Starting a natural farm in Washburn IL

Hello all, this is my first post here. I'm planning to start a natural farm on 1 acre in Washburn IL this June. I'm open to any and all suggestions.
Right now it has an area with 15 raised beds, some fruit trees here and there, and the ground is a lot of lawn grass.
I'll be blogging about the whole thing. Here is the first post: http://parksidenaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-beginning.html
The owner is a nice guy. This agreement is going to save him all the gardening work, and give me a place to live and do natural farming.

Does anyone know of other natural farms or permaculture stuff going on in the central Illinois area? In the future I'd like to host workshops, have people stay with me, all that.

I recommend that untill you own the land do not do more than crops and basics. But have at it with the seasonal. Good luck.