March 28, 2024

Making memories: Farm focuses on creating a tradition

NORMAL, Ill. — The goal at Rader Family Farms is to develop relationships and emotional connections with visitors.

“We want this place to be a tradition,” said Amy Rader Hughes. “We want people to come, play, stay as long as you want and make memories here, that’s what we’re all about.”

Originally the farm included a Guernsey dairy herd and in 1971 the family switched to a grain operation.

“The pumpkin business began innocently when my dad, Lynn, had too many pumpkins,” said Hughes during a Central Region Agribusiness Tour organized by Illinois Agri-Women. “He sat the pumpkins on a hayrack by the driveway and put a money box on a water barrel and they were sold on the honor system.”

Each year, Hughes said, her dad planted more pumpkins and people came to the farm to get pumpkins and they didn’t want to leave.

“So, we put out a corny bin, we had a swing set and we started adding activities,” she said.

In 2009, the family decided to expand the operation, build the Pumpkin Blossom Barn and become an agritainment business.

“We work all year for eight weeks,” Hughes said. “We have 25 acres of pumpkins that we hand pick, hand wash and last year we sold 155,000 pounds of pumpkins.”

Adam Rader is responsible for operations of the agritainment business and his brother, Aaron, handles the farm’s 2,500 acres of corn and soybeans.

Visitors to the farm have the opportunity to enjoy about 35 different activities such as a tire tower, tram ride, barnyard barn throw and combine slide.

“We have fun things that we like to put an ag spin on,” Adam Rader said. “It’s fun to create and it gets our imaginations going.”

There is also a corn maze at the farm and lots of options for food including pumpkin doughnuts or an apple cider slushy.

“Our mission is to connect the community to the farm through the influence of faith, family and fun,” Hughes said.

Prior to the impact of COVID-19, the Rader family conducted field trips on the farm to about 5,000 parents and kids each year.

“This year we’re going to switch to a self-guided tour,” Hughes said. “We’ll have people at the stops so kids can learn about the pumpkins, bees and animals.”

Opening day for Rader Family Farms is Sept. 11. For more information about visiting, go to www.RaderFamilyFarms.com.

Other stops on the Central Region Agribusiness Tour organized by Illinois Agri-Women:

Naturas Verdes LLC

Diana Ropp and her business partners, Jeff and Shelia Systo, provided information to Illinois Agri-Women about Naturas Verdes LLC, where they grow industrial hemp for CBD.

“We are still learning as we go and last year we planted over 1,000 plants at two locations,” Ropp said. “This year we decided to plant half as many and go for quality versus quantity.”

After harvesting the hemp plants in the fall of 2020, Ropp said, they hung the plants upside down in a corn crib for drying.

“It dried beautifully and then you can hand trim it or put the plants into a tumbler-trimmer to knock off the seeds,” Ropp said.

“We have a three-year license from the Illinois Department of Agriculture to grow industrial hemp,” she said. “We are making products like oils and bath bombs and you can also make butters, gummies and cookies.”

Braffet Berry Farm & Orchard

Asparagus, strawberries, rhubarb, blueberries and, for the first time this fall, apples are available at Braffet Berry Farm & Orchard, owned by Curt and Peggy Braffet.

“My passion is u-pick, I want people to come out and pick,” said Peggy Braffet. “Once you taste a strawberry right out of a field, you’ll never by another one in a store and it’s the same with blueberries.”

The Braffets established the farm in 1995 and the strawberry patch covers 1.5 to 2 acres with six to seven varieties.

“Then we decided to try a few blueberries so we planed 250 to 275 plants,” Peggy Braffet told the visiting Illinois Agri-Women. “We have three varieties of blueberries and you start getting blueberries the second and third year after they are planted.”

This year the farm is having a bumper crop of blueberries.

“These are 12- to 14-year-old plants and by pruning them in the early spring that encourages growth and the new shoots come from the base of the plant,” Braffet said.

“The apple orchard is our COVID project and it’s a learning curve for both of us,” Braffet said. “The trees are planted three feet apart and they are going to be a fruiting wall that we top off at 10 feet.”

There are nine apple varieties in the orchard, including yellow, red and green.

“We had to put a 10-feet deer fence around the orchard,” Braffet said.

The new barn at the orchard features a commercial kitchen where apple donuts will be made and sold, as well as apple cider.

“There will be step stools by this window because I want the kids to watch the donuts being made,” Braffet said. “My goal is to also have kids field trips because I want to teach them about Johnny Appleseed and the bees.”

For more information about Braffet Berry Farm & Orchard, go to www.braffetberryfarm.com.

Ropp Jersey Cheese Store

Ken Ropp welcomed the group to the final stop of the tour at the Ropp Jersey Cheese Store.

“This is the first of its kind on a farm,” the sixth-generation farmer said. “We milk the cows, make the cheese and do all our own distribution.”

Ropp joined the farm with his parents in partnership in 2000.

“We were at record all time milk prices and within six months we were at record all-time low milk prices,” he said. “We were two families with a 60-cow Jersey herd on 450 acres, so we had to do some studying.”

At the World Dairy Expo in 2003, Ropp saw a cheese plant in a semi trailer.

“We had two things working against us, we’re not rich and I had never made cheese before,” he said. “So, I went to the University of Wisconsin for a short course about making cheese and I went to River Falls for a hands-on cheese making class.”

Ropp started making cheese in a semi trailer in 2006.

“We focus mainly on cheddar, but we also make Gouda, Swiss, Blue and Colby,” he said. “About 90% of our business is wholesale, so I deliver to 240 locations in a 150-mile radius, making from 12 to 15 stops a day.”

To expand the space for cheese making, the Ropps built a cheese plant on the farm.

“This Christmas, it will be three years for our new plant and it has been a huge savings in labor,” he said. “We start milking cows at 5 a.m., at 7 a.m. we’ve got milk started through the plant and by 1 p.m. we’ve got finished curds.”

Typically cheese is made on the farm on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

“We do everything in 40-pound blocks and we have traceability on all the product,” Ropp said.

For more information about Ropp Jersey Cheese, go to www.roppcheese.com.

Martha Blum

Martha Blum

Field Editor