The Queen Bee Sessions are monthly conversations with Wisconsin Women in Conservation, a collaboration between four Wisconsin agricultural organizations seeking to connect more women landowners and farmers with conservation resources. The host is Kriss Marion of Circle M Market Farm, who is the WiWiC Communications Lead and a small-scale sheep grazier in Lafayette County. Her conversation with Kirsten Jurcek of Brattset Family farm covered a wide range of topics with this experienced beef grazier: regenerative agriculture, working lands conservation easements, community, soil health and human health, among other things. Kirsten farms on nearly 300 acres in Southeast Wisconsin - including woodlands, hayfields, pasture and wildlife habitat. She is one of the Conservation Coaches for Wisconsin Women in Conservation. That means she serves as a mentor and guide to other women farmers and landowners who want to implement more conservation practices on their land. But she is a busy professional mentor to both men and women, in many capacities, including her role as a grazing specialist with Glacierland Resource, Conservation and Development - where she develops grazing plans for clients and also arranges field days for folks to see conservation practices in place on farms across the eastern part of the state. Kirsten embodies the Glacierland motto: “Conservation that Works! Bringing together science and community to grow Wisconsin’s economy and protect our natural resources.” For more information about Glacierland RC&D see glacierlandrcd.org. For more information on Wisconsin Women in Conservation events and to receive The Buzz monthly newsletter, visit WiWiC.org. 

The Queen Bee Sessions are monthly conversations with Wisconsin Women in Conservation, a collaboration between four Wisconsin agricultural organizations seeking to connect more women landowners and farmers with conservation resources. The host is Kriss Marion of Circle M Market Farm, who is the WiWiC Communications Lead and a small-scale sheep grazier in Lafayette County. On Labor Day, Marion interviewed Graden-Dodge, the mother of three young children and the primary manager at Blackbrook Farm in Amery, the 140-acre diversified organic meat and produce operation she owns with her husband James and a crew of six.  The farm is a mixture of tillable land, pasture, woods, pond, stream and pollinator habitat. The farm is home to pasture-raised hogs, Highland cattle, and chickens who improve the soil for 5 acres of organic vegetables sold through a Community Supported Agriculture model. “We seek to increase the diversity of this land’s biology, both above and below ground, by using regenerative farming practices that nurture the soils rather than just the crops,” says Dodge. “To be able to see the increase in toads, worms, and all kinds of birds and wildlife on our farm brings me great joy and reinforces in me that at stewards of the land, we need to continue protecting our water, wildlife and land in conjunction with using it.” Visit blackbrookfarmstead.com. For more information on Wisconsin Women in Conservation events and to receive The Buzz monthly newsletter, visit WiWiC.org. 

*Note: Please excuse the audio quality of this recording; sometimes that’s the reality of rural internet/reception challenges.*