South Loop Farmers Market's Satellite Location Is Drawing Big Crowds

Every novel marketing idea runs the risk of being greeted by a yawn. So there was no guarantee that the indoor farmers market partnership between South Loop Farmers Market and downtown Chicago's Water Tower Place shopping mall would work.
But work it has. This market, open weekly on Sundays from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. through March 30, is bustling. So much that has expanded to all the corridors of the mall's 4th floor.

I headed off to the market today (February 2) looking forward to saying hello to my friend Conor Daly of Daly's Donuts. But his stand wasn't in the spot where I found him on my previous visits. I looked around at the end of my shopping and was about to give up, when I realized the market had expanded in yet another direction.
That's Conor leaning over his trays of delicious baked doughnuts in the photo above, between two local companies selling international-themed products: Laconic Foods, selling Greek olive oils, kalamata olives and herbal salts, and Fook Hing Hot Chili Oil (say it aloud and you'll see why it's one of my favorite local food double entrendres).

These are large eggs from Bennett Farms (Edwardsburg, Michigan). I share this photo to make this point: Local egg farms actually have eggs to sell. The avian flu crisis has resulted in sparsely stocked or empty shelves at many supermarkets; while some small farms have been hit, the crisis is hitting hard at factory farms where crowded conditions enable contagions to spread like wildfire.
These eggs — farm fresh, nutritious and delicious, from humanely raised chickens that have pasture access — were $7.00 a dozen, comparable to the price of even less virtuous eggs at many grocery stores.

Like many farmers market, the South Loop Farmers Market at Water Tower has integrated a number of prepared foods vendors. But you're not going to find many options more sumptuous than these Filipino offerings at the Tropicake Chicago stand.

The market's Kid Zone, with its mini-model farm, continues to charm.

My market haul was modest because — I hope you're sitting down — I'm actually leaving Chicago for a couple of days mid-week to attend the Organic Grain Conference in Champaign (you'll be hearing a lot about that when I get back).
There are treats from Daly's Donuts, eggs and ham slices (one of my new favorite things) from Bennett Farms, onions and Evercrisp apples from Hebron Farms (Vandalia, Michigan), and sesame bagels from Zeitlin's Delicatessen (Chicago).
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