Joy of Illinois Farm

We are Les and Penny, co-owners of Joy of Illinois Farm. Penny does most of the farm planning, helping customers, daily animal chores, and garden work; Les takes care of maintenance, heavy jobs, and covering for Penny when she’s not available. In the picture, we’re in Dallas at the wedding of a Haitian refugee (technically, humanitarian parolee under Biden’s CHNV program), a young man who lived with us in 2023. We had the privilege of picking him up when he entered the country and introducing him to central Illinois culture.

  In the 80s and early 90s we were SILKs (single-income, lotsa kids) living next door to DINKs (double-income, no kids) in old-town Champaign. Normal child noise drove the neighbors crazy. We found a small, affordable homestead just 5 miles from Champaign (now only 4!) where we could raise our family without bothering anyone.

We joined 4-H and the children raised the species of their choice, plus being responsible for a specific part of the garden. We learned to grow our own red meat, white meat, milk, eggs, honey, vegetables, and a few fruits. We all gained valuable experience--from frightful fiascos to spectacular successes. None of the children has lacked for employment as adults because they know how to work!

An additional benefit of our farm life has been good health! In the city, I (Penny) had the worst allergy trouble of anyone I knew, except my mother and maternal grandfather. Fall ragweed season had me flat in bed in misery for a month. Migraine headaches were debilitating.

After we moved to the farm and started eating our own fresh raw milk, eggs, and produce with the full spectrum of minerals, the enervating hay fever was reduced to a week of runny nose. Farm-fresh eggs have a mystery ingredient the brain craves—eating eggs, drinking water, and a stress-free rest time together conquered the headaches. For our vintage, we can walk and work quite well. We give a lot of credit to using the whole chicken for broth, eating organ meats and organic vegetables, and boiling bones from red meat for soup, which captures the gelatin missing in muscle meats.

   Passersby would see the animals and poultry and stop, wondering if we had any for sale. We found we could raise more than we needed for ourselves, so Joy of Illinois Farm was born.

   Our nine children are all married and 20 grandchildren (two more on the way) are scattered from Seattle to North Carolina and Wisconsin to Oklahoma. We’ve adjusted to “empty-nestiness” (in the farmhouse, though not in the hen house), although family is always welcome! While raising healthy food economically was an absolute necessity during those SILKy years, now in our SINK (single income, no kids) life, it's our passion and pleasure.

See you at the farm!

Penny and Les Gioja

PS The people who bought our house in town turned out to be louder than we were, with half as many kids! Our former DINK neighbors moved to a high-rise in New York City...