Scott will tell you about the soil before he tells you about himself. Class A, some of the best on earth, and he says it the way other people talk about a view.
The Hasselmann family has farmed in the Chicago area for over 100 years, starting with Henry Hasselmann's migration from Hanover, Germany, in the late 1800s. Today the farm sits in Marengo, Illinois, about 60 miles from Chicago, and everything on it lives outside. The cow calf herd is on pasture. So is the flock of sheep, and the laying hens, and the Berkshire hogs, which they farrow to finish rather than buying in halfway. It is a small family farm in the literal sense, not the marketing one.
The difference between his beef and the supermarket is not a matter of degree. When you buy a beef from Scott, it came from one animal. One. The same package on a grocery shelf can be a hundred different animals ground together, from a hundred different lives you will never hear about, and nothing on the label tells you that.
The farm has grown into something bigger than what one family can raise alone. There is a network of producers behind it now, and over 300 products once you count the cuts, including 20 flavors of bratwurst. Berkshire pork, grass fed beef and lamb, pasture raised poultry, farm fresh eggs, and lately dairy and cheese through partnerships with other small farms nearby.
Then there are the people. Maria works in the farm store and Scott pays her in product, because that is what she wanted. He calls them farm helpers. That is the part he lights up about, that the place has life in it, animals and people both.
His daughter keeps a Brown Swiss dairy cow named Honey who follows visitors around the pasture like a big dog and pushes into frame when nobody asked her to.
Ask Scott what he wants people to hear and he does not talk about his own farm. Small farms, he says, are one of America's biggest assets, and they are dropping like flies. Support one and you get a better community and healthier food out of the same decision. He does not think that is complicated.
Wherever you're at in the US, support your local farm.
Scott Hasselmann
Owner and Operator
Scott holds a master's degree in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University and a Bachelor of Science in Agronomy from Western Illinois University. He served as an Agricultural Volunteer in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua from 1999 to 2001, where he met his wife, Nena.
Henry Hasselmann and his family migrated from Hanover, Germany, to the United States and purchased an 80-acre farm in Des Plaines, Illinois.
The farm moved to Oakton Street in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, where they established a thriving mushroom business known as 'Supreme Meadow Mushrooms'.
Scott Hasselmann founded Hasselmann Family Farm Inc. in Elk Grove, Illinois, focusing on livestock farming.
filmed on the land, with the people who work it