ALBION, Ill. – Illinois Extension’s Summer Twilight Series will wrap up its annual program in August with a stop in Sumner. With a decade-long track record, the series continues to be a unique opportunity for southern Illinois residents, farmers, and entrepreneurs to discover a variety of agriculture industries and locally owned businesses in the region.
To date, participants in the Twilight Series have explored The Flock Farm in Anna, a southern Illinois farm and poultry processor with its own market; Weiler Enterprises, Inc., a dairy farm in Claremont; and the Dixon Springs Agricultural Center in Simpson, a University of Illinois research center that houses three commercial high tunnels with a focus on vegetable production.
Bronwyn Aly is the Illinois Extension local food systems and small farms educator serving Gallatin, Hamilton, Pope, Saline, and White counties, and helped develop the Summer Twilight Series.
“Over the past ten years, we have had the opportunity to partner with so many unique farming operations across southern Illinois,” says Aly. “The willingness and openness of every farm to share production and marketing strategies is an excellent example of the sense of community felt throughout our southern Illinois region.”
The August program will feature Wild Child Flower Farm in Sumner on Monday, August 18, from 6-8 p.m. Located at 12186 Union Chapel Rd., Wild Child Flower Farm is a seasonal u-pick flower farm owned and operated by Delores and Scott Weiss and Macee and Isaac Hill. Together, they’ve provided locals a place to enjoy and curate beautiful flower arrangements for five years. The flower farm also offers bouquets for special occasions, flower delivery subscriptions, and hosts a large vendor market each summer. Join the tour to learn more about their operation; participants will be able to purchase flowers at the end of the program.
To register or for more information about the Summer Twilight Series program, call 618-695-2441 or visit go.illinois.edu/twilightseries. If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate, please contact Bronwyn Aly at baly@illinois.edu. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet access needs.
University of Illinois Extension develops educational programs, extends knowledge, and builds partnerships to support people, communities, and their environments as part of the state's land-grant institution. Extension serves as the leading public outreach effort for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in all 102 Illinois counties through a network of 27 multi-county units and over 700 staff statewide. Extension’s mission is responsive to eight strategic priorities — community, economy, environment, food and agriculture, health, partnerships, technology and discovery, and workforce excellence — that are served through six program areas — 4-H youth development, agriculture and agribusiness, community and economic development, family and consumer science, integrated health disparities, and natural resources, environment, and energy.