New farm goods store opens in Town of Glenmore

Rich Palzewic

Staff

May 18, 2026

DE PERE – When she and her husband, Adam, started a first-generation farm nearly a decade ago, Marie Vanden Wymelenberg said it was always her dream to one day open a farm goods store.

With life calmer and their kids grown, Marie said the timing felt right to open the store – both to feature the farm’s products and support fellow local farmers and crafters.

“It all became a reality when we recently opened Vanden Wymelenberg Farm Goods, LLC, on our property,” she said. “Of course, we all love the farm, but I needed and wanted something for me. This is perfect for what I want to do.”

Marie said when they purchased their own farm in 2018 – after renting a barn for the previous two years – she was also working as a registered nurse in a local emergency room.

At the same time, she said their family and herd were growing – doubling the size of the herd twice and raising four kids.

“After a while, the farm schedule and having our kids weren’t working with my ER shifts anymore,” she said. “I went PRN (as needed) in the ER and started watching kids in our home.”

Still feeling the effects of burnout, Marie said she took up candle pouring to stay occupied and distract herself.

After building her inventory, she said she started selling her candles.

“I had too many,” she laughed. “I was trying to get into stores and sell them, and after a while, it was going pretty well – so much so that I was able to stop watching kids in our house.”

That’s when Marie said she got the idea of possibly opening a small store on their property at 6016 Dickinson Road in De Pere.

“By doing this, I could support other people who are in a similar position,” she said. “It’s so hard being a small business owner, so we wanted to support as many other farmers as we could.”

Marie said the store features products from about 12 other local farms and crafters, including maple syrup, honey and more.

“We also sell Lamers Dairy milk, which is milk made on our farm,” she said. “We sell meat from our cows, Laack’s Cheese, eggs from our farm and tallow. I make candles, tallow lotions, other lotions and salves. My dad also raises pigs, so once those are ready, we’ll sell that meat in our store, too.”

Marie said opening the farm store required close coordination with the Town of Glenmore and adherence to specific rules.

“When working with the town, we decided 40% of the items in the store have to be made here on the farm, and 90% of the items have to be within 50 miles of the farm,” she said. “Everything is super local and very specific. We worked together on those numbers and received a permit for a farm general store.”

Now that Vanden Wymelenberg Farm Goods is open and the rules are in place, Marie said the regulations could set a precedent for future operations in the town.

“If anyone else wants to do something like this in the Town of Glenmore,” she said, “they have to abide by these rules that were established.”

Going back a decade

Though both she and Adam both grew up on hobby farms, Marie said neither had a farm to inherit.

She said Adam was working at another large farm – Wiese Brothers Farm in Greenleaf – when they met. 

“He first told me his dream was to own a dairy farm – I joked that I didn’t want to do that,” she said. “But something changed. He was so passionate and excited about it that it became contagious. After a while, I was on board with it, so we bought our first cows in 2016.”

Since buying their own farm in 2018, Marie said they’ve made several renovations and are currently milking 260 cows. 

“We own 40 acres ourselves, but farm about 350,” she said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Marie said while some farms were forced to dump their milk – “thankfully, we were not one of those farms” – they began exploring the idea of bottling their own milk.

“When looking into bottling our own milk, we toured a farm up north and decided it wasn’t what we wanted to do,” she said.

Marie said they still wanted to move forward with the farm store idea, which ultimately led them to a small building on Facebook Marketplace – which they purchased in August and moved onto the property in October.

“We renovated the whole thing,” she said. “We put in insulation, electrical, heat and air conditioning. The permits were approved by the town in March, and we opened in April. We just placed the shed on some compacted gravel.”

Because the hope is to build a bigger version of Vanden Wymelenberg Farm Goods in the future, Marie said they wanted to keep the amount of concrete to a minimum.

Marie said the goal of the farm store was to give them and other farmers the ability to sell their products at prices they choose.

For now, she said the store is open three days per week – from 2-6 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

“The community has been great – they’ve supported us so much,” she said. “People have stopped in and been positive about the whole thing. For up-to-date days and hours, it’s best to check Facebook. Sometimes, I have events to attend, so it might affect hours.”

With plans to expand their footprint in the future, Marie said they want the farm store to also serve an educational purpose.

“We’ve done field trips here before, but the long-term goal with the farm store is to have a cute little playground with farm equipment that kids can pretend to drive on,” she said. “We want to educate them about agriculture and show them that this is where Lamers Dairy milk is produced.”

For more information on Vanden Wymelenberg Farm Goods, head to Facebook or vwfarmgoods.com.