Burger Night Week 8 (of 23)

“Why Burger Night?” (A Long Answer for the Curious, the Hungry, and the Miracle-Seekers)

“Why Burger Night?” (A Long Answer for the Curious, the Hungry, and the Miracle-Seekers) If you’ve ever sat on our farm with a burger in one hand and a beer in the other, gazing at the cows on the hill and wondered: “What made them decide to do this?" well, friend, settle in. The short answer is: we wanted to bring people to the farm and pizza was already taken. But the long answer? The long answer involves 60 acres of overgrown dreams, a barn on the brink of collapse, a freezer full of lard and the sort of miracles you only recognize in hindsight. It All Started With a (Totally Normal) Idea… Back in 2009, when we bought this place, we had no intention of selling meat, inviting strangers over or running a seasonal restaurant. Heck, we didn’t even have farming experience. The idea was simple: raise our kids in the country, grow some of our own food, and enjoy a little space. That’s it. We bought the property when Mady was three and Adeyle was six months old. If you had told me then that someday we’d be hosting live music, running a bar and serving 300+ burgers on a Saturday night… I’d have assumed you were drunk. And then I’d have laughed until I couldn’t breathe and pointed out that neither Andy nor I had ever farmed a day in our lives and we knew even less about running a restaurant. But life’s funny like that. The Dilapidated Farm This farm hadn’t been used for animals in ages. It was more of a rural junkyard with a leaky house, decaying buildings and enough broken stuff to fill a dozen dumpsters. It took us a full year just to clean things up and find our starting point. But then came the animals. We started with a couple pigs and cows for ourselves. Then came chickens. A few geese. Some ducks. A pair of goats that may or may not have been invited. A sheep. A milk cow. Turkeys. More pigs. (You get the idea.) And then we reasoned amongst ourselves: “Well, if we’re already feeding a couple pigs, what’s a couple more? We can sell the extras and get our own meat for free!” HAHAHAHAHAHA. That was cute. Because spoiler alert: there's no such thing as "free" meat when you have now created an entirely new division called SALES. (And, pro tip: marketing and sales is way harder than production. By a lot. Sigh, what young, naive fools we were.) But we had convinced ourselves it was a great idea (another pro-tip: always run your ideas past people smarter than you and with no skin in the game). So we expanded. More pigs. More cows. And just when we were starting to feel like maybe we were getting the hang of it, corn prices shot through the roof and feeder pigs became impossible to find. Which meant: time to make our own piglets. But you can’t just have one sow. The efficient number is closer to six. So… guess who’s now drowning in pork? You're a good guesser! It was us. The Farmer's Market Fizzle At this point we needed storage, so we added a walk-in freezer. Then we needed to sell all that meat, so we hit up every farmer’s market we could get into.Which was exhausting (remember, we both had day jobs during all of this too). And limited. And frustratingly political. (If you think farmer’s markets are all kumbaya and holding hands, think again.) This meant we couldn’t get into the big downtown market or winter market, so we did 3-5 small ones every week, and we couldn’t go to the nearby Twin Cities markets because our beloved butcher is only WI-inspected and using them is a non-negotiable (truly uncured meats (no celery either!) and no weird stuff is nearly impossible to find).We knew farmer’s markets weren’t going to be a long-term plan anyway. I had quite the knack for bringing the exact wrong products on any given day and hated how weather-dependent they were, not to mention seasonal (This was 10+ years ago before social media was the force it is today and before winter markets were much of an option around here.)So the wheels started turning…What if, instead of us chasing people down in hot parking lots, we could get people to come to us (and yes, this is also when we started the online store)? The Farm as a Destination? Our friends and family had started commenting on how beautiful the farm was. And once we looked up from our grindstones long enough, we saw it too. The view. The peace. The potential.Meanwhile, farm-to-table restaurants started popping up in Eau Claire and we started supplying a few. This gave us hope and contacts. But while other farms were doing pizza nights, I couldn’t make that fit for us.For one, I have a terrible relationship with dough and baking (just ask my mother). And two, we’re not a dairy, wheat, or veggie farm, we’re a meat farm. Pizza just didn’t check enough boxes for the ingredients we had and wanted to keep having.But burgers? Burgers are just as versatile as pizza, the focus is MEAT, specifically BEEF. And, BONUS: they go really well with fries and cheese curds.Which brings us to what I'll lovingly call my "lard problem". A Fat Problem (and a Deep-Fried Solution) We had rendered all this gorgeous lard from our pastured pigs and were using some in soaps and balms (shoutout to Good Fat Skincare, formerly Stephanie’s Super Swine Soap), but it was piling up. And while tallow is currently having quite the moment in the spotlight, lard is still a four-letter word to many people (but pro-tip: it's even better for you in lotions!).So I was venting to a chef friend about my lard conundrum when he casually mentioned, “You know, you could use it in the fryer.” EUREKA. That was it. The vision was born: Burgers and fries. Made with our beef. Fried in our fat. Done. Now we just had to figure out literally everything else. 😂 No Experience? No Problem! (Kinda.) We didn’t have restaurant experience or restaurant-investor money. So we did what we always do: figured it out one painful, hilarious, miracle-at-a-time step after another.We leaned on our restaurant friends to help us figure out menus, sourcing, kitchen layout, vent hoods, fryer safety, grease disposal....the million things you don't even know are a thing until you start planning and talking it through. We also knew we wanted everything made fresh to order, not precooked or being held. (Again, there’s a reason you don’t see many burger farms. It’s a trickier & more expensive setup than pizza....especially when you have no idea what you are doing.) So we did pop-ups to test this little theory of mine that if people would drive out to veggie farms for pizza, maybe they'll drive out to a meat farm for burgers??And lo and behold…during one of those pop-ups, who should show up but PBS’s Wisconsin Foodie, a show that had rarely (never?) come this far west and didn’t waste airtime on dumb ideas. They liked what they saw. The wind was now in our sails. Lightning Strikes (Literally) So we got to work. We worked with our health inspector to find the best way to use our existing farm spaces safely. Since banks are pretty well-known for not funding build-it-and-they-will come types of operations we had to get creative with funding and are grateful to have received a loan through our county’s Revolving Loan Fund (because we were creating jobs) and a USDA grant that helped with marketing and startup costs.But the real turning point? That WI Foodie episode that made us believe it really was a good idea and gave us a platform before we really even opened! How crazy is that?!? I'm not sure we would've been able to financially survive those first few years of start-up expenses without it. And the only reason I even saw the post from WI Foodie looking for new farms?I woke up in the middle of the night to a thunderstorm and started scrolling Facebook.I woke up in the middle of the night to a thunderstorm and started scrolling Facebook. Lightning. Literally. ⚡ Burgers, Fries, and Big Dreams So that’s how Burger Night started: A daunting pile of lard, a string of well-timed miracles and the belief that people might just come to the middle of nowhere for something delicious, meaty and fun.Today, Burger Night is burgers, fries, beer, music, bingo, trivia, community and the most magical little farm in the hills of Mondovi.Has everything gone according to plan? Absolutely not.We thought we’d be building a permanent restaurant building “in a few years”. That was many years ago. Reality (and weather) had other plans. And covid struck when we were just two years old so we had quite a baptism-by-fire for those first couple of years (if you came out during 2020-2021 you should give us another try, pretty sure more than a few wrote us off during those crazy years). But now we have our legs somewhat under us.I also loved the idea of turning the used fryer oil into biodiesel for the tractor to really complete the circle but that hasn't made it to reality yet. But there's a million other ideas cooking.The next BIG goal is to build a new building for farm operations so we can convert the barn into a bar with indoor seating. (We’re just waiting on a cool $200K to fall from the sky. Lightning, take the hint.) From Lard to Legacy So why burgers?Because they made sense for our farm, our products, our weird little challenges, our personalities and our beautiful patch of land. Because we wanted something fun & creative. Because fries and cheese curds. But ultimately, because we wanted to share the farm with you.And somehow it all just came together.

Week 22: 2nd to last week. How can it be?

Burger Night is open, rain or shineThursday & Friday 4pm-8pmSaturday noon-8pmSunday noon-7p It's Week 22 of 23 for the 2025 Burger Night season! That's right folks, only one more weekend left. So, yes, thanks for asking, the depression has already kicked in but I'm going to pretend that we have LOTS more weekends left because 1. nobody likes it when the bartender is the one crying...including the bartender herself. and 2. with this crazy warm weather we've been having, maybe we've got a lot of pop-ups in our future?! (But don't count on that because any good Wisconsinite that isn't in full denial mode knows that winter could show up at any minute and without any warning.) and 3. Every day of every week, be it week number 4 or now, week 22, every day is unique and special and dare I say awe-invoking, if you've got the sense to sense it. So, the aptly named Burger of the Week is: The Final Krautdown: 100% grassfed beef pattysmoked sauerkraut and bacon mixtureOktoberfest beer mustard sauceMuenster cheese100% grassfed beef pattyBrat patty!On a pretzel bun (mostly) It's like Oktoberfest on a bun. (Note that we have about 15 other main meal options on the menu, not just whatever the BOTW special is; you can see the menus on the website.) The Final Krautdown is helping us kraut, I mean count, down the week to the end of the 2025 Burger Night season and we would just adore to see you on more time before we start seeing white. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, Sept 25th Trivia at 6:30pm: Mixed Bag TV ShowsMonopolyPicture: mountainsAudio: campfire songsFamous women Remember, we give prizes to 1st place, 2nd place and Last place! So bring your friends (use the info above to help you decide who to bring) and let's have some Thursday night fun! Grab your friends (different ages/generations is always a wise choice) and play trivia with us at 6:30pm Thursdays! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, Sept 26th LIVE MUSIC with Josh White 5-8pm Josh White brings a soulful blend of rock, country, and alternative influences to the stage. From fronting heavy-hitting rock bands to crafting heartfelt alt-country with Brown & White, Josh now pours it all into his dynamic solo shows. Expect everything from Garth Brooks to Alice in Chains, his setlist flexes to whatever the crowd is craving. Josh White live Friday 5-8pm - rocking everything from country to alt rock, with plenty in between. 🎵 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, Sept 27th LIVE MUSIC with Dwayne Thomas 5-8pm Dwayne Thomas delivers a crowd-pleasing mix of classic rock, country, and pop favorites alongside his own original tunes. His set leans into the best of the ’70s–’90s with artists like Tom Petty, Bob Seger, Goo Goo Dolls, and more. It’s the kind of music made for singing along with a cold drink in hand. Saturday 5–8pm, Dwayne Thomas brings classic rock, country, and a few originals to the farm stage. 🎵 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, Sept 28th 3pm: Free BINGO with Steph! This Sunday we've got one $400 cash jackpot and one $11,000 one! We play 9 games with a winner every game! ✨ If you wanna win, you gotta play! ✨ Bingo fun! It's free, it could be the SECOND TO LAST ONE, so why not?? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Farm Store Updates Ferments are on sale!! One of my absolute favorite things in the farm store (I mean, not above gizzards, but right up there.) You might think sauerkraut is the only ferment out there, but I assure you, it is not. There is SO MUCH MORE to the world of ferments and we are putting all our life-giving ferments, on sale!! Don't buy probiotic pills or powders of dubious quality when the real thing is so much more delicious and interesting. pickles > pills Want full control? Grab a DIY kit so you can putz with bacteria farming over the upcoming winter! NEW POTTERY! Maybe I can't convince you to give fermented hot sauce a try but you will LOVE seeing all the new pottery that just dropped! NEW BEEF BUNDLES! We've finally launched some beef-only bundles! Everyday FavoritesPremium 1/8thand the largest: Fill Your Freezer This is the largest of the new beef-only bundles, learn about all of them here! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Closing Thoughts Thank you so much for all the support in whatever way you do it: liking posts, reading emails, buying meat, coming to Burger Night, prayer 😄, whatever it is. It all works together to build this complex community that allows our little farm to do big things. Hope to see you soon (like, really soon though 😬). ❤ Your farmer & friend, Steph p.s. The farm store will be open over the winter (hours will be decided soon) and as many of you know, we deliver and ship our meats every week year-round. August left us an updated ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Google ReviewIf you want a country view and a place to kick back with great food and served with kindness you found it

Week 21: 2 BOTWs + weather solutions!

Burger Night is open, rain or shineThursday & Friday 4pm-8pmSaturday noon-8pmSunday noon-7p It's Week 21 of 23 for the 2025 Burger Night season! 🤯 This warm weather has me so confused, how can there be only 2 weeks left?! What I'm not confused about with the weather is if we're going to be open - so reminder that we are open if it's: sunnyhotcoldhumidwindyfoggyperfect (it happened once! honest!)snowymistingraining in Eau Claire*thunderstorming (though if there's a lot of lightning the music might be cancelled - we never want to disappoint anyone that might come out for the music (see below 🤩) plus we pay a cancellation fee so we do try really hard to not cancel music whenever possible)mostly cloudytornadoing (though we may move the party into the farm store's basement 🤣)hailingfloodingmostly sunny OR partly cloudyless than idealsleetingor some combination of the above. What I'm saying is that sometimes you're going to get more than just a burger when you come out. :) Why do we do this? (to quote my children every time the weather is anything less than perfect) Because otherwise we'd be closed every other 15 minutes....it's so unpredictable and it's never constant so we just roll with it. Can you imagine me trying to post our hours on google or facebook: Thursday: open 4-4:15, 4:45-5:05ish, 5:32-5:35, 6:01-6:02, 6:30-6:55, 7:30-7:40, 7:44-8:00. Why am I bringing this up? No reason! If you could please just close your window blinds and don't even check or worry about what the weather is doing and join us on the farm because who knows what the next two weeks might bring? Tropical cyclone perhaps? That's NOT on the list above sooooo 😬 I wouldn't chance it. *or wherever you are, REMINDER: check the radar because it may NOT be raining here; however, if it's beautiful in EC or wherever you are do NOT check the radar, just assume it's also awesome here. Oh geez, I made more mistakes again. You'd think they'd just fire me already, but, nope. This mistake = TWO Burgers of the Week for you again! So, see? Not all mistakes are bad for everyone. 😂 Screw up #1: Last week's burger with the blueberry ketchup was supposed to be the week before when Joyann Parker was playing (she does some blues styles) but not only did I mix that up, I also (mistake #2) showed you the WRONG picture for the BB's BBlue's one - that was actually a picture of THIS week's We Brie Jammin' BOTW. Mistake #3 - there was only supposed to be one blueberry-involved BOTW for the whole year, in my mind I was actually thinking about the Beez Kneez BOTW. But! I wrote down We Brie Jammin...? 🤔 Or at least I think that's what happened? No idea. [Send Help!] So this is where we're at for Week 21 of 23 (the one where Steph loses her mind): Beez Kneez, will be featuring: 100% grassfed beef pattya pear, honey & ginger compote from Quince & Applemelted brieginger-infused honey drizzle 🍯 uncured applewood smoked bacona brioche (not ciabatta) bun to hold all that sweet deliciousness together We Brie Jammin' (pictured below): 100% grassfed beef pattyuncured applewood smoked bacon lemon-infused brie Avenue Orchard's blueberry-habanero jamon a toasted brioche bun. We do not have a ton of the actual We Brie Jammin's so that may see a jam swap later this weekend or it may be sold out - we weren't exactly planning on doing this one. 🤪 (I mean, I got the brie, bacon, brioche and beef parts right though.) (Note that we have about 15 other main meal options on the menu, not just whatever the BOTW special is; you can see the menus on the website.) Behold! This is actually the We Brie Jammin' BOTW! Not many though so hurry! The Beez Kneez BOTW (plus bacon and on brioche now, not ciabatta)! It's so delicious....highly recommend!------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, Sept 25th (next week) Trivia at 6:30pm: Mixed Bag TVMonopolyPicture: mountainsAudio: campfire songsFamous womenComic book characters Remember, we give prizes to 1st place, 2nd place and Last place! So bring your friends (use the info above to help you decide who to bring) and let's have some Thursday night fun! Grab your friends (different ages/generations is always a wise choice) and play trivia with us at 6:30pm Thursdays! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, Sept 19th LIVE MUSIC with John Gay 5-8pm Singer-songwriter, John Gay’s, gritty contemplative sound ripened in prison while he served a nine-year sentence for marijuana that started in 2011. After his release in 2017 John started performing his solo acoustic set at various venues around Wisconsin playing original music he wrote in prison along with covers of his favorite artists such as Jason Isbell, The Lumineers, Chris Stapleton, and Zach Williams. Gritty singer-songwriter from Jefferson, WI, with heartfelt originals and covers you’ll know. 🎵 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, Sept 20th LIVE MUSIC with Corey Rae White 5-8pm Corey Rae White is a seasoned singer-songwriter with music in his blood and over 4,000 performances under his belt. A former Guitar Player of the Year nominee (Minnesota Music Association), he's known for heartfelt songwriting, electric live shows, and a warm, humorous stage presence. A multiple award-winning artist, White has earned National Native-E Music Awards and Native American Music Awards nominations, including for his song “Dimmer” and collaborations “I Will Always Fight” and “Don’t Keep Me Waiting.” He’s performed with bands like The Johnny Holm Band, CRAE WHITE Band, and Girls Night Out, and opened for stars like Train, Miranda Lambert, Zac Brown Band, and Semisonic. Melody, experience, and soul define his sound - Corey Rae White is the full package! Corey Rae White returns to the farm Saturday night, 5-8pm, after one of the most talked-about sets of the season! Come find out why Andy himself said he may be one of the best we've ever had! 🎵 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, Sept 21th 3pm: Free BINGO with Steph! This Sunday we've got one $300 cash jackpot and one $10,000 one! We play 9 games with a winner every game! ✨ If you wanna win, you gotta play! ✨🏈 PACKER GAME at noon Sunday will be on behind the bar! Bingo fun! It's free, the Packer game will be on behind the bar (starts at noon) so why not?? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, September 24th 🍻 Beer Dinner with The Brewing Projekt and Chef Andrew! The menu looks fantastic, the weather (crazy as it sounds) looks like it's going to be perfect and all the people are wonderful! So we'd love to have you join us for the this last Wednesday night of food & farm fun. Beer Dinner Tickets --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Farm Store Updates We just received our pottery re-stock and we've got a few honey and bee-related items on sale in honor of the (actual) Burger of the Week (the Beez Kneez one 😂).And we have everyone's favorite ice cream flavors right now too - including Adeyle's favorite Caramel Apple Pie! 🍨❤ (hence why an ice cream flight is an option.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Closing Thoughts One last weather thought since we try so hard to never cancel live music and risk disappointing any fans that might come out and see them: Come out and see them! We do pay attention to which musicians have a following and get community support so: --> if you want them to keep coming back, --> if you want us to continue our pretty strict no cancel policy and --> if you want them to really feel the love then coming out when the weather is less than ideal is the #1 way to do that (right behind cash tips 🤣). And never forget: There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes! 😉 Thank you so much for all the love and support!! 💚Your farmer & friend, Steph p.s. Yesterday was National Cheeseburger Day and I sent out a text for BOGO half off of any burgers or pulled pork sandwiches, if you missed it but don't want to miss the next one text Burger Night to 715-200-8333 For farm/meat sales and updates text Together Farms to that same number. If you already signed up and you aren't seeing the texts, check your texting spam folder (even Andy's were going there - I think it's because I talk about giving away 1,000s of dollars at bingo and the filters don't like that because usually it's a scam, but, lucky for you, we are an unusual bunch). p.s. Only 3 more weeks after this one so don't delay because you never know what the weather might do for the rest of them. Rachel left us an updated ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Google ReviewWhat a beautiful place! Great food!

Burger Night Week 8 (of 23)

Thursday, June 19

Friday, June 20

Saturday, June 21

Sunday, June 15

Farm Store Updates

More from the blog

“Why Burger Night?” (A Long Answer for the Curious, the Hungry, and the Miracle-Seekers)

Week 22: 2nd to last week. How can it be?

Week 21: 2 BOTWs + weather solutions!

Local Farm • Grass-fed Beef • Meal Kits • Burger Nights • More