Harvest Delivery

By Naperville Magazine
Appears in the March 2021 issue.

For 43 years, the Nichols family has been operating a 400-acre farm in Marengo, Nichols Farm & Orchard. Its fruit and vegetables—over 1,000 varieties—were sold at farmers’ markets as well as restaurants, especially in Chicago and its suburbs.

“And then all of a sudden, 2020 hit,” says Nick Nichols, a second-generation manager of the family-owned farm. “We went from 100 deliveries to 60 to 70 restaurants per week down to 10.”

Like other retailers, the farm opened up a new online store and now provides home deliveries throughout Chicago and it suburbs. “We had to find safer ways to get people our produce, basically out of necessity,” says Nichols. Shop the farm’s seasonal produce, eggs, preserved goods, vegetarian soups, and eggs online at nicholsfarm.com.

Photos courtesy of Nichols Farm & Orchard