Farmer Spotlight: Zinniker Family Farm
How one of the oldest biodynamic Farms in America took its legacy online.
After attending college for horticulture in Germany, Petra Zinniker wrote to the Biodynamic Association, asking about opportunities for hands-on experience working with an organic Farm in the states. On the Member List she received was Zinniker Family Farms, where she landed an internship, met her husband, and spent her life working on one of the oldest biodynamic Farms in the country. Petra graciously shared her story, the Farm’s history, and their experience selling direct to customers.
“We’re a 165 acre Farm with a primary focus of organic, grass fed beef. We also raise and sell seasonal pork (raising piglets in the spring through fall), eggs, and honey from my husband’s cousin’s apiary on the Farm. I make and sell both biodynamic preparations (a nutrient-rich compost material) and milk-based soaps.”
When asked about the history of their farm, Petra shared, “my husband’s grandparents came from Switzerland in the early 1920’s, and he worked as a gardener on an estate in Glencoe, Illinois (north of Chicago). When he learned about Rudolf Steiner’s work, he began using those practices in the garden. Eventually, they decided to move and begin their own biodynamic Farm. That’s what is unique about Zinniker Farms—it’s not only one of the earliest biodynamic Farms, it never went through that transition from being farmed conventionally.”
When asked if there was a noticeable difference in their soil quality, Petra responded frankly, “Yes. Biodynamics and holistic grazing methods have greatly improved the soil quality over the years. The people who make that transition from conventional struggle more to find that ultimate balance, dealing with pests and the like. Since the 1960’s we have been crafting biodynamic preparations for our soil, based on teachings from Rudolf Steiner. The approach isn’t ‘how do I fix this?’ instead it is ‘how do I bring this back into balance? Instead of finding solutions to problems, you work to create a system that doesn’t cause those problems.”
The Biodynamic Association, beyond initially connecting Petra with Zinniker Family Farm, has been an important community resource to connect biodynamic Farmers with each other. “I like to observe what’s happening in the community and stay in the loop—it is a great community. I’ve been really involved with a group of Farmers making preparations [a nutrient-rich compost material] for other Farms that need them.”
Zinniker Family Farms sells their Farm products, including biodynamic preparations, online (powered by Barn2Door). “We were always going direct-to-customers, but wanted to increase sales. Thanks to now managing orders and sales online, in the last few months we’ve seen a lot of new customers. The way people buy food has really changed!
We used to sell only in bulk, but people are looking for other options in today’s market. We discovered that people do understand subscriptions. We started offering 12 month beef bundle subscriptions and are gaining a lot of interest!
The farmers market we attend put together an online system for people to reserve products and drive through to pick up. We ended up linking our Barn2Door store, since the system they’re using couldn’t accommodate variable weights. My observation is that a lot of people come to the farmers market for entertainment and make impulse buys. As a beef producer, steak isn’t an impulse buy, and you have to sell out of beef sticks to make the morning worth your time.
We signed up with Barn2Door because we needed a new, revamped website and a way to remind customers to order each week—it really seemed to offer what we needed. I understand that everyone’s on their phones all the time now, so I knew the website and store needed to look good on a phone [a mobile responsive website].
To get started, we built our customers list (in the Barn2Door portal) with customers who were members of our cowshare program. We started emailing them regularly, and have since picked up additional customers in the area who learned they could order from us online. Sales have really taken off in the last couple months; the online store makes it so easy for today’s buyers to purchase and easy for me to manage those daily orders!”
Petra’s advice to other producers? “Be willing to try new things in farming and in selling—keep learning about today’s buyer habits and preferences. We see buyer preferences changing, and are incorporating them into our farming and business.”
At Barn2Door, we’re proud to support Farmers like Petra and Zinniker Family Farm, by supporting their online sales, saving them time, and partnering with organizations like the Biodynamic Association—helping to connect, educate and support biodynamic Farms across the country. Learn how Barn2Door works in 5 minutes.