Lisa Kivirist

A national advocate for women in sustainable agriculture, Lisa Kivirist is the author of the award-winning book, Soil Sisters: A Toolkit for Women Farmers and leads the Soil Sisters initiative project at Renewing the Countryside, providing resources and networking for women passionate about conservation, sustainability, local food and community and recently featured on Around the Farm Table. Through Soil Sisters, she leads the annual Soil Sisters weekend in August in her home farm community in Southern Wisconsin, the largest women-farmer led educational event of its kind in the country. 

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Lisa is on the leadership team for Wisconsin Women in Conservation/WiWiC, a new initiative in partnership with NRCS, Renewing the Countryside and other non-profits to support women landowners in stewarding healthy soil.  Lisa is a Senior Fellow, Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems for the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Minnesota, founded the In Her Boots women farmer training project of the Midwest Organic Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) and is recognized by In Business Magazine as a “Woman of Industry” for leadership growing the women in sustainable agriculture movement.

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Kivirist is also the co-author of multiple books on sustainability, food and entrepreneurship with her husband, John Ivanko, including Homemade for Sale, the authoritative national guide for launching a food business under cottage food law, along with Farmstead Chef, Ecopreneuring and Rural  Renaissance.

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In her Homemade for Sale related work championing cottage food opportunities and home-based food businesses, Lisa served as a plaintiff in the successful lawsuit against the state of Wisconsin that declared the ban on the sale of home baked goods unconstitutional and she co-founded the Wisconsin Cottage Food Association, one of the leading state groups in the country. She currently is a plaintiff in a new lawsuit against the state of Wisconsin to legalize all non-hazardous products.  She also teaches a best-selling Udemy cottage food intensive course and runs a cottage food business herself, cottage food bakery: Inn Serendipity Fresh Baked Home Bakery, specializing in Baltic baking.

 

Lisa and John have been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, MSNBC, CBS Sunday Morning News, Midwest Living and Modern Farmer and on various radio programs across the country, including Martha Stewart Radio, the Sirius Satellite Network and Wisconsin Public Radio. As freelance journalists, they’re contributors to Mother Earth News, Hobby Farms, Living the Country Life, Edible Madison and Natural Awakenings, among many others. John is also a professional photographer, capturing images of everything from the Sandhill Crane migration in Nebraska to Door County fish boils with a drone.

 

Lisa and John are innkeepers of the award-winning Inn Serendipity Farm and Bed & Breakfast in Browntown, Wisconsin, completely powered by the renewable energy. Their B&B features local, seasonal vegetarian cuisine prepared with ingredients harvested from the Inn’s organic gardens. 

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