A farmer put in hundreds of plants and most died. But his natural farm is taking root
Mike Trinklein has planted hundreds of trees and plants, only to watch them fail. It’s all in pursuit of permaculture and perennials.
Stonecroft Farms, Grafton, isn’t your typical fruit and vegetable farm. He grows aronia, peaches, pears, honey berries, quince, saskatoon, walnuts, lavender and more.
Every year and every crop is a lesson learned, all chronicled on his website. America’s Test Kitchen recently featured his local food quest on its podcast “Proof.”
His first failure was 100 chestnut trees, almost all destined to be dinner for hungry deer. It was a lesson learned. His apple trees didn’t take. He’s patiently awaiting fruits from plum, peach and pear trees. He’s harvested exactly one nectarine.
So when his lavender took off and produced heartily last summer, he was more than a little excited. Trinklein’s approach is patience and perseverance to build permaculture. Of course, success is seasonal when it comes to farming, and he couldn’t do this if he didn’t have another job to support himself.
Trinklein works as a filmmaker in addition to his experimental farm in Grafton, where he lives with his wife, Lynne.
Last year, he sold his fresh lavender by the roadside and expects to do so again this summer. Additionally products from Stonecroft Farms will be available at the new DreamPort Harvest Market, 223 N. Franklin Ave., in Port Washington. A venture from Dream Apple Farm's Peggy and Ed Callahan, the store will feature a variety of products from local farms and producers, including Bossie Cow Farm, Victory Garden Farm and WinterSpring Farm, along with Dream Apple Farm.
What drives him
The way we get our food is not ideal, and there is a better way. We just have to listen to nature to find out what it wants to give us in Wisconsin. … There is so much more adventure, variety and discovery that can be part of our food life.
Stonecroft is spray free
I don’t spray anything. Part of that is I’m kind of lazy. When I saw all the machines, it is a lot of work. I want to grow things that don’t require spray. My only attempts to control nature, I mulch things, I put up fences to keep out deer, nets to keep out birds.
Patience pays off
Last year I could finally report that I made an income in farming, which was kind of fun.
I sold a little aronia to Slowpokes Local Food (in Grafton, now closed). The walnuts I famously haven’t had a crop, but I planted all the other nuts. They are long-term plants. I planted plums five years ago, so in theory I could have those this year. I had one nectarine last year. Just one. … Bottom line, most of it is not mature, so far just aronia and lavender and a few other berries.
Getting to Grafton
I grew up in Cedarburg. My parents had a big garden, a cheap way to get food. We didn’t think about it being healthier or tastier, it was just economically a thing people did in the 1960s. …
When you're a filmmaker, you sit at a computer all day long. You want to get away from that. You want to get outdoors. I moved to Idaho and taught film, lived there for 20 years, then moved back to my hometown in 2004. We had a garden, and I enjoyed being in nature. That was the start of it. We found this property in Grafton. Let’s grow things.
Permaculture plan
I’m trying to plant every possible thing and see what works. There is a school of agriculture, permaculture, one of the gurus Mark Shepard is from Wisconsin. The philosophy is you see what will grow on your land, and you let nature dictate your food source rather than forcing the food on your plate. I have had a lot of failures and a few successes.
First thing he planted
A plant called aronia, a purple super berry. I planted several dozen on my property in Cedarburg before I moved here. It is really prolific, like little purple blueberries.
Why doesn’t everyone grow these? Because even though they are healthy, they are astringently tart. I have spent years trying to find the magic recipe to make everyone like them! The jam is delicious. The problem is you give someone a berry and they bite into it and spit it out. It is not sweet. I have recipes on my website
Educating eaters
Originally, I was going to plant a lot of aronia. … The biggest problem is people don’t know what to do with it and how to cook it and eat it. … .I have made wine out of aronia, which is really good. I was in Poland in 2017. They make a lot of wine out of aronia, it is in jams and soft drinks. I am surprised there isn’t more grown here.
Lesson learned
I thought I was going to be a chestnut farmer. … I planted 100 chestnut trees in 2017. The deer ate them all .…
The three big ones permaculture people in Wisconsin are excited about are chestnuts, hazelnuts and black walnuts. They grow here and produce food, and they’re natural to the area.
After the chestnuts, I got probably 100 different varieties of plants, all just trialing to see what works and what doesn’t and what people like and don’t. Some are really exotic like seaberry, and then different kinds like aronia and honeyberries, elderberries, currants, different nuts, like hazelnuts, then peaches, cherries, plums. I am also trying dried beans this year.
Most popular plant
Lavender. It is a huge crowd pleaser. I sell it by the side of the road here, and I sell out. I grew 500 plants the first year, 2019, and every plant died. … After that I’ve had good luck, I have a couple thousand plants in the ground. That is the center of what I am selling at DreamPort, lavender products.
Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the everyday relationship that local notables (within the food community and without) have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email psullivan@gannett.com.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Stonecroft Farm, Grafton, tries growing lavender, aronia, walnuts
