Home is Where the Heart Lands

Story by Katie Ward, photos by Morgan Figgins

And if you’re the Hopkins sisters of Lewes, Delaware, it’s ‘Home is where the Hopkins Heartland is’. Amy and Ingrid Hopkins are fifth generation family farmers who merged two separate passions on their family’s preserved century farm to create a unique destination wedding location with multiple venues and accommodations.

The Hopkins farm in Sussex County, Delaware, was purchased more than five generations ago with the intent to start a dairy operation to support the family and generations to come. That dream beyond succeeded, and is now home to multiple thriving businesses that support three families, the community, and a legacy.

Ingrid Hopkins decided to return home to the farm after more than 20 years in the veterinary medicine and horse training industries to turn their 200-year-old family farmhouse into a bed & breakfast in 2015.

“When I was living in Florida, I would read the Leader magazine every quarter,” shares Ingrid. “The inspiration of seeing what the next generation of farmers is capable of, especially people that I knew, is what fueled me to return to the farm and create something magnificent. It gave me the launch pad to be able to pitch my business models to my dad when I came back.”

Amy Hopkins lead a similar path and returned back to the farm nearly a decade ago to turn her beekeeping hobby into a honey business while continuing her career as an aerospace executive. She purchased a 100 acre farm right across the road from her family’s farm to grow her hives, and leased the tillable land back to her family to farm.

“I never would have thought I’d be yearning so hard to come back to the farm,” says Amy. “I knew I had to figure out a way to contribute, but milking cows wasn’t my favorite chore. I enjoyed growing and producing something to sell — so the honeybee avenue was a perfect fit.”

The Hopkins sisters have spent the past few years learning about their new business ventures and how to grow in these new markets. Ingrid took business and marketing classes and Amy took honeybee classes through the University of Delaware Extension. By 2019, Ingrid had expanded the bed & breakfast, called the Covered Bridge Inn, into a full on-farm wedding venue that had taken off, and Amy had successfully grown Hopkins Homestead with up to 25 beehives, selling raw, unfiltered honey to local restaurants, stores, and farmers markets. And then, they had an ‘aha’ moment.

“We realized that some wedding customers only wanted a single-day venue, but the Covered Bridge Inn is a full weekend package with the bed & breakfast,” explains Ingrid. “It was sort of a ‘what if’ idea to transition the unused barn on Amy’s farm into a smaller, hourly rental venue, and it quickly grew into a detailed business plan.”

By now, Amy and Ingrid were experts at presenting new ideas to their father, Walter Hopkins, who still manages Hopkins Farm. What proved to be the biggest challenge for this new wedding venue idea wasn’t approval from their father, but from local and state legislation.

The Hopkins sisters testified twice on state bills for agri-tourism on preserved land in Delaware — once for the Covered Bridge Inn a few years ago, and again in 2019 for the new wedding venue.

“With our farm being on preserved land, we can’t build a new space – we can only renovate what is already existing,” shares Ingrid. “So we had to get creative with our structures and their new uses, while still striving to keep the unique character of the buildings and farm.”

“The other legislation challenge was clarifying the ambiguity between preserved land and the structures on the land,” adds Amy. “The legislation was unclear with regard to the utilization and renovation of the structures on existing preserved farmland. Legislation should evolve, just like technology — today’s farmers are often times unable to store modern equipment in historic barns — so it was either tear the barn down or change its use.”

“No one in the legislature was opposed to it, and they were willing to help us make the change,” says Ingrid. “It was an opportunity to educate and overcome, working with the members of Delaware Farmland Preservation. It ended up being considered an improvement to an existing parcel. The amendment to the bill was passed with a unanimous vote once everyone realized what was needed.”

Amy and Ingrid believe that amending the agri-tourism bill will open opportunities for other women in Delaware to expand businesses on their family’s farms. They are confident that the ‘farmers of the future’ will look a lot different soon. “You don’t have to do what the generation before you did in order to be good stewards of the land,” says Amy. This has also afforded the next generation the opportunity to continue expanding the businesses on the farm. “Traditional farms yield products. Agri-tourism now allows a product to be an experience,” adds Amy.

With the year delay due to COVID, the sisters were able to plot their joint venture and dive into the business planning side of things. “The combination of the pandemic and the tragic loss of our brother really pushed us to get the new venue off the ground and continue the transition,” says Ingrid. She used the downtime during COVID to create an onboarding training manual for new employees, allowing them to run weddings at both locations and manage multiple consecutive weddings all weekend.

The second wedding venue officially opened earlier this year, called Honeybee, a tip of the hat to Amy’s bees and the land where the venue sits. The sisters officially combined their businesses by rebranding to Hopkins Heartland last year as a wedding venue destination with two options — Covered Bridge Inn for the full weekend, or Honeybee for smaller crowds and single day.

Ingrid shares, “It was our own unique ventures that lead us to the joint business of Hopkins Heartland. Our nephew’s ice cream business is also intertwined and available during the weddings, so it’s a full family affair.”

Jennifer Feindt, Farm Credit lending manager, shares in the excitement for this growing venture. “Both Amy and Ingrid received loans from us to start their individual businesses, and it’s amazing to see how far they’ve come separately and together over the years. This partnership will hopefully continue to flourish as they plan to expand in the future,” says Jennifer.

“Thankfully, Farm Credit was able to provide us with PPP loans not once, but twice during COVID,” shares Ingrid. “There is no doubt that Hopkins Heartland would have failed without this assistance and guidance from Farm Credit.”

Amy and Ingrid are proud to be female ag leaders in a rather maledominated industry. “The power in our perspective as women with unique experiences both on and off the farm have allowed us to make value added commodity changes and additions to the family farm,” adds Amy. They strive to be a champion for other women who may not have a traditional farm background to say ‘you can do it.’

You can find Hopkins Heartland online at hopkinsheartland.com or on Facebook and Instagram: @hopkinsheartland