By Mike Orso
This year’s McHenry County Farm Stroll promises a wide variety of family-run, agriculture-in-action farms, featuring 11 different ones you and others can visit over a six-hour period on Sunday, September 27. Three new farms and eight favorites from the past will be featured as part of this year’s line-up to explore from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“We’re so excited,” said Patti Gruber, program director of Operation Wild Horse, the Bull Valley farm that will participate in the Farm Stroll for the first time. “We’re so honored the group that picks who gets to participate toured the facility and told us that they were super excited to add us.”
The 10-acre farm provides experiential therapy using wild horses and burros for military veterans, active-duty military, retired and active-duty first responders. The non-profit opened in 2017 and has provided over 12,000 sessions, free-of-charge, to participants.
“What we have found is that the greatest therapy that happens at this place is done through self-discovery where the wild horses and burros will mirror your behavior back to you,” said Gruber. “A wild mustang is a fight or flight animal, and that is instinct for them. When you are in a situation where you are active duty or you are an active first responder, you survive as well with fight or flight as your response. You have to learn that behavior, where the wild horses understand that without ever having to be taught.”
Operation Wild Horse plans a wide variety of demonstrations for Farm Stroll visitors, including such things as round pen work, an obstacle course, and a parade of wild mustangs and burros the organization has obtained from the federal Bureau of Land Management, which is part of the U.S. Department of Interior. They also plan an area especially for kids.
“They will be able to go into our petting area and meet our goat herd that we have and get to know them,” said Gruber. “Then we’re going to have two real live unicorns here that people will be able to take pictures with.”
Several McHenry County Farm Stroll favorites from previous years will be back, including Piscasaw Gardens, owned and operated by the Kinney family, located in rural Harvard.
“On a typical weekend we put out a sampling,” said Jenny Kinney, who owns and operates the flower and vegetable farm with her family. “For Farm Stroll, we go all out. We will have cut flowers to build-a-bouquet, vegetables, the opportunity to see a seed corn production plot, tacos, homemade Pico de Gallo, freshly popped popcorn and hayrides.”
Kinney, whose family offers home-grown flowers and fresh produce at the Harvard-area farm on weekends and at several farmers markets across Chicagoland, believes 2026 has been a good growing season for many county farmers thus far. She emphasizes the Farm Stroll provides participants the chance to learn about the scope of McHenry County agriculture and the farmers and their families who make their living from some of the most productive farmland in the country, if not the world. While daylight becomes shorter, the bounty on many farms will continue, so long as frost holds off.
“We just planted our last planting of lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, radishes, cool weather crops,” said Kinney. “We’re still going strong. Some of our Mirai sweet corn is just silking. So, unless it freezes, we will have it until the end of October.”
If you plan to participate, the McHenry County Farm Stroll is self-guided, with no beginning or end. Plan to visit as many farms as you like. The farms on this year’s stroll include:
• Wanda Farms, 17419 Hebron Rd., Harvard
• Middlebury Farms, 10107 Alden Rd., Harvard
• Piscasaw Gardens, 9306 Lawrence Rd., Harvard
• Jorge’s Farm, 6710 S. Oak Grove Rd., Harvard
• Sunberry Orchard, 2318 Greenwood Rd., Woodstock
• Hitch’N Post Alpaca and Llama Farm, 1406 Park Lane Dr., Woodstock
• Maria’s Farm, 216 Menge Rd., Marengo (NEW)
• Operation Wild Horse, 605 Valley Hill Rd., Bull Valley (NEW)
• Garlic eScape, 14115 Kishwaukee Valley Rd., Woodstock
• Adama Farm, 18317 Garden Valley Rd., Marengo
• Hasselmann Farm, 23706 Harmony Rd., Marengo (NEW)
Also new this year, Naturally McHenry County, the non-profit, promotion-oriented corporation headquartered in the Old Courthouse on the Woodstock Square, plans a challenge for Farm Stroll participants. It encourages farm visitors to use the organization’s mobile app to check-in during at least 5 visits to be entered into a raffle for unique items from Farm Stroll farms.
The Farm Stroll comes to you by the Carey Center for Agrarian Learning at McHenry County College, McHenry County Farm Bureau, and University of Illinois Extension (UIE). Sponsors include COUNTRY Financial, Duke’s Alehouse & Kitchen in Crystal Lake, and First Secure State Banks. Volunteers from McHenry County 4-H and UIE Master Gardeners will be onsite to help answer questions and provide assistance at each farm on this year’s stroll.
For specific information on each participating farm and additional stroll details, see the “Shop Local” tab on the McHenry County Farm Bureau’s website.
One of the new farms on the 2026 McHenry County Farm Stroll is Operation Wild Horse, located in Bull Valley. “I’m constantly told that we’re the best kept secret in McHenry County,” said Patti Gruber, the farm’s program director.
Operation Wild Horse provides experiential wild horse therapy for veterans, active-duty military, active-duty and retired first responders. Megan Townsend, assistant program director, works with Marty Lenzen of McCullom Lake, retired member of the U.S. Marine Corps. and Vietnam veteran. “I like fixing things, making things and being around the horses,” he said. “It’s almost like a magical feeling.”
Jenny Kinney, left, points out some of the different flowers grown on the family’s Piscasaw Gardens farm in rural Harvard, one of the farms on this year’s McHenry County Farm Stroll. “People can see, firsthand, things we deal with, what we’re up against,” said Kinney, “Farmers face a lot of things, and we want the public to know who we are, what we’re doing and we care about the public too.”
The Kinney family’s growing season at Piscasaw Gardens in rural Harvard will continue throughout the fall, so long as frost holds off. That’s the case too on several other farms participating in this year’s McHenry County Farm Stroll. “I would encourage people to look at the map, and plan on stopping at 3-4 farms, and getting the full feel of what McHenry County has to offer, she said, “Some of these farms are only open for Farm Stroll. So, I would jump on top of that.”