About Us

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Meet Elizabeth and Andre Entermann
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This is where you get to know a little more about us. But rather than asking you to read standard bios, we want to share some of our history, dreams and values with you.
 
Believing that values guide work, we’d like to share our values with you. 
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We align our work with caring for the earth, caring for others and sharing the surplus.
 
We strive to be in the present moment, which helps us respond well to life’s challenges and opportunities.
 
We set high value on enjoying work, living within our means and providing enjoyable, enriching employment for others.
 
We believe all beings deserve sufficient resources for a comfortable existence.
 
We respect traditional wisdom and primitive skills and rely upon them.
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We envision being part of a community who cares about each other and has time to demonstrate that care with their actions.
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We believe that resilient community and intentional cooperation are the bedrock of sustainability and food security.
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 Elizabeth ~ As owner and founder of Harmony Landscaping, a successful landscape business specializing in design, plant selection and installation, Elizabeth brings 14 years of experience in business start-up, operations and project management to Sunnyfield Farm Goat Dairy. This background lends itself to many aspects of running the farm: plant knowledge, natural process and an understanding soil and the ecology of the region. Evidence of Elizabeth’s education in the arts and design, she has a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art and Art History from Western Washington University plus additional certificates in Permaculture Design and Horticulture and Garden Design, are seen everywhere on the farm. One thing visitors notice is how form and function are in balance here. There is so much beauty: the fields, the orchard, the barns and outbuildings, the vegetable and flower gardens, the healthy animals. Elizabeth’s art and horticulture backgrounds inform and inspire the shape and design of the land as it becomes productive again.

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Andre ~ Following nearly five years serving in the U.S. Coast Guard as a Helicopter Rescue Swimmer and EMT, Andre traveled to Australia and New Zealand to work as a WWOOFer (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) and study indigenous cultures and primitive, more sustainable lifestyles. There his interest in goats and food production took deep root. Returning to the states in 2005, Andre spent six years developing farm and dairy skills: studying sustainable agriculture at Santa Rosa Junior College, visiting and later working with cheese makers, goat dairy farmers and livestock managers in the Pacific Northwest.  Andre now spends his 12-hour farmer’s day in pasture management, herd care, milking, cheese making and selling milk, cheese and goat products. Research continues: in coming years, he plans to study with goatherds and cheese makers in Holland and France.

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Andre and Elizabeth together ~ We envision the farm as a holistic organism that holds space for practical harmony, balancing the needs of the land, the people, animals and plants. Attending a WSU Extension class in 2012/13, we spent one weekend a month learning every conceivable detail about starting a micro-dairy – everything from the WSDA requirements to animal health to basic cheese making. A very valuable part of the class was visiting countless farms around the region, learning from people who had been farming for years. The education we received gave us the confidence to move forward.
 
In November of 2014, the Washington State Department of Agriculture granted our license to sell raw goat milk, aged cheese and pasteurized cheese. It is with much gratitude for all the work that came before us, and for the support from our community, that we move ahead. Dreams become reality!
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Excerpt from an article by Tim Fry published on line: project468.com/2015/01/24/for-the-love-of-goats/
Sunnyfield Farm is quite a sight to behold. You get a sense of how farming used to be about 100 years ago. The goats have free reign across most of the farm’s forty acres, which is bordered not by fences, but instead by natural barriers like hedgerows and trees. Most of the goats’ food comes straight from the land, supplemented by alfalfa that comes from Whidbey Island and eastern Washington. Though Sunnyfield very much seems to have its act together, Andre admits “it’s really one giant experiment.” That experiment seems to be going well.
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What Andre and Elizabeth have created with Sunnyfield Farm is pretty amazing. Their vision, though, transcends farming. They are gradually turning Sunnyfield into a community hub. Every other Saturday November through January they host the Little Winter Market, a small farmer’s market in the back of their barn where you can sample and buy cheese and milk from Sunnyfield, pastries and bread from Barn Owl Bakery, and meat and vegetables from Helens Farm. My family has gone the past two Saturdays – thoroughly enjoying both the delicious local food and the gathering of Lopezians, many of whom are becoming our friends.

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