The
Country Bumpkin Farm Market is one of Wisconsin Dells' hidden treasures.
Located about a mile west of Walmart, they offer over fifty different homegrown
berries, fruits, and vegetables, along with bakery treats, flower baskets,
crafts, and other unique gifts. On top of all this, they have a petting zoo,
corn mazes, zip lines, peddle karts, a play town, a tractor pulled train, and
even a slingshot and catapult to launch fruit through the air.
Recently,
I had the chance to spend an afternoon with owners Charlie and Cindy Rhinehart,
who graciously gave me a tour of their thirty acre farm attraction, as well as
shared their story of bringing healthy food and activities to kids and adults
alike.
CHRIS
DEARMAN: So while we’re waiting for Charlie to get back from the fields, tell
me a little about yourselves. Are you two originally from the area?
CINDY
RHINEHART: My husband is. He’s from the Dells. He went to the Dells High
School. I’m from Northern Wisconsin. I’m originally from Mercer, then St.
Germain, then Eagle River, Minocqua, those areas.
So what
made you come down here?
Well, we
met there. He was up there working when we met, and we ended up moving back
here to his area.
Was he a
farmer?
No, he
was always doing other things. He was doing blacktop at the time. He’s done
that for all of his life. His dad, he was always the farmer, and had the land.
We bought this land from his parents.
So it
was always a farm?
Yes, it
was a 100 acre farm. We eventually sold some off, and now have thirty acres for
ourselves here. They did the soy beans and field corn, but it just got to be
that there was no money in that anymore. Once you hired someone to do the
combine, there ended-up being zero balance sheets. (laughs) So, the land lay
bare for a couple years, but Charlie was always thinking of ideas – what could
we do for ourselves on our own? Especially something for our retirement years.
Were you
into farming before you met Charlie?
No, I
was always in office work. Real estate and secretarial . . . that type of thing.
So you
had farmland, but nothing growing on it. What made you finally decide to start
things back up again?
In 1996,
it was sort of the start of the “health” phase; people were really getting into
that. We thought, let’s start with strawberries, because there weren’t a lot of
strawberry farms yet, the pick your own kind, around here. So, we started with
that. We were both still doing our other jobs, but by hand we planted a half an
acre of strawberries on our hands and knees. (laughs) So, that’s how we started.
How did
it turn out that first year?
It
turned out good! On my days off from work I was just down there.And my Mom
helped too. People came and picked
berries. It worked out nice. We also were doing an honor system for pumpkins
and sweet corn, because his father always did. We would have a wagon out there
at the farm and a metal can, so it all started that way. We put the money away
for the kids towards college, but we were thinking, like I said, that we wanted
to build something for ourselves – what can we do? – let’s build a business
with the farmland. So, we put up a little building seventeen years ago. We had
the square part of what is the store now, and that was it! (laughs). He just
put in a driveway and we were off and running.
Charlie
likes to tell the story of when we first started. It was our first Spring and
time for me to plant the seeds, -- so he went out and plows it all. He then
says to me – go ahead and plant! I was like – but I don’t know how! (laughs)
Actually, I kind of cried -- looking at all that empty soil all around me.
So how
did you end up learning?
Charlie
taught me. He’s the one that taught me really. It started out by just hammering
in stakes, making rows, and learning how to take care of the crops. But I also
learned a lot by belonging to the various farming associations. I just get more
confident every year.
Well it
looks like things have certainly grown from back then. Did you guys have a
grand plan for it all?
Charlie
had drawn on graph paper and had it all planned out of what he would like to
see the future to be, and it ended up that we built it exactly where he had
everything spaced and placed. He had a vision. He’s the visionary. I’m just
like, OK, let’s do it!
Did you
call it Country Bumpkin seventeen years ago?
We did. Charlie
asked me what we wanted to name it, and I don’t know why, but I came up with
the name Country Bumpkin Farm Market. He liked it, so it stuck. I just thought,
you know, we’ll just be country bumpkins! (laughs)
It’s a
great name! So you started with strawberries, what came next?
What
came next is that we planted raspberries, because we were into the U-pick
We-pick berries. Also, his father already had a well-established patch across
the road of blueberries, which are now there like 30-35 years old, so we
thought that would be a good start – a good niche.
From
that start of berries you’ve now grown to all sorts of things. How many
varieties of produce grow here?
Oh, I
always thought that we have fifty different things at least. We go from the
asparagus season, to the strawberries. Actually, five different varieties of
strawberries. And then we have summer
raspberries and fall raspberries. Then blueberries, we've got four different
varieties of those now. We have some apples, some plum trees, and then the
grapes – champagne or dessert grapes, the seedless red, and then Concord grapes
down at the end. We grow lots of
different melons too.
From
there we have the vegetables. Everything from pickles & dill to sweet corn
and tomatoes. Different types of
cabbage, various types of lettuce. We have broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, and
kale. Beets, eggplant . . . peppers . .
. zucchini. We wanted to be very
versatile, so that we could be open from April till we can’t anymore, which is
November first. Our main goal was to grow healthy, with no sprays. Also, we
wanted to have everything possible so when someone drives all the way out here,
it’s worth it, because there was nothing out here when we started. There was no
Walmart, nothing.
And now
not only do you have a thriving farmer’s market, you have your very own little
town and petting zoo (Charlie sits down).
So
Charlie, you started this place with just fruits and vegetables and now you
grew it into a whole town!
CHARLIE
RHINEHART: Yeah, but that was what we had mostly been for all the years,
strictly a farmers market.
Is it
just you two or do you have any other employees?
CHARLIE:
I do it all by myself! (laughs). No, we used to do it all ourselves for years,
with a little help from our mothers, but now our daughter and son-in-law help.
They are working it to eventually take over someday.
CINDY:
Our son also helps us occasionally, and one of our neighbors, Holly, she’s been
helping us for eight years. We have a
nice family that have picked berries for us the last 13 years.
So when did you come up with all the cute little town stuff?
CINDY:
That just started last year.
CHARLIE:
I tried to do it ten years ago…
CINDY:
But I dragged my feet! (laughs) " No, I don’t want buildings, I want it to
stay just the way it is" – I thought it was pretty. He always had thought
about adding the petting farm part, but I don’t know about the play village.
How did that come about? Is it because the kids joined us now, and you wanted
to build the place up?
CHARLIE:
I built the little church, and was like,
I might as well build something else. (laughs)
Did you
build them all by yourself?
CHARLIE:
Yeah, well I built the house too! (the normal size one that they actually live
in) I actually built all the buildings on the property, but those little
buildings took me about a month each to build, -- our house took me two years!
(laughs)
Well, I
see you have a little replica of your house, a church, a school house, a barn,
miner shack, and an outhouse. Any future plans for more little buildings?
CINDY:
Well I know he wants to build a jail. (laughs)
CHARLIE:
Some days, with some of the kids you need one! But, you know the first thing
that is going to happen is that the kids are going to have the parents locked
up! (laughs)
CINDY:
And then he always thought of a log cabin…
CHARLIE:
A little log cabin in the pine trees.
That all
sounds pretty neat. Besides the tiny town that kids can climb around in, I
noticed you have a few things that require you to be active – like the Pedal
Karts and zip lines. Any other plans for more things like that?
CINDY:
We've got some plans for some other fun things. Like recently we saw bouncy
horses for adults and children, so we want to make a corral with that, of
bouncy horses. And an obstacle course.
CHARLIE:
Everything has to require something for physical activity though.
CINDY:
Yes, it’s all for health. Good healthy food, good healthy activities.
CHARLIE:
Yeah, we don’t want any motors on them. (laughs), Everyone seems to really like
the Pedal Karts, even without motors.
Yeah,
that’s pretty unique for these parts. The Dells has a dozen different go cart
places, but what you got here is something a little different.
CINDY:
We added the Pedal Karts this year. For adults and kids – it’s really fun! You
look down there and see parents racing their kids. Everyone is smiling. It’s
just a good feeling to see, everybody having fun.
I bet
the kids have a lot of fun at the petting zoo as well. Where did you get the
animals and how many do you have here?
CINDY:
We rent them from a gentleman in Reedsburg…
CHARLIE:
But we’re thinking about putting in a more permanent barn so that we can keep a
few animals year-round...
CINDY:
We have two donkeys, two alpaca, and a llama. We have three mother goats, and
they each have a set of twins, and then one of them had another set of twins.
The owner didn’t know she was pregnant, so that was cool. We have a picture of
Charlie in there holding the goats as babies when they were just born. Then we
got Rudy the Rooster, and his ten hens. (laughs) We have some ducks, and then
the sheep, two mothers and two young ones.
Wow,
sounds like with everything you two got going on here, that there must be a ton
of hard work to keep things running smoothly.
CINDY:
That’s true, but every year it seems that it’s getting easier, even though we
are doing more. It seems like it would get harder, but you just get used to
what you’re doing and you’re ready to do more. They say the more you do, the
more you can do.
Well
from the looks of things, it seems like all your hard work is paying off. I’ll
wrap things up by asking, what’s your favorite aspect of doing all this?
CHARLIE:
Mostly, just watching the kids have fun.
CINDY: I
just love having all the healthy vegetables and fruit that people really
appreciate. Everybody is happy when they come out here. They can wander around
and it’s peaceful. They remark that they can see that we love what we are
doing. It reflects in everything, and that we keep it clean and that it’s laid
back. I think that is something that we tried to gear towards, just something
peaceful.
So I
think that’s the main thing, like I said, to be healthy, to have healthy food,
and to keep it comfortable and relaxed so people can just enjoy. They can come
to pick berries, they can take their time, there is no one here saying no you
can't do this, you can't do that. We just let them come out here and enjoy.
Well I
certainly enjoyed my afternoon here. Thank you so much for having me come out
and see the place. I can’t wait to come back and bring my niece and nephew. I
know that they’d love it!
For more information about the Country Bumpkin Farm Market
please visit their website: www.countrybumpkinent.com
or find them on Facebook HERE.
