The Business of Food with Steve Alexander

Joe Reckinger said it’s the most wind he’s ever seen in his 66 years on the family farm west of Batavia on Seavey Road. On the night of February 27, 2024, what was later determined to be an F1 tornado flattened a barn built in 1882 when Joe’s great-great grandfather started the farm. Joe and Debbie’s son Dan is the fifth generation to farm the land. He and his family live nearby and all gathered at Joe and Debbie’s house to ride out the storm. Luckily, the house was spared and no one was injured. In the audio clip below, Joe tells WGN’s Steve Alexander the old barn, designated a historic structure by Kane County, and a literal landmark for passersby on Seavey Road, has had many uses, from dairy barn to horse barn. Joe says it held a lot of family history, including an antique sleigh his grandfather courted his grandmother in. It was destroyed, as were other artifacts saved over the years. What’s left for the Reckinger family, besides a mess, are decades of memories.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart tells WGN’s Steve Alexander in the audio clip below that he remembers the day Bruno Abate walked into his office and told him he had a vision and his life would not be complete if he did not give back and try to help people who had mistakes in their life. He wanted to open a pizza kitchen in the Cook County Jail. Dart said yes, and says the kitchen, built with donations, no tax dollars, is first class. He says if you didn’t know better you’d think you were in the kitchen of one of Chicago’s top restaurants. “Recipe For Change” is the program Abate created, and it has been a great success, both in terms of helping detainees learn skills to help them working in the food industry in the outside world, and in keeping them from coming back. “We have a really high rate of people not getting re-arrested for anything” among graduates of the program, said Dart. And the pizza? “It’s just incredible!” opines the sheriff. In the ten years since the program started, more than 150,000 pizzas have been served — but only within the walls of the jail. To enjoy it, you’ll have to get arrested. That will change soon, though. Beginning in April, Dart says a food truck serving the jail pizza will be serving people living and working in the area around the jail.

Mike Builta grew up on an Illinois farm, was a proud member of FFA, and kept one foot in the furrow as he went off to the University of Illinois, earned a Master’s in Crop Science and went to work in agribusiness. He left home for his office at GROWMARK in Bloomington, Illinois, where he was VP of Energy and Logistics, and never returned. He died of a heart attack. Only 52 years old. His widow, Sheila, was overwhelmed by the amount of donations made in his memory, and partnering with Growmark, set up a program to donate the iconic blue and gold FFA jackets to deserving Illinois FFA members, including those who might not be able to afford them. Since Mike died in 2019, more than 100 jackets have been donated. In the audio clip below, Sheila tells WGN’s Steve Alexander that the program was scheduled to end after four years, but she and GROWMARK decided to keep it going. This fall, students across Illinois can enter an essay contest to tell what their FFA goals are and what the jackets mean to them. Sheila reads each one — well over 100 each year — and chooses 25 who will receive the jackets plus a pin reading “In memory of Mike Builta.”

Super Bowl may be the biggest eating holiday of the year, and it isn’t even an official holiday. Whether at a fancy high end party with lobster sliders or a small family get together with pizza, chips and guac, we Americans tend to overeat, and then eat some more. A WalletHub survey found that the average calories consumed at a Super Bowl party was 8,083, about four times the recommended daily intake for average adults. The same WalletHub survey found that 74% of the respondents ate more at a Super Bowl party than at any other sporting event.

Included in the feeding frenzy is 53 million pounds of guacamole, most of it made from avocados grown in Mexico. That got WGN’s Steve Alexander wondering where avocados are grown in the United States (mostly in California) and how they are grown. In the audio clip below, Rachael Laenen – Director Farming & Operations and part of the family at the Kimball Avocado ranch based in the Heritage Valley outside of Santa Paula, California, northwest of Los Angeles, tells Steve about the farming of 20,000 trees spread across 150 acres, which is a bit foreign to Midwest farmers who mostly plant seeds in the ground, fertilize, spray, and hope for the best. She tells how large the trees grow and how many avocados each tree produces. They do need irrigation but she says avocados are quite efficient water users, with a very high nutritional content per drop of water. She says that the avocados are picked by hand, either at ground level using a hand clipper, or with long poles that have a stem clipper and bag attached, or, for the fruit way up high, on ladders. And yes, they are fruit. Not, though, as Rachael notes, the kind you’d want to put on your cereal.

Much of the Kimball Ranch burned to the ground in a 2017 wildfire. Included in the losses were the destruction of his parents’ home and everything in it, including decades of memories, the farm’s barn, the office, a good chunk of the ranch’s irrigation system, and approximately 60 percent of its avocado trees. But rebuilding is underway, new trees were planted and the ranch is back in business. Rachael came back to the family business after many years working for the Mercedes Formula One team, and has ramped up the ranch’s subscription service, where you can order avocados delivered to your doorstep during the season, which is roughly March through August. By the way, demand for California avocados is so great that exports barely make it out of the state. And it’s unlikely any make it to the Midwest. For Chicagoans wanting to buy California avocados, there’s the Kimball Ranch mail order.

In 2022, everything was going pretty well for Northbrook native David Grossman, the president and CEO of Epic Burger. When the chain struggled under its previous ownership, Grossman bought it in 2020 and gave it a reboot. Things were looking up. But then, the kind of thing every parent has nightmares about happened. His 24-year-old daughter Hallie was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer — so rare it still has no name. She died in 2023.

“My daughter was incredible,” says David. “She wanted to go to med school, she was actually working her dream job in the ER at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. She loved helping the underdog and always found herself in situations where she was helping others, both humans and animals.”

To honor Hallie, David and his family started a foundation to find ways to give back and try to live life “the Hallie way.” The Hallie225 Foundation is named after significant numbers in her life. She was born 2/25 at 2:25 p.m., and she lived until she was 25. “Every Epic Burger is committed to donating money to Hallie225, which will be donated to each high school in areas in which we operate. We want to offer scholarships to high school students and try to help improve others’ lives, and focus on education to help people fulfill their dreams.”

Meanwhile, Epic Burger continues to grow. Today, February 5th, the sixth store will open in Northbrook’s Willow Festival Shopping Center, 1036H Willow Road. “Epic is thrilled to be a part of the Northbrook community,” said Grossman. “My love for the food biz started as a teenager when I was delivering pizzas around town. Now I’m bringing my favorite burgers, chicken, fries and shakes back to where it all began for me.” 

In September 2023, Epic Burger acquired all Illinois Meatheads’ locations. The Northbrook location is the first of six Meatheads take-overs, and Grossman expects locations in Barrington, Bloomington, Champaign, Lake Bluff and Naperville will be converted to Epic Burgers by summer 2024.  

“A horse is a horse of course of course,” goes the old Mr. Ed TV theme song, and while a cow is a cow, it’s important for ranchers and farmers to be able to tell them apart. For more than a half century, ear tags with numbers and RFID transmitters have been the go-to, but those tags often fall off. There’s an app for that. 406 Bovine founder and CEO Bryan Elliott tells WGN’s Steve Alexander in the audio clip below that thanks to machine learning and A.I., the 406 Bovine app can make identifying a cow as easy as pointing an iPhone or iPad at the animal’s face. And, as much as all cows seem to look alike, Elliott says a cow’s face has more distinguishable features than do a human’s. (Maybe cows think we all look alike.) Elliott, a former ranch manager, says his app, launched in November 2023, is the next generation of livestock management. For now, the focus is on cattle, but sheep, pigs, and horses have faces, too, and could be added to the platform, too.

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/4486653/Facial_recognition_for_cows_2024-02-03-002953.64kmono.mp3usiness

What better day for the grand opening of Daintry McFadden’s Wetzel’s Pretzels franchise in Oak Brook Center than MLK Day? After all, it has been her dream for decades. In the audio clip below, Daintry tells WGN’s Steve Alexander how she tried many times to become the owner of a fast food franchise. A “proud, proud, proud product of Chicago Public Schools,” as she puts it, and a graduate of Northern Illinois University, she spent 29 years advising others on how to manage the finances of their franchises, all while aching to own her own. To do that, she needed a loan, but was rejected 15 times by the SBA for a small business loan. Now, as she nears the age of 60, the Chicago native got a “yes” from Wetzel’s Pretzels. Daintry is the first Black female owner of a Wetzel’s franchise, thanks to the chain’s Access to Equity program, which provides access to resources for women and ethnic minorities with financial needs interested in becoming Wetzel’s Pretzels franchise owners.

*UPDATE: Since these reports first aired, the Panama Canal area received some badly needed rain, but not enough to significantly speed the passage for dozens of ships lined up on either side.

*UPDATE TWO: An alternate some shippers decided to take from the Gulf Coast to the Far East, through the Suez Canal, is no longer an option because of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

The most direct route for Midwest soybeans, corn, wheat and other agricultural products to get to the major markets of China and Japan is through the Panama Canal. In the audio clips below, ag commodities analyst Susan Stroud of NoBullAg.com tells WGN’s Steve Alexander what she observed in her recent trip to the canal. A drought during the May to November rainy season has left the canal with near record-low water levels. As a result, passage has been slowed down and dozens of ships carrying all sorts of commodities are lined up.

In the audio clip below, one of Santa Fizz’s elves helps out WGN’s Steve Alexander with some gift ideas for people who have “green thumbs,” or who want to have them. Jennifer Brennan, in addition to being an elf for WGN’s gardening guru Jim “Santa Fizz” Fizzell, is a horticultural information specialist at Chalet Garden Center in Wilmette, Illinois, one of many terrific garden centers and nurseries in the Chicago area featuring great gift ideas.

A.  Plant gifts that are not obviously for the holidays (Poinsettias, Paper White Narcissus, Amaryllis bulbs to plant) –  

B. Plant care products to help your friends get “greener” thumbs –  

1. Jennifer’s favorite houseplant fertilizer! – Superthrive GROW, $12.99  (formerly Dyna-Gro GROW) – incredible liquid fertilizer with a 7-9-5 N-P-K formulation plus 11 micronutrients – 8 ounce bottle used at the rate of ½ teaspoon per one gallon of water. (enough to make 64 gallons! (THIS WOULD BE A GREAT STOCKING STUFFER) 

2.  Also from Superthrive –Orchid-Pro, $12.99 – another liquid feritilzer for Orchids with a 7-8-6 N-P-K plus 11 micronutrients – 8 ounce bottle used at the rate of ½ ounce per one gallon of water 

3. Bonide Systemic Houseplant Insect Control – $9.99 for 8 ounce bottle used at the rate of 2.5 Tablespoons per a 6 inch diameter planting pot. Granules sprinkled over the surface of the soil in the pot and watered in with ususal amount of water for that plant. It kills any insects in the soil and is absorbed by the plant roots and stays in the plant for 8 weeks killing any insect sucking the juices of the plant or eating the leaves. 

4. BioAdvanced 3-in1 Insect, Disease & Mite Control Spray – $12.99 – The best product to have to take care of anything that could be a problem for your houseplants. It controls insects, fungal leaf diseases and spider mites. It is a trans-laminar systemic that can be sprayed on one surface of the leaves and it stays in those leaves for 30 days. 

5.Bosmere Down Under Plant Stand – $16.99 – Jennifer thinks these are the best invention for large plants. It sits under the pot in the saucer and keeps the bottom of the pot out of any standing water. You can water the plant in place without taking it to a sink or shower stall; and never need to worry about root rot! 

C. Outdoor garden care products (that potential ‘Green Thumb” people NEED to know about – 

1. Best animal (rabbit & deer) repellent to spray on plants – Plantskydd Repellent – $29.99 for 1 quart spray bottle – The BEST repellent! It is a blood- based soray that stays on parts of plants that have been sprayed for 60 days in the growing season, 90 days in Winter. 

2. A great alternate repellent – Bonide Repels-All animal repellent spray – $15.99 for 32 ounce bottle – an Earth-friendly natural product that uses smell and taste repellents to protect plants that are targeted by rabbit, deer and 11 other animals. 

D, Products for pruning plants –  

“Queen Vino” is the title Chrishon Lampley gave herself as the founder and CEO of Love Cork Screw, a Chicago-based, Black-owned, woman-owned wine company. Her website also describes her as a “badass Black woman ” who started with next to nothing after a freak flood destroyed her Chicago art and wine bar, and a decade in, she has sold more than a million bottles of wine and is carried in stores across Chicago and nationwide. In the audio clip below, Chrishon tells WGN’s Steve Alexander the wine industry is meant to be fun, and she has leaned into that with some edgy, fun names she has given to her wines, and her motto: “Enjoy it, drink it, don’t overthink it.” She is a “unicorn,” one of a very few Black women who are owners in the wine business — “less than one percent” — not enough to fill a CTA bus. Chrishon says she doesn’t own vineyards, but owns tanker space at vineyards in Michigan, California, and Chile, and those partners produce the wine to her specifications, bottle it, and get it out to distributors and retailers. She says Love Cork Screw was born out of a desire to not only provide an enjoyable wine experience, but also to support underrepresented communities and promote sustainable practices. “Love Cork Screw is more than just wine. It’s a whole mood,” says Chrishon, summing up the brand’s mission and spirit.