Champaign, Ill. (WCIA)

The weather may be changing, but the Champaign Farmers Market remains the same enjoyable market that you can rely on for your holiday dinner. The Land Connection‘s Kelly Lay, Local Foods Program Manager, and Ed Dubrick, with DuChick Ranch and Policy Organizer with the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, join with healthy shopping tips to help you prepare your Thanksgiving dinner.

The Land Connection is excited to welcome amazing local farmers like DuChick Ranch to the CU Winter Farmers Market starting Nov. 4th! DuChick specializes in well-cared-for poultry, offering a humanely raised product to shoppers that is also of higher quality than that found on factory farms. At TLC, they are very thankful for the care that our local farmers like DuChick give to the land, people, and animals around us. It makes perfect sense to us to celebrate Thanksgiving with a locally raised turkey! DuChick and other market vendors, like Triple S Farms, will have locally raised turkeys available for pre-order and purchase at the market. This is a limited-supply product, so it is definitely something to buy early.

Friends of The Land Connection, the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, are also asking for community support for the Illinois Local Food Infrastructure Grant Program. This program invests in the infrastructure needed to bring you more local food! Processors, grain mills, more storage capacity to keep produce fresh all winter long, and better supply chains to connect farmers across the state like DuChick Ranch with consumers who want humane, locally raised food. You can tell your state congresspeople if local food matters to you! Give thanks with food that grows our community!

The Land Connection
http://www.thelandconnection.org; 

https://duchickranch.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CUFarmersMarkets?mibextid=ZbWKwL; 

https://www.facebook.com/DuChickRanch?mibextid=ZbWKwL