This is Our Story. We are parents, partners, friends, and Jesus followers. We are passionate about the subject of food; more specifically the issue of hunger in our own community. We are your farmers...and we know that fresh, locally grown produce is important to you. It is to us too. And we take great pride in growing delicious, nutritious vegetables and melons, flowers, pumpkins, and popcorn on our small farm here in southern Wisconsin. We are the Narayanan Family: Vijay, Beth, and our three "farm girls".
We have been farmers since 2010. For five years, we were part of a small family farm growing flowers, produce (mostly vegetables), and popcorn on their eleven acres in northern Illinois. We sold our goods at farmers' markets, to local restaurants and nursing homes, and directly from the farm in our on-site store and through our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. We spent this time learning to plant, grow, harvest, and sell a wide variety of fresh produce as well as to manage the daily duties of a small farm.
Before we were farmers, we had very different careers. Farmer Vijay (who likes to go by the nickname Farmer Brown since he has an immense love of dirt) graduated with a degree in Construction Engineering from Iowa State University in 1999. He was a project manager for 8 years at a commercial construction company in Indianapolis, Indiana and then also for just over a year in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Farmer Beth graduated from Iowa State with her degree in Fine Arts and went on to receive her Masters in Historic Preservation from Ball State University (writing her thesis on barns) graduating in 2001. She worked for the state of Indiana in the Department of Historic Preservation and Archaeology for a year and then became a stay-at-home mom to the girls.
At the end of 2008, Vijay left the corporate world to follow the plans God laid upon his heart and we launched a small construction company with the focus on building affordable housing in Walworth County, Built on Faith Construction Services. The timing of the housing market collapse did not allow for the mission of this business to be fully realized. However, we have been able to use Built on Faith in the years since to provide a variety of home repair and improvement projects to the people in our community at an affordable rate. This was a leap of faith that God had us take off the cliff of corporate job security and into the unknown of mission-minded self employment. Our reduction in income resulted in a foreclosure on our home and the need for us to rely on state funded programs for our health care and food. We have experienced firsthand the burden of hunger.
In 2010, the opportunity to farm came our way. We joined in the produce growing operation of family friends on their small farm nearby. We had no previous farming experience and neither one of us had grown up on a farm (although Beth had worked for this family selling their produce while she was in high school). The learning curve was a steep one but they patiently taught us about their farming operation and welcomed us into a partnership. And we found that God was calling us to farm. It was such a fulfilling task to take a plant all the way from being a tiny seed to producing nutritious fruit to becoming a delicious creation on the dinner table. We developed meaningful, important relationships with the local restaurants and nursing homes that we wholesaled to, the long-time customers at the farmers' markets we attended, and the new lovers of produce that came out to our farm store and joined our CSA. We were also able to donate any produce that was extra (didn't sell at market or just produced too much on the farm) to the local food pantries. To make ends meet ourselves and enjoy the deliciousness of farm fresh, homegrown produce even in the off-season, we learned to preserve food: canning, freezing, and dehydrating. God qualified us to physically grow vegetables and become aware of the need for farm fresh produce by all of the people in our community...particularly those that use our local food pantries (and the limitations of the food pantries in our smaller communities to be able to utilize donations of fresh produce).
The end of the growing season of 2014 brought about the retirement of our friends from farming and another opportunity for us to step out in faith to what God is calling us to do.
We landed here at the Farmstead for our first season farming on our own in 2018. It was a difficult journey to get here. One made exponentially more challenging by our financial situation (or lack thereof...). We had no money to buy any equipment and didn't own anything that could be collateralized for a loan. We didn't live on any farmable property and we don't have any family in farming to borrow from. Fortunately we landed on a good piece of property and have a long term lease.
We also had the steep learning curve of farming on an unknown piece of property - are there any low spots that flood? how are we going to get water to the dry spots? will anything even grow out here?! And all of the other curveballs that come at any new business.
We have not only survived these struggles but continue to be made stronger through them. We are being refined - our purpose becoming ever clearer as we continue on this farming journey. And we are just hitting our stride.
We have heard His voice continue to call us to be farmers, but with a much more specific purpose. We have seen His vision of a farm in full production, farmed for the community by the community. We have faithfully followed His lead and are running full speed towards the mission of feeding His people here on the Farmstead.
We have been farmers since 2010. For five years, we were part of a small family farm growing flowers, produce (mostly vegetables), and popcorn on their eleven acres in northern Illinois. We sold our goods at farmers' markets, to local restaurants and nursing homes, and directly from the farm in our on-site store and through our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. We spent this time learning to plant, grow, harvest, and sell a wide variety of fresh produce as well as to manage the daily duties of a small farm.
Before we were farmers, we had very different careers. Farmer Vijay (who likes to go by the nickname Farmer Brown since he has an immense love of dirt) graduated with a degree in Construction Engineering from Iowa State University in 1999. He was a project manager for 8 years at a commercial construction company in Indianapolis, Indiana and then also for just over a year in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Farmer Beth graduated from Iowa State with her degree in Fine Arts and went on to receive her Masters in Historic Preservation from Ball State University (writing her thesis on barns) graduating in 2001. She worked for the state of Indiana in the Department of Historic Preservation and Archaeology for a year and then became a stay-at-home mom to the girls.
At the end of 2008, Vijay left the corporate world to follow the plans God laid upon his heart and we launched a small construction company with the focus on building affordable housing in Walworth County, Built on Faith Construction Services. The timing of the housing market collapse did not allow for the mission of this business to be fully realized. However, we have been able to use Built on Faith in the years since to provide a variety of home repair and improvement projects to the people in our community at an affordable rate. This was a leap of faith that God had us take off the cliff of corporate job security and into the unknown of mission-minded self employment. Our reduction in income resulted in a foreclosure on our home and the need for us to rely on state funded programs for our health care and food. We have experienced firsthand the burden of hunger.
In 2010, the opportunity to farm came our way. We joined in the produce growing operation of family friends on their small farm nearby. We had no previous farming experience and neither one of us had grown up on a farm (although Beth had worked for this family selling their produce while she was in high school). The learning curve was a steep one but they patiently taught us about their farming operation and welcomed us into a partnership. And we found that God was calling us to farm. It was such a fulfilling task to take a plant all the way from being a tiny seed to producing nutritious fruit to becoming a delicious creation on the dinner table. We developed meaningful, important relationships with the local restaurants and nursing homes that we wholesaled to, the long-time customers at the farmers' markets we attended, and the new lovers of produce that came out to our farm store and joined our CSA. We were also able to donate any produce that was extra (didn't sell at market or just produced too much on the farm) to the local food pantries. To make ends meet ourselves and enjoy the deliciousness of farm fresh, homegrown produce even in the off-season, we learned to preserve food: canning, freezing, and dehydrating. God qualified us to physically grow vegetables and become aware of the need for farm fresh produce by all of the people in our community...particularly those that use our local food pantries (and the limitations of the food pantries in our smaller communities to be able to utilize donations of fresh produce).
The end of the growing season of 2014 brought about the retirement of our friends from farming and another opportunity for us to step out in faith to what God is calling us to do.
We landed here at the Farmstead for our first season farming on our own in 2018. It was a difficult journey to get here. One made exponentially more challenging by our financial situation (or lack thereof...). We had no money to buy any equipment and didn't own anything that could be collateralized for a loan. We didn't live on any farmable property and we don't have any family in farming to borrow from. Fortunately we landed on a good piece of property and have a long term lease.
We also had the steep learning curve of farming on an unknown piece of property - are there any low spots that flood? how are we going to get water to the dry spots? will anything even grow out here?! And all of the other curveballs that come at any new business.
We have not only survived these struggles but continue to be made stronger through them. We are being refined - our purpose becoming ever clearer as we continue on this farming journey. And we are just hitting our stride.
We have heard His voice continue to call us to be farmers, but with a much more specific purpose. We have seen His vision of a farm in full production, farmed for the community by the community. We have faithfully followed His lead and are running full speed towards the mission of feeding His people here on the Farmstead.
