The Land Connection

Looking to track your farm and garden progress and keep notes of what has worked and what hasn't? The Food & Garden Perpetual Calendar is a unique way to document your gardening, local foods, and farm experiences, with space to keep notes month-by-month and year-by-year. Add new monthly note cards as needed each year. Soon you’ll have documented years of experiences to reflect upon and refer back to!

Click here to download the calendar: https://www.thelandconnection.org/resource/perpetual-calendar/

You may have noticed bunches of curling spindly things with careless loops gracing the tables of various farmers this spring. They are called garlic scapes and they are as fun as they are delicious. Check out the tables near The Little Farm Co. and Maxwell’s Mushroom Farm at the Champaign Farmers Market and you might be able to grab some if you’re lucky. Learn more about garlic scapes on our Illinois Specialty Crop portal:

Green Garlic & Garlic Scape - The Land Connection Green garlic is baby garlic and is typically harvested when farms are thinning out their rows of garlic, while garlic scapes are the curling stem and flowering bud of hardneck garlic. Both green garlic and garlic scapes are high in dietary fiber and contain good amounts of vitamin C and A. Both are....

There's only a few spots left to join The Land Connection and Janie's Mill for Organic Grain, Grown & Ground, a field and mill event for Illinois farmers! Tour the farm and stone mill, talk to the farmer and mill manager, and get your certification questions answered by a local certifier.

This event is for you if:
🌾 You're organic-curious and have questions about certification
🌾 You're certified organic and want new markets
🌾 You want to understand how to work with a miller
🌾 You're non-organic but exploring your options

📅 Thursday, June 18th
📍 117 E Main Street, Ashkum, IL
🔗 Space is limited! Learn more and register: https://www.thelandconnection.org/event/organic-grain-grown-and-ground/

Good relationships need more than a handshake. Creating a solid, fair lease matters and you can learn why this Thursday, June 18, from 11:30am – 1pm CST.

We will be inviting Rachel Armstrong of Farm Commons to provide an overview of how leases work and how to use the lease negotiation process to build a good relationship.

Silas Brewster of CommonGround will also be joining us to explain the basics of setting lease rates. David Kleinschmidt of Progressive Agronomy Consulting Services- PACS LLC will explain how to use new types of soil testing to tell whether the farming being done is meeting your soil health goals.

You aren't going to want to miss this one! Find more information and register here: https://www.thelandconnection.org/event/do-more-with-your-farmland/

"Planting native flowers in a backyard, patio container, or community garden can provide critical food and habitat for butterflies, bees, and other pollinators."

Grow healthier ecosystems at home this pollinator month URBANA, Ill. — Planting native flowers in a backyard, patio container, or community garden can provide critical food and habitat for butterflies, bees, and other

"Farmers who lost contracts to sell to food banks and schools say they will survive, ‘but we’re not going to thrive.’"

This USDA Program Transformed Food Systems. Now It’s Gone. ‘We will survive, but we’re not going to thrive.’

Looking for a learning community that creates a safe, lively space for farmers, scientists, advocates, food entrepreneurs, and consumers? Join the IDEA Farm Network! The mission of IDEA Farm Network is to catalyze ideas and approaches that balance farm productivity, profitability, and environmental health.

▶️ Join recent conversations about pest and disease management resources, cultivator demos, new sources of fertilizer, and insurance providers for small acreage farming by joining our Google Group where we engage in discussions about agriculture. You can join the listserv by visiting the Google Group site and choosing “Ask to Join” or “Contact Managers and Owners.” From there, the IDEA Farm Network team will review your application and add you to the group. https://bit.ly/462x5Cj

▶️ Attend field days to learn about different farming methods, explore new equipment, or learn from a member farmer. Meetings are informal and change in location. https://bit.ly/4vOGtVH

▶️ Watch recordings of webinars and video shorts featuring different topics on the IDEA Farm Network YouTube channel. https://bit.ly/4glly7U

Cover crops are often talked about in simple terms: build soil, reduce erosion, improve water quality.🌱 And while those benefits are real, the day-to-day reality is more complex. In organic grain systems especially, cover crops are doing real work, as part of fertility, w**d management, and long-term soil health, and they don’t always behave the way we expect. This guide walks through what farmers are seeing in the field, where things tend to go right (and wrong), and how to think about making cover crops work in a practical, consistent way.

In this resource:
▶️ Why cover crops don’t always perform the way we expect
▶️ How to choose species based on what your field needs next
▶️ The role of timing and why it matters more than anything else
▶️ What farmers are learning about context, conditions, and variability
▶️ Why results often take time (and what to expect in the early years)
▶️ Common tradeoffs, including biomass, equipment, and seedbed challenges
▶️ Simple, practical ways to get started without overcomplicating your system

Cover Crops in Organic Grain: Making Them Work in the Real World This guide walks through what farmers are seeing in the field, where things tend to go right (and wrong), and how to think about making cover crops work in a practical, consistent way.

This Thursday, 6/11, is the third webinar of our five-part series for landowners, Do More With Your Farmland!

You can expect to learn about:
✅ The basics of setting goals and making plans for your land
✅ A farm's experience with building a good relationship with their tenant
✅ Strategies for finding the right farmer-tenant for your operation

Looking forward to having you join the webinar! If you haven't registered yet, there is still time. Learn more and register here: https://bit.ly/4o0RTCO

Full Circle Designs LLC
Ruhter Bison
McHenry County Conservation District