What's Happening at Dancing Bears in 2008

Jim is transitioning to full time farming in 2008, and we are both very happy about that. Our latest favorite authors are Wendell Berry and Michael Pollan. We also just watched “The Real Dirt on Farmer John” and thought it was interesting enough to request permission to show it outdoors on our white garage door some warm evening when we can round up some neighbors and nearby college students who might enjoy it. We still keep about 20 laying hens year round, and raise 200 to 300 broilers annually. We may try to increase that this summer using Joel Salatin's pastured poultry method. We added a few sheep in 2006 and have loved that whole process – spring lambing time just reminds us why everyone should get to be connected to a farm somehow. We are now up to 10 sheep and are learning about the meat and wool benefits, but haven't tried our long term goal of making sheep cheeses. We had part of the farm certified organic in 2007 and hope to have the entire farm certified by 2009. We understand the objections to the whole corporate organic certification world, but we still believe the heart of the organics rules are sound. It's about more than just NOT applying herbicides or pesticides. By adding our small amount of livestock and rotating crops and pastures, we improve our land and our lives, and we wouldn't have realized it without following organic principles.

HOW DANCING BEARS COMPANY CAME TO BE

The small farm we named Dancing Bears really began as a bunch of wild ideas we had talked about over the years. Jim and I both liked to cook, and each new baking magazine we read or cooking show we watched led us to some new dream for quitting our "real jobs" and making a living with our own two hands. We sat in the backyard of our small city lot and decided we could make gourmet cheese from our own herd even though we hadn't milked a cow, much less owned a herd. And in our spare time we figured we would bake bread - loaves and loaves of beautiful whole grain bread. So in 2002 we bought our dream 40 acres, named it after a canoe paddle one of the kids had painted with two adorable dancing bears, and held on to our day jobs (thank goodness!).

We started reading lots of homesteading and natural farming books. Favorites included Helen & Scott Nearing's writings, and One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka. We signed up for a beekeeping course at the U of M and learned about building with stone and constructing our own wood fired oven at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais. We never really talked much about running a Bed and Breakfast, but starting our own just seemed to fit perfectly with our location. So we opened the B&B shortly after our log home was completed. We planted our first gardens in 2003 and a neighbor gave us three chickens to make us true "farmers" that same year. We raised our first batch of 100 broiler chickens in 2004, and we started raising some beautiful layers for fresh free range eggs year round. In 2005, we finally built that outdoor wood fired oven, baked our first 10 loaf bread batches and spent the summer selling fresh produce and baked goods at the St. Joseph Farmer's Market.

The work is a little more demanding than we dreamed about, but we enjoy almost every minute of it. In early Spring we tap maple trees and boil down sap to a sweet, golden syrup. Summer's work really starts with seeds planted indoors before the snow melt and continues until after frost sweetens the brussel sprouts. We cross our fingers for a honey harvest in August and worm free apples in September and October. November and December let us spend a little more time relaxing with family over the holidays. But by January the seed catalogs are pouring in and we start the whole cycle again.

We hope that you get to enjoy the fruits of our farm, and that you think about planting some seeds of your own. We keep learning and trying new ideas: more flowers, a different breed of free range chickens, another 10 heirloom vegetable varieties. We are working on getting our farm certified organic and hope to have that done soon. We'll be learning cheesemaking in Wisconsin and soap making in Grand Marais, and maybe adding that cow this year. We've got the year's first batch of 100 cornish cross chickens getting bigger by the day, and we can hardly wait to taste this year's first strawberries. We love this 40 acres, but to tell the truth we always thought the herb gardens on our 50 foot city lot were pretty special too. So no matter where you live, bake some bread, plant some herbs, and enjoy some slow food.