Events at Gwenyn Hill Farm

Spring Share Market

Come and celebrate spring at the farm for our first Spring Share Market. Spring share members and extended community are invited to experience the market offerings from Clover Cottage Bakery, Brick House Mercantile, and shiitake mushrooms and beautiful woodwork from Steve Hoelz/ Black Earth Wood Products. We will also be offering small tours of the greenhouse and hoop houses to get everyone excited about the growing season. The farmstand will also be stocked with fresh produce, dairy, meat, grain, yarn and special offers for our visitors. We hope to see you there!

Seedling Sale Day

Join us at the Gwenyn Hill Farm greenhouse for our first-ever seedling sale event! We are excited to offer Certified Organic, pollinator-friendly seedlings for your garden this growing season. Forty different varieties of vegetables, herbs, and flowers, selected by our team for flavor and productivity, will be available during the sale. Learn more about our available varieties for 2024 here. 

Bring your family and friends to enjoy a visit to the farm and get ready for the gardening season ahead.

Seedlings will also be available all throughout the month of May at the Farmstand and Gwenyn Hill and our stand at the Brookfield Farmers Market. See our Farmstand and Market page for open days and hours.

Pasture Walk for Mid-Advanced Graziers

Gwenyn Hill Farm will host in partnership with Xerces and Glacierland RC&D, a detailed discussion for mid-advanced graziers contemplating adding warm season grasses to their pastures. Ryan Heinen and Mica Kloppenburg will be sharing general observations they’ve made throughout their two year assessment of cool season vs warm season pasture forage quality, quantity and pollinator habitat. Save the date and stay tuned for more information.

Fall Mushroom Foraging With Tavis Lynch

Late autumn is peak mushroom season and Tavis is back to share his knowledge with us. Join in to learn the basics of wild edible mushroom identification. We will discuss techniques to identify wild mushrooms and the habitat where they grow. Our focus will be on safety and on choice edible species. Poisonous mushrooms will also be discussed. After our classroom time, we will take a short lunch break before we head to the woods. On our field trip we will identify everything that is found and document each species to be included in the state records of species. This is a great opportunity for citizen scientists. Class size will be limited due to the outdoor nature of the class.

Lunch can be purchased at checkout from Brick House Mercantile or bring your own. We will include a beverages and a cookie made from grain grown at our farm. Brick House offers seasonal farm to table artisan grain bowls sure to inspire your palate.

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Gwenyn Hill Farm Annual Open House “Dirt First”

Come and explore the farm! Take a wagon ride, listen to an inspiring talk, pick a bouquet, talk to the farmers, enjoy some fresh garden food, press some cider, listen to music as your eyes are met with the beauty of our bucolic surroundings. This is your chance to celebrate the harvest as a community and take in all that Gwenyn Hill Farm has to offer. Mark your calendars and look for updates here on our event page.

Welcome to the World of Mushrooms

with Tavis Lynch

Tavis Lynch will help us explore the fungal diversity of Wisconsin’s four major forest types. We will take a journey around the state and see mushrooms in a broad variety of environments. Wisconsin boasts some of the highest mushroom diversity in America. From delicious edibles to toxic killers, we have it all. We will discuss how to forage wild mushrooms safely and with confidence. Tavis will teach us all we need to know about mushroom identification. We will also cover basic tree identification which is crucial knowledge for a successful mushroom hunter. Some of our wild species can even be harvested and cultivated at home! We will look at basic practices for home cultivation to add new flavors to our family dinner table.

Tavis has been studying wild mushrooms for nearly 40 years. He has dedicated his life to fungi and spends over 300 days per year in the woods photographing and chasing all our states mushroom treasures. He is the author of “Mushroom Cultivation” (Quarto), “ The Beginner’s Guide to Mushrooms” (Quarto) and will be releasing “The Russula of the Eastern United States” (FungiPress) and “The Mushrooms of Wisconsin” (FungiPress) very soon.

Lunch can be purchased at checkout from Brick House Mercantile or bring your own. Brick House offers beautiful, seasonal farm to table artisan spring grain bowls sure to inspire your palate.

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Felted Landscape

Wet Felt and Needle Felt with Ana Repke

Learn how to make a small 8×10″ landscape scene using wet felt, needle felt and landscape design. The recommended experience level is beginner. Students should bring 2 towels and wear comfortable clothes that can get wet. The class cost is $50.00. Materials are $15.00 paid to the instructor on the day of the workshop. Please click the link below for more information.

 PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Stained Glass (Wool)

Wet Felt and Needle Felt with Ana Repke

Make your own 14×26″ stained glass window out of wool. The recommended experience level is beginner, it is easier than it looks! You will learn how to wet felt the base with all the delightful colors of your choosing and needle felt the black lines between the colored wool. The frame is included and the cost is $100.00. Please click the link below for more information.

 PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Git ‘er Done

Creative Felting with Ana Repke

Previous felting experience needed. Ana will bring all those fun fibers to try out, carders, sewing machines, and wool galore. Do you have something you need to finish or something you want to try again? Or maybe you just need to jump in or have someone hold your hand? This is the class for you! The cost of the class is $80.00. Please click the link below for more information.

 PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Garden as Home-Space: Fundamentals of Ecological Gardening

 Gwenyn Hill Farm invites seasoned, unripe and aspiring gardeners for a three hour interactive ecological gardening course. Taught by Kerem Sengun, a current GHF Organic Vegetable Farm Manager Apprentice, this foundational course will begin to answer the question of how to build a home for us as well as other creatures in our gardens. He will first introduce you to the principles of ecological garden design and practice how to assess your garden site with these principles in mind. Students will dive into some practical considerations on soil health, finding plant allies, cultivating biodiversity and wildlife habitats. This class will have some hands on greenhouse activity so dress for the weather.

Lunch can be purchased at checkout from Brick House Mercantile or bring your own. Brick House offers beautiful, seasonal farm to table artisan spring grain bowls sure to inspire your palate.

 PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Spring Shearing Session

Come meet the sheep on shearing day! We will be shearing 13 sheep on March 9th and offering 5 of these raw fleeces to YOU before we send the rest to the mill. Pre-registration of $30 saves your spot for fleece selection. Final cost of $15 per pound will be totaled after shearing and weighing your chosen fleece. Come touch, compare, and help the crew skirt your fleece before taking it home with you. Space is limited so priority is given to registrants and one guest. The ewes we will be shearing are border leicester, registered cotswold or crosses of the two breeds. They are considered wool breeds or dual purpose crossbreds.

*If you are interested in scouring your fleece register for the class on Sunday March 10th.

 PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Fleece Scouring Class

Apprehensive about processing your own raw fleece? Always wanted to learn? After we go over the basics of sorting and skirting wool on shearing day, fiber artist Lindsey Schwenn will be offering an additional opportunity to learn more about processing long wool at home. Leave your fleece to soak overnight and return March 10th for a hands on demonstration and workshop to give you the confidence to carefully clean your own wool without the use of harsh chemicals. If you do not have your own fleece you can still attend to learn and help process the wool. $25 for the 2-hour workshop, all materials provided. *Bring a pillowcase or two in which to transport and store clean wool.

 PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Introduction to the Keeping of Bees

Quentin Stedman, Gwenyn Hill Farm beekeeper, will introduce you to the marvelous and often mysterious honeybee. You will learn about what you need to consider before dipping your toes in or taking the plunge into being the keeper of bees. We will discuss the pros and cons to help you understand if this is something you want to pursue. We will learn about the hive, what it consists of and what makes it buzz.

Students will get an overview of keeping bees and an idea of what to expect. Quentin will share his understanding of the hive and lifecycles of these magnificent creatures. Future beekeepers will see what it takes to keep bees, costs involved, materials needed, hive types, and choosing a perfect location. Most importantly, all will celebrate the benefits of keeping bees and the impact of pollinators.

Lunch can be purchased at checkout from Brick House Mercantile or bring your own. Brick House offers beautiful, seasonal farm to table artisan winter grain bowls sure to inspire your palate.

 

 PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Introduction to Rigid Heddle Weaving

$65.00 per person/additional supply cost on day of $15.00 loom rental and students will choose Gwenyn Hill Farm hand-dyed wool $20.00-$30.00 for scarf weaving.

*Additional cost for lunch Brick House grain bowl $12.00

Experience level needed:  No weaving experience needed

Workshop Description:  Students will use a Schacht Cricket Loom to learn the basics of the rigid heddle viewing: how to set up your loom, the parts of the loom, put on a warp and weave a scarf using Gwenyn Hill Farm wool yarn.

Lunch can be purchased at checkout from Brick House Mercantile or bring your own. Brick House offers beautiful, seasonal farm to table artisan winter grain bowls sure to inspire your palate.

Nancy Wilson – Fiber Artist Bio

Nancy is a landscape architect who has a passion for fiber arts. She learned to weave and hand spin yarn 37 years ago in Stillwater, Oklahoma and her love of the fiber arts continued to grow as a member of the Black Sheep Handspinning Guild in Ithaca, New York.  Nancy is currently a member of the Wisconsin Handweavers Guild and other fiber organizations. In 2014 she started the Common Threads Fiber Group, which meets at the Waukesha Public Library once a month.

Nancy realized her dream of having a studio in 2016 and started Lost Art Fiber and Textile Studio located in the Springs Gallery and Studio Building in Waukesha. She welcomes all interested in fiber to stop by her studio during the open hours to see what she is doing.

Nancy lives in Waukesha, Wisconsin with her husband and their menagerie of pets, including a Golden Retriever (Emmitt), Irish Setter (Rosemary) and 2 cats (Trudy and Tucker). In addition to handspinning yarn, knitting and weaving, Nancy is also a quilter and enjoys gardening, reading and spending time with family.

Nancy is inspired by color and texture, especially those found in nature.

   

                                          PURCHASE TICKETS HERE