On a 40-acre farm a mile north of Cooksville in McLean County, Linda Stroh cultivates fresh produce and stocks her small business, The Farm Store, with it, fresh-cut flowers, baked goods, small-batch body butters, deodorant, laundry detergent and other environmentally friendly products. Stroh, a registered nurse and Corn Belt Energy member, grew up on a farm between Normal and Hudson.
“There was nowhere to go for 20 or 30 miles in any direction for fresh produce,” she says of her current residence. “I’ve been gardening my whole life. This … is a little larger scale.”
Vegetable and herb gardens, strawberry and pumpkin patches, flowers and fruit trees fill the open expanse surrounding the store. “I sell a lot of fresh-cut flowers; they’re only $10 and [come in] a new quart canning jar,” Stroh says. “I’ll have a u-pick pumpkin patch … I [hope to] have a u-pick strawberry patch.”
Stroh says providing access to fresh produce is just one of her objectives. Another is to embrace and promote regenerative, sustainable, biodiverse farming in efforts to improve the environment.
“I’m an ecology activist [and] teach a class on zero waste,” she says. Stroh has also created a DVD version of the class that shoppers can purchase at the store. “Just buy better, buy less … Our Earth is stressed, and we are, too,” she adds. “I’m an RN, and just in 20 years … cancer rates have accelerated [with] all the things we’re exposed to.”
Now in her second year, Stroh offers SNAP EBT/Link and has two Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) members. A CSA, according to the USDA National Agricultural Library, “consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or in spirit, the community’s farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production.”
“Every farm has their own twist on it. [With] some, you get a pre-prepared basket of produce every week. There, you’re limited,” she says. “I’ve done a lot of reading and research on it, and this is the program I like best: You just prepay whatever amount you want, and that helps [with] a lot of outlay for the gardener/farmer early in the season. Every week, you come, spend down this amount [on] anything in the store, [and] you get a free bunch of herbs.”
Stroh hopes more people will take advantage of fresh local produce, and she plans to do her part in healing the environment by continuing to promote sustainable practices. “We’re exposed to too many toxins … our bodies just can’t take it,” she says. “What’s good for the planet is good for our health. We’re all in it together.”
