History of Bente's Farm

For the past 30 years, this farm, 35 acres nestled in the rolling hills of southeastern Wisconsin, has belonged to Bente and Walter Goldstein. Bente, originally from Norway, has run farm programs for kids since her sons left the nest. She is convinced of the importance of real work in the development of children, and has written a book, Childhood is a Verb!: Why a Virtual Childhood Isn’t Enough. Bente now supports the farm programs from the background, and Walter runs a non-profit, Mandaamin Institute, that is developing high nutritional value, non-GMO corn.

From then to now

As a child, Kate dreamed to farm like her grandpa on the prairies of Kansas, but imagined that to be as realistic as stepping back into Little House on the Prairie. However, after taking a class on ecological horticulture at Notre Dame (a hiatus from her Romance Language major classes), she realized that farming was actually about the most practical work she could conceive of.

Testing the limits of her brawn, she spent a summer learning gardening with Theri Nemier at Good Shepherd Montessori School in South Bend and another summer volunteering at a small animal farm in Boston (all the while teaching children with language-learning disabilities at the Windward School of Manhattan).

In 2022, she lived a year with her now-dear friends Shawn and Beth Dougherty in Toronto, Ohio. There she learned more of the miracles of rotational grazing, cheesemaking, hand milking cows, home butchering, and water capture. From there she moved to Brookfield, Wisconsin, where she mentors many high school girls and farms in some way every day. She taught Spanish at Prairie Hill Waldorf School and subsequently fell into the lap of Bente Goldstein, who has farmed with her since 2024.

Kate now keeps a milk cow, Bethany, as well as a few mischievous pigs, anarchist chickens and a flock of adventurous sheep in East Troy. She runs programs both cultural and agricultural for children, families, and adults, aiming to teach them wonder, joy, and place through working with the real world at their fingertips.