ELIZABETH — There was a time when most people knew where their food came from — and not by simply reading a label or scanning a barcode, but by knowing the farmer who raised it or the field where it grew.
These days, modern supply chains can send produce thousands of miles before it reaches a grocery shelf, often leaving consumers disconnected from both the people and places behind their meals.
Across northwest Illinois, however, a growing network of farmers, bakers, makers and consumers is working to reconnect people with their food source. They’ve come together as Jo Daviess Local Foods, an online farmers market and storefront based in Elizabeth helping connect residents with locally produced foods and goods from close to home.
Amera Striegel is one of those bakers. The owner of Faith Over Fear Fermentary in Freeport sells sourdough products and kimchi through the market and also serves as its communications director. She sums up the concept with a term she proudly embraces.
“I’m a hardcore ‘localvore’,” Striegel said.
A localvore, she explained, is someone who curates their menu with intent and purpose: to eat food produced close to home.
“There are different variations,” Striegel added. “Some people say within 100 miles, some say within your watershed. We’re in a beautiful region here, and we just have so much. I support all of that. I can eat 75 percent of my meals at home and know who grew it, and it brings a whole new dynamic to eating, feeling grateful for it and enjoying it.”
Founded in 2018, Jo Daviess Local Foods began as an effort to help local producers work together while adapting to changing consumer habits and the decline in number of smaller, traditional farmers markets. The organization has grown considerably since then, expanding from eight producers and seven pickup locations to roughly 40 producers and 13 pickup sites across Jo Daviess, Stephenson and Carroll counties.
If local food is ultimately about connection, then the challenge becomes finding ways to preserve those connections in a changing world. For JDLF founder and executive director Erin Keyser, the answer involved combining modern convenience with the traditional relationship between producer and consumer.
“The idea was to have an online farmers market and bring our producers together,” Keyser said. “I had seen where some of our smaller farmers markets in the surrounding towns were dwindling or dying out a little bit, so I thought if we came together and worked together, we could better serve the county.”
For those not familiar with online farmers markets, here’s how JDLF does theirs: Go to jdlf.org/online-market and hit the “shop” button to browse through its more than 40 different vendors. Orders are accepted from noon each Friday to noon each Monday, and orders are available for pickup between 4-7 p.m. Tuesday at one of 13 locations: Apple River, Elizabeth, Freeport, Galena, Hanover, Lena, Mount Carroll, Savanna, Stockton, Warren; and at the Apple Canyon Lake and Galena Territory homeowners association communities. Exact pickup locations are announced upon ordering. Home delivery is available to most places in Jo Daviess County and Freeport.
Customers can choose among fruits and vegetables, grass-fed beef and pasture-raised poultry, dairy products and cheeses, duck eggs, locally produced honey, sourdough breads and fermented foods. The market also offers elderberry products, herbal remedies, soaps, lotions and skin-care items made by regional artisans.
Its vendors — many of them family farms throughout the region — help create a marketplace that reflects the diversity of northwestern Illinois agriculture. Many vendor profiles also provide information about growing practices, production methods and the people behind the products, helping consumers connect with the farms and businesses supplying their food.
The ordering system is designed around convenience for customers while helping producers harvest, bake and prepare only what is needed.
“We’re bringing the food to them,” Keyser said. “There’s a pickup location that’s close and convenient for them where they can go there and grab their order. They have all weekend to shop, they can go on and then add more things later. They can edit their order up until Monday at noon. They can be at home clicking buttons and have the food ready for them on Tuesday.”
When ordering closes Monday at noon, producers receive reports detailing exactly what customers purchased. Bakery vendors can begin preparing fresh items Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. Farmers can harvest produce shortly before delivery, sometimes even on Tuesday morning.
“We want it to be as fresh as possible,” Keyser said.
The process also reduces waste. Utilizing pick lists allows producers to harvest or make only what’s been ordered, whereas traditional farmers markets often leave vendors trying to predict demand and sometimes disposing of unsold products.
“It’s great not having the waste, and knowing what exactly to bake, instead of baking and then going to a market and hoping it sells,” Striegel said. “It’s been incredible that way, and the customers are so consistent. We have a really dedicated customer base that loves local stuff.”
The online market is only one part of Jo Daviess Local Foods’ recent growth. In 2025, the organization became a nonprofit known as the JDLF Collective, established a farm-to-food-pantry program and opened a physical grocery store. The farm-to-food-pantry program purchases excess food from local producers and distributes it to area food pantries. Through grants and donations, the initiative provides another outlet for farmers while increasing access to fresh foods for families in need.
Completed in June 2025, the rear portion of its building is used each Tuesday to sort online orders before distribution, while the front portion, which opened in August 2025, is the grocery store.
“We’re coming up on almost a year with the storefront, and it’s going good,” Keyser said. “I still think we need to keep spreading the word that we’re here and we’re open, and make sure people who are just driving by know what it is, and they can stop and come in. I’d like to keep increasing our traffic, but it’s been a slow-but-steady trajectory.”
The storefront offers another option for customers who prefer shopping in person.
The online market is great, Keyser said, but “there are some people who don’t like shopping on a website, and prefer to come pick out their food in person, see the veggies and pick their favorite. We’re trying to appeal to a greater range of people.”
The benefits of Jo Daviess Local Foods are many, Striegel said.
“This allows for more access. Those who can’t make it to a Saturday market, they can have it delivered to 13 different places. It increases access to a variety of local foods. It helps people understand the power of buying local, and the nutritional benefits, the environmental benefits.”
Freshness is another advantage of sourcing food close to home, Striegel said. “When you’re getting it from here, it’s fresher. That’s huge.”
Environmental benefits are part of the equation as well. Rather than relying on products that may have traveled hundreds or even thousands of miles before reaching a grocery shelf, Jo Daviess Local Foods focuses on connecting consumers with producers from across the immediate region. The approach not only supports local agriculture but can also reduce transportation-related impacts while getting food into customers’ hands sooner.
By sourcing products from nearby farms and businesses, Keyser said the organization is working to reduce food miles and the carbon footprint associated with long-distance transportation.
“The main thing that we’re trying to do is provide as fresh of produce as possible, you can’t get any fresher produce anywhere else,” Keyser said. “We’re trying to use our super-local producers in this county and surrounding counties to really lower that carbon footprint and lower those food miles and be environmentally friendly.”
“What JDLF is doing is building a food system that we didn’t have in this area,” Streigel said — and building that system begins with a good foundation, which the region has.
Northwestern Illinois sits within the Driftless Area, a region that largely escaped the flattening and scraping effects of the last glaciers. As a result, the area retains its rolling terrain, deep valleys and rich soils that help support a diverse agricultural economy.
“We have some of the most rich biosoil in the country,” she said. “It’s called Driftless because the glaciers missed the area, and so it didn’t wash away a bunch of it. It’s rich soil that, hopefully, we’re not completely degrading with our practices.”
Striegel believes local food can also help people reconnect with cooking, eating and appreciating where their meals originate. As JDLF continues to expand, its supporters hope the connections it’s making grows as well — not only between consumers and producers, but between people and the landscape that feeds them.
“You can get something here that’s taste really brings back the joy of good food,” Striegel said. “We’ve had a decline in people who prepare their own food, and when you get to a farmer’s market, and you’re exposed to new things and if encourages you to try using it in new ways, or in recipes or different things. We’re connecting people with their food and who grows it.”
To order from Jo Daviess Local Foods, go to jdlf.org/online-market and hit the “shop” button. The buying period is from noon each Friday to noon each Monday.
Pickups are between 4 to 7 p.m. each Tuesday at various sites in Jo Daviess, Stephenson and Carroll counties. Pickup locations closest to Lake Carroll are at Mount Carroll (4:15 to 4:30 p.m.), Savanna (4:30 p.m.), Stockton (4:15 to 4:30 p.m.) and Lena (4:45 p.m.). Exact pickup locations will be announced upon ordering.
JDLF also has a store at 2757 W. Headquarters Road in Elizabeth; it is open from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Find JDLF on Facebook, call 815-775-2674 or go to the website for more information.
Dining and Cooking