Event Schedule
June 29 – Joe Spain of The Publican
July 27 – Zachary Engel of Galit
September 14 – Brian Motyka of Longman & Eagle
What better way is there to learn more about the food we eat than to come directly to the farm and see how it is grown and cared for? Slagel Family farm is a 6th generation family farm in central Illinois that is now inviting the public to join them on a farm tour of their old-fashioned livestock farm. Re-connect with the land and watch the livestock roaming the pastures in the wide-open skies outside the city. As more and more people have the desire to learn more about their food and where it comes from, we felt offering a farm tour and dinner would be an excellent way to bring you closer to your food.
Our tours, which run from spring to fall, will be a full afternoon of learning and enjoying food. Many customers have now had the chance to enjoy Slagel Family Farm meat products at the finest restaurants around Chicago, but these farm dinners will offer the chance to meet the farm families behind the product, see animal’s first-hand, and ask questions about raising and processing livestock. After getting the question from someone in the city while making deliveries ” so which one lays the eggs- the male chicken or the female chicken?” we decided it was time to bring the public back to the farm and educate them about all the work involved in what they are eating on a daily basis.
Each farm tour/dinner will be paired with one or more well-known chefs from Chicago. The afternoon will start out with a snack after all the guests arrive. We have a barn on the farm which is not filled with animals. This serves as our dining area and has a kitchen in it for food preparation. Following our snack, we will begin the farm tour which will be given by the farmer- LouisJohn Slagel. Guests will have the opportunity to ask questions, hold baby piglets, gather fresh eggs, and interact with playful goats and lambs. Following the farm tour, most of our events will include a butchering demo. This will be a cutting (not slaughter) demonstration given at our butcher shop which will show how we break down a beef, hog, or lamb carcass into retail cuts you can find at your grocery store. This will be done by a guest butcher, or someone that regularly cuts meat at Slagel Family Meats. More details on what is getting cut and who will be butchering is listed in the schedule of events. Following the tour and butchering demo, we will head back to the barn and enjoy a four course meal prepared using products raised within feet of where we are sitting.