Contact Jill Reyna at 815-631-8774 or jreyna@saukvalley.com
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12 In good Kompany
Cheesecake lovers have a friend at an Ashton business, where they’ve found a family who loves the cream cheese confection as much as their customers do.
4 Community Focus
A look back at some faces and places from Lee County, through the eyes of Shaw Media’s staff.
6
Care/giving
Thanks to volunteers’ dedication and a community’s generosity, a food pantry in Ashton is helping people feel more secure about being able to put food on their shelves and meals on their table.
18 Wiped off the map
They’re the places lost to time — but we’ve found them again.
26 A herd bargain
They say goats will eat just about anything — and that includes taking a bite out of inflation at the grocery store.
Mark Ward congratulates his daughter Kinsley after she won an award Aug. 25. during Amboy Depot Days.
Amboy’s Maddie Althaus runs in the Gary Coates Cross Country Invitational Sept. 14, at Zearing Park in Princeton.
Players aim for the board during a game of bags at The Classroom Bar and Lounge in Nelson this past summer. The business, owned by Dave DeVries and wife Tracy, hosts the 815 Twin City Baggers, a group of players who’ve gotten hooked on the backyard game that’s become increasingly popular in recent years. The Baggers have an open session every Wednesday at the bar, at 207 Pope St., and invite fellow players and folks who just want to give the game a try to stop by. The group was profiled in the fall 2024 issue of Dixon Living. Read it at issuu. com/shawmedia/docs/svm dl 102824.
Amboy’s Brody Christofferson lunges for Martinsville’s Adam Parcel on Nov. 9 in round two of the 8-man football playoffs.
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Landen Ahlmann of Waterman polishes his ’57 Chevy on Aug. 25 during the Amboy Depot Days car show.
Clover Conner of Franklin Grove dressed up a stuffed hawk Nov. 13 during Sauk Valley Community College’s Friendsgiving event.
ot everyone is lucky enough to have a pantry full of food. Rising food costs and other financial challenges have forced many rural families to tighten their budgets, and belts, and that’s made it a challenge to keep food on the table.
That’s where a dedicated group of volunteers comes in — to help fight food insecurity.
They’re the people behind the Ashton Care Pantry, and they’ve made it their mission to keep hunger from having a seat at the table. Through their service, they’ve come to know many people in Ashton, Franklin Grove and Lee Center, as well as their needs and the stories behind their struggles.
Sherri Stauffer coordinates the volunteer group of about 10 people who help patrons get the food, toiletries and cleaning products they need when the pantry opens its doors on the first and third Thursdays of the month.
While the pantry provides food for those in need, it also provides something to its volunteers: food for the soul — a sense of pride and a feeling of accomplishment, knowing that they’re helping their fellow commu nity members, and seeing the smiles on their faces as they peruse the pantry.
“Anyone can come, sign in — there’s always two volunteers here — and they can fill two grocery bags of what they want,” Stauffer said.
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are part of the team of volunteers who keep the Ashton Care Pantry open for people who could use a helping hand in the AshtonFranklin Center School District. The pantry has been around for nearly 50 years.
From left: Tom Balch, Sherri Stauffer and Steve Toole
Unlike pantries that have packages of groceries already bagged, visiting the Ashton pantry is more like a trip to the store. “It’s basically like they can just come in and shop,” Stauffer said. “People are actually very considerate, they take what they want or think they can use, and are very good about it.”
Tom Balch was director of the pantry for 29 years, and once worked with pantry founders Alvera Forney and Mary Hill. He continues to be a volunteer and he’s noticed that having the patrons pick their own products works out better for them.
“There’s two pantry concepts,” Balch said. “One is where they take a bag or box and they fill it based on what they have, and they hand that to you in the parking lot or the doorway. We’re more of an open concept, where you’re shopping off the shelf on a free basis, and we’re letting them choose. We like that open concept. Why put something in a box that they maybe don’t like or won’t utilize?”
The pantry is located behind the Ashton Village Hall, and has kept families fed for nearly 50 years. Its service area was originally the Ashton School District boundaries, until the district merged with the Franklin Center School District (which consisted of Franklin Grove and Lee Center) in 2004. In addition to donations from the public, local businesses, organizations and school groups hold drives and fundraisers throughout the year that help keep the pantry full. Much of its meat and eggs are donated from local farmers. The pantry also provides recipes that patrons can use with the food they take.
“A lot of times someone is cleaning out [a parent’s] house and has unexpired food to bring to us, and churches will have baskets that people will put food in,” Stauffer said.
Donated food must be unexpired, unopened and shelf stable. Personal care items, toiletries and cleaning supplies are also accepted, as well as monetary donations.
Steve Toole is the pantry’s inventory manager. He keeps track of what comes in and what goes out, checks for expired products, and hears what patrons would like to see more of in stock. If a product is running low, and there isn’t more coming in anytime soon, it’s up to him to use the cash on hand to buy it.
“We try to anticipate what the needs will be,” Toole said. “We try to get items that are healthy. It doesn’t mean we won’t have a few treats once in a while. We generally want to have something that’s nutritious and healthy for them.”
Instead of together packages of food and other items and giving them to people, the Ashton pantry is set up more like a store, allowing people to “shop” for items. “We like that open concept. Why put something in a box that they maybe don’t like or won’t utilize?” said Balch, seen here with fellow volunteer Sherri Stauffer.
Volunteers do their best to get to know the needs of each patron, and by doing so, can keep track of certain items that are in particular need. The “wish list” includes food such as boxed macaroni and cheese, cans of chili, canned vegetables, peanut butter and jelly, and tea; non-food items include boxes of
Amboy Veterinary
bandages, paper plates and toothpaste (a list of items the pantry needs appears on the following page).
In order to qualify for help, pantry patrons must reside within the AshtonFranklin Center School District (a tax statement can be used for provide proof). That’s it. In Illinois, it’s illegal for pantries to ask patrons for their income or to set income requirements.
According to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2024 Report Card data, released in late October, 50.2 percent of students in the Ashton-Franklin Center School District are classified as low-income by the state, which encompasses those who are eligible to receive free or reducedprice lunches, live in substitute care, or whose families receive public aid. The figure is about seven percent higher than the average percentage between 2015-23, data shows.
cont’d to page 11
Food items
Barbeque sauce
Boxed macaroni and cheese
Boxed mashed potatoes
Boxed rice or pasta sides
Boxes of jello
Breakfast syrup
Canned beans
Canned chili
Canned fruit
Canned meat (chicken, tuna, spam)
Canned pasta
Canned vegetables
Cereal
Coffee
Condensed soups
Crackers
Dry beans
Dry mixes for baked goods (cornbread, cakes, biscuits, muffins)
Dry pasta
Dry rice (quick rice, boil in bag, and bagged)
Honey
Jelly
Ketchup
Mayonnaise
Mustard
Oatmeal (bulk and packets, any flavor)
Packets of dry soups
Pasta sauce (any flavor)
Peanut butter
Pepper
Salad dressing (any flavor)
Salt Tea
Non-food items
Boxes of band aids
Boxes of tissue
Clorox cleaning wipes
Feminine care products
Individual rolls of paper
towels and toilet paper
Small bars of soap
Small stacks of paper plates
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste
More people have utilized the pantry this year than last, Stauffer said. “We have new people coming in almost every week who haven’t come before,” she said.
The pantry has been at the Village Hall for nearly half of its history, and the volunteers have little overhead to worry about, thanks to the village, and that helps ensure that the money donated goes for food and not expenses.
“Our goal is for 100 percent of it to go toward food staples for those in need,” Balch said. “The Village has been very generous in donating a place for us to have it, and avoiding rent, utilities and things of that nature.”
Behind each person who uses the pantry is a story, some, unfortunately, are all too common — coping with a job loss, trying to make ends meet, single parents in need of a helping hand — while others are facing hardships most of us would find unimaginable, like the Ukrainian families who fled their war-torn homeland and took up temporary residence in the Ashton and Franklin Grove area. Some of them sought assistance from the pantry, and volunteers were happy the help.
“We had Ukrainian refugees coming over, and most of them have moved now and we don’t see them much anymore,” Stauffer said. “We couldn’t really have a conversation,
but it was great to have them come. We tried to help them understand what things were. They would see things on the shelf and hold them and talk to each other about it, and I would encourage them to take it and try it.”
More volunteers are always needed. For retirees like Toole, volunteering is a way to not only keep active, but it’s rewarding too, he said.
“Since I’m retired, I have time to go shopping,” Toole said. “I don’t mind it as long as I have a list. I kind of have a system, and I enjoy it. I like trying to get things that people want, and I enjoy giving back [to the community] a little bit, too. People really appreciate it, and they show it and say it.”
Understanding patrons’ stories and helping them feel better with a couple of sacks of food and other necessities are what Stauffer and her fellow volunteers enjoy about being a part of the pantry and serving their community.
“I enjoy the people,” Stauffer said. “I love being here. I look forward to people coming in, and look forward to seeing them outside of the food pantry. Sometimes someone will cry on my shoulder, and just need someone to talk to. It’s definitely serving a need and definitely something that people enjoy coming to. A lot of people express a lot of gratitude, too.” n Shaw Media reporter Cody Cutter can be reached at 815-632-2532 or ccutter@shawmedia.com.
atelyn Glavac and Keri Creason enjoyed playing with their Easy-Bake Ovens as children.
The sisters would plug in and play out their childhood fantasy of running a store, whipping up cakes in their toy oven and “selling” them to customers.
Fast-forward nearly 20 years and the Steward sisters have gone from easy baking to hard work, running their own business where they’re still making cakes, and making their childhood dream come true — and just like when they were kids, mom Tina Glavac is their to lend a hand.
The family owns CheeseKake Ko. — with a couple extra K’s in the mix for the sister’s names — in downtown Ashton, where the siblings cater to customers’ sweet tooth with their handmade custom cheesecakes. It’s a business that’s evolved in less than three years, from Katelyn’s desire to make cheesecakes to opening a shop with her family on Nov. 2 in downtown Ashton.
KOMPANY cont’d to page 14
KOMPANY cont’d from page 13
You won’t find any easy baking here — there’s a science to crafting the perfect cheesecake, and Katelyn and her family have mastered their method of making the decadent and delicious delights.
“I wanted to be good at something that not a lot of people were doing,” Katelyn said. “There’s a lot of science behind baking cheesecakes. We bake our cheesecakes in a water bath, because you want to keep a lot of moisture in the oven or else you’re going to have a dry, cracked cheesecake. Being able to understand how your oven works, how much moisture needs to be in there, and your flavors is important, otherwise it’s going to be flat, or super dry or gritty.”
The family of cake bakers have come up with about 200 different varieties of cheesecakes since Katelyn sold her first one, with nearly 50 of them available from its custom order menu. A handful are available by the slice at the shop when it’s open Wednesday through Saturday.
KOMPANY cont’d to page 15
The cakes are crafted, baked and then chilled for 24 hours before being cut into a dozen slices. Each one is made with special attention to make sure its taste lives up to its name, right down to the crusts and toppings, Katelyn said.
“We make any flavor we think of,” Keri said.
Choices range from simple varieties such as banana cream pie, lemon bar and red velvet to creations inspired by cereals and candies, such as Reese’s peanut butter cups, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, Twix and Little Debbie Zebra Cakes. There’s even a cheesecake inspired by Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster — a blue cake with cookie crumbles, chocolate swirls and googly eyes. Can’t decide which one you want?
Try a cheesecake sampler, with several samples cut into small squares; small and large samplers are available.
The store also sells cookies and cream puffs.
Katelyn began making cheesecakes — her favorite dessert of all time, she said — during the downtime brought upon by the coronavirus pandemic. The restaurant she worked at, Flight Deck Bar and Grill at Rochelle Municipal Airport, had closed and Katelyn made use of her free time to take on the challenge of baking the perfect cheesecake. By the time the restaurant reopened, her talent for cheesecakes had taken off and she was able to get her desserts on the Flight Deck’s menu.
CODY
Since opening its doors on Nov. 2, scenes like this aren’t uncommon at CheeseKake Ko. — customers lining up to try a slice, or a whole cake.
As the orders — and customers’ rave reviews — grew, it inspired Katelyn to turn a part-time passion into a business, selling at popup markets, stores and other restaurants. Eventually the demand to satisfy orders led her to rope her younger sister in to help her, and later their mother.
KOMPANY cont’d to page 16
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KOMPANY cont’d from page 15
“I started making cheesecakes for the restaurant, and then we had a bunch of people asking where they were coming from, and whether they could order full cheesecakes from me,” Katelyn said. “I started to look into how to legally sell cheesecakes, and wound up getting my business license and getting a hold of the health departments to get food selling permits, and then I started selling a couple of cheesecakes a week. Then more people kept hearing about it, and more people were reaching out, and it started to get busy.”
Keri and Tina have enjoyed helping Katelyn grow the business.
“It works well for us,” Keri said. “All three of us have always had a passion for baking. If you would have said when we were growing up, or even five years ago, that this was a possibility, no way. It’s a dream.”
When they’re not busy at the shop they’re coming up with new creations, and no idea is
“We try to come up with new flavors to entice more people to come back for another flavor that sounds interesting to them,” Tina said. “We’re constantly thinking of more every day. We’re always wondering what we can come up with next. People like to see new stuff come out. When it comes out new, everybody’s wanting it.”
As the demand picked up, it became apparent that if they wanted a bigger slice of the local dessert market, they’d have to step up, and step into a storefront of their own. They found one — fittingly, in a place that also made a business out of slices: the former home of Main Street Pizza. The family worked during the weekends over five months, transforming the pizza place into their dream business.
Their hard work paid off. They were greeted at the grand opening with a line that stretched outside the front door, and business has continued to be brisk.
KOMPANY cont’d to page 17
PHOTOS: CHEESEKAKE KO. FACEBOOK PAGE
The family chose Ashton for its central location to the business’ wholesale locations, most of which are at stores and restaurants in Dixon, Sterling, Oregon, Rochelle, DeKalb and Rockford; elsewhere in rural Lee County, the Beaver Den Tavern and Grill in Paw Paw offers the cheesecakes.
“I never imagined it to grow as big as it did,” Katelyn said. “When it started to grow rapidly, we would always talk about it being so awesome if we had our own store. Now to be actually living it after not that long ago, it wasn’t a thought at first, but it quickly became a goal of ours.”
The store is a three-person operation, and Tina has enjoyed seeing customers try their treats and then spread the word about their cheesecakes.
“The most rewarding thing is when people come here and are like, ‘You guys make the best cheesecakes! No one makes cheesecakes this great,’” Tina said. “It’s very rewarding knowing that the time that you spent doing that is a good product. That’s what we want to do. We want to produce something that people like.”
By having a store, Katelyn has been able to meet more of the people who love her cheesecakes, something that she wasn’t able to do as much with online sales or selling to stores, and she’s come to enjoy meeting new faces and seeing familiar ones return — and the frosting on the cake? Doing something she loves with the people she loves.
“The best part of it for me, personally, is being able to spend every day with my family, doing what we love,” Katelyn said. “Baking has always been a passion of all of ours. Being able to do it, make money off of it and spending every day with your family is the greatest feeling.” n
Shaw Media reporter Cody Cutter can be reached at 815-632-2532 or ccutter@shawmedia.com.
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LEE COUNTY HIS Y FF WIPED
Story & photos
Cody Cutter Sauk Valley Media
W PED
THE MAP LEE COUNTY
Daisy is one of about a dozen goats on the Rod farm in Lee County, where the family has been raising them for the past few years. “A couple turned into a small herd, and it’s been going well,” said Shelly Rod.
CODY CUTTE R/CCUTTER@SHAWMEDIA.
hen Shelly Rod noticed the price of dairy products at the store kept going up, she didn’t just let it get her goat. She got some goats instead.
Today, she and her family are raising a herd of diminutive dairy goats on their farm in rural West Brooklyn, and they’ve proven to be quite the productive members of the farm, not only helping the family keep the fridge full of milk, cheese and ice cream and being their the go-to gang for making soap and lotion, but serving as a source of income from the sale of the goat products and the goats themselves.
The Rods’ herd has grown to a little more than a dozen mini Nubian dairy goats during the past couple years, and considering where the inspiration for Shelly’s idea to bring goats onto the farm came from, they’ve become something of a godsend. Shelly enjoyed taking care of goats while at a Christian camp 15 years ago, and it was a fond memory that stayed with her, one that got her thinking a few years ago about introducing goats to the rest of the family: husband Kevin and their three young children, Madison, Kaylee and Jeremy.
GOATS cont’d to page 28
At first, Kevin wasn’t too keen on the idea.
“I told my husband, and he said we didn’t need goats,” Shelly said. “So I let it go, but then a couple of years ago with the price of groceries and in this crazy economy, I thought it would be really nice to have our own milk source.” But as prices kept going up, so did their interest in goats.
The Rod Family raises mini Nubian dairy goats on their West Brooklyn farm. Shelly, her husband Kevin (not pictured), and children (from left) Kaylee, Madison and Jeremy, care for more than a dozen goats on the farm, along with three horses, two donkeys and a mule.
“He brought up the goats and said that if I could make a go of it, make a business of it and make money, he’ll let me have a couple of goats,” Shelly said. “A couple turned into a small herd, and it’s been going well.” The goats join a farm family of three horses, two donkeys and a mule.
While Shelly had some experience with goats, there was still a lot to learn. And with the rest of the family new to raising goats, they also had much to learn, especially about their biology — their immune system and how their four-part ruminant stomach chambers work. Goats have an anatomy that’s more prone to parasites and illnesses compared to other animals, and it takes some know-how and understanding in order for them to live long and provide good milk. Shelly hit the books — hers and the local library’s – to learn more about goats, such as what diet is best for them, and how to be prepared for problems.
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“I did a lot of research because goats are a hard animal to keep alive,” Shelly said. “Goats have a very sensitive digestive system and have four chambers like cattle, so it’s learning to watch for bloats, and knowing that they are very prone to parasites. It’s been a very big battle to keep them clean of parasites; you’d think it’s just deworming them, but because they have four chambers, you can deworm them but you’re never going to clear all of the worms out.”
Mini Nubians are a cross between a regular Nubian doe goat and a Nigerian dwarf buck, with each breed bringing their own strengths and weaknesses to the table. Standard Nubians have better quality milk, but don’t produce as much, whereas Nigerian dwarfs have a larger capacity and a high amount of buttermilk fat. Nubians have larger teats than Nigerian dwarfs, which are harder to milk, and they’re more docile and even-tempered.
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“I thought it would be really nice to have our own milk source.”
SHELLY ROD
PHOTOS: CODY CUTTER/CCUTTER@SHAWMEDIA.COM
Goats are milked twice a day, with most goats producing up to a gallon a day, and the milk contains less lactose (a sugar found in milk products) than cow’s milk.
ROOTS BRANCHES ROOTS BRANCHES
“What you’re going for is that you’re hoping your crosses have the Nubian temperament and Nubian teats, and the capacity and height of a Nigerian,” Shelly said. Nigerian dwarfs also are known for their beards, which sometimes wind up on a mini Nubian as a result of crossbreeding.
The goats are Shelly’s part of the family farm operation; Kevin, who was raised on a farm near Ashton, is in charge of growing hay and wheat on 40 acres down the road from the farm, on top of his day job.
Shelly, originally from the Waterman area, also homeschools the children, owns a cleaning business and sells her goat milkbased soaps and lotions at local markets and pop-up events, all in addition to raising the goats and continuing to learn about them. She also sells some of her goats as well.
Along the way, Shelly has learned about caring for them on her own without having to invest in outside help — and that includes bringing more goats into the world, thanks in part to Kevin who helped with the births of cattle and livestock on his family farm growing up.
Raising goats takes time, toil, care and commitment — “You can’t just throw hay at them,” Shelly said. One of her best pieces of advice for those who want to start a goat farm? Know the history of their land; what’s been raised there during at least the last decade.
from the ground rather than what’s on the ground, such as trees, with a preference toward pine, due to its needles being a good source of tannin, which helps kill parasites.
Keeping an eye on the weather is a big thing, too; goats are more susceptible to pneumonia, so their respiratory tracts need to be monitored, Shelly said.
More info
Find Rod Farm Mini Nubian Dairy Goats on Facebook to learn more about the Rods’ farm, and for information on goats or goat milk items for sale. Email rodfarmmininubians@gmail. com or call 815-766-1150 for more information.
“There are a lot of diseases that are even cross-contaminated between deer and cattle,” Shelly said. “You want to make sure that when you buy a property, you want to know what was on it before and whether they had a clean herd. Some of the diseases take seven to 10 years before they’re no longer in the ground anymore.”
Goats are browsers instead of grazers, meaning they prefer to eat what grows
While mini Nubian goats have their benefits at the dinner table, they’re also a source for learning, providing lessons that Shelly can pass on to her children, who enjoy helping raise them.
“It’s interesting watching their health blossom when they are given the right nutrients,” Shelly said. “There have been a lot of interesting things and a lot of maintenance involved, so when you have goats, you have to learn all of these things. There’s a lot more maintenance than I realized. You have to pay very close attention to them. It’s been a big learning curve, but very rewarding.” n Cody Cutter can be reached at 815-632-2532 or ccutter@shawmedia.com.
