6 minute read
A SPECIAL WAY TO RAISE A FAMILY
By Bob Fitch
“Living on a farm is a pretty special way to raise a family,” according to Nathan Van Maanen. He and his wife, Amber, are raising four children on their farm east of Doon.
“Our kids gather up our eggs from the hens and ducks; and they feed the chickens,” said Nathan. “Clayton doesn’t go to school yet, so he comes out and works with me almost daily. Kids learn a work ethic on the farm.”
Amber said, “The kids see the value in growing our own food and raising our own meat. They also help with all the canning and freezing.”
The Van Maanen children like to see calves being born, the chicks and ducklings hatching, and playing with the baby kittens. The kids even help with processing the meat (beef, pork and duck) for the family’s own use. “Oh yeah, butchering pigs is so fun,” said Alayna, who is eight years old and will be in third grade in the fall at Hull Protestant Reformed Christian School. Noelle is seven and will be a second grader in the fall. Clayton is four and Tristan is one. Noelle’s favorite thing on the farm is riding their horse. Besides hog butchering time, Alayna likes to see calves being born. Clayton said, “I like riding in the tractor and feeding the cows.” Amber added, “Sometimes he’ll ride for an eight-hour stretch in the combine during harvest.”
Alayna is looking forward to showing calves when she’s old enough for 4-H. Her dad showed equine when he was growing up and her mom showed cattle, pigs and rabbits.
Growing Up East And West Of Doon
Nathan grew up on the farm site along Highway 75 where they live now. He and Amber lived a couple miles away when they were first married, but moved to the home place when his parents, Marvin and Malinda Van Maanen, built a new house in 2017.
Nathan custom feeds hogs; has a small stock cow herd; and he and his dad feed cattle together. The expense of buying feeder cattle “is a kick right now, but at least the feed bill is not so high. And we’re getting a lot when we sell them. Hopefully moms will keep buying beef at the grocery store and not switch to chicken,” he said. Nathan, his brother, Brian, and Marvin share equipment and labor farming corn and soybean acres.
Amber grew up between Doon and Rock Valley on the farm of her parents, Randy and Pam Kats. “My parents ran pretty much the same operation we have here – I didn’t get thrown into anything new, other than the stock cows. Calving season has been a gravy train this year compared to last year with all the snow,” she said.
Both went to Western Christian High School, but were two years apart and didn’t really know each other. After high school, Nathan went to Dordt University where he earned an associates degree. “I wanted to make sure that this is what I really wanted to do. And if I didn't want to do this, I wanted some education or a degree to fall back on,” he said. He started farming fulltime while in college.
The couple crossed paths in 2013. “I had my eye on her,” Nathan said. They dated for a year before getting married in 2014.
The Blessed Barn Company
Five years ago, Amber accidentally started a hobby business, known today as The Blessed Barn. “It all started as a naptime project. It was something fun to do with Alayna and Noelle, something for me to do other than doing laundry and doing dishes. We had all these crayons, many of them cracked into little pieces. I don’t even remember where they came from. We tried to make candles from the crayons. We tried a lot of different experiments, but the bottom line is it doesn’t work.”
Undeterred, Amber became intrigued with candles. According to Nathan, “She did a ton of testing with different waxes, different size wicks and different sized bowls.” Amber continued, “Plus I worked with the fragrance oils to figure out their hot and cold throw. It's like a giant science experiment –that didn't always go well. It’s the definition of playing with fire!”
Ultimately, she developed a product different than other homebased candle makers. “We went for something that was a little more unique than just a cotton wick candle in a jar. We make dough bowls and crackling wood wicks candles, which is a best seller. There are three wicks and the wood bowl is flame retardant,” she said.
Farmers markets were a good avenue to introduce the product to local audiences. Three years ago, online sales were added at www.theblessedbarnco.com. Orders have been shipped all over the U.S., plus Canada, Norway and Spain.
Her candle products can be found locally at Honeycomb Market and Home On Main in Hull; In Clover in Sioux Center; Luxe On First in Rock Rapids; and Gathered Home Goods and Copper Rose in Rock Valley.
She also developed a pantry item called Cream of Anything. It’s made out of corn starch and nonfat dry milk, chicken bouillon, onion flakes, and dried herbs. “I found this recipe in an old cookbook and put in it in our own cupboard. We revised it a little bit and started selling it at the farmers market a few years ago. Sales just kind of exploded. People loved it. There’s not a lot of produce ready in June, so we needed something else on our table to sell.” The soup base is available to purchase online and is carried by Sunshine stores in Rock Valley and Rock Rapids and Hy-Vee in Sioux Center.
Enjoying The Kids
Her product line also includes lotion bars and lip balms made of beeswax from their own hives. “It’s a messy process, a very long process that will never pay for itself. But it’s a fun thing for the kids and me.”
Last year, Amber backed away from farmers markets. Besides the candles, the family was also selling fresh produce, eggs and arranged cut flowers. “I really enjoyed doing the markets. It was fun to get to know customers who loved to come to our booth every single week. You make some pretty good friends. But it takes a lot of time to pick everything, prune some plants, wash the eggs, and bag everything up. I'd just had Tristan and he was sick quite a bit. Now the kids are wanting to get into sports. I just decided I wanted to be here. We'll just wait on the markets for a while so that we can enjoy our kids in the summer.
