Sydney Null loved gardening growing up, and has always had an interest in agriculture and environmental conservation.
She studied natural resources in college, and then joined the Peace Corps. She served three years in Zambia in southern Africa.
Null said it became clear to her that climate change was the number one thing making life difficult for her friends in the village.
“I decided I need to do something in my personal life that really feels like I am doing as much as I can to mitigate the effects of climate change on my friends here,” she said.
That led to creation of her own farming business when she came back home.
“This allows me to give vegetables to our customers, and they can know that they’re not shipped all the way across the country from California, that we’re using our really good soil here and our water resources and trying to grow as ecologically soundly as we can,” Null said.
The farm is south of Blandinsville in McDonough County.
Null grows vegetables organically, raising everything from A to Z -- from asparagus to zucchini.
She runs a CSA that distributes boxes of produce once a week in Macomb, sells at the weekly Burlington Farmers Market, and some of her food is sold through the Macomb Food Co-op.
The business was originally called Null Family Farms. But she wanted something a little snappier. There was a lot of brainstorming, and then her husband, Grant Rogers, suggested Wild Parsnip Farm.
Null initially dismissed that as ridiculous – wild parsnip is a weed that can give you a rash.
But a few days later, she decided it was pretty funny.
“It’s a little bit of a farm joke because farming is very hard, and sometimes it feels like all you have is wild parsnip. But maybe someday I’ll get rid of it,” Null said with a laugh.
Wild Parsnip Farm is now in its ninth year.
Null said she continues to learn as she grows vegetables organically and sells them locally, and she’s enjoying what she’s doing.
“This is a pretty cool lifestyle to have,” she said.
More about Wild Parsnip Farm
The Null family farm is an 800-acre sesquicentennial farm. It’s now in a trust because no family members are in farming. Most of the land is rented out to local farmers. Corn and soybeans are grown on the land.
Sydney Null uses the two smallest parcels for Wild Parsnip Farm. She rents 7.5 acres, but only about an acre is in vegetable production each year.
The rest is either fallow or used for pollinator habitat.
The CSA has grown through the years. Null said it’s now about as large as she can handle.
She said food is a huge part of our lives, so people can help mitigate climate change by thinking about where their food comes from.
“If you can get some food from local growers, you are more likely to know them and know their practices and (know) for sure that food is not coming from as far as it would if you were buying it in a grocery store, with much less processing and packaging as well,” she said.
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