40 years of family fun at Geneva’s Windy Acres Farm

When Wayne and Daryl Srail started their farm in Geneva, Illinois back in 1985, the couple’s daughter Amanda was almost three. “Basically Mom and Dad had four rugrats and all these crops to grow and animals to tend to,” says Amanda (Srail) Thomas. “Our dad always lived in that world of growing produce and a roadside stand in Lisle with his dad since he was a little kid. He decided to venture west, so here we are on our beautiful farm 40 years later.”

Plenty has changed in four decades. “Now, those rugrats have grown up and we’re all equally involved and have our own rugrats running around,” says Thomas, who quit her teaching job after 15 years and two kids to work full time on the farm. Thomas and her sisters Kristin and Jaime and brother Scott Srail, and dad Wayne, each contribute their own special talents to the running of the farm.

“We farm almost 60 acres of solid produce - everything to feed the community, from tomatoes and watermelons to cucumbers and sweet corn and pumpkins,” says Thomas. The farm also includes an orchard of nearly 10,000 fruit trees of apples, sour and sweet cherries, peaches and pears. Four greenhouses hold everything from potted arrangements to herbs, veggie plants, hanging baskets and more. “We do custom arrangements so people can drop off their planters and pots,” says Thomas.

Windy Acres is open daily, April through mid-November, and employs 40 to 60 workers at peak season. In addition to the farmstand, tours are also available. Its fruit festival series, in its sixth year — include a strawberry fest in June, peach fest in July and blueberry fest with a corn boil in August. The farm also boasts a bakery where all that fruit is put to good use in the form of homemade apple cider donuts, pies, caramel apples, and more.

The festivals are sure to include grilling in the beer garden — Southern Illinois brats and angus burgers. Of course there’s an ice cream truck and a candy store. “We’ve got cute things so families can get outside, enjoy the farm and have a family day,” says Thomas. “That’s always our main goal with our festivals.”

The fun doesn’t stop there. Nearly 40 attractions include a new rope course, an expanded bike track, revamped petting zoo, new diggers and rollerball, train and tractor rides, and a giant hamster wheel, to name a few. All this brings in “about a couple hundred thousand visitors every year,” Thomas estimates.

Come February, the siblings are back in the greenhouse planning for a new season. In the meantime, they’re attending farming and horticultural conventions, continuing education classes and certifications.

Farming is not for the faint of heart, notes Thomas. “It’s a very labor intensive job. But we obviously have a passion for it, we’ve been doing it for so long. The majority of it is very rewarding. It just makes you smile when somebody says, ‘Your sweet corn is the best we’ve ever had,’ or, ‘I love that flower arrangement you created.’ And that’s why we do it.”

Thomas also emphasizes the personal rewards of farming. “It’s a great industry that is very much family rooted,” she says. “You see your family members every day. It’s pretty special.”