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Corn Again: My Yearly Ritual With Three Sisters Garden Renewed

  • Writer: Bob Benenson
    Bob Benenson
  • Jul 16
  • 2 min read

This Year's First Batch of a Trademark Region Crop


Sweet corn, cabbage and summer squash from a Chicago region farm
Photo by Bob Benenson

Sometimes a photo really does equal a thousand words. That's the year's first big pile of home-delivered sweet corn from Three Sisters Garden in Kankakee, Illinois.


I don't want anyone — especially other farm friends — to get me wrong: There are a lot of regional farmers who grow excellent sweet corn. But for many years, sweet corn has been a signature crop for Three Sisters Garden's Tracey Vowell, a friend who I admire greatly.


I first became acquainted with Tracey during her long tenure as a vendor at Chicago's Green City Market, where I bought corn and some of her other beautiful crops (you'll hopefully be reading soon about the epic watermelons she grows).


Over time, I learned the key role Tracey played in helping Chef Rick Bayless re-establish restaurant sourcing of locally farmed products, which had nearly disappeared during the years after World War II under the rise of the conventional food system.


Tracey was Rick's executive chef during early years of his flagship Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, and she helped create his local sourcing program. This also planted the seed for Tracey's transition to becoming a full-time farmer herself about 20 years ago.


Her farming career has been marked by perseverance. There were very few woman farmowners when she started out. She built a loyal Chicago clientele over the years, which enabled her successfully pivot to home delivery at the onset of the COVID crisis. She lost crucial equipment and product when a storage space on a nearby farm burned to the ground in February 2022, but her supporters in the local food and culinary communities rallied to her fundraising campaign.


And yes, her sweet corn is as good as it looks in the above photo, where it's flanked by arrowhead cabbage and summer squash.


Click the button below to learn more about Three Sisters Garden, check if you're in a delivery zip code, and place an order. Tracey delivers to those zip codes on Wednesdays and Saturdays; orders must be placed by end of day Thursday for Saturday delivery and end of day Monday for Wednesday delivery.



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