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Lincoln Square's Thursday Farmers Market is a Nice Afternoon Break
- Bob Benenson
- 8 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Vendors are Next to a Newly Renovated Plaza at the Western El Stop
I have always enjoyed the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago, home to the Old Town School of Folk Music (Barb and I are really into folk music), the charming stretch of Lincoln Avenue that is lined with shops and eateries, and the twice-weekly seasonal Lincoln Square Farmers Market.
It is in the middle of Chicago's North Side, though (which can be harder to get to than you'd think when one doesn't have a car), and as a result, I'd only been to the farmers market there once this year, early in the season. Fortunately, I had a bit of a light schedule this Thursday afternoon (August 20), and after weeks of mostly crappy weather, it was just delightful to be outside.
The first thing to note is that the Market days (Tuesdays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., Thursdays 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.) has returned to its longtime site in a parking plaza right below the platform of the CTA's Brown Line rail station.
The market had relocated over the past two seasons to a dowdier parking lot a few blocks south on Lincoln Avenue to make way for a major renovation of what had been an uninviting plaza at the El station. That work is now completed and it is a definite upgrade, with lovely plantings and park benches.
But the main point of this article is the beautiful locally produced food at the market. The legendary Mick Klug Farm (St. Joseph, Michigan) is one of several familiar vendors at Lincoln Square, and they had some items that were 1st in season (at least for me), including white peaches and summer apples...
... and, count 'em, four varieties of grapes.
When I was done, I ambled over to the Lincoln Avenue strip.
My destination was Gene's Sausage Shop, a European-style market with a mind-boggling variety of stuff. Not the most local place to shop for food, but their deli and meat counters are epic and they have so many different kinds of sausage. You can't miss it — just look for the cow statue flanked by U.S. and German flags.
My farmers market haul (from right): white peaches, SunGold cherry tomatoes and Somerset grapes from Mick Klug Farm, and the incredible English muffins from Chicago's Dorothy's Bakery. They are not only delicious but are a good value, because they are roughly the size of a personal pan pizza, and half of one of these babies is easily sufficient for breakfast.
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