Get Fresh

By Naperville Magazine
Appears in the June 2022 issue.

It was the sad state of summertime corn that ultimately did it. Jim Wellhausen would’ve been content spending his days beautifying the burbs as a landscape architect for the Village of Oak Brook. Only he fantasized, every July, of biting into the sweet corn he enjoyed as a kid. Unable to find a single ear that measured up, he decided to grow his own. “I wanted my children to be able to eat real produce,” he says. 

On the Wellhausen Farm (wellhausenfarm.com), near Monroe, Wisconsin, he grows veggies his way. Drip-line tubes (imagine fancy lawn-care hoses) are set in the ground and topped with specialty mulches. His veggies are then placed directly into the mulch, ensuring they absorb the perfect amount of water. The results, delivered in roughly eight-pound weekly bundles to subscribers as far south as Flossmoor, taste like edible relics from the 1950s. A $189 annual membership—plus $19 weekly delivery fees—buys you lettuces, tomatoes, strawberries, and more, plus, the sunniest prize of all: Jim’s pudding-sweet corn. 

Photo courtesy of Wellhausen Farm