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Employee Spotlight

The Family That Farms Together

They never planned to buy a farm. They were just looking for a place to live.

Kehaulani Jones Family
Kehaulani Jones Family

But when Kehaulani Jones, her husband, Andrew, and their children moved from St. Louis to southern Wisconsin for Andrew’s job, they stumbled upon a historic 80-acre farm—and immediately fell in love. Nestled in green, rolling hills and sheltered by Baraboo Bluffs, the area reminded them of Andrew’s native New Zealand. It seemed the perfect place to connect with nature, teach their children to work, and complement their homeschooling activities. “We were transplants coming in from a different state,” recalls Jones. “We didn’t know what a gem this place was.”

The previous owners hadn’t lived in the house or seriously engaged in farming for more than 30 years, so it was “kind of a mess,” says Jones, “but we saw it as a blank canvas.” They began researching agricultural ventures that the whole family could be involved in and settled on lavender, a “triple-threat” plant that has medicinal, decorative, and culinary uses. Armed with skills she gained from the BYU Marriott MPA program, which she completed in 2001, and her 1999 BYU bachelor’s degree in linguistics, Jones put together spreadsheets to look at the proposition from all angles.

Once they decided to move forward, the next hurdle was dealing with the naysayers. “It was so trying,” Jones remembers. “I called up the extension office here in our area, and they said, ‘What’s lavender?’ And then I went into the nurseries, and people would say, ‘You’re going to grow what? That doesn’t grow around here.’ The first season, even customers were telling us the lavender wouldn’t come back.” But the family remained optimistic.

Jones attended lavender-growing seminars in the Pacific Northwest and, through a process of trial and error, adapted cultivation processes to the climate in Baraboo. “It was a big learning curve,” she says. But the family jumped in with gusto, starting out with 2,000 plants and a variety of cultivars.

After an experimental year to make sure the lavender would survive a Wisconsin winter, they opened their farm to the public. Eight years later, Rowley Creek Lavender Farm is a complex agritourism operation that hosts a full calendar of events during lavender season. It boasts an onsite shop (an existing shed the Joneses spent two years renovating) and has a small online presence to sell the family’s “aloha made” lavender products, ranging from essential oils and luxurious skincare items to home decor and food. Along the way, Jones has picked up certifications in permaculture, aromatherapy, natural skincare design, and yoga instruction to support the farm’s activities.

In addition to cultivating the crop, the family handles marketing, social media, and website design, and they also provide tours and educate guests. “It’s been quite an adventure,” says Jones—and the best part is the unity her family has built along the way. “We know how to work together. It’s all-hands-on-deck when there’s an event. We’ve come to the point where we can almost read each other’s body language and anticipate where to be and what we have to do.” In addition to pitching in physically, everyone contributes their best thinking to improve the business. “The kids come up with amazing ideas and some creative solutions when we encounter challenges,” she says.

Among her degrees and certifications, Jones lists her favorite as her “ongoing degree in mom.” She homeschools her five children and says teaching each of them to read is one of her proudest accomplishments. “Most things I can’t really take credit for, even this farm. It’s a group effort. And whatever my kids have achieved, that’s their thing. But I can say I taught them how to read. For me, that signifies that I helped to open their eyes.”