The Birdhouse Inn Bed and Breakfast, an experience and destination
Set back on fifty-five acres in a small valley so indicative of the Driftless Area, The Birdhouse Inn Bed and Breakfast is, well to put it mildly, breath-taking.
My wife Amanda brought this beautiful Inn to my attention a few weeks ago, noting that the owners Emily Martorano and Ana Maria Vascan were holding an open house.
After taking viewing The Birdhouse Inn’s Facebook page and looking at the few pictures of the outside of the Inn, I just had a feeling the inside would be special. I was not disappointed.
Situated in Arena, Wisconsin overlooking the Village of Spring Green, Wisconsin, and overlooking the beautiful Wisconsin River valley, The Birdhouse Inn just seemed so in place, that it seems to have just grown out of the surrounding beauty that is the Driftless.
This writer could not accurately describe in general, what The Birdhouse Inn Bed and Breakfast is. So, I share a snippet from their website the description they wrote under a section titled “the vibe”; “Though “bed and breakfast” might conjure images of lacy old Victorian mansions and delicate antiques, The Birdhouse Inn certainly isn’t that. We’re casual, cozy, and eclectic - part farm, part hilltop lodge with an Eco-minded sensibility. You won’t find flat-screen TVs or whirlpool tubs, but a two-story library, an assortment of puzzles and board games, and beautiful winding hiking trails will keep you entertained. Upon check-in, your resident innkeepers will welcome you and give you the scoop on the very best the Spring Green area has to offer. You’re in for a delicious farm-to-table breakfast every day and a vibrant, serene rural atmosphere. We’re constantly thinking of ways to reduce our carbon footprint and responsibly manage this little piece of paradise.”
The beginning
After completing her college education, Martorano began farming. She gives credence to her interest in agriculture to a trip she took to Europe. “I went to Europe and worked on different farms and got hooked. I came back to the US and worked on farms. After a few years, my aunt and uncle in Wisconsin offered me rent on some of their land and an old farm house. That was over in Clyde, Wisconsin,” she said.
Then, about four years ago Martorano moved to Central Wisconsin and started her vegetable, pork, and egg operation which she sold her products at area farmers markets.
After a while, she started looking around for a more permanent home for her farm because as she put it, “it gets very old building infrastructures that you aren’t going to be able to take with you.”
So, she found herself looking at land around Spring Green. The property which would become ‘The Birdhouse Inn’, kept crossing her path in her search for property. “This kept coming up, some crazy old house with 55 acres, but it didn’t look like a farm at all. It was such a crazy house, that we kept looking at it, and couldn’t stop looking at it. I started brainstorming what a farm would look like on that property and came to see it. Then, I spent months doing a lot of research, making spread sheets and figuring out how this would all work. Somewhere along the way, I convinced Ana that it was a good idea, who thought it was a horrible idea,” she said.
“The first thing that caught our attention was the kitchen and the huge fire place in the living room. It was a perfect location for a thing like this. When we came to see it for the first time and saw the view, I think that was another definite plus,” Martorano said smiling.
It was about a year ago that the two started hatching their plan. Initially putting off sealing the deal, when May of this year rolled around, Martorano and Vascan finally closed on the property.
So began the work creating a bed and breakfast from an empty house somewhat in disrepair. Unfortunately, the house had stood vacant for almost ten years when the previous owners’ children had grown and they became empty nesters.
It should be noted that the house had been a work in progress over the years. The house continued to evolve over time with several additions into what Martorano and Vascan purchased.
“We had a lot of help in the moving process from some of my friends in Clyde and Spring Green. It turns out that even three years on a farm, you end up with a lot more stuff than you think. You start pulling it out of the barn and then it keeps coming. I had help moving and putting a fence in for the pasture. That was really crucial because we were kind of in a hurry to get everything together before the tour season was over,” Martorano said.
Vascan added, “I had started collecting everything to sort of fill up this big house. So, I had a number of friends from Madison help move everything to here, and we had friends to come help us paint, and wash skylights. We are really grateful for all of the support we got from our community.”
The two hope to appeal to different groups of people, and acknowledged though, that the house reflects their personal preoccupations with education, with nature, and being out in the woods, but not too far away from civilization. They want to give people a chance to reconnect not only with their inner self, but with the sunset and sunrise, hearing the birds in the morning, and the yelping of coyotes at night.
On the note of being in nature, additionally to what seems an endless number of skylights that coax in natural light and keep an open feeling, is the sun-room or solarium. Vascan said, “That’s something we have been talking about. We talked about in the summer we are pretty busy anyways, but in the off season we are going to get more creative. Some of the things we’ve been talking about are artists retreats or writer’s workshops, craft weekends. We have so many talented friends and neighbors. I think a good use of our space would be to bring our creative people together, people who have a project to finish. I think a lot of our common areas are conducive to that kind of sharing and conversations, or to split off into your own corner to work on something.” The solarium and grand living room with its inviting fireplace, and vaulted ceiling certainly would be conducive to their idea of creative use.
From the land
With the Inn set on a large parcel of land, Martorano has the land needed to continue her agricultural endeavors. She has been running her Hazel Hill Farm that started in Clyde, Wisconsin since 2015, and will continue to raise delicious pork, mushrooms, garlic, eggs, and more on site. As shared on their Birdhouse Inn website, she’s looking forward to bringing her bacon and eggs all the way to the breakfast table. “When I moved, I brought my small pork pigs with me. They are the Tamworth and Mulefoot. They are both slow-growing heritage breeds. I generally harvest my pigs about 9 months to a year, which is a little bit slower than normal. We have a butcher here in town, Prem Meats. They come out with the state inspector and actually do the slaughter on the farm. This means the animals really don’t have stress instead of putting them in a trailer that’s a few hours trip. It’s a best-case scenario in terms of that process.”
Martorano noted that she has worked with them to tweak recipes for different sausage products. “I carry the different types of ropes such as chops and bacon, all that kind of stuff that everybody is used to and experiment with, things such as cottage bacon, and different grinds of Italian sausage. I like to see what people like.”
She sells her products at the Spring Green and Mount Horeb farmers markets. “I started selling to guests as well. Usually they will comment on my breakfast sausage or my bacon or my chorizo. I make a lot of breakfast tacos. Often when they are leaving, they will leave with pork as well. That’s something that I hope to be a little bit more proactive about next year, letting people know what is for sale.”
Having sold at the farmers market since 2016, Martorano acknowledged at first, she had very limited pork products. “It was mostly vegetables, garlic, and mushrooms. I’ve had pork for about three years now. Right now, I have two gilts that I’m going to breed in the spring that are going to be the start of the herd here.”
A fungi culturist, Martorano has inoculated several Oak logs and will be harvesting Shitake in the spring and fall of 2020. “One of the reasons that I was drawn to this new place, is that the woods are really outstanding for mushrooms and plants, so there is potential here. So far, I’ve only done spring and fall strains of mushrooms, but I think I will be experimenting with trying to get year-round production. I will definitely be expanding my mushrooms quite a bit.”
Being waste conscious, using as much of the pigs as possible is important to Martorano and Vascan. “One of the by-products of pork production is lard. One of the things that I stumbled across, is that it makes a really good bar of soap. It’s really gentle on your skin, cleans well, and lasts a long time in your sink or shower, it doesn’t melt away. I started out with just plain soap and then over the last two years I started adding different essential oils, flowers, and herbs. I’ve built customers over the years, and the only problem is that people come to the market and tell me they’ve had the soap for three months and it’s still going strong,” Martorano said with a chuckle.
While the Inn itself is open, the wrap around porch that faces west, offering a breathtaking view of the Wisconsin River Valley, has seen its share of sunsets. While complete reconstruction is in the works, the Martorano and Vascan assured that it will be finished by summer. “It depends how bad our winter is here,” Vascan said. “We are going to completely redo the porch, because there isn’t much worth saving. Unfortunately, the part of the porch that the most spectacular views is the oldest part. The positive part of having to replace the whole porch, is that we are hoping to put the hoop house greenhouse underneath that so we are able to grow some vegetables and some year-round greens. I’ve been sketching out ideas of how that would look when put together.”
The personal side
When asked what The Birdhouse Inn is to them personally, Emily and Ana shared unique and personal views. Ana responded, “For me, The Birdhouse is a couple different equally important things. First, is that it is a major project and undertaking that I am doing with Emily. It’s how we are making decisions about things, how we divide our focus and our labor, and how we decide on our priorities collectively. That is important to me. It’s the first major opportunity I’ve gotten to put a lot of ideas that are sort of kicking around in the back of my head for a long time and putting them into practice. The theory of architecture and construction and putting it into action. It’s one thing to do ecological research and another to create a management plan. It’s really exciting to figure out how to make things happen.”
Emily followed up saying, “I see it as a place that we are trying to create a home to share with other people as a way to provide to people a place to explore the beauty of the Driftless, Spring Green, the arts and culture, and the outdoors that it has to offer. We bought the place with the idea of opening a bed and breakfast, so we are creating a home and a business at the same time. We are trying to create it with that in mind.”
Now, I would be remiss if not to detail the beautiful, well thought out architecture of the Birdhouse Inn, its individually themed guest rooms, and amenities. While I by no means consider myself a review writer nor a professional videographer of any sorts, I encourage you to watch the video tour of The Birdhouse Inn. But to be fair to yourself, and to do this amazing destination justice, take a trip to see it for your own eyes. Then, just maybe, you will understand why I wrote this story.
For more information, visit https://www.thebirdhouseinn.com, http://hazelhillfarm.com, or visit them on Facebook.
Editors note: This story’s lead photo was contributed by The Birdhouse Inn Bed and Breakfast.
