The Taproot Project · 2026-01-14 · 20 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
33 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
The Taproot Project explores the largely unrecognized contributions of Latino farmers to McHenry County's agricultural identity since the 1960s through Antonio Delgado's personal story. Antonio grew up on a 40-acre farm in Paracuro, Mexico, learning organic farming methods from his grandfather - including bat feces fertilization and smoke-based pest control - before emigrating to Washington State to pick fruit in his early 20s. In 1980, he settled in Elgin, Illinois, where he spent 20+ years helping a restaurant owner establish one of the region's first farm-to-table operations on nine acres before purchasing his own 1993 property, Rancho El Pitayo. Today, he operates both the farm (growing tomatoes, peppers, guayabo, pitayo, figs, and alfalfa) and Isabel's Family Restaurant with his wife, adapting his heritage organic methods through beneficial insect releases and manure-based fertilization. Sherry Doyle, director at the Center for Agrarian Learning at McHenry County College, explains how Raíces Latinas - a collaborative initiative with five local organizations - is documenting these stories through interviews and a forthcoming documentary to shift perception of farm work and land ownership in the Latino community. Carlos Acostas, the initiative's coordinator, emphasizes agriculture's decades-long role as a magnet for Latino settlement and economic stability in the county.
Antonio's grandfather used no pesticides or chemical fertilizers, instead using bat feces to fertilize and creating fires with wood smoke in the early morning to control insects - techniques Antonio has adapted using organic methods, garlic powder spray, manure, and beneficial insect releases on his Illinois farm.
After growing up on his family's 40-acre farm, Antonio migrated to Washington State to pick fruit, then relocated to Elgin, Illinois in 1980 where he worked at a restaurant and eventually helped the owner establish a farm-to-table operation on nine acres before purchasing his own farm, Rancho El Pitayo, in 1993.
Raíces Latinas is a collaborative initiative across five McHenry County organizations (coordinated through the Center for Agrarian Learning at McHenry County College) documenting Latino farmers' stories and history since the 1960s, with the goal of shifting public perception about who is a farm worker and landowner, and why their work should be valued.
Antonio grows tomatoes, various peppers, guayabo (Mexican fruit), pitayo (dragon fruit), figs, pears, peaches, alfalfa for his goats and cows, with most production supplying Isabel's Family Restaurant, which he operates with his wife.
According to Sherry Doyle, the contributions are hard to quantify because they operate under the surface - some farmers don't feel safe being public about their presence, others have moved away from agriculture to pursue more stable or culturally valued professions, and the story has simply not been celebrated or widely discussed.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode is primarily a biographical narrative with minimal actionable insights for B2B operators. While Antonio's organic farming techniques (garlic spray, manure fertilization, beneficial insects) are mentioned, they lack depth, specificity, or quantified results. Most content consists of biographical storytelling rather than transferable business or operational knowledge.
What did your grandfather and your father teach you about how to grow food?
Tomatoes, all kinds of peppers. I got a guayabo from Mexican. I got pitayo from Mexican.
The episode follows a conventional immigration and family farming narrative arc without contrarian arguments, first-principles analysis, or counterintuitive insights. The themes of Latino agricultural contribution, farm-to-table operations, and organic methods are well-trodden documentary territory without fresh strategic or operational perspectives.
He followed work to Washington State, where he picked fruit.
After over 20 years working with Paul, Antonio purchased his own farm, Rancho El Pitayo.
Antonio is a legitimate practitioner - a farmer and restaurant owner operating for decades - which elevates this above typical thought-leaders. However, his relevance is narrow (specialty/heritage crops in one Illinois county) and the interview format (conducted through translation with significant language barriers) limits the depth of expert knowledge extraction. He represents authentic experience but not scaled or broadly transferable operational expertise.
Antonio was one Latino farmer who has been a trailblazer in Northern Illinois since He arrived in 1980.
Antonio worked at that restaurant for over 20 years, and in 1993 he purchased his own farm, Rancho El Pitayo in Marengo, Illinois.
The episode contains some specific details (40-acre farm in Mexico, 1993 purchase, 9-acre initial farm, 10 cents per pound wage, six documented stories), but lacks critical business metrics, financial data, yield comparisons, profitability figures, or detailed operational numbers that would enable a B2B operator to apply learnings. The organic practices mentioned are vague and unmeasured.
40 acres.
In 1993 he purchased his own farm, Rancho El Pitayo in Marengo, Illinois.
The host (Kate) asks open-ended questions and shows curiosity, but follow-ups are surface-level and rarely push for depth, quantification, or business insight. The translator (Carlos) occasionally clarifies but the conversation structure misses opportunities to extract operational knowledge, financial details, scaling strategies, or systemic insights about farm profitability and restaurant integration.
Can you tell us about the farm that you grew up on?
Why have you stayed connected to food in such a big way?
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Antonio Delgado has been a trailblazer in northern Illinois' food system since 1980, when he moved to Elgin from Michoacan, Mexico. He helped establish one of the region's first farm-to-table restaurants and has since gone on to operate his own farm and farm-to-table restaurant. Kate speaks with Antonio about farming journey. This episode was supported by Raices Latinas, a storytelling project that celebrates the contributions of Latine farmers to McHenry county. The Taproot Podcast is an initiative of the Midwest Transition to Organic Partnership Program, a project funded by the USDA National Organic Program to support transitioning and organic producers with mentorship and technical assistance and to grow the greater organic community. Learn more at organictransition.org [ Follow and listen wherever you get your podcasts. Guest Bios Antonio Delgado is a farmer and restaurant owner based in Marengo, Illinois. He has been a life-long food entrepreneur, since working on his family farm in Paracaurao, Michoacan, Mexico.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: Hello, this is Kate. And welcome to the Taproot Project, where we share stories of changemakers in Midwestern agriculture. Today we are visiting McHenry County, Illinois, about two hours northwest of Chicago. This rural county close to Chicago offers a lot of opportunity for small and specialty crop farmers. And since the 60s, the Agricultural Identity of this area has been shaped by Latino farmers. Antonio Delgado is one Latino farmer who has been a trailblazer in Northern Illinois since He arrived in 1980. Today I'm sharing just a bit of his story. I connected with Antonio through Raizas Latinas, a uh, local initiative in McHenry county to celebrate the legacy of Latino farmers, farmers in the area.
Speaker B: Uh, Raices Latinas is uh, an initiative, again, it's not its own non profit or organization. That purpose and goal is to raise up the contributions of Latino farmers, uh, farm workers, landowners in the rich agricultural history of McHenry County.
Speaker A: Sherry Doyle is the director at the center for agrarian learning at McHenry County College. MCC is one of the five local organizations supporting the Raizas Latinas initiative to collect and share stories from the region's Latino farmers.
Speaker B: We've been collecting stories basically, so we thought maybe we could get artifacts and have a museum exhibit of letters and photographs and things that people could uh, look at and read about migration and labor and also land ownership in the Latino community. But there wasn't much. And so we decided to just start collecting stories and interviewing people. And so we have now, I think, six stories documented and we're going to um, put them into ah, probably a relatively rough, but hopefully, um, compelling documentary.
Speaker C: You, you mentioned the um, like deep history and rich history of uh, Latino farmers in the county. What, what, what has that contribution looked like?
Speaker B: I think, um. I think it's very hard to quantify and articulate because, um, You know, not something that people talk about. Right? I mean it's. It's not something that has been celebrated or um. Um. Some people don't feel safe being very public about being here and um, and others have moved very quickly away from agriculture and um, encouraging their children to become professionals in other industries that might be more stable or have more um, cultural status. So um, I think the contributions are incredibly valuable and actually essential to farm profitability and um, food production here in the county. But. But um. Yeah, the whole purpose of Rice as Latinas is to start to um, hopefully create a situation where people can feel proud of the legacy and m. So that it can, you know, we can't change the food system necessarily. Like, I don't know how effective we will be making farms more profitable necessarily. But we could certainly impact, um, the perception of, uh, who is a farm worker, who is a landowner, and why should we value the work that they're doing, you know, um, because it is incredibly valuable. So, so, so that's the way of saying I, I can't really answer your question because it kind of lies under the surface.
Speaker A: Antonio is one local farmer that has been featured by Reisas Latinas. His story is richer and longer than
Speaker C: we were able to cover in our
Speaker A: short conversation, so I'll give just a quick bio. Antonio was born and raised in Paracuro, Mexico, where he lived with his family on a 40 acre farm until he was 13 and his family moved into town in his early 20s. Antonio followed a work opportunity to pick fruit in Washington State, and after some time spent between Mexico and the U.S. he arrived in Elgin, Illinois in 1980. He found work at a restaurant in Elgin and eventually helped the restaurant owner establish a farm to supply the restaurant, one of the first farm to table restaurants in the area. Antonio worked at that restaurant for over 20 years, and in 1993 he purchased his own farm, Rancho El Pitayo in Marengo, Illinois. He still lives and farms at, uh, Rancho El Pitayo with his wife. They also operate their own restaurant now, a place called Isabel's Family Restaurant. Most of what Antonio grows now goes directly to the restaurant. Antonio spoke to me from the dining room at Isabel's, so there is some background noise. Carlos Acostas, coordinator for Raizas uh, Latinas, assisted with the translation. I started by asking Antonio where he grew up and how he learned to farm.
Speaker C: Well, then I'd just like to start at the beginning and hear more about, um, your childhood connection to farming. Can you tell us about the farm that you grew up on?
Speaker D: I grew up. I was born and grew up on a farm in Mexico.
Speaker E: 40 years old, never go to school.
Speaker D: Never went to school.
Speaker E: Yeah.
Speaker C: Yeah. You worked, you worked with your father and grandfather on the farm, right? Yeah. What did you grow on that farm and what did it look like?
Speaker E: Tomatoes, sweet potatoes, yuca, green beans, pinto beans, corn, papaya, banana, sweet cane, sugar cane. M. Okay.
Speaker D: Three kind of Cannes, three different types of sugar cane in Mexico. Era solamente paros. I asked what they grew on the farm. Was it just for their own subsistence or were they actually selling what they grew? No, we would sell. We would sell everything.
Speaker E: 40 acres.
Speaker D: I asked him how many acres was their farm in Mexico, and he said 40 acres, All by hand.
Speaker E: Plant rice by hand.
Speaker D: He said that was the hardest to plant was the rice.
Speaker E: You gotta be banding all day putting plants in the ground.
Speaker C: What did your grandfather and your father teach you about how to grow food? Are there specific things you remember learning from them?
Speaker D: Yeah. When my grandfather was planting, there were no pesticides, there was no fertilizer. Um, they would actually use, um, bat
Speaker E: feces to fertilize and spray. You make fires in the morning with wood. And all the smoke goes very low in the ground, in the plants, and that's how you take care of the bugs.
Speaker C: And it would last all day.
Speaker A: The smoke?
Speaker E: No, only in the morning. You got to do it in the morning, like five o' clock when. No, windy.
Speaker A: Antonio was the eldest of 16 children and never attended school so that he could help support the rest of the family. When he was 21, he followed work to Washington State, where he picked fruit. I asked him how he found that job.
Speaker E: I go to Washington first. Yeah. And I pick in cherries, tomatoes, sweet corn.
Speaker D: In Washington,
Speaker E: You come into the United
Speaker D: States when you're coming north. You go to where there's work. Just follow everybody.
Speaker E: It's all right.
Speaker D: Gave us a Washington. I asked. I asked him. So when you left Mexico, did you know you were going to Washington or just wound up there? It's like, I just wound up there.
Speaker E: That's why everybody.
Speaker D: That's where everybody was going.
Speaker E: Yeah. When you go.
Speaker D: You go where there's work.
Speaker C: And was that your. So you had been on the farm and then your family moved to town? So was going to Washington your first time working on a farm since you were a kid? What was, was. What was that experience like?
Speaker E: Only the difference is the tractors, the big fields. Rancho Grande is the Masana.
Speaker D: Yeah. The big difference was the tractors. And it was just a lot bigger for apple trees.
Speaker E: That's all the same. Not making difference. 10 cents the pound for green beans.
Speaker D: Let's look at the pagavan. This is what he got paid.
Speaker E: 10 cents a pound.
Speaker C: I'm thinking about the friends I know who grew up on farms. And a lot of them, because of that experience, felt like, oh, I never want to be a farmer. But, um, you're both a farmer and you're a restaurant owner. Why. Why have you stayed connected to food
Speaker A: in such a big way?
Speaker E: I don't know. I like. I love my farm and I love working in the farm. It's like, enjoy. And the restaurant. That's because I make money here. I don't like making money. I gotta support my, my family and. But I Don't like there are no school when you come to Mexican. No school. You gotta working in the duly jobs. I said, but I like working in the restaurant. I like working anything.
Speaker A: In 1980, Antonio moved to Elgin.
Speaker C: The very next day after he arrived,
Speaker A: he started working at a restaurant owned by a man named Paul, who Antonio is still good friends with.
Speaker E: And I find it very. The best in the United States. 97 my boss and still very good friends.
Speaker C: So you, you helped him get a
Speaker A: farm to table situation set up at his restaurant.
Speaker C: Can you describe, um, tell that story,
Speaker E: nine acres.
Speaker D: When he got, when Antonio got here, uh, he had a farm, farmland of about nine acres. He had the restaurant only he had a tractor.
Speaker E: And I can when I see the ranch,
Speaker D: but nobody worked on the farm. And I told him, I'll. I'll grow you vegetables if you want to.
Speaker E: Yes, I know.
Speaker D: And the restaurant said, you know how to do that? And he said, yeah, I know.
Speaker E: I'm st. Then the season start planning. And.
Speaker D: So he liked it a lot. It got him on tv.
Speaker C: Yeah, you're. You're in a. You set up a farm operation, but you're in a new country, a new language, new climate.
Speaker A: What.
Speaker C: How are you learning to farm in this new place?
Speaker D: Uh, um, Eos from open distance, it's possible you. If you want to work, it's easy.
Speaker E: It's easy.
Speaker D: Yeah. And it's easier here because there's tractors, there's machinery. So no savas, tractoro, maas and gues. Okay. I asked him if he used tractors or machinery in Mexico and he said no, it was mules and plows.
Speaker C: Did you, uh, when you started farming, did you connect with any like, um, technical assistance or other farmers? Or were you kind of a solo operation?
Speaker D: Agricultural Otros rancheros to mismos? No, just me.
Speaker A: After over 20 years working with Paul, Antonio purchased his own farm, Rancho El Pitayo. He raised his kids there alongside goats and cows and vegetables for his restaurant and his favorite plants from Mexico.
Speaker C: So you bought your current ranch in 1993 in Marengo. Can you describe the land that you're on right now? What do you grow?
Speaker E: Um, tomatoes, all kinds of peppers. I got a guayabo from Mexican. I got pitayo from Mexican. I got figs. Fig. I grow a lot of alfalfa too.
Speaker D: He grows the alfalfa, uh, to feed his goats.
Speaker E: Goats and cows. Peppers. All kinds of peppers. Pears, peaches.
Speaker C: Wow.
Speaker E: Yeah.
Speaker C: And are you still using some of those same, um, organic methods that your father taught you? Like, are you still smoking in the Morning or things like that.
Speaker E: Um, I use it different here. I'm a. Better make a smoking here better. You can do like garlic. Garlic powder mix when. And spray the trees. You can put in a. Never clean around the tree leaving grassing. And I put in like a sheep manure. Cow manure in the. The trees. That's what I might fertilize or burn something. And I put in the ashes and the thing.
Speaker D: Okay.
Speaker E: Uh, Cow Manu Chipman. That's very. That's what I fertilize. My. My plans.
Speaker D: At first he had mentioned how he's fertilizing, so I went back and asked how he's actually, um, what does he do for. To uh, for. For pesticides. And he said he bought or he buys organic.
Speaker E: You buy some um, Lucky bulbs. Different bugs. Eat bugs.
Speaker D: Oh, so he actually buys bugs that will then eat other bugs?
Speaker E: Yeah. Eat a larvae the eggs. Yeah.
Speaker D: I asked him how often he has to release these bugs to kill the bad bugs. He said once a year.
Speaker A: I asked Antonio if he has seen customer interest in organic foods change over the years, both at his farm and at the restaurant. He said yes, he's seen a change from farm customers.
Speaker E: But at the restaurant and the restaurants, nobody cares. I don't think it's on the restaurant. A lot of people. I care. I mean, it's important.
Speaker D: It's important to him to have organic.
Speaker E: Because I wanted my customers eat good food.
Speaker D: Because I eat well, I want my customers to eat well.
Speaker A: The menu at Isabel's is no fuss,
Speaker C: but vast and varied.
Speaker A: On any given day, you can order pancakes or chilaquiles or strip steak and salad. The menu changes seasonally and a separate Mexican menu is always available.
Speaker C: Are you the chef at the restaurant?
Speaker E: Mhm, Me and my wife.
Speaker D: His wife makes most of the desserts.
Speaker E: I only make zucchini bread, cornbread and what else? And carrot cakes and the rest Mary makes.
Speaker C: What's your. What's your favorite thing on the menu?
Speaker E: Everything I make is good.
Speaker C: What do you think your dad or your grandfather would say if they saw your farm now?
Speaker D: They would be proud. No, he was just saying you gotta love farming. Um, if you love farming, you're always gonna have food.
Speaker E: Extra, extra food.
Speaker A: I asked Carlos if there was anything he wanted to share, given his experience collecting the stories from latino farmers in McHenry County.
Speaker D: Uh, I guess what I've learned in the time that I've been doing the project is just how much of a magnet agriculture was to the growth and development of the Latino community. Um, again, Antonio has been out here and Antonio and his family have been here since 93. I've met other families that, because of agriculture, moved into the county. I mean, they were migrating here since the 60s and started staying permanently in the 80s, um, which I never I knew they were here, um, but I didn't understand the extent as to how long they were here and again, how much of a role they played in the success of agriculture. For now, you're talking 60 years.
Speaker A: Thank you to Antonio for taking time to speak with me. Thank you to Carlos for coordinating with me and sharing his time, and to Sherry for her insights about Raisas, uh, Latinas. You can learn more about the initiative at the link in the show. Notes the Taproot Project is produced by me, Kate Cowie Haskell. The Taproot Project is an initiative of the Midwest Transition to Organic Partnership Program, a project funded by the USDA National Organic Program to support transitioning in organic producers with mentorship and technical assistance, and to grow the greater organic community. You can learn more@organictransition.org.
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