For many farms across the Driftless region of the Midwest, fall is important not just because of the harvest — it’s a crucial time to capitalize on seasonal tourism. The fall is an opportunity for families to visit local farms to enjoy the tastes and sights of the scenic region, including Dittmar Farms & Orchard in Elizabeth, Illinois.
Located 16 miles Southeast from Galena, Dittmar Farms & Orchard is a 287-acre plot of land that is divided between the descendants of the original Dittmar family, who came to the US from Germany in 1854. The family later formed an LLC to keep the farm in the family and to create an opportunity to invest in the farm and generate revenues.
During a visit to the farm, visitors can pick pumpkins right from the field or apples from the orchard and partake in a hayride through a creak and the hilly fields of the Driftless. The farm offers a variety of seasonal and year-round tastes from apple cider donuts to bags of popcorn.
Currently, Dittmar popcorn is available at 15 retail locations across the Midwest and is being supplied to several local businesses, including the Great American Popcorn Company in Galena, one of the owners of the farm and local history teacher Mike Dittmar told AgNavigator.
As its popcorn business grows, the farm plans to devote additional acreage to popcorn production to grow its yellow and mushroom popcorn — a corn kernel that pops into a round ball shape as opposed to the typical butterfly shape. Currently, the farm owners rent out parts of the land to other farmers.
“In the 1960s and 70s, everyone had a grandpa or uncle that still had a farm, and they would go out there on the fall and visit it. And now they don’t. We don’t have those, and so that’s why you have pumpkin patches. ... Some of them become so commercialized, they’re almost amusement parks. We try to keep the farm feel,” he elaborated.
Keeping the farm feel while embracing technology, sustainable farming practices
While it maintains that classic farm feel, Dittmar Farms is embracing technology in a number of ways, including solar panels, drone technology, and software to help plan next year’s corn maze, Mike Dittmar noted.
Currently, Dittmar uses a corn picker and a 1950s John Deere sheller, before shipping it to a distributor who handles around 95% of the popcorn, he said. Given the increasing demand for its popcorn, the farm will be switching to a combine for harvesting, which will require the farm to monitor the corn for moisture issues, he added.
“Technology is the greatest thing ever. We adapt all of it, but we use 1950 technology to do our popcorn — go figure,” he elaborated.
Dittmar Farms is also involved in several conservation practices and sustainable farming practices, including cover cropping.
The farm maintains 200-foot-wide filter strips along its creek to reduce erosion, through a Conservation Reserve Program initiative that pays farmers to protect the land, said Mike Dittmar. Money received from the filter strip program offsets the cost of maintaining them, and they can pay more than farming the land, he added.
Like many farms, Dittmar Farms grapples with pest and weed issues, including Roundup-resistant water hemp, Mike Dittmar said. Also, dicamba and 2,4-D can kill pumpkins, he added.
Water hemp “is already a problem. It’s getting worse and worse every year. The solution is farmers are going to have to go back to cultivation until they can figure out a way to kill this super weed,” Mike Dittmar elaborated.
AgNavigator’s Voice of the Farmer series tells local farm stories to a global audience
Looking to hear from farmers directly? Then, make sure to stay tune to AgNavigator’s Voice of the Farmer series, which will feature farmer stories from across the globe.
This fall, AgNavigator will be sharing farmer stories from northwest Illinois and Eastern Iowa, with a key focus on the Driftless region of the Midwest. If you are a farmer or know a farmer that would like to be interviewed for this series, contact AgNavigator Editor Ryan Daily at ryan.daily@wrbm.com.
