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Farmers Market, CSAs, Farm Stand: Local Food Three Ways
- Bob Benenson
- 9 minutes ago
- 3 min read
So Many Ways to Support Local Farmers
A quarter century ago, as the 2000s started, it was still not easy for consumers to source locally produced food. That's much less the case today.
While I visit farmers markets a few times a week during the outdoor season, I will also hit an occasional farm store, and this year, for the first time, I've started subscriptions with not one but two community-supported agriculture farms, one for produce and one for meat.
This past Saturday (May 10), I had a harmonic convergence of all three of these kinds of outlets.
My day started early, when I swung by The Lincoln Park Farmers Market to pick up just a few things, seen in the lead photo. They include organic tortilla chips and fresh salsa from El Molcajete Sauces (Evanston, Illinois); sesame bagels and brown butter chocolate chip cookies from Zeitlin's Delicatessen (Chicago); and a lovely money plant, a favorite of my apartment gardener wife Barb, from Los Rodriguez Farm (Eau Claire, Michigan).
Then it was off to the urban farm run by the Just Roots non-profit in Bronzeville on Chicago's South Side for my first bi-weekly CSA produce pickup. Just Roots runs the CSA to provide revenues to support its mission of providing affordable access to healthy, delicious local food to residents of surrounding under-resourced communities.
There were encouraging signs that the urban growing season was taking hold, such as the strawberry plants in the photo above...
... and a variety of lettuces.
It is clearly very early in the season, though. The farm is hard by the overhead L train tracks, which clatter by every few minutes.
I got to spend a few minutes with Tina Turnip, the farm's resident cat and pest control expert. She's a sweet thing who enjoys meeting strangers and getting petted, but I understand she is hell on mice.
Because of the below average temperatures so far this spring, Just Roots had to stretch a bit for its first CSA bags. The green onions, radish microgreens, ginormous Napa cabbage and brown bag of farm-foraged herbal teas were produced by Just Roots' other farm, located about 27 miles south in suburban Sauk Village. Other vendors helped out: the asparagus is from Mick Klug Farm (St. Joseph, Michigan) and the baguette is from Montelimar Bread Company in Evanston.
After I dropped the stuff off at home, Barb and I headed up to Grayslake, Illinois, in Chicago's outer northern suburbs, for the Liberty Prairie non-profit's Plant Sale and Farm Festival at its Prairie Crossing Farm. Earlier, I published an article about that event, including the first time I've ever watched sheep getting sheared and my perhaps belated discovery that scrap wool is gaining popularity as a natural soil supplement.
Before heading home, we made a stop at the Liberty Prairie Farm Store for some more goodies for the week.
We brought home local apples; asparagus and carrots from Prairie Crossing Farm; bacon and ham slices from Jake's Country Meats (Cassopolis, Michigan); and cheddar and swiss cheeses, made with A2 milk, from Nordic Creamery (Westby, Wisconsin).
Phew... that was all for Saturday. But given the thread of this article, I'd be remiss if I didn't include my monthly meat CSA pickup from Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm (Ottawa, Illinois), which took place outside Begyle Brewery on Chicago's Malt Row.
The biggest portion was chicken (that big roaster clocks in at 6-1/2 pounds). For beef, there was filet, chuck roast, ground beef, and round steak. And the pork was andouille sausage links, bone-in chops, ground pork and bulk chorizo sausage.
Now, admittedly, this is almost certainly more dedication to local food sourcing than most people practice. But no one can say that the publisher of Local Food Forum doesn't walk the walk.