Photo courtesy of Loveland Acres Farm
Scarlett Salamone - Loveland Acres
Scarlett Salamone at Loveland Acres Farm with cattle.
At Loveland Acres Farm, W3358 Loveland Rd. in rural Elkhorn, farmer Scarlett Salamone believes that all people deserve “a spot to head where the air is fresh, the noise is from nature and joy can prevail for the moment.” Through its many hands-on, collectively minded programs, Loveland Acres invites folks of all ages and backgrounds to experience the euphoria of meeting farm animals, tending gardens, caring for native wildlife, sharing a warm meal together and all other simple yet powerful delights of farmwork.
“We need to teach little ones as soon as we can to take care of each other because that’s how we build the world that we want,” Salamone says. At Loveland Acres she raises cattle, goats, sheep, chickens and ducks for meat, dairy, wool and other things at small scale. The farm makes self-care items like milk soaps, lotions and herbal oils and tinctures. There is a wonderful community-run garden sown with many different cultural fruits and vegetables plus native pollinator flowers and plants. Every week, Loveland Acres sends hundreds of bags of fresh produce (“Love Sacks”) out to different food pantries and community organizations across southeastern Wisconsin.
Serving Families
“I try to make sure all the families and people we serve are represented in our garden, even down to the variety of zucchini that we’re growing, which is especially beloved by our refugee friends that not many farmers grow,” Salamone explains. “We had a crew of 20 or so high schoolers earlier this year sowing it all in. Most of them had never seen an okra plant before, but here they were, getting to see and touch one for the first time.”
Salamone dreamed of having underserved children from Milwaukee and Madison coming to the farm weekly, but instead now takes Loveland on Location to provide the variety of programs she has created, like Kids with Kids (playing with baby goats), Chicken & Littles (hatching chicks), Jammin’ and Cannin’ (food preservation), Little Free Library Impact, Operation Monarch Conservation, Tiny Foragers and Mini Milkmaids.
At Loveland Acres, Salamone emphasizes how important it is to show Black and Brown youth and families that farming is something achievable for them, noting how systemic barriers like redlining and gerrymandering have kept communities of color in the city. “It’s made it so we didn’t even want to look this way. It’s not even a glimmer in a lot of children’s minds. I want to be that glittery glimmer that says, “Hey, check it out! We can grow watermelons and okra, and we can raise our own meat.’ We can take back the fact that our ancestors were literally brought here because we were brilliant farmers and agricultural beings.” Rather than being asked or paid for their work, they were brought here enslaved. “The farm is about providing access and building that bridge to say we deserve these spaces too, and if this is something you want to work towards, I will be right by your side, standing up to all the people who tell you that you don’t belong.”
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Right Thing to Do
Seeing little Black, Brown and disabled young people at Loveland Acres having fun, meeting animals and learning to grow their own food brings Salamone insurmountable joy. “I don’t know if there’s words spectacular enough to describe it. It is such an honor, a gift, a blessing. To know that I have young people who refer to themselves as farmers because they’ve been coming here every season since 2020, just about every week--that feels amazing. I’m not one to be prideful because I just think this work is necessary; there’s nothing grand or glorious about making sure people are fed—it’s just the right thing to do.”
Growing up in Illinois, Salamone’s grandparents owned livestock farms. As a little Black girl who experienced horrible racism, she remembers finding solace in her grandparents’ sheep barn. “It was my safe place. I got a runt every year to raise, and as I got older, I asked my dad what happened to last year’s lamb. It was at that point where he taught me that it becomes food for our Easter dinner! I wasn’t sad or wrecked by it, but proud I helped put food on my family’s table.”
Salamone dreamed of being a dairy farmer. Not feeling supported in her dream, however, she instead studied special education at UW-Eau Claire. She was a schoolteacher in Milwaukee for 12 years and has two adult children of her own. “At a certain point, I wanted my own children to experience wide open spaces instead of whatever little piece of sidewalk they had to play on.” Salamone and her family moved out to Elkhorn in 2008. “There’s two beautiful oak trees on this property, and when I saw them, I said “this is home.” I could see my kids playing underneath them.”
At the time, Salamone was struggling with lupus and gastroparesis, and her doctor was running out of answers. “I was 96 pounds and starving to death. I got this heart nudge to get goats so we did that, and as they came on to milk, I went on a full milk fast for about 30 days. When we found out how well the milk worked for me, my dream of getting a dairy cow had to slip in there.”
Farmer in Motion
Envisioning her Milwaukee students playing with the goats set Salamone’s dream of becoming a farmer in motion. “I thought about how it was a disservice that they’re not able to have access to this on a regular, safe basis, and from a farmer who looks like them.” Loveland Acres started with just six small fence panels, three goats and a small flock of chickens. “Little by little, our community has built the farm piece-by-piece. There’s so many stories of whose hands composted or put fence up, or the different seasons that brought different people to help grow what’s here.”
Salamone shares, “It can be really isolating, being out here as a Black woman.” She has experienced harassment from locals in the form of being stalked, video recorded and having had the township called on her. Last year, a few of her animals, including her beloved cow Clementine, died under mysterious circumstances. Earlier this year she was shot at. Nevertheless, Salamone refuses to give up. “I’ve worked really hard to have a space where people feel loved and cared for, and the last four years, it’s been really hard to do that. My health has definitely taken a toll. I don’t leave the farm out of fear. I have unsettled feelings surrounding Clementine’s passing; she wasn’t sick and was perfectly healthy. It’s been a horrible way to live but I believe so strongly in the power of love and taking care of our neighbors. That’s what I believe we should be doing with our lives, and if it costs me mine, then I’ll do it until the day I die. Nobody’s going to stop me. We do have a couple neighbor allies who stand with us and we’re going to fight this. We deserve to shine.”
Folks can support Loveland Acres by way of monetary donations ($5 buys a hay bale, $10 supports a Love Sack), volunteering or scheduling a Loveland on Location visit. The farm is currently partnered with community organizations like Sun-Seeker MKE, GSAFE, New Beginnings and Hanan Relief Group as well as local farm Johnson’s Vegetables, where Salamone is the beekeeper. She can be found at the West Allis Farmers Market on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Salamone also teaches agriculture to preschoolers on Friday mornings.
