Brian Severson Farms: Grains From Seed to Store, All On The Farm

I am the 5th generation of my family to have a small family farm in Grundy County, Illinois (80 miles south-west of Chicago), where my wife and I raise organic and non-GMO grains.

Unhappy with the introduction of GMOs and the direction agriculture was taking in the 1990s, we started experimenting with organic methods. We raised our first certified organic sweet corn in 2007.  We also began growing organic oats, various food corns, wheat, popcorn, peas, soybeans and buckwheat.

We try to select varieties based on taste, which often leads to using heirloom varieties.  We also save our own seeds whenever possible.

With the gradual addition of more grain cleaning equipment — a stone grist mill,
roller mill, etc. — we not only grow but also clean the grains so they are suitable for consumer use.  We can process them into various flours, rolled oats and meals, all done right on our farm.

Everything we raise is non-GMO, and most of the food grains are certified organic.  The best crop of all raised on the farm are our four kids — Luke, Seth, Joel, and Sarah — who work on the farm when not busy with high school and college studies.

That Horse Is About Tradition

Sometimes people ask, “Why do you have a horse as your emblem if you don’t even raise horses?”

The answer is simple: tradition.

When I first started farming on my own, my grandfather came out to my farm with iron tracings of horses that had hung on his barn. “You’ve got to hang these up on your barn” he told me.  When I asked why, he said, “Because my father had them hanging on his barn.”

Tradition. Doing things the way our grandfathers and their fathers did them.  Trying to grow the crops and varieties they grew and ate because they tasted good — without chemicals or GMOs — because that’s what they fed their families. Using farming methods that have been used for hundreds of years.

In fact, my farming methods often resemble my grandfather’s generation more than my own. We control weeds using a front-mount cultivator. It is time-consuming but provides the safest and surest weed control for our organic crops.

Raising a variety of crops in our organic rotation helps to promote and maintain healthy soil. When adding fertilizer, we use natural sources such as manure from another farm or unprocessed minerals.

Since we grow and handle a variety of crops, our kids can identify a wheat berry from an oat groat, or a soybean from a dry pea. They’ve also discovered while cleaning oats that oat dust is the itchiest substance known to man!

We are honored to have a small part in helping to “feed the world,” and also continuing a family farming tradition.