Our Story
In 2014, shortly after we got married, we began our healing and social justice non-profit. Our goal was always to provide healing of mind, body and spirit while also providing educational opportunities for individuals and groups to learn more about social injustice. We particularly wanted to focus on education around food and racial injustice, while helping to break the stigma around poverty, homelessness and mental health.
In 2016, Martice felt like he was being called to become a farmer. Having no expience in farming, he quit his job and began volunteering at the Eco-Justice Center in Racine. He was quickly hired on as a staff member of the Racine Youth Farm Core where he was able to learn in abundance about all things farming-including animal care.
The following year, we were lucky to find a spot of land to rent with through the Fondy Farm incubator farm program. We began with a 1/4 of an acre and grew to 2 acres of land at the Mequon Nature Preserve. There, we were also able to welcome other beginning farmers on our land. We Have Always Been Related (a collective of BIPOC and Queer land stewards) now occupies the land we were once on. Eventually, we also began stewarding a 1/4 of an acre across the street at the Kohl Farm through the UW-Extension, where we started raising chickens.
We were both working full time jobs and part-time running our farm and our non-profit. Though we both loved our jobs, we knew that our passion was for farming and healing. We slowly began making a plan to be able to work for ourselves full-time.
When COVID hit, we put a pause on our non-profit work and focused on the farm. The food shortage scare and large scale hoarding led to many people yearning to learn how to grow their own food and we have been honored to be a part of many people’s journey of learning how grow their own food and nourish their families.
In 2021, we made a big leap. Martice went down to part-time at his job to focus on the farm, and Amy quit her job completely in the fall of 2021 to focus on the farm
In 2022, we merged our nonprofit and our farm together into one. Scales Family Farm became Full Circle Healing: Farm, Healing Center, Apothecary and we began looking for farmland even more intensively. Many organizations and individuals have supported us along this journey including: Fondy Farm, Kohl Community Farm, Land Justice Futures, Racine Dominican Sisters, Renewing the Countryside, our local NRCS and more and for their support, we are deeply grateful.
Around this time, we met staff at American Farmland Trust and began forming a relationship. In late 2024/early 2025, American Farmland Trust put their faith in us and began working with us more intensively on looking for farmland through their Buy, Sell, Protect Program. In the spring of 2025 that program-along with many other programs that supported small farmers and food justice- were deemed “not in line” with federal priorities and funding was pulled. Thanks to a generous anonymous donor who stepped in, we were able to continue pursuing a farmland purchase. After many more months of searching and multiple failed offers, we were finally able to find a farmland perfect for us and sellers willing to do a non-traditional sale.
In November of 2025, American Farmland Trust (AFT) purchased our dream farm and rented it back to us. The next two years, we will work the land and prepare to purchase it back from AFT at a reduced rate with a conservation easement in place on the land-keeping the land in farming for perpetuity.
We would like to express our deep gratitude to:
Alison and her team at American Farmland Trust for the incredible amount of work to purchase this farm and for their trust in us.
Bonnie and Laura at Renewing the Countryside for their partnership with AFT and their continued guidance to help us make the new farm profitable
The anonymous donor who made the land purchase possible
Stephen at Fondy Farm and Martin at UW-Extension for their support over the years on our farming journey
All the many organizations, individuals, customers, supporters, friends and family who have supported our journey.
Meet our Family
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Martice
Co-Founder
Farm Manager
Reiki Healer
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Amy
Co-Founder
Healing Center Manager
Licensed Psychotherapist
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MASON
Animal Lover
“Dinosaur” bone collector
Fire tender
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MAXWELL
Professional Tomato Eater
Seed planter extraordinaire
Dirt Digger
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Harriet
Wannabe Boss
Professional Waterer
Vegetable Eater
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RUE
Leader and only member of the “Chill” committee
Fruit lover
Professional grabber of all things