PONTIAC - Janet Jablonski reaches more customers at County Market in downtown Pontiac than she does at the farmers market in Dwight.

"(The grocery store) has been a tremendous help. … We're hoping the buying local will get bigger," said Jablonski, of Eden's Harvest Farm in rural Blackstone.

So do other Central Illinois farmers.

Illinois imports more than 90 percent of its food, with 95 percent of organic food sold in the state grown and processed in other parts of the country, according to the state statistics.

Hoping to change that, Gov. Rod Blagojevich recently signed legislation that creates a task force to help keep local food local. Groups such as the Stewards of the Land in Fairbury also have taken on that mission, as have some local grocery stores and restaurants.

Still, farmers and businesses face challenges - from produce's seasonality to price - when it comes to keeping Central Illinois goods in stock for the average consumer.

Tough task

Buying local helps support local growers and the local economy, and customers have the benefit of fresh-picked food. But marketing also can be time consuming and daunting to a farmer without business savvy.

For instance, Jablonski never would have attempted to get her produce on a grocery store's shelf without help from the Stewards of the Land, a group dedicated to helping and training farmers - including kids - and educating the public about healthy local foods.

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"It would be too overwhelming for me," Jablonski said.

The group introduced her first to Dave's Supermarket in Fairbury, where a number of area farmers sell their vegetables, and then to County Market.

On her first trip to the Pontiac store last month, Jablonski brought in squash, zucchini, jalapeño peppers, beets and Swiss chard.

"I was very pleasantly surprised to see only three items left (a week later)," Jablonski said. "The next day, I was back in restocking it."

Stewards of the Land started in 2003 with three farmers selling food at Dave's, said Marty Travis, who started the group with his wife, Kris, and also farms Spence Farm in Fairbury. The organization has since expanded to about 15 farmers.

"There was no reason why we, as a community, needed to ship food clear across the country," said Marty Travis. "Our mission is to put a face with a food."

Buy local

That's fine with Greg Besgrove; he wants more faces in his grocery store.

The County Market store director has grown his local food selection this summer and wants to expand further in the next year. He's had hydroponic tomatoes from a Minonk farmer for years and added eggs and chicken from a Saunemin teenager last year. Along with Jablonski, another farmer began to provide County Market with cherry tomatoes and peppers last month.

Besgrove said he'll get turkeys from Saunemin teen Jeremy McWilliams for the first time this fall. He expects to have lettuce from another local farmer eventually, too.

"There isn't anything I'm not willing to try to some degree," Besgrove said. "As long as the customer wants it, I'm going to give it a try."

Molly Bradle, co-owner of Rosie's, a restaurant in downtown Bloomington, agreed.

"We're always open for it," Bradle said. "The taste is 100 times different."

Bradle receives a small amount of produce from a farmer in Secor who mainly grows vegetables for his family and friends. The eatery usually uses the farmer's tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and squash as well as his parsley, mint and sage herbs at the beginning of each week.

But that one case of local produce weekly during the peak season pales in comparison to the 101 cases of tomatoes and 269 cases of lettuce she's ordered from her distributor since January.

From farmer to consumer

Seasonality is part of the difficulty in getting local food for the restaurant.

"At the start of the summer, they have a plethora of cucumbers. Then cucumbers die off. Then they have tons of tomatoes. Now tomatoes are dying out," Bradle said.

She'd love to have more local produce because she gets a better deal from her local farmer than her distributor.

But that's not normally the case.

Many retailers and restaurants can get produce shipped from California for less money, Kris Travis said.

The government also subsidizes large-scale farm productions, which is why Bill Davison of Blue Schoolhouse Farm in Congerville said the typical grocery store's produce actually is under-priced while his price reflects the true cost.

Davison sells his produce to the Garlic Press Market Café in Normal and Common Ground Grocery in Bloomington, and at the Bloomington and Normal farmers' markets. He has written letters, dropped off food samples and talked with restaurant chefs and owners to try and spur more interest, but to no avail.

"It's very difficult. … I'm pretty discouraged," Davison said.

He runs into some businesses that are turned off by his prices or maybe just don't appreciate the homegrown food, something that stumps him.

"Everything they get is picked the day of or the day before," he said.

Part of the challenge in promoting farmers like Davison lies in educating customers and businesses, Marty Travis said. Food travels an average of 1,500 miles before it reaches Illinois consumers, according to the Illinois Food, Farms and Jobs Act.

Consumers need to be retrained to accept they're not always going to be able to get strawberries out of season, for example, Marty Travis said.

Those who have come to know and love local produce boast of the difference in taste and don't want anything else.

Elaine Sebald, coordinator of the Bloomington's farmers market, is one such consumer.

"I don't even bother with peaches that have been shipped here from California," Sebald said. "Even eggs. A fresh egg is so much better than the ones you get from the store."