure and the group ebbs and flows, they have never lost sight of the importance of gathering, sharing a meal and a glass of wine.
“Diversity of talents, experiences and personalities keeps the Soil Sisters moving forward. One of the beautiful aspects of Soil Sisters is we are supportive not competitive. We welcome new women into our tribe and continue to form new friendships,” Ends said. “I feel very fortunate to have been a part of this amazing group of women all these years. I’m grateful for the enthusiasm to continue.”
Storm agreed, saying that in all her 47 years of life, she has never experienced the level of collaboration and friendship at such a large scale.
“The Soil Sisters are an amazing group of women because of the work we all put in to make it so. We don’t hesitate when help is needed. We all give our time and talents freely to the group because we know that when we are in need, a Soil Sister will be there,” Storm said. “I’m honored to be a part of it.”
