Steve & Kath—A Rich Lifetime of Connection
to the Land and to her People
Good Roots
Stephen was born in 1949 in northern Wisconsin where he began his love of the natural world in long walks with his father through the woods they owned—one full square mile of forested land. During his preschool years Steve spent many hours visiting Antigo potato farms and Marathon County dairy farms accompanying his father as he made his rounds as a pastor. Later, growing up in 1950s Brookfield, he and his little sister loved to explore the plentiful old farm fields, creeks and woods.
Similarly, Katherine grew up communing with the natural world while exploring the secluded wooded bluffs along Lake Michigan at their summer cottage. At home she tended to her menagerie of pets including rabbits, pigeons, a rooster, and Waldo the duck. Steve and Kath have been avid birdwatchers since their childhood, and today Kath is an accomplished wildlife artist, specializing in bird art.
A Lifetime of Gardening
In the 1950s, Steve began his lifetime of gardening, planting his first vegetable seeds in the family garden plot. He also worked in the flower gardens transplanting and doing lots of weeding. They preserved the fruit grown on their property, harvesting apples, pears, peaches, grapes, and berries from a huge elderberry bush.
In the spring of 1974, Kath and Steve planted their first completely organic garden at their rented farmhouse in the Coulee country of southwest Wisconsin. As pioneers in the “back-to-the-land” movement of the 1970s, they companion-planted nasturtiums and marigolds, battled bugs with homemade hot pepper and garlic spray, and fed the soil with lots of rotted manure from the old dairy barn. They canned, and froze an abundance of vegetables and gallons of applesauce. Their harvest, which included numerous large winter squash, was so bountiful they had to rent a U-haul truck when they moved back to Milwaukee in the fall. Subsequently, they continued honing their gardening skills on land owned by Kath’s parents.
In 1975 Steve and Kath purchased 40 wooded acres near Lake Superior where they built a small super-insulated passive solar home. They would have liked to remain there, but work prospects were slim, so they settled back in the Milwaukee area.
In 1984, Kath and Steve bought a small home on a large lot in Fox Point, and began to raise their family. Every year they grew vegetables in raised beds in their back yard, while Steve began turning the property into a verdant garden paradise. He installed a large berm along the roadway and planted large evergreen trees; he designed and installed many perennial flower gardens, and completed extensive landscaping projects throughout the property. His green thumb grew greatly during those years.
Kath displaying homegrown peanuts amid a sea of winter squash - Grant County, 1974
A Gardening Hobby Expands into a Farming Vocation
In 1998 Steve and Kath’s lifetime dream was finally realized with the purchase of their 80 acre farm near Campbellsport. Soon their backyard vegetable garden started growing in size, while they sold their excess produce at Farmers Markets in Kewaskum and West Bend. Next they initiated and managed a Farmers Market in Campbellsport for 3 years, before moving on to become a popular farmer-vendor for 3 years at the South Shore Farmers Market in Bayview.
2006 was their first official year in CSA, starting with 25 sign-ups, eventually topping out with several seasons of over 300 Summer Share memberships.
Steve is a graduate of the UW-Extension Master Gardener training program. He boasts many blue ribbons won for hay crops and vegetable crops at the Fond du Lac County Fair.
Shortly after taking over the farm, Steve replanted all 20 acres of the tillable land into non-GMO high-yielding legume and grass species, which they harvest for hay to feed their livestock, and upon which they rotationally graze their flock of purebred Shetland Sheep.
Steve also holds extensive woodland management skills going back many years. He oversees and maintains the forested lands at HighCross farm. Their own sawmill has supplied the lumber for several on-farm barns and sheds. For over 15 years, their woods has supplied 100% of their home heating needs.
Not Just about Gardening and Farming
Steve has been continuously self employed for over 45 years, while changing careers several times. For almost 30 years he earned his living in the construction industry doing business as a contractor, and later, as a licensed pre-purchase home inspector.
Both Steve and Kath have been very active over the years in many endeavors involving community groups, grassroots organizing, school advisory boards, facilitating workshops, training workshop facilitators, public speaking, positions with political campaigns, publishing newsletters, teaching classes for children and adults, writing, and advocacy for a wide variety of social concerns.
Steve and Kath currently serve in a mentoring capacity for the many young people who work at their farm, helping to build a strong work ethic and a foundation for future success.
Rich Family Heritage
Steve and Kath are fortunate to hold a rich family heritage in farming traditions, healthy lifestyles, and care of the environment.
Steve’s maternal grandfather was born on the family farm in Ohio. His paternal grandfather was born on the family farm in Germany, from which he emigrated to Buffalo where he eventually owned and operated his own grocery store.
Kath’s father was born on the family farm near Wausau, where her grandfather worked the land with their draft horses, Maud and Chub. Her grandfather, who was born on the family farm in Ohio, was also an inventor and leader in establishing the first electricity in the Wausau area and also managed the first rail streetcar company in northern Wisconsin. Kath’s father was a chemical engineer who owned a small research and development company which became a leader in designing and improving equipment for wastewater treatment plants around the world.
Kath's grandfather's farm north of Wausau, 1920s
Kath’s mother was an author and homemaker who started her writing career as the Health Editor for Look Magazine in New York City. Katherine has carried on the tradition with her own writing and illustration projects. Her mother was a gourmet health-conscious cook; and who took delight in cultivating her extensive perennial flower gardens.
Steve’s father loved the outdoors, and was an avid fly fisherman. Kath comes from a long line of conservation-minded outdoorsman. Her grandfather’s exploits at Deerfoot Lodge in the Wisconsin north woods were legendary.
Well-Rounded Previous Experiences
Steve held a wide variety of jobs as a young man. Looking back, he recognizes that many of these experiences were connected somehow to agriculture or the food industry. As a young teen he hired out on Saturdays as a yardboy. In high school and beyond he worked at several restaurants and delivered many 1000’s of pizzas. In college he worked part-time at a large food storage warehouse unloading cases of grocery goods from boxcars, and worked as a crew member unloading semi-trailer trucks of fresh Wisconsin cranberries.
While attending UW Madison, Steve worked as a research professor’s assistant at the UW School of Veterinary Medicine and at the UW experimental farm and animal research facilities on Mineral Point Road. As a longshoreman on Jones Island he loaded salted cow hides into the hold of a cargo ship bound for Italy. Steve worked on his uncle’s tree farm near Tomahawk, and in 1971 he cut and then sold Christmas trees at two lots he opened and operated in Madison.
Healthy Lifestyle
Steve and Kath have been food-conscious consumers since their youth. They have been members in good standing at Outpost Natural Foods Co-op continuously since 1972. In 1971 Steve was employed by Nature’s Bakery in Madison where he ground the wheat berries daily on the stone mill housed behind the Whole Earth Co-op on Johnson Street. During the 1970s, Kath and Steve were part of the tight-knit community surrounding Stone Ground Bakery and the original Beans and Barley in Milwaukee.
For 10 years in their early days, Steve and Kath adhered to a vegetarian diet, 3 years of which were strictly vegan. Over the years they have ground their own wheat flour on their electric stone mill, baked yeast and sourdough bread, made yogurt, keifer, soy milk, tofu, tempeh, sprouts, sauerkraut, kimchi; and goat cheese from their own milk goats. They have raised, bred and milked their own Jersey dairy cow, raised many large batches of meat chickens, raised and sold grass-fed lamb and beef. At one point, their flock of sheep numbered almost 200 animals.
It’s Been a Rich Lifetime
Today, Steve and Kath’s original organic garden in southwest Wisconsin of 43 years ago has grown to approximately 8 acres, and includes the appurtenances of a 30’ x 96’ hoophouse, 2 greenhouses, a packing shed, two zoned walk-in coolers, dozens of farm implements and equipment, a number of tractors, and other farm and delivery vehicles.
Nearly 30 sheep still call HighCross Farm their home; Kath’s menagerie currently includes laying hens, 2 horses, milk goats, 5 cats, and her large collection of pigeons, some hand-tame and others just friends.
Their nightly dinners often include many foods raised on their farm, prepared with Kath’s masterful culinary skills, which have steadily increased over the years. When they feel the need to get away from it all, they steal away to their back yard—the wooded back-forty—to meditate and to reconnect.
But it is their front yard that brings the ultimate satisfaction. For it opens up upon the whole wide world and all of the wonderful people they have come to know and love over the years.
Steve and Kath recognize that the food they grow is merely the metaphor, the good excuse to touch the lives of other people—and to receive in return, the personal joy that comes from providing for health, hope and happiness. They are deeply grateful to Providence for the gift of a lifetime rich in connection to the land, and to so many of her people.
Rev. 10/22/17 SMV