Who WE ARE
Avodah Farm (pronounced AH-vo-DAH) is a small family farm on the West Coast of Wisconsin, about two and a half miles from Stockholm, nine miles from Pepin, and sixty miles from the Twin Cities. Our farm is 126 acres of woods, ponds and pastures nestled on a bluff overlooking Lake Pepin on the Mississippi River, and it's where we make our home and raise grass-fed beef, pastured poultry and our two sons.
Avodah is a Hebrew word whose meaning encompasses labor, worship, and service. This is exactly what farming is to us: hard, meaningful, fulfilling work through which we respect our Creator and serve our community. We strive to be faithful stewards of Creation, living out the Jewish principle of Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World) by rebuilding our topsoil, our local economy, and the connections between rural and urban dwellers. We hope you will join us on this journey and we look forward to being your farmers!
Avodah is a Hebrew word whose meaning encompasses labor, worship, and service. This is exactly what farming is to us: hard, meaningful, fulfilling work through which we respect our Creator and serve our community. We strive to be faithful stewards of Creation, living out the Jewish principle of Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World) by rebuilding our topsoil, our local economy, and the connections between rural and urban dwellers. We hope you will join us on this journey and we look forward to being your farmers!
THe Farmers
Avodah Farm is the labor of love of Martha and W Geoffrey Black, along with our sons Elijah and Samuel. Martha is Jewish, Geoffrey was raised a Quaker, but we both grew up on homesteads where we learned the value of homegrown food and honest work. We met as teenagers, got married after college, and dove in to farming by starting a vegetable CSA in 2012, which we ran for five years on three different properties as we searched for a farm to call our own.
Elijah Joseph was born in 2013 and Samuel Akiva followed in 2015. In 2016 we decided to take the stress in our lives down a notch by switching from vegetables (which need weeding) to beef cattle (who eat weeds). Our farming is guided by our goal to leave the next generation a healthy farm in a healthy community, bursting with vibrant diversity.
Elijah Joseph was born in 2013 and Samuel Akiva followed in 2015. In 2016 we decided to take the stress in our lives down a notch by switching from vegetables (which need weeding) to beef cattle (who eat weeds). Our farming is guided by our goal to leave the next generation a healthy farm in a healthy community, bursting with vibrant diversity.
The Farm
We started Avodah Farm on family land in the fall of 2011. After some moving around Pepin County in search of the perfect spot, in the fall of 2014 we bought our own land in Stockholm, Wisconsin.
We affectionately call our land "Dayenu," a Hebrew word that means "it is enough to us." Our farm is a mix of crop land, open and semi-wooded pasture and forest. We have five ponds, eight erosion-control dams, a steep ravine full of ferns and mossy boulders, and a couple of small caves. We feel incredibly blessed to have such a special place to call our home, and we are dedicated to the stewardship of our land through organic practices, rotational grazing, perennial crops and long hikes.
We farm using no chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. Ever.
We affectionately call our land "Dayenu," a Hebrew word that means "it is enough to us." Our farm is a mix of crop land, open and semi-wooded pasture and forest. We have five ponds, eight erosion-control dams, a steep ravine full of ferns and mossy boulders, and a couple of small caves. We feel incredibly blessed to have such a special place to call our home, and we are dedicated to the stewardship of our land through organic practices, rotational grazing, perennial crops and long hikes.
We farm using no chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. Ever.