CCFB News» January 2021

Bob Rohrer, Manager of the Cook County Farm Bureau and Executive Director of the Cook County Farm Bureau Foundation, was recently presented the Perry Snyder Special Recognition Award by the Illinois Leadership Council for Agricultural Education (ILCAE).

Milo, also known as grain sorghum, grows three to four feet in height with a large seed head. The strength of milo markets grew with demand, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Cook County Assessor’s office has a deadline of January 31st for filing the 2021 Cook County Farmland Questionnaire/Affidavit. Forms are available at www.cookcountyassessor.com, click Forms>Farms>Download. Filing of this form is necessary on an annual basis to maintain the farm assessment of the property that is farmed in Cook County.

The Clerk of the Circuit Court is the official record keeper for the courts. The circuit clerk is an integral part of the entire county governmental process and is endowed with certain authority to aid and promote the judicial process.

Each month we are highlighting a Cook County Farm Bureau Member: This month's "Face of CCFB" is... Donna and Sam Nykaza, owner of Ray's Quality Greenhouse.

The goals will be the focus of the efforts by the Board of Directors, volunteers from the six teams of the organization, staff, and partners of the CCFB.

The provisions, guidelines and structure of the Board of Directors are outlined in the Cook County Farm Bureau bylaws.

The Cook County Farm Bureau Foundation has opened the 23rd Annual “Farm and Food” Agricultural Scholarship Program. The Foundation is offering college students the opportunity to start or continue their higher education with a scholarship. Last year, the Foundation provided twelve scholarships ranging from $1,000-$2,500 each.

Cookies In Short Supply This Season, Milano-Maker Campbell Warns (Bloomberg) – Campbell Soup Co., the maker of Pepperidge Farm cookies, warned it’s working through “supply constraints” in its cookie division, which makes familiar packaged varieties like Milano and Chessmen.

When you shop for food, there can be some confusion when reading the labels. There may be ingredients you can’t pronounce. There may be terms that are unclear. There may be foods that aren’t that good for you that are touted as so.

In celebration of the healthy and nutritious food grown and raised by local farmers, Cook County Farm Bureau® members and partners are supporting local families and food pantries.

January is the time we typically create a neat and tidy list of goals for the upcoming year in our personal and work lives. I will not bore you with personal goals (although my family thinks my goals should be to lighten up, let loose, and stop worrying which do not exactly align to my goals at all). On the work front, however, goals have been reviewed by our Ag Literacy Team and we are ready to create an engaging year of educational options.

The Cook County Farm Bureau Board of Directors took time to recognize and congratulate Mr. Jack Smith, COUNTRY Financial Agency Manager for Chicago Northwest, during their December 9 Board of Directors meeting. Smith who has been the Agency Manager for 30 years stepped down on December 31, 2020 to enjoy the fruits of retirement.

As infatuated as I am with old barns and windmills, I’m equally captivated by rows of young corn plants that don’t overlap at the end rows, a pleasing visual credited to satellite technology and automatic planter row shutoffs. Photographs of our farm’s old barns decorate walls of the farm office, where the top of a weathered windmill also backdrops my desk. The newest canvas print on the wall shows modern machines harvesting biotech crops near the solar panels that help power our grain drying and storage.

As a conclusion to this year’s grassroots policy process, Farm Bureau delegates from throughout Illinois approve Cook County Farm Bureau’s policy submittals during the virtual 2020 Illinois Agricultural Association® annual meeting.

Fifteen years ago, my farmer and I purchased our first house. With our big dog in tow we stepped into a basic, beige ranch on a quarter acre in town. Time passed. We added a corgi. Hardwood. Fence. A blue-eyed girl. Granite. Backsplashes. A big-little boy with no official eye color. Upgraded bathrooms. A lot of gray. Patio. Partially finished basement. And in-floor heat.

The 2021 Cookfresh Recipe Collection is a special “throwback” edition for our 100th year. Recipes selected from decades of submissions to commemorate our Centennial. Recipe booklets are available now.

Have you ever seen the reality show “Alone”? My wife and I have been watching reruns of this History channel show recently.  The basic concept is 10 people are dropped into a remote location of the world featuring an unfriendly climate, with bare minimum of tools and supplies and no contact from the outside in a competition to see who can survive alone the longest. While I enjoy the romance of survivalist mentality, I am realistic enough with myself to know that I would not last long at all…I really, really don’t like to be cold, hungry or be eaten by predators.