Join The Land Connection, OGRAIN, Artisan Grain Collaborative, IDEA Farm Network, Mad Agriculture, and Rodale Institute for this unique field day tailored for both farmers and distillers to learn in the field and at the distillery.
We’ll spend the morning touring organic fields and seeing a small grain cleaning demonstration with Will and Dallas Glazik at Cow Creek Organic Farm. We’ll transition inside for lunch featuring a grain chain panel and delicious, local food from Maize. The afternoon will include a Silver Tree Spirits distillery tour, a buyer-seller mixer, grain-quality discussion, and an optional educational spirit tasting, offering participants a hands-on opportunity to understand how environment influences flavor outcomes in distilled products. Have lingering questions or want to spend more time enjoying this great group of folks? Stick around the distillery to keep the conversation going.
This event is for organic farmers, those who are curious about organic production or the distilling market, organic grain buyers, and grain product makers. Come out to explore and network across the grain chain. This event will be held at Cow Creek Organic Farm, Silver Tree Spirits, and The Cadillac event space.
Agenda:
- 10:00am – 10:30am – Registration and Check-in
- 10:30am – 10:45am – Welcome & Introductions
- 10:45am – 11:15am – Travel to farm
- 11:15am – 12:00pm – Field tour: Polyculture inspired by 3 sisters & alternative fertility source trialing
- 12:00pm – 12:15pm – Travel to second farm
- 12:15pm – 1:00pm – Grain cleaning demonstration
- 1:00pm – 1:30pm – Travel back to Cadillac/Distillery
- 1:30pm – 2:30pm – Lunch by Maize with Midwest Grain Chain Panel
- 2:30pm – 3:30pm – Tasting: Malted vs raw grains with enzymes/any other related from distillery
- 3:30pm – 5:00pm – Buyer/Seller Mixer and Distillery tours
- 5:00pm – 7:00pm – Optional Social Time at Silver Tree (cash bar, snacks provided)
📢 Calling all farmers, grain enthusiasts, and distillers in and around Chicagoland! We’re coordinating a shuttle van that will pick you up and drop you off right at the Rantoul train station. Hop on the train from the city and join us for a day packed with practical, hands-on learning.
Chicago to Rantoul: 391 Saluki train leaves Union Station at 8:15 am and arrives in Rantoul at 10:19 am. Shuttle will be waiting at the Rantoul station to bring you to Paxton.
Rantoul to Chicago: 392 Illini train leaves Rantoul at 7:24 pm and arrives at Union Station at 9:45 pm. Shuttle will depart Silver Tree Distillery in Paxton no later than 7:00pm.
Event presented by:
Funding provided by:
Thank you to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP). Midwest TOPP supports the morning session and National TOPP supports the afternoon market-focused session. TOPP is a program of the USDA Organic Transition Initiative and is administered by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) National Organic Program (NOP).
