The Cubberlys at work

The transition from city goers to farmers has happened quickly for the Cubberlys. Chris Cubberly was working as a manager at Fox and Obel in Chicago when he and his wife Tania went through the Stateline Farm Beginnings® program in 2006. That same year Chris worked at Sandhill Organics to gain more exposure to sustainable farming practices.

Since 2006, the Cubberlys have used the farm incubator program at Prairie Crossing in Grayslake, IL to launch Red Tail Farm. The incubator program allows beginning farmers to rent five acres of land for three to five years. During the 2008 season the Cubberlys produced 36 CSA shares in addition to chickens, eggs, and lots of other produce they sold at farmers markets.

Chris credits the Learning Center's farming training programs with helping them establish a successful farming operation, “One thing that we took away from Farm Beginnings® was the experience of other farmers who spoke to us about their operations and business practices.” Meeting other local farmers through Stateline Farm Beginnings® and CRAFT workshops paid off big for the Cubberlys this winter. They heard that Tempel Farms (a horse and row crop farm) had been looking for farmers to grow food on their land. After a few meetings, the Cubberlys now find themselves employees of Tempel Farms Organics in Old Mill Creek, IL. Initially the Cubberlys, with aid of their three-year-old son Edward, will farm on about seven of those acres expecting 75-100 CSA shares this year. They hope to get to the 500 mark eventually and to add a road-side stand produce stand for the locals. The extra space will allow them to grow all of their animal feed on the farm and as Chris says, “Closing the loop” by using the horse manure to make compost.

It's been a busy year for Chris and Tania, in October they attended the Slow Food Conference in Terra Madre in Torino, Italy. To Chris, the reality of food production in most of the world was not lost,  “For many farmers at the conference, their farming because they have to.”

The Cubberlys transition from beginning farmer to now managing a growing enterprise is what the CRAFT and Stateline Farm Beginnings® programs hope to make available to those interested in changing careers and becoming farmers. Farmers that engage in sustainable practices and hope to provide local communities with affordable, fresh and nutritious food.