Darla Lester and her twin sister Kayla welcomed the Ellsworth Chamber of Commerce to their neighboring homesteads at W7609 320th Ave. in Hager City to host a ribbon cutting. We got the opportunity to meet all of their animals, including chickens, turkeys, a ram, sheep, goats, rabbits and more!

Read what the twins from Twin Folk had to say about their first ten months in business after starting an LLC shortly before the pandemic struck.

We've been running a homestead since 2013. We started off with a family milk cow, goats, and laying hens. Over time we added meat chickens, beef, sheep, turkeys, and pork. Kayla and her family moved into the neighboring farm in 2017 and added rabbits to their homestead._ We have always been driven to live close to nature, and once we started having kids, we knew this lifestyle was for us. We prioritize high quality food, and want our kids to be healthy and robust. By raising the animals ourselves, everyone from youngest to oldest understands the challenges and rewards of a pasture based meat system. We see the thriving animals, we are willing to work hard to move them to fresh ground to build quality pastures and disease resistant animals. The kids have a healthy relationship with meat, and know that we can respectfully eat it, knowing that it lived an ideal life, and in turn can keep us thriving. Everyone knows how to work HARD, work TOGETHER, and sleep really good at night!__ After spending those first few years learning the ins and outs of farming and raising meat, we formed an LLC in Feb of 2020. Twin Folk Farms LLC. We have an online site,_www.twinfolkfarms.com, in which people can purchase their meat directly off of the site. After we see an order come in, we contact the buyer and arrange a time for them to come pick up their meat. We also can deliver locally for free if the order is over $50.

We have met so many neighbors and community members through this journey, and are excited to keep that rolling. We have had lots of encouragement and lots of questions (people love it when our sheep and turkeys/chickens are within view of the road when they drive by). It's also fun to keep people guessing on which twin they are talking to (we sometimes make them guess before we answer). Our name, Twin Folk Farms, is based on us twins, but we'd be remiss to not_ mention our husbands! They are a KEY part of the operation, even though they both still hold down full time jobs. They are continually working on fencing, hauling heavy stuff, maintaining equipment, putting up hay, and all of the 'behind the scenes' goodness that goes on around farm life.__ The Chamber of Commerce has been such an encouragement and has so many ideas to benefit our town. They performed a super fun ribbon cutting live on Facebook, and we've seen many people join our brand new page as a result of their shoutout._ Darla_and Kayla grew up in Ellsworth, and we are excited to continue representing the town with engaging businesses and opportunities. Our dreams include opening a hip camp (private camping), camps and classes for adults and kids, and even a farm store someday. Our farm has highway access, with some other small farms in the area (Driftless Orchard and Oxheart CSA), so we are excited to be a destination point!

We realize that not everyone can be involved in this type of farming, so we try to document pig chasing, sheep feeding, bottle lambs, hay baling, at home butchery, roosting turkeys, adventuring kids, and whatever else you can imagine on Instagram under the handle of twinfolkfarms. Join us there, and you'll quickly get to know us and receive your farming fix!_

Staff photo.