Our Blog
WIC/SFMNP Opportunity for Farmers!
Are you a farmer who is interested in accepting WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program benefits? You can determine your eligibility by checking to make sure that you sell in a county where the program operates. Click here to review a map of the 37...
Amber Waves of Local Grain as More Farmers Offer Healthy, Sustainable, Tasty Options
Don’t you just love the aroma of artisan bread, fresh and warm from the bakery or your home oven. Makes you want to eat it right away, by itself or with some local creamery butter. And increasingly, that artisan bread is made from healthful, sustainably produced grain...
ILFMA Winter Farmers Markets
ILFMA 2022-23 Winter Farmers Market List!Winter is a great time to continue shopping at your favorite farmers market, and/or maybe plan a trip to one that's new to you! Many farmers markets across Illinois continue through the winter months. Farmers are employing...
Not Your Usual Holiday Gift: Surprise Family and Friends with Delicious Food Products (and Learn About Illinois’ New Farm to Market Act)
It is holiday gift season. And it is easy for Illinois residents to find and purchase delicious homemade food products to present to family and friends as unique gifts. That because the state’s new Home to Market Act, enacted in 2021 and effective at the start of this...
Delight Yourself and Your Guests at Thanksgiving with a Sumptuous, Pasture-Raised Local Turkey
You don’t need any hints to figure out why our November article is about locally raised turkeys. Thanksgiving, aka “Turkey Day,” is coming up on November 24, and according to the Nielsen consumer research firm, more than three-quarters of all turkeys sold in the...
Celebrating National Co-op Month With a Look at Two Community-Building Grocery Stores
To the casual shopper, a food cooperative, or co-op may look like any small independent grocery. But it is so much more. And that is why our latest Buy Fresh Buy Local Illinois article is celebrating October as National Co-op Month by featuring two thriving co-ops at...
Agritourism Abounds as Folks Head to Illinois Farms for Fun in the Fall
Agritourism is a big thing throughout Illinois’ growing season, with visitors welcomed to places such as flower farms and berry patches. But the draw is greatest in the late summer and early fall when apple orchards and pumpkin patches are at their peak production. ...
Celebrating National Farmers Week: Three Illinois Markets With Different Styles But Shared Goals
National Farmers Market Week — August 7-13 this year — celebrates the role that the more than 300 Illinois farmers markets and the more than 8,000 markets nationwide play in helping build a better food system and supporting local economies. Each farmers market is as...
ILFMA awards lifetime membership to Deborah Cavanaugh-Grant
The Illinois Farmers Market Association presented its first ever lifetime membership to founding member Deborah Cavanaugh-Grant. Deborah recently retired from her role as ILFMA board member and, as an organization, we couldn’t think of a better person to gift this very special title to than Deborah.