Saturday on a Suburban Farm: Same Beauty But Bigger

Bob Benenson
Sep 30
2 min read

Some of the Color from the Farm Setting for Illinois Stewardship Alliance's Big Event

Corn against the blue sky at a suburban Chicago farm — *Photo by Bob Benenson*

Earlier this week, Local Food Forum published photos from my early Saturday walk around the Just Roots non-profit's tiny urban farm on Chicago's South Side, where I went for my bi-weekly CSA produce pickup.

That Saturday afternoon, I had another photo opp on McDonald Farm in the southwest Chicago suburb of Naperville. I was there to attend the annual Farm to Fork Feast fundraiser for Illinois Stewardship Alliance, the state's leading policy advocate for the local food and farm communities. (The event, filled with important content and delicious dining, will be the subject of a separate story.)

There were two major differences between the two farms (besides the fact that one is urban and the other suburban):

At 60 acres, McDonald Farm is much (much, much) bigger than the Just Roots' Chicago farm, which covers just a half acre. Like much of the outer ring of Chicago suburb, Naperville used to be mostly farm country, with a population of just more than 7,000 in 1950. Few suburbs boomed as did Naperville, which is now home to about 150,000 residents, and McDonald Farm — site of the home base of The Conservation Foundation non-profit — is one of the area's few remaining farms.
While the temperature was still mild during my Just Roots morning visit, it soared to a very unseasonable high of nearly 90 by late afternoon. The heat didn't stay me from another food-and-flowers photo session, though, and maybe I sweated off a few extra calories.

Enjoy some of Naperville's best Zen moments.