Bringing the farm to town

BARNEVELD, Wis. — Jan. 18 was the grand opening for the B.Kurt Dairy & Co. storefront in Barneveld. The successful grand opening saw a steady flow of people come through the doors to support the new business.

Owned and operated by Bryanna and Dylan Handel, the dairy farming couple is bringing a farm-to-table approach to their new business, linking consumers to product and producers.

The Handels and their five children own and operate B.Kurt Dairy, located a half mile outside of Barneveld. What started with 16 cows and a rented barn has evolved to a herd of 65 Jerseys. They own 103 acres and now operate the store in town to help connect customers to the agriculture industry.

At the B.Kurt Dairy & Co. storefront, Bryanna and Dylan sell a variety of farm-fresh items. Products include their own B.Kurt Dairy white cheddar and B. Kurt Dairy sharp cheddar cheeses, a variety of cheeses from Meister Cheese, dairy items including butter, yogurt, cottage cheese and glass jar milk. Other items consist of coffee, oats, seasonings, honey, jams and a multitude of other items, including products from four local meat producers.

The Handels reached out to neighbors and friends about placing products in their store. In total, 29 farmers and vendors are represented. The market provides a way for consumers to purchase more directly from local farmers and producers.

The Handels use a private truck to haul milk from their dairy to Cedar Grove Cheese. Cedar Grove Cheese then produces the white cheddar using only milk from B.Kurt Dairy’s herd of Jersey cattle. B.Kurt Dairy Cheese has been in production since 2018. Starting at 400 pounds, the couple found a market for their cheese and are now producing 4,000 pounds a year.

Bryanna and Dylan found success with their cheese at the Westside Community Market in Madison. This is a market the Handels have been trying to link together for several years with different on-farm events.

The storefront idea stemmed from the Handels hosting an on-farm farmer’s market once a year. The annual event, which started in 2021, was hosted on their farm the last Sunday in July. The Handels said they saw an interest from consumers to connect to agriculture.

“People wanted to come and see where their food is from,” Bryanna said. “We wanted to get people involved in agriculture again. We’d talk to people and they’d say, ‘Oh my grandpa is a farmer.’ Well now it’s gotten to the point where it’s their great-great grandfather who was the farmer.”

At the last three on-farm farmer’s markets, the Handels saw between 300-500 people visit the farm, demonstrating a desire from the public to reconnect to agriculture and support local farmers. With that attendance, the Handels had the idea for their storefront.

“My friends in Sauk City started Ranch & Root (Farmer’s Co-op), which is similar to what we’re doing,” Handel said. “We saw that and we thought that our community could use that as well. We are a small business that wants to help create business for other small businesses here in Barneveld. We want other farmers to be successful and this can help with that.”

Along with the on-farm farmer’s market, the Handels have also hosted a two-day farm camp the past two summers. Children ages 4-10 visited the farm and enjoyed two days of agriculture and activities.

“We wanted to spark an interest in agriculture,” Handel said. “We talked to them about the importance of feed storage and the different ways to store feed such as silos, covering a pile, how baling hay works, loading and stacking the little squares.”

Along with teaching the youth about the daily activities on the farm, Dylan and Bryanna taught self-sustaining skills.

“We had the kids mix all the vinegar, sugar and dill when we made pickles,” Handel said. “The kids mashed the strawberries and added the sugar and preservatives to can (strawberries) and save it for future use. We made ice cream the old-fashioned way. We had a grilled cheese lunch one day where we had each camper try different cheeses to see exactly which one they wanted on their sandwich.”

By providing an experiential learning opportunity, B.Kurt Dairy hopes to reignite a passion for agriculture in their community and help youth learn where their food comes from and how to make their own food.

Through hosting on-farm events and now adding a direct-to-consumer storefront, Bryanna said she hopes to continue to connect agriculture with the public.

“We need to help educate, not just our youth, but society,” Handel said. “That’s why we started our farm camp and have been so active with our community.”