The Need to Build…
1998, Cancer
If you want to change the focus and the trajectory of a family, have the youngest son face cancer square in the eye. It was Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Although there is no way to prove what causes cancer – just ask the medical establishment that has been researching for 40+ years -- my intuition tells me it was herbicides in the drinking water. It just so happens that a few years after my diagnosis, a good friend of mine from the same small town was diagnosed with the exact same cancer. Same tumor in the same arm…from the same very small town….what are the odds?
2000, Wallace Farms
We, as a family, started Wallace Farms after learning about the health benefits of grass fed beef from a good farmer friend of my dad. He sold us a full beef, we had it made into burgers, steaks and roasts and started enjoying it. It was life changing. Our talks around the family kitchen table shifted to conversations about food, nutrition, and the future. We knew grass fed beef would be in high demand and we wanted to be a part of it. It started slow. We would buy a few beef here and there from our good regenerative farmer friend and sell the meat in Chicago, via my sister-in-law, and online to people across the country.
2003, The Mountains
After graduating from Iowa in 2000, I landed a corporate gig in Chicago for 3 years. But I never much enjoyed the loneliness of the city and felt a need to explore. The mountains were calling, and I found myself heading up to the Rockies in Colorado – Keystone, CO, ironically. I began a journey into culinary school that featured traditional French cooking principles. Upon finishing, I moved back to Iowa. I wasn’t thrilled with the thought of being a traditional Chef, but I did love food. It became apparent that my passion in this space was WHERE the food came from. It was all about the source and the quality!
2005, The Farm
Upon my return to Iowa, one day my Dad asked me what I wanted to do next. While I wasn’t quite sure, we both knew I wasn’t going back to the city. He jokingly suggested I should move out to the original family farm where he had grown up as a kid in the 1940’s – 1950’s. The problem was…..it was just a 160-acre field. No house, no fence, no utilities – just a blank canvas. Well, it didn’t take long to daydream that into something great. We got to work by planting some trees, tiled in some water and electric and dug a few corner posts. We then built the freezers, the shop, and a loft above it all to jumpstart Wallace Farms. During the next 15 years, we raised beef, eggs, chickens, turkeys and lamb. Along the way, we provided food to hundreds of customers and the truck was constantly running to cities throughout Iowa and into Chicago for deliveries. We fed hundreds of families, month in and month out, year after year.
2010, Nick’s Sticks
I was on the road a lot with deliveries and never seemed to find the time for a meal. There were really only a few snack sticks on the market and it made sense for us to explore making our own. I can’t say for sure but I’m confident that we had the first “no sugar” snack stick available in the sticks and jerky space. We were in the right place, at the right time, with the right product. It was so rewarding to see our snack sticks in so many stores, so many direct customers, and doing so well on Amazon.
2013, A Snowmobile
On a Friday in January, a freak accident with a rogue snowmobile changed my life direction yet again. We were 5 minutes from the truck and headed home. We had been enjoying a day of riding around the countryside on a few sleds. I made a tactical error and ran into my friend's sled and got thrown off. Meanwhile, his empty sled was headed for me, face down in the snow. Unfortunately, the sled ski went up over my back and found its way under my helmet. The sled ripped off my helmet and damn near ripped off my head. My neck and back didn’t fare too well and I ended up in the helicopter and then the hospital. Five weeks later – after re-learning how to walk – I was back home, but with some permanent paralysis to overcome.
2020, 99 Counties
For almost 20 years, I was beating the drum about organic and regenerative farming. Cancer as a young male can change how you look at farming and food. I was wanting to replicate our farm all across Iowa. How could we do that? One farm at a time each in each county. By focusing on adding farms across Iowa that all banded together within a marketplace, we could affect change. I am proud to say that my vision came to fruition – we were able to get funded and launch in 2022.
2024, One Acre
I continue to manifest an Iowa that is free from herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides. We need to be growing food! Real food! So now I’m back to building, but this time I’m going back to the very simplest of models. What if we look at one acre at a time? How much food can we grow on just one acre? Join us in this journey and help us find out?!