The good life down on the farm

“Let’s plant a couple strawberry plants,” Kaylee Hoile thought.

It was innocent enough. The summer favorite was to be a delicious addition to the garden of her and her husband JD’s hobby farm in northern Ozaukee County.

Before they knew it, the red fruit expanded its empire.

“They took over the garden,” Kaylee said.

The couple set up a makeshift stand to sell the berries so they wouldn’t go to waste. Travelers going by quickly bought them up.

That was just the tip of the stem.

The garden produced other produce, and Kaylee loves baking, thanks to her grandmother Bernice Fellenz, a former chef at the Port Hotel.

“She taught me how to do all this stuff,” Kaylee said.

Now,  the roadside stand includes sourdough cookies, breads, muffins, bagels and rolls, along with a host of vegetables and fruits.

The couple’s 4-year-old daughter picked out the stand’s color, and it stands out.

“Purple wouldn’t be my first choice,” Kaylee joked.

 Kaylee  is a full-time human resources recruiter during the week, then trades her laptop for an apron, working into the wee hours of the morning on Fridays and Saturdays — getting three hours of sleep per night — to fill the stand with sourdough goodies.

“She has no weekends,” JD said.

Kaylee is just fine with that. She takes a nap on Sundays.

She loves making sourdough recipes because they’re gut healthy and more fun to make, not needing to make dough in a mixer.

“It’s more work but it’s more hands-on,” she said. “There’s science behind it.”

And there are customers in front of it, sometimes waiting at 9 a.m. when the stand opens.

“There is a market for it,” Kaylee said. “People don’t want processed food.”

The stand can get so busy that the couple has to tell people to watch for tractors because vehicles are parked on both sides of Highway LL near their farm next to Silver Beach Road in the Town of Belgium. It reached the point that the Hoiles mowed the weeds in the ditch on their side of the road so people could easier walk to the stand.

“We have a prime location,” Kaylee said.

“We get to meet a lot of people who are regulars,” JD said.

Eggs from the Hoiles’ 21 free-range chickens — among them is Floppy the friendly rooster — are the hottest sellers, as are the sourdough items.

She has limited help in the kitchen while following Wisconsin Cottage Food Law standards.

Their 4-year-old daughter Harlie tries to aid in the baking process, “but I cut it off for my sanity,” Kaylee said.

Harlie also loves to deliver items to the stand and put price stickers on all the packages.

Their 1-year-old Hunter hasn’t learned the ropes yet, but will get involved.

“Part of this is we want to teach our kids work ethic,” Kaylee said.

JD stays out of the kitchen until Kaylee is done.

“He does the dishes,” she said.

Kaylee’s long-term goal is to do the stand full time and be a stay-at-home mother.

The Hoiles already have a life they love.

Both grew up in Port. JD, a 2007 Port High grad, lived in the city but spent about as much time on his cousins’ farm in the Town of Belgium kitty-corner from where the Hoiles now live.

“I grew up milking cows and driving tractors,” he said.

Kaylee grew up on a mink farm and graduated from Port High in 2013.

The couple met at Schooner Pub, married and settled in Port.

Their home they now live in came up for sale a few years ago. JD’s cousins’ homes and land surround the area, and the couple had been hoping to live in the country. The five-acre hobby farm was a perfect fit, and they jumped at their little slice of heaven.

“This is what we’ve always wanted,” JD said.

They are in the process of updating a number of items in their 130-year-old house. Outside of his job as street commissioner for the City of Port, JD spends as much time as he can with his cousins.

Their children are being raised in the same environment, interacting with the chickens, friendly barn cats that each have a name and the family’s two labs.

JD is about the same age as his cousins and they are all raising young families at the same time.

“It’s like growing up all over again,” he said.

The Hoiles eventually would like to add goats to their farm, partly for pets and partly to help JD cut the grass.

Even without the voracious vegetation eaters, the hobby farm is such a gem that JD pinches himself to make sure it’s not a dream.

“Sometimes in the morning I’ll walk outside. This is ours. It’s pretty cool,” he said.

For information on the Hoiles’ roadside stand, search for “Hoile’s Bought a Farm” on Facebook.