Last night’s full moon was the “pink moon.” Some friends’ photos showed a pinkish hue at moonrise, but it was big and white and shining like a spotlight by the time we saw it. Beautiful, nonetheless.
We are blessed and a little spoiled with our view by the lake. And few things give more joy than a full moon. Every month for nearly 10 years we’ve gotten to watch the moon throw its light to illuminate the surface of Lake Michigan. It really does lift the soul.
OK, back to the subject at hand.
In This Issue
• Charting a Course for What’s In Season
• Correction on Evanston Farmers Market Location
• Take a Quiz (It’s Dandy)
Charting a Course for What’s In Season
Yesterday we published this week’s Market Monday issue with photos of what’s in season now and a quiz about berry seasonality. This prompted an excellent suggestion from Yescenia Mota, coordinator of the Chicago City Markets in her role as Special Events Coordinator for the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (aka DCASE):
How about publishing a guide to what’s in season across Illinois’ growing calendar?
Well, there are some things you don’t have to ask Local Food Forum twice, and this is one of them. Below is the colorful chart created by the University of Illinois Extension Service.
The early-season crops we can expect to see when the farmers market season officially opens aren’t surprising: asparagus, greens, lettuce, onions among them.
The caveat, though, is that these charts are based on historical tendencies, and in a region where the weather can vary dramatically from year to year (and even from day to day), the crops don’t always play by the rules.
Take sweet corn for example. There are years in which it takes into late July or even into August before this cherished crop shows up in abundance in Chicago markets. But corn growing conditions were unusually favorable in spring 2018, and visitors to the Green City Market stand of Indiana’s Iron Creek Farm that July 4 were startled to see a table overflowing with ears of local corn.
Fast forward just a year to 2019, the year of endless asparagus. Asparagus likes cool temperatures, so in years when summer warmth hits early, the green stalks often disappear from markets by early June. But an unusually chilly spring resulted in piles of asparagus still available at Michigan’s Mick Klug Farm stand on June 22, 2019.
So check the chart and set your expectations for your farmers market visits, but also expected the unexpected. Our Market Mondays will keep you posted on what’s new, what’s peaked and what’s tapped out.
Doesn’t info like this make you want to subscribe to Local Food Forum?
Oops… Correct Evanston Farmers Market Address
Yes, nobody’s perfect, and yesterday’s Market Monday was off on the address of the Downtown Evanston Farmers Market by a couple of blocks. The corrected information is below, so please go here if you are attending their opening day this Saturday:
Downtown Evanston Farmers Market, 1800 Maple Ave., Evanston
7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Take a Quiz
Walk through any Chicago park this time of year and you’ll see an explosion of yellow among the green. It’s dandelion season! The reason they grow so profusely is that they are left alone. Unlike home owners who have been persuaded to, um, round up dandelions and kill them like a weed, the city of Chicago does not use chemicals to control the herbaceous plant that is attractive to pollinators and wholly edible for humans. Which is another reason to love Chicago.
Which of the following are well-known uses for dandelions?
a) Herbal medicine
b) Tea
c) Salads
d) Wine
e) All of the above
Answer: e) Yep, dandelions are full of nutrients and are very versatile as food sources. So put that spray gun down and back away slowly. Better yet, if you don’t want dandelions on your lawn, pick ‘em and eat ‘em.
H/T to friend and subscriber Betsy Brown for piquing our interest in dandelions.