Plainfield butcher shop connects customers with fresh, locally sourced food

Customers who shop for meat, poultry and other products at Hufendick Farm Market in downtown Plainfield know where their food is coming from.

The fresh food at Hufendick Farm Market is not coming from large processing plants outside the state or from outside the U.S., but from a family farm just south of Norway, Illinois, which is about 30 miles southwest of Plainfield.

The store, located at 24032 Lockport St., opened in 2019 and since then has been offering Black Angus beef, Berkshire pork, free-range chicken, turkey, goat, lamb and other products that come straight from the Hufendick family farm.

Debra Hufendick, who runs the shop with her husband, Mike Hufendick, said their store gives customers a true farm-to-table experience.

“They know exactly where the meat is sourced,” Debra Hufendick said.

Some of the signature items at the store include bourbon jalapeño bacon slices and maple apple cinnamon bacon slices. They also sell chicken and duck eggs, freshly made soups, bone broth, hot dogs, sausages and sauerkraut.

The store provides a “personal touch” for customers, Debra Hufendick said.

“I know my customers,” she said.

The staff at the store can customize what people want from their meat, such as whether they want their ham smoked and cured or not. Customers can request organ meat as well. Their chicken is more firm since they are walking around at the farm instead of remaining confined.

Debra Hufendick said she knows customers want responsibly made meat.

The store touts that the animals are raised the “old-fashioned way” on a farm with no confinement buildings, no use of antibiotics, no steroids, no genetically modified grains and humane treatment.

But that’s not the only benefit that Hufendick Farm Market offers to customers.

It also sells products from other local farms and businesses that further its mission of offering fresh, locally sourced food.

Milk from Little Brown Cow Dairy in Delavan, Illinois, is one of the locally made products sold at the store.

Terry Hoerbert, who runs the business with her husband Bob, said they produce fresh milk from cows on their farm that is either delivered the day it is processed or the next day at Hufendick Farm Market.

Their farm also has delivered milk for Ten Drops Coffee, 14903 S. Center St., Plainfield, she said.

Hoerbert said it’s wonderful to have a “small farm helping a small farm.”

“It’s what helps get our name out there,” Hoerbert said.

Other locally sourced products sold at Hufendick Farm Market include hot sauces from Gindo’s Spice of Life, as well as other sauces and jams from Plank’s Food Products and Beachy’s Bulk Foods.

Debra Hufendick said she hopes her store opens people’s eyes to what they can get from local farms.

She said the downtown Plainfield location was chosen for her store because the area is basically her hometown, and they’ve participated in farmers markets in nearby areas such as Oswego.

“It was basically a central hub for us,” she said.

Hufendick Farm recently received a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand the shop in Plainfield.

Mike Hufendick said the grant will cover part of the labor cost and the cost to hire more people, which will allow them to add more value to their products.

“The grant is allowing us to be able to expand with our employees enough to the point where we can make different types of product,” he said.

Mike Hufendick said the Plainfield shop “opened up a new world” for him and his family. He said that in the past they used to sell frozen meat to customers at farmers markets.

Now they’re selling fresh meat and creating their own types of products.

“It’s very labor intensive, yet it’s something we enjoy doing,” Mike Hufendick said.