March 7, 2026, 5:02 a.m. CT
Miranda Hottenroth of Sturgeon Bay is encouraging healthy eating with her farm to table businesses, Backyard Acres and Bite the Farm.
Her interest in food began years ago when the youngest of her four children developed lead poisoning from a house they were renting. At the time, they were regular customers at fast food restaurants and ate highly processed foods.
“To help my son, we went to a holistic doctor to navigate a cure for the poisoning,” she said. “The doctor advised us to change our entire lifestyle. He said no preservatives or dyes or any bad additives. I was upset and cried for three days before deciding to make the change. I volunteered at an organic vegetable garden (Springdale Farm in Plymouth) and emptied out my pantry.”
That was the end of fast food for the family. At the farm, Hottenroth volunteered in exchange for food items. At home, she started growing vegetables in a backyard garden. When the produce was ready to be harvested, she opened a vegetable stand on her porch.
“Our backyard was small and a neighbor joked that I was producing the equivalent of about 50 acres there,” she said.
But she dreamed of having more space; of having a farm where her children would have a lot of space to explore.
“I had grown up around farmers, but had never wanted to be a farmer,” she said. “At the time, I was working in sales and marketing and farming was a contradiction to my career path.”
That changed as she worked on a vision board. Then, as her dream for a farm materialized, a car accident resulted in a traumatic brain injury. Her family members became an integral part of helping her as she healed. A Facebook friend, knowing that she wanted to have a farm, mentioned that there was a nearby orchard for sale.
Although her expertise was in vegetables, with her parents and brothers as partners, the family purchased the orchard. But looking back at her vision board, Hottenroth wanted to do more. Part of the vision involved raising livestock.
Working with the Easterseals Wisconsin FARM Program, a plan for meat production was developed. In 2021, Hottenroth found a farm in Door County whose owner had retired and didn’t want the farm to stand idle.
“I took my pandemic stimulus check, bought a camper and parked it in the haymow, and followed the business plan that Easterseals had helped me write,” she said.
The farm was renamed from The Flying Tractor to Backyard Acres and the next step in her journey began. With the business plan as her template, Hottenroth purchased pigs, turkeys, sheep, and chickens. The farm’s infrastructure was in place so everything was set up for the new venture.
Living in a camper was soon replaced with a home purchased in Sturgeon Bay. When not caring for animals, she was experimenting with healthy food menus and selling produce and baked goods at farmers markets. In 2023, the animals were sold and focus shifted. In 2025, there was another big change.
“A young lady who worked for me squeezing lemons for our lemonade told me her mom’s cousin had a food truck for sale. I thought that maybe I could buy it,” she said.
She did. It was a huge “beast of a truck” that had been used for selling pizza. She asked for suggestions for a name on Facebook and came up with one that highlighted Wisconsin farmers. Shortly after, with the help of one of her son’s friends, the truck was wrapped with the name, Bite the Farm.
The menu includes gluten-free pizzas, smashed taters, foods served on a stick, goat cheese curds and other items that feature Wisconsin producers. The truck was a huge success during the farmers market season, but not so much during the winter. That led to another change. In addition to the truck, a retail location inside Luxemburg Pharmacy was added in October.
Hottenroth said on her Facebook page, “We’re not just a food truck anymore! The Bite the Farm Take N Bake Café is open. Step inside, sip on your favorite coffeehouse style drink and grab something to eat from our fresh menu while you wait for your Take N Bake order.”
The menu is gluten-free and non-dairy and delicious for everyone, she said. As part of ensuring that Wisconsin products are used, she has partnered with the Door County Farm for Vets in Sturgeon Bay where she is on the Livestock Committee.
She said, “By joining forces with the Farm for Vets, we are able to be part of something bigger than just Backyard Acres. We have a three-year commitment with the farm to focus on the education and production of grass-fed lamb, pasture raised turkey, and salad mix blends.”
It is part of the framework she is trying to establish as a more concrete business model. There is much to be managed with the food truck, café, and obligations at the farm. And there have certainly been challenges.
When making a plan for the food truck, she used the services of SCORE and has a mentor that she can still contact with questions that will likely arise. One of those will probably involve pricing.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned is that in the farm to table food world, people have lost their connection with real food. The expectation is that food should be cheap. When you walk into the grocery store or go through a fast-food drive-thru, you can get food that costs less. But when you actually get real food, it costs money for our farmers to produce it, to buy the seed, to bring it to fruition,” Hottenroth said.
Yet, she said, in comparison to bills at the doctor’s office, the food is really a bargain. It also supports farmers so that they can make a living and continue to produce good food.
Similarly, the food she sells might cost a bit more, but it is real and healthy. She promotes it on her website and Facebook page and has an email newsletter where she brings people up to date with what’s happening and connects them to the Wisconsin farmers, producers, and their partners.
She is taking courses through the Food Finance Institute in Madison and will start the Women’s Capital Readiness Program at the end of March. She dreams of the day when she will be able to co-mingle her businesses and have her own farm. It is a goal that keeps her going during countless long days.
The important thing is knowing your “why,” she said. Her why is encouraging people to step away from highly processed foods and eat food “the way God intended it to be.” As the business grows and each day is spent on management, ordering, cooking, developing recipes, collaborating with her marketing firm, and engaging with customers on her “why I do what I do,” she has advice for other would-be entrepreneurs.
“You need to know why you want to start a business,” she said. “You’ve got to have a really good why because there are days that will challenge you to the core of your being, and if you don’t have that, you won’t make it.”
Tina Dettman-Bielefeldt is co-owner of DB Commercial Real Estate in Green Bay and past district director for SCORE, Wisconsin.
