Remember the tale of The Little Red Hen? The plucky chicken finds some grains of wheat. She asks her barnyard buddies if they’ll help plant them, but none are willing. The same thing happens when she requests their help harvesting it, threshing it, taking it to the mill to be ground into flour, and baking it into a golden loaf of bread. Only when she asks if they’ll help her eat the bread are they eager to participate. But the Little Red Hen turns them down, pointing out that she alone did every step of the work needed to produce that bread. The story has been used for decades to illustrate the value of a strong work ethic to children.
Gail Record reminds me of The Little Red Hen, not because she keeps the fruits of her labor for herself – she’s eager to share them – but because of her determination to grow and process as many of their ingredients as possible herself.
Record is the owner of Clarewood Farm and Bakery. This season she’s begun selling her wares at both the Old Capitol Farmers Market downtown and the Illinois Products Market at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. There are several excellent baked goods vendors at the markets, but Record is unique in using locally grown, certified organic wheat that she freshly grinds as needed. (For some items, she combines the whole wheat with organic unbleached white flour for lightness.) Eggs come from nearby pastured hens. She also uses locally grown, seasonally available fruits, vegetables and herbs, many of which come from her family farm, Clarewood, located in southwestern Sangamon County.
Record credits her two daughters with sparking her interest in local and organic foods. “Both of them worked on organic farms when they were in college,” she says. “They have a total commitment to sustainability.” Her daughter Lindsay is the executive director of the Springfield-based Illinois Stewardship Alliance.
This is not Record’s first food venture.
During the 1970s, she sold herbs and some produce at the original Springfield Farmers Market, then located in front of the Old State Capitol. She also sold zucchini bread, which was a novelty. “It was fun,” she says. “At first I brought 25 loaves. They sold out so quickly; I brought more and more – finally I was making 85 or more loaves for each market. I’d drive up and people would say ‘Here comes the Zucchini Lady!’” During the 1980s, Record did some freelance food writing for the State Journal-Register.
Most recently, she managed the organic food section of Springfield’s Country Market grocery.
Clarewood Farm and Bakery is the result of Record’s and her two sister’s participation in “Farm Beginnings” in 2008-2009. (Clarewood Farm is owned jointly by them and their brother.) Farm Beginnings is a program sponsored by the University of Illinois Extension and The Land Connection that promotes the development of local food systems in central Illinois through farmer support and training. Record says, “The class was a turning point, as far as helping me clarify the direction I wanted to take. Clarewood Farm & Bakery wouldn’t have happened without Farm Beginnings.”
Much as Record wanted to grow her own wheat, it proved impractical. So she’s procuring it (5-6 different varieties) from a local farmer who will also supply her with oats this year. Clarewood Farm has 30-plus varieties of fruits, vegetables and herbs, but some – such
