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For Me, Three Sisters Garden's Sweet Corn Makes Peak Season Official
- Bob Benenson
- Jul 19
- 3 min read
A Tribute to a Grower Who Represents Local Farmers' Service and Perseverance
There are a number of farms local to the Chicago area that grow and sell excellent sweet corn, an annual centerpiece to the region's peak growing season. For me, though, peak season becomes official when I receive my first dozen ears of the sweet corn grown by farmer Tracey Vowell at her Three Sisters Garden in Kankakee, Illinois.
This year's first box was delivered (by Tracey herself) early morning on Saturday (July 18). The photo above is the first ear that I roasted (350 degrees for 30 minutes in its husk).
As you can see, the ear is covered with delicious kernels from end to end. It's the quality that helped Tracey cultivate a devoted following during the years in which she occupied a stand at Green City Market. Although she has always grown a variety of beautiful produce, sweet corn stood out as her signature crop.
But there is much more to Tracey's story than the taste of her corn.
In her previous career as a chef, Tracey actually played an important role in the rebirth of local food sourcing, which in the decades after World War II had been overrun by the rise of the conventional food system. She was executive chef to Chef Rick Bayless during the early years of his Frontera Grill, and helped him connect the relative handful of farmers who were then selling ingredients to restaurants.
She was so engaged with farmers that about two decades ago, she became a farmer herself. As mentioned earlier, she sold most of her products at Green City Market, which Rick Bayless had co-founded with other pioneering farm-to-table chefs in 1999.
As most folks in our local food community know, small farmers face challenges both financial and existential. And it is in the latter of those that Tracey has exhibited the creativity and perseverance that is a trademark of successful small farmers.
In early 2020, Three Sisters Garden was preparing for another routine growing season when the COVID pandemic hit and delayed the opening of the outdoor farmers market season for months. While most market farmers had to wait it out, Tracey decided to leverage her list of loyal customers by launching home delivery to the Chicago-area zip codes where her fans were concentrated.
This Hail Mary play worked so well that Tracey decided not to return to the farmers market, and is now in her 7th growing season of home delivery only.
She would, however, face an even more serious challenge in February 2022, when a fire at a nearby farm where she stored equipment and harvested crops resulted in massive destruction. This could have brought Three Sisters Garden to ruin, but the community rallied to her online fundraising campaign, followed by a dinner thrown by her old boss Rick Bayless that got Tracey back on her feet.
Finally, this year, Tracey had a brush with a freak mid-March tornado, which missed her farm by a half-mile. She did incur some wind and hail damage to property — and to her first corn seeding that she had just started.
Fortunately, it resulted in a short delay, and I have a pantry shelf full of her corn to prove it.
This little tribute is my way of saying thanks to Tracey and showing appreciation for the labors of all of our local small farmers.
Now I'm just waiting for one of those humongous watermelons that Tracey delivers. But that's a story for another day.
If you are interested in placing an order, click the link below to go to the Three Sisters Garden website and put in your zip code to see if you are in the delivery zone. Orders for Wednesday delivery must be placed by end of day Monday; place orders by end of Thursday for Saturday delivery.
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