A full-circle farm

As fourth-generation dairy farmers, resourcefulness is in Shelly and Jim Grosenick’s blood. Rows of fresh, tangy peppers and juicy red tomatoes line a half-acre garden outside Shelly’s kitchen window—a familiar view from the Grosenick family’s 1888 homestead. This is the view she sees while cooking up farm-fresh meals for her kids, Maddy, Tucker, Corbin and her husband, Jim. More than 200 varieties of fruits, vegetables, and herbs thrive in Shelly’s garden venture. As a kid, Shelly learned how to preserve fruits and veggies in the 4-H Club—a time-honored kitchen tradition and, in most cases, a necessity.

“It (canning) was a hobby that turned into a necessity and morphed into a business.” Shelly utilizes the resources available on her family’s 200-cow dairy farm located outside of Watertown, Wis., to nourish, feed, and provide for her garden and her family. Caring for her garden by using manure from the cows to fertilize the soil or by recycling their winter feed bunker covers to control the ever-growing weeds are just a couple of reasons Shelly calls Crimson Ridge Dairy a full-circle farm. More recently she has started to produce raw milk soap and lotions using the milk from the end of each milking. Since venturing into various offerings—first at a few farmers markets and now at about 100 events a year across Wisconsin—Shelly has grown her customer base and expanded her products.

Shelly goes above and beyond to care for her garden, nourish her crops, educate her consumers, and deliver wholesome products to her local community—all for the love of food. She measures success by the number of people who walk away from her house, her market pop-ups, or her backseat with products they believe in because of how and where they’re grown.

Home canning, similar to the milk produced across the road in the family’s parlor, provides a nutrient-packed end product meant to nourish those enjoying it.