Giving Meetings a Farm-Fresh Perspective

By Kristine Hansen | Photography by ©Four Winds Farm

With a growing agritourism economy, Wisconsin offers open-air meeting venues at farms – both event spaces and life-on- the-farm workshops. These can function as team-building opportunities or simply an excuse to slow down and get some fresh air.

“Wisconsin is becoming America’s agricultural-tourism destination,” says Sheila Everhart, director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association, which recently celebrated 30 years. “There’s been changes in the workforce. Young professionals are working remotely. Agricultural communities are getting broadband. People are choosing to relocate to more rural areas. Also, they want adventures and experiences.”

Bringing people onto a farm promotes appreciation for the rural lifestyle. “Most people are five generations removed from [life on] a family farm,” says Everhart, and yet, “one third of all Americans are living within a 500-mile radius of our state’s borders.”

Nationally, the agricultural-tourism market projects to reach $62.98 billion by 2027, according to Allied Market Research. For the second year in a row, Gov. Tony Evers dedicated Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Week (Sept. 22-Oct. 2) to supporting, promoting and marketing Wisconsin agritourism. Home to 65,000 farms on 14.3 million acres, with the average farm size of 221 acres, in 2021 the economic impact of Wisconsin’s agritourism was $20.9 billion, says Everhart.

Check out just a few of the great options around the state that can offer optimal outdoor experiences for your next meeting.

Farm to Plate-Inspired Workshops

Plenty of area farms offer workshops in a craft or hobby, such as bee-keeping, outdoor yoga or pizza-making at Dancing Yarrow in Mondovi by owners Maria Bamonti and Tommy Folden. The venue offers overnight lodging options as either rustic camping, or a modernized lodge or cabin (up to seven bedrooms and two baths). A renovated horse barn serves as a meeting site or social space. “People usually come with an idea. It’s an open space and the possibilities are endless,” says Bamonti.

Pizza farms, like what Dancing Yarrow hosts, are a phenomenon unique to Wisconsin. It’s when nearly all a pizza’s ingredients — including mozzarella cheese, and vegetable and meat toppings — are grown on the farm or nearby. Sprouting Acres in Cambridge hosts pizza nights (for the public on the first and third Sundays), but also caters to groups with its Blue Barn. With an open floor plan, commercial kitchen, and outdoor patio, it’s perfect for an intimate group.

Relocate & Retreat

Another option, in lieu of getting one’s hands dirty in a workshop, is to simply relocate a meeting or dinner from indoors to the farm. Lake Orchard Farm Retreat’s renovated Sheboygan barn seats up to 175 for dinner, or hosts up to 200 for a conference or meeting. Meeting goals still get accomplished, just in a different setting — without the hassle of flights and days away from the office. Agricultural groups such as the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin have hosted meetings here, says hospitality manager and sixth-generation owner Nate Calkins, as well as financial firms with farmer clients looking to better understand operations.

Calkins leads groups of up to 15 on a tour of the aquaponic operation. “I’ve had a lot of groups walk through with a brandy Old Fashioned,” he says. Other activities could be a class in painting, mindfulness or yoga. Overnight accommodations are at a four-room bed and breakfast or in a four- bedroom, three-bath cottage, both in the family for decades.

Barnyard Backdrop

Similarly, Four Winds Farm — a working farm in Fitchburg, near Madison — hosts small and large groups in its newly renovated 8,900-square-foot barn. There are four spaces within the barn, from the cozy first-floor Library to the entire second floor, referred to as “The Loft.” Audio visual hook-ups are a breeze in The Loft, while The Nook’s huge island and open-concept kitchen is ideal for a food-related event or even cocktail hour.

Farm Life Exhibits

Farm Wisconsin Discovery Center in Manitowoc, which opened in 2018, hosts private and corporate events. Two conference rooms hold between 100 and 200 people each, as well as a conference center for up to 350 people. In the Land O’Lakes Birthing Farm, expectant female cows deliver calves in full view of visitors thanks to a wall of windows. Exhibits further educate about farm life and farm- to-fork breakfast and lunch fare is served in The Wisconsin Café, which also caters to groups.

Fruitful Tours

Wisconsin is the country’s top cranberry-growing state. Tours of a cranberry marsh and vineyard are at Lake Nokomis Cranberries in Eagle River. The farm also rents out a three-bedroom, 1.5 home. Another celebrated crop in Wisconsin is apples. At the 78-acre Apple Holler in Racine County, groups can book private tours, including the Apple Blossom Tour in May (minimum 30 people and includes lunch) and a narrated horse-drawn wagon ride ending with campfire s’mores (four per wagon).

First Farmers’ Immersive Experiences

Everhart’s organization works closely with the Native American Tourism Association of Wisconsin (NATW) to assist the state’s 11 tribes in creating immersion experiences on their land. “If you want to talk about our first farmers, it was our Native American farmers,” she says.

One such example is the 35-acre Mino Bimaadiziiwin Farm in Red Cliff, owned by the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Animal husbandry, apple orchards, gardens, chicken coops, medicine beds for growing herbs, a hoop house, a greenhouse and a community-supported agriculture program are among the attractions on site. Red Cliff Fish Company, which debuted in 2020, is tribally owned and sells locally caught fresh whitefish, walleye, lake herring and lake trout at its shop.

“In the last 20 years, they’ve revitalized the farm,” says Demetri Morris, an NATW board member and marketing manager at Legendary Waters Resort & Casino, with event space and lodging for groups, plus guided kayaking tours in Lake Superior. Pairing a visit with Red Cliff’s Annual Pow- Wow in July or Red Cliff Cultural Days in September deepens the immersion. Groups can also hike at Frog Bay Tribal National Park, the nation’s first tribal-owned national park. A new cultural center is being built, too.

Another Native American-o wned farm — the 160-acre Bodwéwadmi Ktëgan (Potawatomi Farm), open since 2017 in Blackwell — hosts classes in gardening, cooking, aquaponics and harvesting honey. NATW executive director Suzette Brewer recently attended a conference at the Potawatomi-owned farm. “They are the leaders of the food-sovereignty movement in Wisconsin,” she says. “Wisconsin has a treasure trove of tribal interests in terms of outdoor event spaces and outdoor activities to visit.”

Farm Table Foundation has been a major force in education about farm life — including what’s grown in Wisconsin. An art gallery, focused on exhibits about farming, and restaurant with large outdoor patio in downtown Amery can be rented to groups for a private event. Up to 60 can be seated for dinner surrounded by an herb garden and up to 40 in the art gallery, which can also accommodate 50 people for a meeting.

“They’re not only eating delicious food, they’re eating food that comes from within 50 miles,” says interim executive director Sylvia Burgos Toftness, also the co-owner of Bull Brook Keep, a grass-fed beef farm, about the menu that changes weekly based on what’s fresh and in season. “In the summer season, close to 90% [of the menu] comes from within 50 miles. These are long-standing relationships with the farmers, many of whom eat here.” Tapping into a network of instructors, the foundation also arranges classes for groups in baking, cooking or soap-making.