Farming is hard. Starting a farm from scratch is nearly impossible. Zemua Baptista dreamed of farming — something his father did in his native Angola. He says he “carpet farmed” as a boy, dreaming someday of being a real farmer. A state champion wrestler in Friend, Nebraska, where his father was a Methodist minister, Baptista went on to wrestle at Iowa State University for a year, then three years at the University of Nebraska. All the while, he was making farming plans. With backing from his parents and loans from the USDA’s Farm Service Agency, he bought a piece of land and erected eight barns in which he raises broilers. That was in 2019, the same year Costco decided to get into the chicken production business. It set up its own feed mill, hatchery, and slaughter plant in Nebraska, and contracted nearby farmers like Baptista to raise over 100 million birds each year, all under the name Lincoln Premium Poultry. In the audio clip below, Zemua tells WGN’s Steve Alexander about the transition from college wrestler to chicken farmer. And, he’s a rare bird himself: one of only 14 Black farmers in Nebraska.

Vivent Health / TPAN is hosting its annual fundraiser Dining Out For Life Chicago on Thursday, April 25. In the audio clip below, Lorraine Hayes of TPAN tells WGN’s Steve Alexander about some of the 20 restaurants who have committed a percentage of their profits to TPAN, which helps people living with HIV to stay housed, get their HIV medications, and find culturally competent HIV care. She tells how HIV/AIDS, which was a death sentence a generation ago, has become manageable with medication, and TPAN helps make sure those in need get the medication. Hayes says she was drawn to this work when she began learning of the outsized impact of HIV on Black and Brown communities. On April 25, the simple act of dining out at some of Chicago’s favorite restaurants becomes a meaningful act of support, making a significant difference in the lives of those in need. New to the group of restaurants this year is one of Chicago’s favorite taco joints, Taylor’s Tacos on Taylor Street.

Chicago’s and WGN’s very own Orion “Big O” Samuelson is marking a milestone birthday on March 31st. It was 90 years ago on that date that “Little O” bounced into the world. He chose a spring blizzard to make his entrance on his family’s dairy farm in southwestern Wisconsin. The doctor wasn’t able to get to the farm, so a great aunt guided Orion into the world. She did a good job because Orion grew up to become the premier farm broadcaster in America, spending more than 60 years on the air at WGN Radio and TV, advocating for the men and women of the world’s most essential industry. In the audio clip below, Orion tells WGN’s Steve Alexander about the keys to a long life, which involve lutefisk and lefse, as well as fermented by-products of grain. And he is treated to a special birthday song from his former colleagues at WGN.

When Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid announced on a podcast that Taylor Swift had made homemade Pop Tarts for the offensive line, the marketing team at Kellanova that promotes the brand knew they had been handed a gift. In the audio clip below, Sarah Reinecke, VP of Marketing, Portable Wholesome Snacks / Pop-Tarts at Kellanova tells WGN’s Steve Alexander that her team seized the opportunity, taking out an ad in the Kansas City Star telling Taylor that if she shared her recipe, Kellanova would double its donation to a KC food bank. Her boyfriend, tight end Travis Kelce, posted about it. And Taylor? “We’re still waiting,” says Reinecke. Meanwhile, Pop-Tarts is having a moment, again, in the spotlight. Not only being mentioned in the same sentence as Taylor Swift, but the 60-year-old brand continues to crank out revenue for Kellanova, and the recent college bowl game sponsored by Pop-Tart — featuring a five-foot-tall strawberry Pop-Tart that the winning team ate. The New York Times opined that “Pop-Tarts Bowl won the internet” with that stunt.

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