The Heart Of The Farm
Our roots, our family, our story.
Welcome to Wendland Family Farm.
We're a small family farm in West Point, Iowa, rooted in faith, family, agriculture, and a deep love for growing good things.
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What began with a desire to grow something beautiful has grown into something much bigger than we ever imagined.
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Today, Wendland Family Farm is a place where flowers bloom, vegetables and herbs are harvested, children learn with dirt under their fingernails, pollinators find a home, families gather, and our community can experience a little piece of agriculture firsthand.
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It's our farm.
It's our family's way of life.
And we're grateful to share it with you.
Growing More Than Flowers
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Flowers will always be part of the heart of Wendland Family Farm.
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There's something extraordinary about planting a tiny seed and months later carrying armfuls of color from the field. We grow specialty cut flowers throughout the seasons and love sharing them through bouquets, CSAs, U-Picks, farm experiences, and the everyday moments that deserve something beautiful.
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But somewhere along the way, we realized we weren't simply building a flower farm.
We were building a family farm.
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Alongside the flowers, we grow fresh vegetables, culinary herbs, seedlings, seasonal crops, and other things that change with the rhythm of the year.
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What we grow doesn't always look exactly the same from one season to the next.
That's farming.
And we wouldn't have it any other way.
From Our Fields To Your Home
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We believe there's value in knowing where things come from.
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A bouquet cut from a field down the road.
A tomato that actually tastes like summer.
Fresh herbs gathered at their peak.
A child pulling a vegetable from the soil and realizing for the first time that food doesn't begin at the grocery store.
A jar made with ingredients that started right here on the farm.
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We want to shorten the distance between the field and the people we feed, teach, and serve.
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Throughout the seasons, that may mean fresh flowers, vegetables and herbs, CSA shares, seedlings, seeds, Farm Pantry goods, preserved harvests, workshops, or whatever else the season gives us to share.
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The offerings may change.
The purpose behind them doesn't.
Caring For The Land
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We don't believe farming is simply about what we can take from a piece of ground.
It's also about what we leave behind.
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Healthy soil is the foundation of everything we grow, which is why we're passionate about regenerative agriculture, soil conservation, biodiversity, and responsible growing practices.
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We want earthworms beneath our feet.
Bees in the flowers.
Butterflies moving through the field.
Birds, beneficial insects, native plants, cover crops, organic matter, and living soil all doing the quiet work that makes agriculture possible.
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We're always learning.
Always experimenting.
Always asking how we can grow better while caring for the land entrusted to us.
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Because our goal isn't simply to have productive fields today.
We want healthy ground for the generation that comes after us.
Where The Farm Becomes A Classroom
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Some of our favorite things grown here aren't crops at all.
They're curious kids.
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As a homeschooling family, agriculture naturally became part of our children's education.
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The farm is a science lab, nature study, economics lesson, classroom, playground, and character builder all rolled into one.
Our kids experience the entire growing season—the exciting parts and the hard ones. They plant seeds, watch pollinators, harvest food, help with farm work, ask approximately seventeen thousand questions, and learn firsthand that good things usually require patience and effort.
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That experience eventually inspired us to share more of the farm with other children, too.
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Through children's programs, educational experiences, workshops, tours, and hands-on learning, we want young people to understand where food and flowers come from, how plants grow, why pollinators matter, and how deeply connected we are to the land around us.
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Sometimes the best classroom doesn't have walls.
A Place To Experience Agriculture
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We don't just want people to buy what comes out of our fields.
We want them to experience where it comes from.
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Walk between rows of flowers.
Harvest something with your own hands.
Learn a skill you'll use at home.
Bring your children somewhere they can get dirty.
Ask questions.
Notice the bees.
Meet the farmer who grew your food.
Spend an hour outside without rushing to the next thing.
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Through U-Picks, workshops, children's programs, farm events, educational opportunities, and seasonal experiences, we hope to create reasons for people to step into agriculture instead of simply driving past it.
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This isn't a perfectly manicured venue.
It's a real farm.
And that's exactly what we want to share.
Faith, Family & Hard Work
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Family is at the center of Wendland Family Farm.
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Our children are growing up here alongside the crops, and many of the values guiding this business are the same ones we're trying to teach around our own kitchen table.
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Work hard.
Take responsibility.
Care for what you've been given.
Help when you see a need.
Treat people well.
Be grateful.
Give more than you take.
And trust God through seasons when you can't control the outcome.
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Farming has a way of teaching those lessons over and over again.
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There are beautiful harvests and crop failures. Rain when you need sunshine and sunshine when you're praying for rain.
There are plans that work beautifully and plans that absolutely do not.
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We can't control every season.
We can control how faithfully we show up for it.
Meet The Wendlands
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Behind Wendland Family Farm is our family—Mike, Erica, Oliver, and Harper Wendland.
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The farm may be Erica's big dream and daily work, but it has become part of all of our lives.
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Most days, you'll find Erica somewhere in the middle of it—starting seeds, planting, harvesting, planning, teaching, making bouquets, filling orders, preparing for markets, hosting workshops, or dreaming up whatever comes next.
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Mike has his own work and responsibilities, but when the farm needs a big job tackled, he's usually the one Erica calls. He's the extra set of hands for the projects that require equipment, fixing, building, moving, hauling, problem-solving—or simply someone willing to listen when another “I have an idea…” conversation begins.
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And Oliver and Harper are doing what farm kids have done for generations: growing up around it.
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They help when there is work appropriate for them, learn alongside us, wander the fields, watch seeds become food and flowers, discover insects and pollinators, and experience firsthand just how much work happens before something reaches a market table.
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Because we homeschool, the line between farm life and school life is often wonderfully blurry. Agriculture gives us opportunities to learn science, business, responsibility, nature, problem-solving, patience, and stewardship without ever opening a textbook.
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But they're also just kids.
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They play here. Explore here. Get muddy here. Complain about chores here. Make memories here.
And that's exactly how we want it.
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We aren't trying to build a picture-perfect farm family.
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We're building a real life around agriculture—one where our children understand where food comes from, know the value of hard work, learn to care for the land, and grow up seeing what it looks like to pursue something you believe in.
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Wendland Family Farm is Erica's work, but it's part of our family's story.
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And we're grateful to share a little piece of that story with you.
Still Growing
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One of the beautiful things about farming is that you're never really finished.
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Every season teaches us something.
Every year brings new ideas.
Some things grow exactly as planned. Others take us somewhere we never expected.
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Wendland Family Farm is still becoming, too.
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There are more things we want to grow, more ways we want to care for the land, more skills we want to teach, more experiences we want to create, and more people we hope will find their way here.
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We don't know exactly what every future season will hold.
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But we know what we want to remain at the center of it:
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Faith.
Family.
Stewardship.
Hard work.
Community.
And the joy of growing something real.
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We're not trying to build the biggest farm.
We're trying to build something meaningful.
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Something that feeds people.
Something that teaches.
Something that brings joy.
Something that cares for the land.
Something worth passing on.
Meet Erica
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The farmer behind Wendland Family Farm.
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Hey there, I'm Erica.
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If you've visited Wendland Family Farm, there's a pretty good chance we've already met.
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I'm the person behind the seeds, fields, flowers, vegetables, herbs, bouquets, CSAs, workshops, U-Picks, markets, website, planning, planting, harvesting—and approximately twelve new ideas before breakfast.
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I'm a farmer.
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Flowers are where much of this story began, and I'll probably always get a little too excited over an incredible variety of dahlia or lisianthus.
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But somewhere along the way, I realized what I loved wasn't only growing flowers.
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I love agriculture.
I love starting with a seed and figuring out how to grow it well.
I love learning about soil and finding ways to leave it healthier than I found it.
I love watching bees work through the field and knowing that the messy, buzzing ecosystem around me is doing exactly what it was designed to do.
I love growing food that actually tastes like something.
I love experimenting, learning, failing, changing the plan, and trying again.
And I really love helping other people experience all of it.
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That's probably why this little flower farm kept becoming something more.
Flowers led to vegetables and herbs.
Growing led to teaching.
Teaching led to workshops and children's programs.
The fields became somewhere people could come experience agriculture for themselves.
The harvest started finding its way into things we could preserve, make, teach, and share beyond the growing season.
And one idea kept leading to another.
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That's pretty much how Wendland Family Farm has grown.
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I'm also a homeschooling mom, which means I'm usually farming and raising kids at the same time. Some days that works beautifully.
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Other days there are children asking questions while I'm trying to harvest, something needs watered immediately, I've forgotten where I put my clippers for the fifth time, and whatever was on the original schedule stopped mattering hours ago.
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That's real farm life.
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You'll usually find me with dirty hands, messy hair, Crocs that have seen better days, a questionable farmer's tan, and another project already forming in my head.
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I'm stubborn.
I'm curious.
I love learning.
I'm not afraid of hard work.
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And telling me something probably can't be done is a fairly reliable way to make me want to figure out how to do it.
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I believe women belong in agriculture.
I believe children benefit from seeing real work.
I believe healthy soil matters.
I believe we have a responsibility to make room for pollinators and wildlife.
I believe knowing how to grow food is still an important skill.
I believe local farms make communities stronger.
I believe there is tremendous value in knowing the hands that grew what you're bringing home.
And I believe we're responsible for taking care of what we've been given while we're here.
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I'm not interested in building a farm that only looks beautiful from the road.
I want to build one that means something.
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One that feeds people.
One that teaches children.
One that brings people together.
One that leaves the soil better.
One that gives our family a life rooted in something real.
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And, someday, one that's worth passing on.
That's the farm I'm working toward.
And I'm really glad you're here to watch it grow.
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— Erica
From Our Family To Yours
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Thank you for supporting Wendland Family Farm.
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Every bouquet on a kitchen table, CSA share carried home, U-Pick visit, workshop seat filled, child learning in the field, Farm Pantry product enjoyed, and conversation at the farm helps our family continue doing what we love.
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We're grateful you've chosen to be part of it.
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Grown with purpose. Shared with gratitude.
Welcome to Wendland Family Farm.
— The Wendlands