These Farmers Run on ‘Chaos and Coffee’

by Mike Orso

5 Quick Things to Know About Kyle Dionne

1. Favorite restaurant in McHenry County: Duke’s Inferno, Woodstock

2. Favorite sports team: Don’t have time for sports

3. Favorite crop I raise: Cantaloupe

4. If I wasn’t farming I’d be: Heavy equipment operator

5. The one thing most people don’t know about me is: I’m a recovering alcoholic

Kyle Dionne represents a rarity in today’s food and farming sector. The 34-year-old is 1) a young farmer, and 2) a new, or first-generation one, who, with his wife Becky, grows organic fruits and vegetables in western McHenry County.

“We knew we had to set ourselves apart from what most of the marketplace was doing,” said Kyle, who was elected earlier this fall as a director on the McHenry County Farm Bureau board. “There is enough profit in wholesale vegetables, for example, that you can make it with an intensively managed operation.”

The couple started KRD Farms in 2018 and grow such things as cucumbers, ground cherries, green beans, dill, sweet corn, squash, tomatoes and zucchini. They sell what they harvest primarily at the Huntley Farmers Market and at The Farmers Market+ at The Dole in Crystal Lake during warm season months.

“We saw the need for early spring crops to boost our income,” said Kyle. “So, we are now also growing mixed lettuces, radishes, broccoli, kohlrabi and kale.”

Kyle Dionne did not grow up on a farm but caught the farming bug as a result of a plant science course he took at Marengo High School and working on area farms. His interest in farming continued to grow while attending two universities in Wisconsin with agriculture programs. He worked for a company scouting for damaging pests and diseases in crops, for ConservFS, a local farm supply cooperative and, in addition to farming with his wife, now sells Dairyland Seed and also works full-time for Nichols Farm & Orchard, a diverse fruit and vegetable farm, also near Marengo.

“I work 40 to 50 hours a week at the regular job then transfer over to this,” said Kyle, standing among his rows of lettuce on the farm just off U.S. Route 20. “Then it’s a minimum 12 hours of markets a week, plus your preparation work which is, at least, another 20. So, you’re pushing about 80 hours a week and you’re trying to squeeze more hours out of the day.”

Similar to Kyle and many other young farmers these days, Becky Dionne labors off the farm as well. In addition to the farm, she works as a paramedic, a medical assistant and as a substitute teacher for a local school district. Their son Louis, 5, helps out at the farmers markets.

“We run on chaos and coffee,” says Becky. “If we don’t have chaos we wouldn’t know life.”

In addition to “When is the sweet corn coming?” another common question from their organic fruit and vegetable customers proves to be, “Is it sprayed?”

“A lot of people think if it’s organic it is not sprayed,” said Kyle. “Not true. We have to spray products that are under the Organic Materials Review Institute, the governing body for materials that you can use in organic practices.”

For example, Kyle said many organic farms use a pesticide known as pyrethrin. The National Pesticide Information Center calls it an insecticide found naturally in some chrysanthemum flowers. He said his organic farm and many others also use spinosads, a natural substance that can help control harmful insects.

“About 95% of what we sell has not been sprayed,” said Kyle. “Typically, we won’t even spray sweet corn. Our biggest one that we see is cucumber beetles that will completely destroy a cucumber or squash crop. We’ve had problems in the past where we’ve lost 80-90% of the crop.”

Kyle hopes to help the local Farm Bureau engage with its members more and find ways to grow the next generation in agriculture.

“If a kid in grade school or high school has that ambition, we need to foster it,” said Kyle. “You need to foster some of these kids that have a work ethic and provide avenues to get into it. Otherwise, we’re going to lose a whole generation. We’re going to struggle one, as a Farm Bureau, and two, as a country.”

He also likes the idea of the group helping to grow local market opportunities for some farms and cited The FoodShed Co-op in Woodstock that opened this year, exploring the feasibility of bringing a meat processing facility back to McHenry County, and the possibility of farmer-cooperator test plots to share information.

“I know it’s a big ask,” says Kyle. “We’re farmers, we’re skeptical about damn near everything. But you’re not going know if it works if you don’t try.”

Kyle and Becky Dionne started KRD Farms near Marengo, inspired in-part after their 2017 honeymoon that included a trip to the Farm Progress Show in Decatur. “It stands for Kyle, Rebecca and Dave, in honor of Becky’s late father who farmed here,” said Kyle.

“There’s no way I could start a grain farm,” said Kyle Dionne on his rented 14 acres near Marengo. “I had to find something that had the potential to be high revenue and low cost to get me started.”

Kyle Dionne holds one of his North Georgia Candy Roasters, a winter squash that sold well for the farm family this fall at two McHenry County farmers markets.