Pictured above: Left: Geneva Lakes Produce stand at the Downtown Evanston Farmers Market. Upper right: the fire that devastated their facilities in March of 2023. Lower right: Corben Koster, farmer and one of the managers of Geneva Lakes Produce.
You could not be faulted for thinking that things must be going pretty smoothly for Geneva Lakes Produce, an Evanston Farmers Market anchor farm for many, many years. Their stand at the market is bursting with seasonal products, and everything looks beautiful.
The grim story behind this bountiful facade is that everything you see at this and the many other markets that Geneva Lakes visits is there only because of an extraordinary continuing effort after a devastating event.
Here’s the basic story, told by Corben Koster, who manages the farm along with many other members of his family. “At the end of March, we had a pretty devastating fire that seemed to have started in our mechanic shop on the farm…and it spread to take over our entire packing shed with all of our coolers. It was a 6500 square foot building, with 3000 square feet of cooler space in it, and we lost every single inch of it, (and also) a little office trailer connected to the side and a greenhouse connected to the other side.”
To make a long story short, Geneva Lakes was capable of growing and picking produce in the field, but their ability to wash, sort, package, and store produce was hobbled by the fire.
Although they have managed short-term solutions to allow them to proceed, they remain without the facilities and equipment to make the job, “…you know, efficient and more convenient,” as Corben put it. “Everything takes longer.”
Insurance will cover some of the replacement of working space and equipment, but ultimately, Geneva Lakes only has about half of what they need to restore their facilities. And because insurance won’t cover the entire rebuild, the farm has reached out to their community of customers and supporters in a couple of ways. They’ve got an ongoing GoFundMe effort to which you can contribute at https://gofund.me/dc52df51. And there is a Facebook Group, Rebuild Geneva Lakes Produce Team that offers many ways to help Geneva Lakes restore what they lost.
One of their first big challenges has been to cobble together a facility that will allow them to get an adequately-sized cooler in place ASAP. Right now they are overloading the cooler at their farmstand to store produce for farmers markets.
We asked Corben if there was a silver lining to this disaster, and he responded, “There is. And the thing I keep saying is, you know, I think in two or three years from now, we’re going to be like, oh, this is what a great set up we have. You know, But I’ll tell you the next two years and especially right now. Yeah, right. It’s going it’s very, very tough.”
We can all support Geneva Lakes produce via the links above, by joining their CSA, and just by shopping at their stand at the market.
When you walk past Geneva Lakes in the Northeast corner of the Downtown Evanston Farmers Market this season, consider the resilience and iron will of the Koster family as they abide their extreme challenges and bring such beauty and variety to our market every week. Then, do what you can to help those efforts succeed.
