Business & Tech
Business Spotlight: Sandhill Family Farms
Business Spotlight is a regular column featuring information provided by local businesses.
Editor's Note: Welcome to Business Spotlight! We will regularly post profiles submitted by local businesses. To include your business in our Business Spotlight series, visit this link and complete the form. Enjoy!
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Business: Sandhill Family Farms
Submitted by: Jennifer Miller
Location: 32410 N. Harris Road, Grayslake
Contact: 847-548-4030
Website: www.sandhillfamilyfarms.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SandhillFamilyFarms
When and how did your business get started? Sandhill Family Farms is a partnership between the Sheaffer and Miller families. Peg and Matt Sheaffer started the the original farm, Sandhill Organics, twelve years ago in East Troy, Wisconsin. In 2004, Sandhill Organics found a new home at Prairie Crossing, the community in Grayslake, Illinois. Over the years, Sandhill Organics grew into a successful and widely-respected family farm serving almost 350 member families in the Chicago area.
In the spring of 2011, Jeff Miller accepted the position of farm manager at Sandhill Organics. Before joining Sandhill Organics, Jeff and his wife, Jen, operated their own vegetable business at the Prairie Crossing Business Development Center. Both Jeff and Jen have extensive experience in vegetable, poultry and pork production.
In 2012 our two families formed Sandhill Family Farms, a partnership that helps to strengthen the economic viability of the traditional family farm business model. By working together, we have been able to expand production without compromising our commitment to quality, to our customers, and most importantly, to our young children.
What is your business best known for? We're most well known for our CSA program.
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. In a nutshell, CSA is a subscription service for delivery of local farm products. Our CSA members sign up in advance to receive a share in the harvest during the growing season. Members choose from five different types of shares—vegetable, fruit, eggs, dairy and meat. Shares are picked up from either at the farm in Grayslake or at convenient community pickup sites. Vegetables and fruit are delivered weekly, eggs and dairy are delivered bi-weekly, and meat is delivered monthly.
We also sell our produce at the Oak Park Farmers' Market in Oak Park.
Does your business offer a special deals card or program? Throughout the winter, we offer early bird CSA specials. For instance, we're now offering our 23-week Summer and Vegetable CSA shares for $50 off the original price (until Feb. 20). Shares do sell out, so sign up soon!
What's something interesting about your business your customers might not know? Throughout our farming season, we donate our extra market produce to the Avon Food Pantry as well as food pantries in Oak Park.
Why did you choose to open your business in Grayslake? We believe strongly in maintaining a farming history in the midwest and one of the special features of the Prairie Crossing community in Grayslake was (and is) its working organic farm. The Prairie Crossing Farm was one of the first parts of the community to be established and remains at its heart. We're proud to continue this strong tradition of family in Lake County.
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