Meet Your Local Producers 2008

The Illinois Stewardship Alliance will be holding their 2nd annual Meet Your Local Producers farm expo and holiday market on November 22, 2008, 10 am - 3 pm, in the Illinois Building of the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.

I wasn't able to make it to last year's event, but will definitely be there this year! This is basically a "one day only" farmer's market with an emphasis on talking to the vendors.

"Meet Your Local Producers" is a free event that will connect you with local producers who raise beef, poultry, eggs, produce, cheese, honey, wine and more. They will teach you about their methods of production, the products they carry and where they are available. Consumers will also have the chance to try samples and purchase food for the upcoming holidays. Retailers will have the opportunity to network with the area’s producers and source fresh, nutritious food for resale in their markets.

Vendors:

• Apple Creek Herb Farm (Waverly)
• Beauregards Farm (Williamsville)
• Collver Family Winery (Barry)
• Greenthoughts Garden (Virden)
• James Family Farm (Sherman)
• Jefferies Orchard (Springfield)
• Midwest Meats Inc. (Pana)
• Prairierth Farms (Atlanta)
• Ropp Jersey Cheese (Normal)
• The Lazy T (Dawson)
• VanHoff Farm (Easton)
• Veenstra’s Vegetables (Pana)
• Zillion’s Chili Bowl Chili (Springfield)
• Zoey’s Herb Farm

In addition, there will be numerous presentations throughout the day, including information about food preservation (both storing winter root vegetables and canning); heritage crops and the Slow Food movement (presented by Deanna Glosser of Slow Food Springfield); Illinois wines; and citizen activism (presented by Lindsay Record of Illinois Stewardship Alliance and Carrie Moorman Smith of Food Not Lawns Springfield).

For more information, visit the Meet Your Local Producers page at the Illinois Stewardship Alliance.

I'll be sure to drop by to chat with Andrea of James Family Farm (who has the best fresh eggs I have found, as well as a wonderful blog!), as well as check in with Ropp Jersey Cheese to check on the status of the butter they're hoping to have soon!

Comments

[Mary Cockrell]

I went to vote and the James Family Farm family was there. I didn't meet them, but overheard them talking to the voting officials. They explained where they lived, and I think she mentioned trying to sell the llama's (or something) on Craig's list. I thought I would mention it to you, since you have a nice big back yard. ;-) Anyway, I thought that was interesting. I also noticed that the Seaney Farms aren't part of the above list. They have closed their little shop out here in Sherman.

Mary

[Shelley Thomas]

That's great news! Good to see the sparks of growing interest in our cause!