r/rockford

So I’m a bit obsessed with food.

I grew up in Rockford and have my humble Midwest values, but I moved out to California, silicon value for a few years. I’ve since moved back to Rockford.

In this time in California, I’ve experienced sooooo many incredible restaurants. Many were insane price points and not worth it, but they introduced me to what’s out there. The best of the best.

I’m curious what my fellow foodies feel is the best food in Rockford. High quality, worth the price, best experience.

I think council oak (casino steakhouse) is actually pretty good and worth it if you’re willing to splurge once in a while.

Are there other hidden gem restaurants that maybe don’t get the recognition or credit that they should? Are there specific restaurants in Rockford that try to appeal to be the high end but don’t deliver?

Edit* I was reminded very quickly that Abreo is incredible. I’m also a huge sisters Thai fan. Shoutout to little Lydia’s cafe too for breakfast. Incredible ownership

Also Norwegian is objectively great

I like Curran’s, but methinks maybe this is more about “rural ideology” and politics. I hope I’m wrong.

Hello! We are moving to the area soon and going back and forth on where we should live. Can someone tell me what the differences are in middle schools?

Eisenhower, Flinn, Kennedy, Lincoln, RESA, and West.

Or are they pretty much the same? My soon to be 7th grader has a hard time with mornings. The 9am start times could be beneficial to him. I was looking at the Montessori but there is an extremely long wait list, and we don't have an address to join the wait list lol

My son has high functioning ASD and ADHD if that matters.

Thanks for any help!

ROCKFORD — Hard Rock Casino Rockford plans to break ground this year on its long-awaited hotel and convention center, which is targeted to open in late 2027.

I feel bad for him, but I still don't like how he screwed people over who paid for CSA that year and never got refunded. From what I heard, anyone who contested, it was a fight since Farmer John has the contract.

From Farmer John's GoFundMe page:

Greetings,

I’m Don Glasenapp, friend of Farmer John Peterson and Angelic Organics Farm. For seven years, I coordinated the festive vegetable packs at Angelic Organics.

John and I had many great times on the pack line alongside the 20 or so volunteers who regularly showed up to help pack CSA vegetable shares.

As many of you know, John had a stroke in the spring of 2024, causing the closure of his storied farm Angelic Organics, after 34 years in business as a Community Supported Agriculture Farm, and after 70 years total of John farming on his family’s farm.

My wife Laura and I coordinated the shareholder harvest days in the spring of 2024 when the farm closed.

I am now serving as John’s assistant, since medical, administrative, and financial hardships have befallen him, and he needs help with transportation, opening and reading his mail due to degraded eyesight, and with numerous other tasks.

I am the organizer of this crowdfunding campaign, trying to help my good friend John to get his life back on track.

John's beloved wife Haidy, who is recovering from her own health challenges under the care of her mother in Finland, is also very involved with supporting John from afar, such as with this campaign.

Life Post-Stroke

Since gradually recovering from his stroke in 2024, John has been working diligently, while very compromised, to get his beautiful farmstead listed for sale, which is sitting on 11.5 acres, with its constellation of many unique, artistic and well-kept buildings that he has been developing for his whole life.

John’s family built this barn in 1957 when John was eight; John has nurtured it his whole adult life

Tragically, since the closure of the farm in 2024, to John’s astonishment, there have been many bureaucratic/organizational hoops to jump through for the sale of his farm—his right to sell it is still pending. (It’s not about a material default or a foreclosure.)

We are unable to share details of these delays, but suffice it to say that John is now working with an attorney to get an agreement in place to get his farm listed for sale.

Impact of Delayed Farm Sale

The seemingly endless negotiations (2 years) to sell the farm property have resulted in high carrying costs: building upkeep, insurance, taxes, utilities, plus John’s living expenses–around $10,000 per month total, not including medical bills, and now $5,000 per month in attorney's fees, the cost of an assistant, and a handyman (farm buildings need a lot of upkeep).

And, of course, since the closure of the farm in the spring of 2024, there has been no income.

While recovering from his stroke, John was flabbergasted that he has to pay an attorney goodly sums of money to be able to sell the farmstead that he helped build up since he was a child–his lifelong home ensnared by relentless red tape.

Do you see why John has been trying to get out from underneath this burden for two years by selling his farmstead?

With enough funds, John imagines achieving a fair outcome.

Cancer Enters the Picture

Last summer, as John endured interminable negotiations for the sale of his property, a lump gradually formed on the right side of his neck.

Neck and tonsil cancer were diagnosed in the fall of 2025, taking over the right side of John’s head, causing excruciating pain and mental debilitation.

Cancer Treatments

Grueling chemotherapy and radiation treatments started in early February 2026, and ended in mid April 2026. ("That's a lot of poison," say the doctors.)

John is now recovering from this slew of radiation and chemotherapy treatments, seriously depleted, 50 pounds lighter and with no appetite, unable to collect his thoughts, suffering from declining vision and sudden bouts of stuttering, and nearly broke. His throat feels like cardboard, food is tasteless, rashes appear here and there and linger. (The doctors say that these are standard indicators on the way to recovery.)

Thankfully, the tumor on his neck has now receded. And, with the cancer treatments behind him, he can now have his eyesight tested, and hopefully have his vision restored.

Did the delays in selling his farm and the corresponding worry and sleepless nights contribute to this cancer? Maybe.

A Life of Service

During its 34 years as a Community Supported Agriculture Farm, Angelic Organics fed about 500,000 people in the Chicagoland area nourishing organic vegetables; it was the biggest farm of its type in the world.

In addition, the feature documentary film The Real Dirt on Farmer John premiered in the early 2000’s in many countries. John inspired millions of viewers with his story of vision and courage, and the film garnered 33 film festival awards. John conducted over 1,000 press interviews and screened the film in over 500 theaters around the world.

John has led a life of service to his community: stewarding his family farm for seven decades; transforming his farm into a thriving organic farm organism; training hundreds of employees in the art of organic farming; facilitating legal well-paying jobs for our less fortunate friends from below the border; providing farm tours, festivals and field days for thousands of people; touring 18 countries with his film for five years–sharing a message of hope and community.

If John were to coin a tagline that has defined his life, it would be, “be there for others.”

The Future?

John wants to sell his farmstead, and he wants to resume his writing in Finland, where he hopes to settle with his lovely Finnish wife, Haidy.

(Here are samples of John’s Angelic Organics Farm News . He has many other types of autobiographical writing to share, which you can peruse here .)

John notices, now that he is not consumed by farming, that the world beckons him again, sort of like when he started Beloit College—a fascinating, bountiful, and multi-faceted world—full of opportunity and discovery.

John says: "You might wonder what that was like for me in college: I commuted from my farm 8 miles away where I tended crops and milked 34 cows morning and evening. I found out that other students had not spent their summers tending crops; many had been traveling abroad…or sailing. Many of them had attended boarding schools. And the kind of fencing my fellow students did was a sport; it didn't keep the cows in. I was unleashed into a big, new, wondrous world of adventure and discovery."

John's college days

John is not sure where his current journey is leading; however, he is ready to explore a new world.

But, he has to be able to sell his farm first.

How You Can Help

John is in need of financial assistance from friends of the farm to finally resolve the obstacles to the sale of his property.

Please join me in helping John get through this time of trials in his life, and to hang on financially until he has the green light to list his farm for sale.

Contribute to John’s staying power by donating to this crowdfunding campaign.

Please share this GoFundMe page with your friends and networks.

Thank you so much for your care for our Farmer John.

Sincerely,

Don Glasenapp

Basically title. Getting a tooth extracted next week and will need to start looking for implant options. Preferably under $4000 (I have insurance) but I know beggars can't be choosers.

Edit to add if it matters: Tooth #30, first Molar, bottom right.

Anyone hiring like yesterday?? 29M, got my DD214 and resume on hand. I just refuse to work fast food. Sorry. I did it once and never again

Is anyone else completely disgruntled with RPS's bus system (or lack of)? My son's bus has been cancelled approximately 30 times this school year with no alternate services given. This is the second time this week that I will have to arrive late to work and leave early in order for him to have reliable transportation all while the school is sending notices of how their attendance is plummetting.

Explain to me like i'm 5 the problem with data centers. There is no shortage of electric generation in N Illinois. Matter of fact much of the electricity generated locally is shipped east. There is no shortage of water in N Illinois.
There is no shortage of available land.

In my travels I see some plowed fields, some planting and spraying. But a lot of corn stubble acreage still out there. I know that nitrogen-fixing soybeans would likely go into those fields this year…. Is there an issue? Fields too wet? The market uncertainty? Thanks.

I've seen anecdotal reports of being able to hear these from several miles away.

Windy day yesterday and our canoe tipped over at rock cut yesterday. Obviously we did not expect it and were carrying our phones like several times before. We were not too far out towards the center. Swam back and realized that our phones fell out. The concessions store staff, were of no help. They were only concerned about their boat and didn't offer much advice.

Are there any local retrieval services that can help? I'm mainly concerned about retrieving the data.