Fish, meat and unusual vegetables among items area farmers are dishing up

Feb 11, 2009      The Pantagraph

Michelle Koetters

Feb. 11, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- FLANAGAN -- Myles Harston breeds, raises and fillets tilapia fish all at AquaRanch Industries in Flanagan.

"They go from swimming to frozen in minutes," Harston said.

Yes, the East Coast may be the place known for its seafood, but consumers also can find a taste in Central Illinois. They also can get their hands on other locally raised or grown meats and crops of a little more unusual nature in what's largely known as prime corn and soybean territory.

Whether it involves raising fish or goats to growing what are oftentimes unrecognizable vegetables, many Central Illinois farmers differentiate themselves and their businesses. They have a passion for what they do and enjoy introducing their products.

"I've always had a fondness for raising fish," Harston said. "Tilapia have an outstanding taste, particularly if they are raised in superior water. ... Most everybody who tries our tilapia will say they compare with the best of seafoods."

Tilapia has grown in popularity, but most of what Americans have eaten has come from overseas, Harston said.

Harston raises his tilapia first in a nursery and then in a greenhouse in water that is sent through and cleaned in a plant bed. His plants are certified organic, and he doesn't use hormonal manipulation or pesticides and herbicides on his fish.

The tilapia is made into fillets on site without carbon monoxide treatment, Harston said. The fillets are available year round, such as through the Twin City-based home-delivery service Garden on Wheels and Naturally Yours Grocery in Normal.

Naturally Yours also carries meat products from Trent and Jackie Sparrow's farm in Dwight.

Trent Sparrow knew he had to find a niche market to be successful as a smaller livestock farmer. Lo and behold, he saw a growing demand for goat meat, and later, a need for lamb meat.

"Goat's more rare than lamb. You can find lamb, but you can't find goat very much at all," said

Sparrow, of Catalpa Grove Farm. "It's a unique product because it's not widely available, not in the United States. It's widely available everywhere else."

Sparrow raises the animals hormone-free and focuses on their health aspects.

Goat is a very lean red meat, and young lamb especially is tender and flavorful, Sparrow said. In the past, Sparrow had sold his live animals off the farm or to a butcher house, but last year he began to retail the meat and introduced it to the Bloomington's farmers' market.

Chenoa Locker processes the meat, which is available in a variety of frozen cuts, such as ground meat, Italian sausage links, chops, steaks and roasts.

A lot of his customers are people who have had goat meat on vacation or people of other ethnic groups.

Henry Brockman of Congerville also has fun meeting people from another country who are excited to see a vegetable from their homeland. But he also wants to teach American-born citizens more about food through a farmers' market in suburban Evanston and his local community supported agriculture program.

"There's such a wealth of different vegetables from all over the world," Brockman said. "It seems kind of silly not to take advantage of them."

For the season ahead, Brockman will have 655 varieties of more than 100 different types of vegetables.

He grows so many different vegetables for a number of reasons, including a belief in biodiversity, crop insurance and not wanting to disappoint a customer.

"I'm kind of known as the guy who has everything," Brockman said.

One of his lesser-known vegetables is bitter melon. A member of the gourd family, the bitter melon is popular in such countries as India, Pakistan and China. Used in curries, it's very bitter and is an acquired taste, Brockman said.

His variety of the burdock root originally is from Russia, but the Japanese have made it popular to eat. Because of its brown skin, it looks like tree bark, which Brockman realizes doesn't sound very appetizing. But slice it up and cook it -- usually for stir fry -- and it becomes white with a sweet flavor, he said.

Even mainstream American cuisine can come in different varieties, as Brockman proves with his purple, white, yellow and multi-shade rainbow carrots.

But Brockman's biggest reason for growing so many different vegetables is the simplest.

"It's fun for me," Brockman said. "It's fun to try new things."

Newstex ID: KRTB-0166-31684117

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