Food Chain: A Marketplace of Food, Art & Ideas at Witwen Park

The DTour Food Chain stop at historic Witwen Park was located at the heart of the route. There were local goodies including tacos and tamales, baked goods, teas, pickles and more! Plus live music and an art shop too.

Vendors included:

  • Brix Cider
  • Driftless Berry Cooperative
  • Echo Valley Farm
  • Four Elements Herbals
  • Hillsboro Brewing Company
  • MT Bottle
  • Rude Brew Kombucha

Festival goers around a campfire at Witwen Park during the 2020 Farm/Art DTour.
Caitlin Vitale Sullivan performs on stage at historical Witwen Park tabernacle during 2021 Fermentation Fest.
Food chain - a marketplace of food, art and ideas at Fermentation Fest 2021. A man in a hat buys some fermented concoctions from a local vender in Sauk County Wisconsin..
Visitors at Fermentation Fest shared messages with Wisconsin’s farmers through the Farmer Angel Network.
Fermentation "Bubble" Dance performed by Wormfarm resident artists wearing big bubble costumes.
A chef from Hispanic Knights of Columbus grills grass-fed beef & pastured pork on a large grill at the 2021 Fermentation Fest: Grassland Edition at Witwen Park.
Lou Bank at a table filled with peppers during Fermentation Fest. He's from S.A.C.R.E.D. a USA-based, not-for-profit corporation that helps improve lives in the rural Mexican communities where heirloom agave spirits are made.

Rural Revival

A former church camp and historic gathering place in a quiet setting next to Honey Creek, Witwen Park has been stewarded by the Sprecher family since 1922. The first record of summer revival meetings held on this land dates to 1853 when 34 tents were pitched for several weeks on the banks of the creek. Built in 1918, the Tabernacle is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Since its life as a former church camp, the park has hosted a variety of events and concerts. For decades, it was home to a famous 4th of July parade attended by thousands: cars lined the road to Hwy PF over a mile away. Since 2020 Wormfarm has hosted Fermentation Fest and the biennial Farm/Art DTour here, and is leading an effort to imagine a future for this unique site.