On Caitlin's first day, this city girl from Lake in the Hills, Illinois, found herself doing a full day of fieldwork, furiously planting pumpkins during one of the early summer's brief dry spells.

"I thought Kyle was a little crazy for making a city girl plant pumpkins on her very first day, especially because the internship job description didn't say anything about farm work," she says. "But it was fun seeing and being involved in the prep work for fall season."

After that first day, Caitlin kew she would be doing pretty much anything and everything that was needed, something that this UW-Platteville business administration major adapted to very quickly and is totally okay with. She started in our internship program this summer after spending 4 ½ months studying in London and touring Europe (she visited 9 countries during her trip!), and immediately felt at home on the farm. 

"I love the people," says Caitlin, who applied to the farm because she had some really fun times here visiting during fall season with her friends. "I felt like family from the first day I came to work and that has grown every day since. Everyone is so welcoming and it's so nice to see a work community all be involved in anything that's needed to do what's best for the company."

"Everyone here pitches in and helps this business succeed," Caitlin added, stating that this is one of the most important things she's learned on the farm so far.  

In Caitlin's free time (when she has it), she helps manage the UW-Platteville soccer team (she used to play but now manages due to an injury). She also loves to cook, watch movies, and hang out with friends. And she especially loves being outside and interacting with people, which has made this internship a perfect fit for her. 

The very last thing this friendly and bubbly person wants to do in the future is sit in an office all day - which is exactly what she's NOT been doing here! So far, Caitlin has been involved in starting our ice cream business - she's been the primary person at our tastings, serving up ice cream - and has staffed our strawberry tent. She's planted pumpkins, helped with events, worked with Kyle on some social media projects and contests, and has been learning the general ropes of running a small business that has its hands in about fifteen different pots at once. She'll be sticking around throughout the summer and will help us during fall season, which she's really excited about. 

One of her favorite things has been interacting with the farm guests. "Everyone has their own unique stories about the farm and it's been so fun to hear why they enjoy the farm," she says. Your feedback and conversation with Caitlin has been a great learning experience for her - "It helps me to learn what people value in a business, which I'll take with me in my future endeavors!"

For life after college, Caitlin has big plans. Her dream job is to work in a non-profit that benefits children, but she would be happy working for a small company that makes a difference in some way within their community. At the farm, she's been learning all about being involved in a small business, gaining leadership skills and developing planning/organizational skills to work projects from their original conception to the final project. She's excited to keep learning skills and gaining experience during this internship that will help her towards her future dreams. 

Kyle may run the farm, but he is not in control. The weather is. 

"It's kind of amazing to me how many decisions I make based on what the weather is doing," he says. 

Essentially from the time that the ground thaws in the spring to when it freezes in the winter, Kyle has his eyes on the forecast. He's watching for the fieldwork, of course, but weather also influences our weddings/events, our berry season, and our fall season. What Kyle looks for varies from week-to-week but also from type of work-to-type of work!

In the springtime, Kyle is immediately looking for when the snow will melt and when the frost will come out of the ground. A lot of his work is driven by how wet the ground is. When we have springtime weddings, he looks at how wet the ground is to make sure we don't leave ruts when bringing our ceremony benches out of storage. This often means comes in very early in the morning - when the ground is still frozen - to transport the benches without tearing up the lawn. Mowing is also another farm activity that is driven by the weather - the wetness of the ground drives when and where we can mow. Sometimes Kyle or one of our staff can mow all day - other times it's just for a couple hours in the afternoon after working on other projects waiting for things to dry out.

The fieldwork, however, is the most pressing and the most weather-dependent. Strawberries are the first thing on the springtime list, and we usually plant sometime in April. Because we get small berry plants from a company in Massachusetts, Kyle pays close attention to the weekly forecast so he can get the berries shipped to him within the right window. If it's going to rain, he'll hold off on delivery for another week or so to keep the berry plants in cold storage as long as possible. 

This year, he went through a shipping issue week after week after week because of all the wet weather. There ended up being no good time to ship the berries, so they ended up in our cooler for about three weeks before we were able to get enough dry weather to get them into the ground. It wasn't the best for the berries, but the sheer determination of the rain necessitated this unique situation. Unfortunately, this was a theme for berries this year: the continual wet weather and absence of heat made it difficult for the berries to ripen evenly, and we experienced problems over and over with our berries because the weather simply didn't do what the berries needed it to do. 

In the spring, we also plant pumpkins, which are not nearly as bad because they are seeds (not small plants) and they are generally planted later in the season, in late May. This year, however, it was still delayed because of the wet weather, and we didn't get them in the ground until mid-June. In fact, our business/marketing intern spent her first day on the job planting pumpkins because it was go-time and we needed an extra hand - not something she expected when she signed up for this internship!

Speaking of farm hands, weather even influences how many people Kyle has around to help him out! Most of our employees are in school or work another full-time job, so may of them aren't able ability come in on short notice on a weekday. When it's crunch time to get berries or pumpkins in the ground, Kyle can spend a few hours on the phone trying to find a few people to fill in round-the-clock shifts to get things planted. A lot of times when planting is in full swing, both the weather and our employee's schedules can mean some really wonky days for Kyle and the gang. Early mornings to get paperwork or scheduling done; then off for a full day of fieldwork; and then at night, a few hours of working in other things, like necessary projects (we had a few very late nights during our bridal suite construction) or setting up the barn for an upcoming event.

Once we're fully into summer and berry season is over, Kyle watches the weather to ensure things are done in time for our weddings and events, but also for windows of time to get projects done around the farm. Rain can often delay work on buildings, building new activities, or setting up for outdoor events. Summer is the time that Kyle can prioritize these projects, but if the weather doesn't hold up, they can be significantly delayed or canceled. Oftentimes, it's a matter of fitting these things in around the other daily things that need to be completed...when the weather allows, which again, can mean an abrupt change in Kyle's whole plan for the day based on what the weather throws at him. 

​During our fall season, Kyle's attention to the weather drives how many supplies he orders week-to-week, how he schedules our staff to cover the shifts, and how he plans picking pumpkins from the field for our retail area. He's constantly asking questions like, "Is the weather going to be hot so I might need more water? Or cooler and nice so I need more cups for hot chocolate? Will the weather exclude many people from coming to the farm so I need a smaller staff?" Every day is a question of what the weather will do and how will it affect fall season attendance and therefore affect Kyle's daily decisions. 

Finally, when we close for fall and head into winter, Kyle scrambles to not only keep up with our private events and weddings, but also to get the fall tillage done, work on the berries, and take down and store all the things we use during fall season before winter fully hits and the ground freezes over. He needs a good few weeks of okay weather to get these things done, but last year, winter did not allow that. It froze over so quickly that some things were left out and a lot of the maintenance on the strawberries didn't get done. These things were left undone because of the weather, which can mean problems for the berries in the coming year and, of course, more work in the spring. 

From April to November, Kyle's days are fully driven by weather. It affects his fieldwork, his scheduling, his meetings with people for the business end of his farm, and how many people are able to enjoy the things our farm has to offer. Over and over, Kyle asks himself "What is the weather going to allow me to do?" The answer to that question affects not only his day, but his employees, and his guests, so the answer is important for so many reasons and therefore one of the most significant - and stressful - things he does here on the farm. ​

It felt like winter at Derri and Ryan's December reception, but it was a blast at the barn. This fun couple and their super fun family and friends kept us laughing all night. All the beautiful winter details were perfect: the greenery and the gold, and the love this couple has for each other, warmed up the barn on a chilly - but happy - winter night. 

Congratulations, Derri and Ryan!

VENDOR LOVE
Photos by Fitz Photography
​

These two had been married for fifteen years before coming to the Farm to celebrate their vow renewal, and let me tell you, they were no less in love than any newlyweds. This intimate vow renewal and reception was lovely to be a part of, and the guests made us feel as welcome as we hope we did for them -  they even included us in their photos (and let us taste the delicious cake)! 

Congratulations, Cindy and Tim! We wish you and your beautiful little family many more years of happiness!

VENDOR LOVE
​Photos by Sunrise Photography
Cake by Steph Halverson

This gorgeous couple got married on a crisp November day in 2018. They had the craziest wedding party and the funnest guests and all the details made us drool. We loved seeing these two start their forever.

​Congratulations, Hunter and Keely! 

VENDOR LOVE
Photo by Copper Antler Photography.
Cake by Tina Cakes.

This year we hired on a new person, and her name is McKenna. She's from Fennimore and is super awesome at graphics and things, but the most important thing is that she's a redhead, which means we're best friends on principle. 

​McKenna is from the farm so she likes farm stuff, but this type of farm is a whole new ball of wax for her. 

"I used to come during fall season when I was younger and have some really good memories of going through the corn maze with friends and spending time with my now-husband," says McKenna. But working here isn't anything like she expected! 

Her first reaction when she came to interview for the job was that she was waaay overdressed. She was in formal interview attire while Kyle was in his ripped yellow t-shirt and farm jeans. Even though she felt uncomfortable in her heels, McKenna felt like part of the crew right away. And now that she's been here a few months, she's grown accustomed to the relaxed farm dress code. And she's learned and figured out all the weirdness of the farm: the strange hours, the weird projects, and all the bizarre things we get involved in. Plus, she's put in quite a bid to have Bruce teach her to run the catapult!

McKenna has made a lot of the graphics and videos and fun marketing things that you might have seen on the Facebook page lately, and she's been working really hard with Kyle to get our new ice cream business off the ground. She even spent an entire day with my (very grumpy) child taking photographs and arranging sets so we could get some fun pictures of our ice cream! She's really been enjoying bringing the farm into more visibility and testing out her creative chops.

In her free time, McKenna enjoys crafting; hunting in the fall; fishing on the boat in the summer; and dirt biking and four-wheeling. But in the last few months, she's been super preoccupied with wedding planning and traveling! She didn't get married on the farm (we're not holding that against her), but her wedding was Saturday, June 29th and she just got back from her honeymoon in Punta Cana. She's super excited to not only be married, but buy a house, and settle down in the area with her new husband, Kyle (not our Kyle; diesel mechanic Kyle Richard whom she's been dating for the past few years). 

We're super happy for her and wish her the best! And we are excited for her return to the farm to hang out with us!

Eric is another "jack of all trades, master of none" (his words, not ours!) employee at the farm. He started as a tractor driver in the fall of 2015 (the first year we opened in the new barn) driving the kiddie wagon and out to the pumpkin patch.

Since then, he's used his jack of all trades status to help with a variety of projects and jobs on the farm, like helping transform the old garage Kyle bought at auction into our bridal suite; cleaning and setting up for events; bartending during weddings; the person behind our (shhhhhhh...) Easter Bunny and Santa Claus; and even shooting off a few pumpkins during fall season every now and then! With the exception of helping in the kitchen, he's pretty much done it all. Even though his job description doesn't always match what he really ends up doing on his shift, Eric rolls with the punches and enjoys his time out at the farm. "Maybe that's the secret of Vesperman Farms," he laughs, "Everyone is willing to do anything we can to help make our customer experience a good one." 

In his non-farm life, this employee is a homebody and a town loyal. He grew up in Lancaster and currently teaches tech ed at the high school, a position he's dreamt about since he was in college at UW-Platteville. He's happy in this town, loves teaching at his old high school, and spends a lot of time with his family, wife and kid (the "kid" part is soon to be plural, with his second on the way this July!), and dogs. You may recognize the brown dog - Maret makes frequent appearances on our Facebook page and Eric is often responsible for persuading her to pose for our never-ending photos. 

Elly is the type of employee that this farm dreams of. She does it all: she can bartend, she does dishes, she washes pumpkins and plants strawberries, she can cook up pancakes like a dream, and she sets up the whole barn for fall season (and takes it all down when the fall fun is over), and she'll do it all with a smile on her face and a hilarious comment or story to boot. 

And the best part about all this? She wasn't even looking for a job when she walked into the barn 4 years ago. But Kyle made sure she left with one.

During that fall season, Elly popped in for donuts and noticed that we were a little busy. Elly (being Elly) asked if Kyle needed any help. "And Kyle said, 'Come back tomorrow,'" Elly laughed. So she did and since then she's just done basically every job here at the farm. Elly loves to help and loves to give great customer service, enjoys being around people celebrating big and small milestones in their lives, and loves interacting with the families that spend their time out on the farm. 

"The kids are the best part of working here - seeing their faces and hearing them talk about their experiences on the farm," says Elly, who a lot of people call the best checkout lady ever. "I love having the kids guess the weight of their own pumpkins and asking them how their day was." And Elly never passes up an opportunity to monitor the zip line, because she says "the adults are the best part."

"People warm my heart," Elly says, and she means it. She is nothing but genuine love and humor, and we always love when she's behind the bar, at the counter, or in the pumpkin patch. ​

We had such a good time tasting the flavors, but we can't keep them all to ourselves. We're even more excited to make them available to you! All through the month of June, we'll be at a variety of places where you can visit to taste our ice cream, culminating in a super fun event on the farm! For a list of tasting events, visit our website. More on our ice cream event on the farm below!

At the end of this month, we'll be hosting our first ever Sundaes on the Farm. Drop in Sunday, June 30 from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. and enjoy the farm activities, but - most importantly - try our ice cream! All our flavors will be available for tasting and we'll have pints for purchase. Visit our website or check us out on Facebook for the full event details! 

After attending ice cream school, Kyle had a pretty clear idea of what he wanted to do. 

The first thing on the agenda was order the ice cream machine. At school, he got to experiment with a few different kinds of ice cream machines, and the one he liked best was an Emery Thompson, which is made by one of the oldest ice cream machine manufacturers in the country. A lot of recognizable names in the ice cream industry started out on this type of machine, including Ben & Jerry's and Haagen-Daaz. (Maybe one day we'll be on their website!)

​The ice cream machine is small-ish, but it can produce about 7 gallons of ice cream in about 10 minutes, so it's a pretty powerful ice-cream-makin' machine. 

Once Kyle got the machine, he got right down to business making ice cream, which was (I'm not gonna lie), pretty awesome for our staff. Below are some pictures of us making our delicious strawberry and mint cookie ice cream!