This weekend’s New York Times magazine profiles Spence Farm, the vegetable farm in Fairbury that provides rare and offbeat produce to restaurants like Frontera Grill, Blackbird, Avec, and Tizi Melloul. The ten-acre farm is run by the Travis family, who see it as their responsibility to provide a model for a sustainable, profitable, small working farm: “In 2004, they received a grant to educate students of all ages about a time when farms grew more than corn and soybeans. Soon, [Kris Travis] recalls, ‘we realized they couldn’t teach others about saving their small family farms if we couldn’t make this one viable.’ … Marty and Kris teach hundreds of students that they can farm on fewer than 1,000 acres and that they don’t have to raise yellow corn and pink pigs. Marketing, community building and relationships with chefs are also crucial. “You see all these guys,” Marty says, pointing to the sea of corn surrounding his farm, “the only relationship they have is with the guy at the elevator who says, ‘Yeah, you can dump it in the bin over there.’ ” [New York Times]
