The McHenry County Farm Stroll offers educational opportunities that connect and help cultivate relationships between farmers and consumers.
Joe and Hannah Wanda like to connect with local residents and share information about how they produce food. The couple has found establishing relationships helps their business, Wanda Farm, succeed and grow.
“We want our customers to see our products as healthful and convenient to purchase,” says Joe, a first-generation young farmer.
The Wandas raise and sell grass-fed beef and pork as well as chickens on their 77-acre farm near Harvard, about 1.5 hours from Chicago.
“We take a holistic approach to our farming practices,” Joe says. “We raise our animals on pastures during the warmer grazing months and in a free-range environment with shelter when pastures are not available during poor weather conditions.”
Small farms, like Wanda Farm, are just what Dale Nelmes hoped to showcase when he proposed the idea of hosting an annual farm stroll – a day of self-guided, free local farm tours – to the McHenry County Farm Bureau.
The retired schoolteacher and farmer attended such an event in neighboring Boone County in 2014. He proposed the concept to McHenry County Farm Bureau Manager Dan Volkers and started the stroll in 2015.
“Now we are in our eighth year,” says Nelmes, who serves as chair of the event. “We invite visitors who may not be familiar with modern agriculture to come out and learn about farming practices.”
“I have a passion for helping small farmers, and this is an effective way to do that,” he says. “Visitors see what farmers do and hear how their animals are raised. Farmers get to meet with consumers and sell them products. It is a good marketing tool.”
In fact, Nelmes says it has become so popular, there is a waiting list of 15 farms interested in participating in future events.
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Community Connections
The 2022 stroll includes 12 farms – both new and repeat locations. Prior to the Sept. 25 event, organizers host a dinner for farmers to exchange ideas and buy products from each other.
“The strolls really are community events. Multigenerational families come out, with some 300 to 800 visitors per farm,” Nelmes says. “People love to see the animals.”
The Wandas will participate in their second stroll this year. Joe takes visitors to the pasture, where they can see the cattle and learn about his sustainable approach. He studied agriculture at the University of Wisconsin – River Falls and has experience working on conventional and organic farms. He ties in his diverse experiences with his passion for using regenerative farming practices.
“I talk about intensive rotational grazing, moving the cows to a fresh pasture every day, to keep the pastures productive and nutritional and build the soil. It also maintains the condition of our cows and requires less labor,” Joe says. “We want our visitors to know they are helping local farmers succeed as we practice good land stewardship, sequester carbon and produce a lean, healthy meat product for them.”
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Farm to Table
McHenry County Farm Bureau helped the Wandas, as well as Anita and Larry Miller of Hephzibah Farms in Hebron, obtain the permits required to sell meat directly to customers.
“Our farm retail store is licensed to sell beef, lamb and pork cuts, whole chickens and turkeys, plus chicken cuts, sausage and ground turkey. We also have our pastured eggs from chickens and sometimes from ducks available,” Anita says. “Our whole goal is to raise quality products in the most natural, sustainable way possible.”
The Millers operate an 80-acre farm with the help of their children and extended family, two interns and hired farm tour guides. They raise alpacas and sheep for fiber to turn into products they can sell in their store and support local vendors who produce jam, honey, sugar scrubs and lotion bars, gourmet popcorn and chocolates. They also sell handmade quilted products and items made from alpaca yarn at the store.
“We started doing private, hands-on tours for a variety of groups to connect people with agriculture and appreciate the job of farmers,” Anita says. “Recently, we started embryology classes, where children come weekly to learn about hatching chicks.”
Like the Wandas, the Millers practice rotational grazing. Fields are spread with composted manure and bedding to add nutrients to the soil. Anita notes what cattle do not eat, lambs and goats do. Then, chickens scratch through whatever those animals leave.
During warm months, laying hens reside in a mobile house to eat bugs and graze the pasture. They raise meat chickens and turkeys in mobile units that allow the birds to graze as well.
The Welcoming Committee
“When visitors arrive at our farm, they are usually met with a variety of free-range chickens, ducks, geese and our resident Blue Slate turkey, Didymus,” Anita says. “They will meet our horse, ponies and alpacas, dairy cows and pigs, sheep and goats and view cows in the pasture grazing. We have different bunny breeds and dogs, too.”
The Millers have plans to expand in the future, including adding glamping sites near their pond. They also hope to reassemble a historical barn for an event center.
If You Go
McHenry County Farm Stroll
Co-sponsored by McHenry County Farm Bureau, University of Illinois Extension and McHenry County College, the farm stroll is a family-friendly, free, self-guided tour. Attendees can choose farms of interest to visit during designated times. Committee chair Dale Nelmes reminds visitors to leave pets at home and bring coolers for perishable food purchases.
Date: Sept. 25, 2022
Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more details and updates, visit mchenrycfb.org/mchenry-county-farm-stroll-0.
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