By CINDY LADAGE
Illinois Correspondent

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — This year’s Illinois Specialty Crops and Agritourism Conference and Trade Show kicked off with a few pre-conference workshops, then opened with a session from Chef Brigitta and Michael McGreal. Sessions continued on a variety of topics, from pruning apple and peach trees, to old roses for an herb garden.

The conference also kicked off with a cider contest that Diane Hadley of the Illinois Specialty Crops Growers Assoc. said is a popular event. The contest featured cider from Illinois, as well as a national competition.

“We also added in hard cider and there were more entries of that than normal. The cider contest is a big part of our show,” she said.
For the second year in a row, there was also a market display contest. The contest exhibit acted as a great backdrop for the conference, decorating the tables in the room adjacent to the exhibit hall. “This is a new contest and it is catching on,” Hadley said.

The conference addressed all parts of the special growing business. “We have over 400 in attendance. The majority came from all over Illinois, but we also have visitors from Ohio, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Indiana and even a few from Nebraska and Pennsylvania,” she said.

In the trade show area vendors were set up to share wares and assistance. Rita Taylor of the Illinois State Beekeepers Assoc. (ISBA) and Phillip Raines, president of the Stateline Beekeepers Assoc., were on hand. “Stateline is a group of affiliate associations. There are 12 affiliate associations, then we have several individuals,” Raines explained.

According to the ISBA, bees mean the difference between production and none for some crops: “Honeybees play a critical role in the quality and success of many Illinois crops, via its superlative role as pollinator. Augmenting populations of feral pollinators with honeybees can increase your fruit and vegetable yield, fruit size and crop profits.”

The ISBA has 604 members who manage 10,000-plus colonies. There are 1,142 registered beekeepers, not all of who are members of an association that operates 18,500 colonies throughout the state.

 Many Illinoisans don’t know that 80 percent of the food they eat relies upon pollination. Although bee keeps can be found statewide, Raines said the northwestern portion of the state has the largest number of bees.

“This is because there is more hay ground and dairy and less corn and soybeans. There is more area that is unglaciated and less plowing from fencerow to fencerow. This promotes good clover,” he said.

 “There are also a lot of bees in the Pekin, Illinois, area. They bring in a lot for pumpkin pollination. Illinois is the largest producer of pumpkins in the U.S.”

Examples of different types of honey were on display and showed the type of honey produced is dependent on the nectar a bee uses. Taylor shared, “The color depends on the nectar from the flowers.”
The ISBA shared a few facts: “Members of a colony fly 55,000 flight miles and visit two million flowers to collect the nectar to make one pound of honey. One colony of 60,000 honeybees can produce up to 150 pounds of honey per year, but only need approximately 70 pounds to survive the winter (leaving a surplus for human consumption.)”

Along with associations, seed companies were represented in the trade show. Phil Timm of SeedWay said his company is based in Hall, N.Y., and the seed it develops is shipped out of Elizabethtown, Pa.

“Our research farm is outside of Hershey,” Timm said. “We only sell the best of the best. We have over 20 salesmen and cover every state to the Rocky Mountains, Colorado and Utah and New Mexico.”

There is also a smaller research farm in Lakeland, Fla.
SeedWay is the exclusive dealer of the Dutch seed company Bejo. “They are renowned for their onions, cabbage, carrots and beets,” he said.

“Carrots need sand or mineral soil. Cabbage likes clay-based or a silt loam, like the one that is south of Milwaukee. Another pocket is outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin.”

There, he said, is the world’s largest packer of sauerkraut, Great Lakes Kraut. In this commercial growing area, thousands of acres are planted in cabbage. Like the cabbage, many of his customers also plant carrots that end up in Bird’s-Eye vegetables.

Timm began his career in 1982 working as a food process manager for pack plots. “We were growing 30,000 acres.  I just did that for a few years,” he said. Now he enjoys working the upper Midwest.
“The conference touches on fruit, vegetables, herbs, agritourism and consumers,” Hadley said, adding this was a wonderful event for those in the specialty crop market to learn more about how to run a business and network with their associates.