Elburn farm, market thriving during pandemic

ELBURN – With so many restaurants forced to close and farmers markets being canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s nice to see that business is booming at one local farm and market.

Rustic Road Farm, located at 1N292 Brundige Road, Elburn, continues to not only grow organic vegetables and raise pasture pork and chicken, but the farm market is open to guests on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. And because of the outbreak, the farm has added curbside pickup on Tuesdays from 3 to 5 p.m.

Customers have to sign up on the farm's mailing list by going to the website, www.rusticroadfarm.com, and place their order by Sunday. They simply drive up on Tuesday and a staff member places the order into the trunk.

Marc Bernard, who co-owns the farm with his husband, Luis Bernard, also makes baked goods, sauces and soups fresh from their gardens.

Marc Bernard said the demand for their goods has been high since the outbreak hit.

“People stocked up – the market got so busy,” he said. “We’re very fortunate because we’re in the food business and people need food. I think people want clean, organic food. There’s no middle man. Our produce has a longer shelf life because if we pick it today, we sell it tomorrow.”

The farm already has gotten a head start on its yearly planting season, which Bernard said usually starts April 15.

“We’ve planted spinach, four kinds of lettuce and radishes in the field already,” he said. “And soon we’ll be planting sweet peas, broccoli, kale, carrots and beets.”

Rustic Road Farm has been in Elburn for about eight years. It began with the Bernards just looking to live there and provide food for themselves. That quickly changed once they saw how good their home-grown food tasted.

“We started with 25 chickens and three pigs,” Bernard said. “We started selling some meat, and now we raise over 100 pigs a year and have 400 chickens. Now our soup business is booming. We’ve been so busy.”