Is there any farmland left in Cook County? (Chicago, Elgin: apartment complexes, high school)

[JPits]

I was just walking around one day and for some reason I wondered if there was...

I doubt there is but I could be surprised.

[chitown85]

There is actually. If you go way up to the Northwest suburbs, near Barrington and Barrington Hills. There are some "farms" up that way. The reason I use the quotation marks is that it is not like Nebraska, but there are some tracts of land with horses, some type of crop (grew up in the burbs so don't know how to tell the difference).

In the Southwest suburbs outside of Tinley Park and Orland Park there is a little bit left.

Generally, farmland is associated with unincorporated areas since there would be no villages around the farm, otherwise there generally wouldn't be land for the farm. Cook County only has 100,000 people living in unincorporated areas. These areas a lot of times tend to be subdivisions and apartment complexes that have not yet been annexed by adjacent villages for one reason or another.

[Venom]

Yeah, I've seen em.

[middle-aged mom]

When I was a child, ( a million years ago) we would visit family at their farm. Year's later, I asked where this farm was and had to laugh when I learned it was in Des Plaines.

There is no farmland within the Village of Barrington, regardless of Cook or Lake Cty. South Barrington and the slice of Barrington Hills within Cook County are more likely to be horse farms, than agriculture.

[paytonc]

The Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences is sometimes called "the only working farm left in Chicago":
Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences

The Trib reported on Friday, per the Farm Bureau, that there are 184 farmers left in the county:
93-year-old farmer keeps making hay -- chicagotribune.com

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by chitown85

There is actually. If you go way up to the Northwest suburbs, near Barrington and Barrington Hills. There are some "farms" up that way. The reason I use the quotation marks is that it is not like Nebraska, but there are some tracts of land with horses, some type of crop (grew up in the burbs so don't know how to tell the difference).

In the Southwest suburbs outside of Tinley Park and Orland Park there is a little bit left.

Generally, farmland is associated with unincorporated areas since there would be no villages around the farm, otherwise there generally wouldn't be land for the farm. Cook County only has 100,000 people living in unincorporated areas. These areas a lot of times tend to be subdivisions and apartment complexes that have not yet been annexed by adjacent villages for one reason or another.

Good reply.

I would add that Barrington Hills has a 5-acre minimum lot size, and the village actually encourages people to raise horses or use land for "hobby farms" or what used to be called "gentleman farms." The people that live there, don't do the work themselves, but hire people to do it.

There are a few scattered farm fields (corn/soybeans/alfalfa hay) around the unincorporated areas between Hoffman Estates/South Barrington and Elgin. More if you count areas protected as forest preserve (but then that really doesn't count if it is forest preserve land).

I would also agree with SW suburbs. Lemont especially.

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by middle-aged mom

When I was a child, ( a million years ago) we would visit family at their farm. Year's later, I asked where this farm was and had to laugh when I learned it was in Des Plaines.

There is no farmland within the Village of Barrington, regardless of Cook or Lake Cty. South Barrington and the slice of Barrington Hills within Cook County are more likely to be horse farms, than agriculture.

There was a small farm/field (off Rand) in Des Plaines until the late nineties. That could possibly be it.

Raising horses is still agriculture, especially since many of those farms grow hay for them to eat.

[chitown85]

Elk Grove Village also has the elk farm off of Route 53

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by chitown85

Elk Grove Village also has the elk farm off of Route 53

Not a farm.

Simply an enclosure like a zoo.

[NYrules]

There is still some left on the western edge of Orland Park mostly along Wolf Road and Will Cook Rd. Thats about all that I know of.