It Takes a Village: Leaning into Community on Get Bentz Farm.
Outside of Northfield, MN, Theresa and Jake Bentz are uplifting the local food community in their quest to produce woolen and meat products that are made ethically and sustainably from start to finish.
Story by Sarah Wescott | Photography and Videography by Sarah Carroll
As evening sets in on Get Bentz Farm, the earth takes on a new light. Golden rays shift onto a roadside prairie teeming with primitive Icelandic sheep. Meanwhile, chickens settle into the coop for the night. From the house, the expansive overlook displays bright green and golden fields fading into greys and blues. Far below sits the Cannon River Valley winding through a landscape of rolling plains. At the bottom of the property, dim light drapes itself across a thick forest of mixed fruit trees and grasses bursting through newly exposed soils left behind by grazing sheep.
Here on Get Bentz Farm, the Bentz family raises grass-fed lamb, high-quality sheep’s wool, and native plants for dying wool. Their snout-to-tail operation utilizes all parts of the animal from the meat, to the skulls, to the prized wool. In addition, they run an on-farm wool mill that transforms raw wool into roving, a long bundle of fibers, in a rainbow of colors.
Like many emerging farmers, Jake and Theresa did not grow up in the agricultural world. Jake had a few relatives on farms, but for the most part, they spent their lives near cities and suburbs, working jobs far removed from the farming sector.
After years in town, they found the traffic to be stifling and were consistently frustrated with the lack of high-quality, ethically-produced animal products in their communities. They recognized a need for good food, not only for themselves but for Americans at large. These were the days of documentaries like “Super Size Me” and the awakening of the public consciousness around a broken food system that favored efficiency over humane conditions and low costs over healthy products.
Two years of searching later, the couple finally found their farmland and moved to the countryside of Northfield, Minnesota ready for a fresh start. Their awareness of slow food quickly translated into an understanding of the slow fashion movement- a desire to intentionally create and consume clothing fibers raised ethically and often from sustainable and organic materials. This sparked their interest in raising sheep for wool fiber. During their first year on the land, they purchased their first two ewes. One, named Badgerface, still grazes the pastures today and is the mascot of the farm.
As of 2021, their flock is 76 strong and growing yearly. Unlike most sheep farmers in the U.S., Jake and Theresa raise primitive Icelandic sheep. Known for its hearty nature, unique wool, and marbled lean meat, this breed hails from northern Europe and was brought over to the Americas in the 1970s. The sheep are smaller than traditional Merino or Suffolk sheep, and their wool is prized among hand-spinners.
While Jake takes on many of the farm chores such as fencing, feeding, and upkeep, Theresa manages the flock, their bounty of wool, and the newly installed mill. Aside from her extensive knowledge of wool, spinning, dyeing, and knitting, some of Theresa’s greatest strengths are her investments in community and collaboration. She recognized early on that there is power in knowledge sharing, and that growing food and fabrics ethically truly takes a village. “No farmer is an island on themselves,” notes Theresa. “Everybody who comes here, who buys meat, who buys a flour sack towel, or attends a class, they’re part of this community. I hope that they have that feeling like they’re a part of it too.”
Enter Alejandra Sanchez, Theresa’s business partner, dyer extraordinaire, and spinning enthusiast. At her nearby farm, A Woolen Forest, Alejandra has a healthy flock of Jacob, Soay, and Leicester Longwool, all rare breeds that she is working to conserve. In addition, she raises Angora rabbits for their rich fiber.
Alejandra and Theresa’s partnership is one of knowledge sharing, collaboration, resilience, and community. In the last few years, the pair have helped one another expand their flocks, multiplied their tool kit of natural dyes and dyeing techniques, and started teaching classes to others in the wool community.
As a team, they exemplify the power of togetherness, and their monthly box of featured wools called Shepherds’ Shares (available online) showcase their combined talents as shepherds, spinners, creatives, and friends. “Community is everything. I don’t think any one of us could do what we’re doing without community,” says Alejandra.
In the spring months, Alejandra plants Rudbeckia, Coreopsis, Marigold, and Indigo in her garden. Within a few months, they bloom into beautiful flowers ready for harvest. Throughout the winter, the duo dries the blooms, and come the following year, they are ready to transform the bounty into fabric dyes in green, orange, yellow, and blue hues.
Meanwhile, Theresa and Alejandra tend their flocks, moving the sheep into the barn nightly with an eerie call into the wind. Sheering is done twice yearly, and milling is done regularly to turn the raw, cleaned, and dyed wool into beautiful lengths of roving, ready to be spun into yarn, and knitted into sweaters warm enough for a cold Minnesota day. Wool that is unusable for roving finds another home.
“We use low-quality wool, which would otherwise be burned, in our wool bedding products, and use a family-owned, eco-friendly, mill to create beautiful pillows, bed pads, and comforters,” explains Theresa. All Get Bentz bedding is 100% biodegradable, compostable, and can be used for generations due to its durability.
The products available on Get Bentz Farm illustrate just how much care, time, consideration, and creative energy is put into the land and animals. Jake, Theresa, and Alejandra truly embody ethical farming and continually look at their daily farm chores with renewed wonder and appreciation for the land. They share their passions and spread awareness of the benefits of slow fashion and fiber within the local community, participating in The Livestock Conservancy, The Sustainable Farming Association, The Minnesota Farmers Union, and The Three Rivers Fibershed.
The land they farm is beginning to bear fruit of their diligent hard work, as flowers bloom on the restored prairie, and the sheep slowly work through the thick expanse of invasive buckthorn, leaving space for low-lying native grasses to take root in their wake.
Theresa, Jake, and Alejandra pride themselves on welcoming new and returning customers into their community. Aside from purchasing products from their website at https://www.getbentzfarm.com/, community members can take classes on their farm in fleece preservation, sheering, skirting, spinning, and dyeing. During the summer months, they sell at The Maple Grove Farmers Market, The Linden Hills Farmers Market, and The Riverwalk Market.
After a long day of work on the farm, Opal, the youngest of the two Bentz children, makes the most of the fading daylight, roaming the yard in a frilly pink dress with bike and fireflies in tow. Despite their seven years on the land, farmers Theresa and Jake Bentz admire the evening beauty of their farm as if it was the first time they’ve seen it. Another picturesque day on the farm is coming to a close.
Additional ways to support Get Bentz farm include:
Telling a friend about their courses
Gifting their products to a loved one
Subscribing to their email newsletter