Meet the Midwestern farms supplying Chicago’s restaurants

Some of Chicago’s most celebrated restaurants have been getting their grains, proteins, produce and dairy from local Midwestern farms just a short trip away for years. Why the penchant for the local? Everything from keeping money in the community to looking for quality produce to give their dishes a little extra kick. Here, we celebrate the farms supplying some of Chicago’s best restaurants and filling our plates with from-the-earth Midwestern goodness.

For Grain: Hazzard Free Farm at Hewn
The partnership between Ellen King of Hewn and Andrea Hazzard of Hazzard Free Farm Grains & Beans isn’t just that of a farm supplying a bakery with local grains. The collaboraters have been working on a project to bring back Marquis wheat, an heirloom wheat that originated in the early 20th century and then virtually disappeared. This fall, after three years of effort, the duo gears up for a regular release of bread made with the newly propagated Marquis wheat.