Our guest today is Cliff McConville from All-Grass Farms in Barrington Illinois. Together we discuss how he started farming from a background in the insurance business, building his on-farm store, raw milk in the state of Illinois, and much more.
It was a privilege to get to interview Cliff at his farm and an in-person interview, I hope you enjoy our interview with Cliff McConville.
Listen To The Show
Show Notes
- Cliff’s on-farm store is a place where he’s provided the ingredients for entire meals
- Without a traditional farming background, Cliff started in the insurance business working in downtown Chicago.
- The gateway to farming was Food Inc. and Joel Salatin’s writings.
- Since Cliff had 8 acres on his property, he decided to try raising some of his own food.
- An initial boost to the farm came when the farm got listed on EatWild’s website of local farms in Illinois.
- Not only do they sell food and ingredients at the store, they also sell books which explain both the philosophy of how they farm and how to cook the food they sell.
- At first, raw milk wasn’t a part of the farm, but interest grew.
- Taking a risk, Cliff visited a raw milk farm and decided to give it a try.
- Today, raw milk is a foundational part of their business.
- When it came time for rules for raw milk for the state of Illinois to be written, Cliff among other farmers joined the committee to help draft ideas.
- Cliff sees the trends headed towards more people wanting healthy food, but don’t necessarily want to cook it.