A new organic farm run by three members of the Funk family is bringing new and complementary products to the sixth-generation Funks Grove Maple Sirup off Route 66 in Shirley, Illinois.
Katie and Jonathan Funk and with her fiance, Jeff Hake, started Funks Grove Heritage Fruits and Grains. They don’t plan to supplant Funks Grove Maple Sirup, but instead offer new products to the mainstay business.
According to WGLT radio at nearby Illinois State University:
They started modestly in 2016 with an acre of buckwheat, then winter wheat. Not a huge surprise that one of their first products was pancake mix — perfect for all that family sirup.
“We’re operating completely separately (from Funks Grove Pure Maple Sirup), however we are working very much in tandem of course,” said Katie Funk. “So a lot of the things that we’re growing, we’re growing them because they’ll go well with the maple sirup. At this point the maple sirup shop is kind of our best outlet for selling what we have. We have the pancake mix from our wheat from last year, the wheat flour, the wheat berries and all of that is going to go really well with the maple sirup.”
With the popcorn that they’re growing, Funk said they can also make maple caramel popcorn.
The station reported the farm is experimenting with table grapes, spring wheat, flint corn, currants, apples, cherries, pears, peaches, almonds, pumpkins and barley. Jonathan, a home brewer, said he might use the barley to brew beer.
The farm put out a news release in late June that elaborated on its beginnings:
The farm began production modestly in July 2016 with the planting of an acre of buckwheat. This was followed by four acres of a hard red winter wheat called Warthog, which was harvested in the summer of 2017. Its prolific yield and unique flavor profile has made it the foundation of the farm’s success in 2018.The farm now offers three products from this wheat crop: whole berries, rustic stoneground whole flour, and pancake mix. The pancake mix has quickly become a popular product, incorporating their whole wheat flour and maple sugar from Funks Grove Pure Maple Sirup, a family business in which Jonathan is a partner and Katie is the candy and sugar maker. […] “These are products we are really proud to offer,” says Katie Funk. “We have had amazing feedback from bakers and chefs and from customers as far away as Kansas and Massachusetts.”
Because the farm is semi-isolated, converting it to organic farming proved nearly ideal, they said.
Funks Grove Heritage Fruits and Grains products can be found at Green Top Grocery in Bloomington, Common Ground Grocery Co-Op in Urbana or in the Funks Grove Sirup shop off Route 66. Several restaurants in central Illinois also use their produce.
Katie also gave their long-range plans for the farm:
Long-term, Katie, Jonathan and Jeff are aiming for a roadside diner of their own. Katie said they’ll probably start small at first, maybe brunch on some limited weekend hours.
“A lot of people are traveling on Route 66 and there’s not really a good place right here to stop an eat. So down the road — it might be a few or several years — we would really like to have some sort of roadside diner here where people who are traveling by can stop and get food that we’re growing right here, or from our neighbors, and get a really good meal,” said Katie. “And I’m sure the maple sirup will be a big part of that.”
Adding an organic farm to Funks Grove Maple Sirup makes a lot of sense. It will diversify its income from just maple sirup, the production of which is subject to the whims of weather. The organic farm also should find a reliable and fertile customer base from the nearby Bloomington-Normal metro area.
And given its pristine and historic area, it’s a bit surprising an organic farm hadn’t taken root years before.
The Funk family has run its maple-sirup operation commercially since 1891 and annually has tapped its trees to make its own sugar since 1824.
As for the spelling of “sirup” instead of the usual “syrup,” Funks Grove uses the former because of a 1920s definition of the words in a Webster’s dictionary. “Syrup” meant adding sugar to juice; “sirup” meant boiling sap for sugar. The “i” indicated it was a pure product, which is what the Funks wanted to show in their marketing.
(Image of Funks Grove Heritage Fruits and Grains corn field and its products via Facebook)
I really dig Funks Grove and their little store. I’ve never seen an unhappy customer or employee there. Two thumbs up.
Trivia: The wheelchair ramp first appeared during summer/fall 2010.