Drought Relief: Donate to Help a Favorite Farmer
Plus welcome to summer, a dairy story, bialy alert and a fundraising dinner recap
Help a Favorite Farmer in Crisis with Your Donation
Chicago's restaurant community is coming together to raise funds for Froggy Meadow Farm, a local farm on the verge of losing a year's worth of crops due to drought-like conditions.
The team behind the charge includes: Devon Quinn, eden… Jason Hammel, Lula Cafe… Sarah Stegner, Prairie Grass Cafe… John Shields, Smyth and The Loyalist… Oliver Poilevey, Obélix… Ethan Pikas, Cellar Door Provisions… Cesar Murillo, North Pond… and Jodi Fyfe, The Paramount Group.
Click the button below to donate to the GoFundMe page set up to help the farm
If you are a regular at Green City Market’s flagship location in Chicago’s Lincoln Park, you have probably met Jerry Boone of Froggy Meadow Farm in Beloit, Wisconsin. Jerry is immediately recognizable from his big beard and big smile, and for his tables filled with some of our region’s most beautiful produce, including some rare artisanal varieties.
But this year, Jerry’s tables have been mostly empty because of catastrophic drought conditions in his south-central Wisconsin area. He has lost all his spring crops, and if urgent — but expensive — measures are not taken to give him greater access to water resources, he may lose a whole year’s work… losses that are not covered by insurance.
As Jerry explains, the past winter was dry with little snow, which meant the groundwater on which he relies wasn’t sufficiently replenished. And with a rainless spring —he says he hasn’t had rain in three to four months — the formerly residential well that had reliably provided the water he needs for irrigation has run dry after brief use every day.
The costs of remediation — which requires drilling for a new and deeper well, a pump and pump house, and electrical installation — are prohibitive for a farmer who has been getting a lot out of his 10-acre farm for years. Jerry, who like many farmers is reluctant to ask for help, had even considered this as his signal to retire.
But some of our city’s leading chefs, who serve Jerry’s beautiful produce to their customers, love him too much to let his farming career end this way. And this GoFundMe is just part of their efforts to rally the always-generous Chicago food community to raise funds that Jerry needs to pay contractors to upgrade his irrigation system and fill up those tables at Froggy Meadow Farm’s Green City Market tent.
Our food system is at risk because of the consequences of global climate change. The problems Jerry Boone faces are a particularly severe manifestation of these challenges. Any donation you can share will make a big difference in helping Jerry win the day.
Happy Solstice to You…
9:57 a.m., June 21, 2023. It’s summer! Can peak season for our local farmers be far behind? Let’s make the most of it. And enjoy your day of maximum daylight.
Celebrate Dairy Month with Two Great Local Farms
I’m happy to share my latest article for the Buy Fresh Buy Local Illinois Directory. To mark National Dairy Month, we’re featuring two awesome farms in central Illinois: Marcoot Jersey Creamery in Greenville and Kilgus Farmstead in Fairbury.
No two farms are exactly alike. The biggest difference between these two is that Marcoot focuses mainly on artisanal cheese, while Kilgus focuses on milk, cream and half-and-half.
But they also have a lot in common: Both farms are multigenerational, in Marcoot’s case dating back to the 1840s. They both raise Jerseys, known as those “little brown cows.” And both farms have employed rotational grazing of cows since long before anyone had heard the term “regenerative agriculture.”
Click the button below to read the full story, with tips on how to find and buy products from these farms.
Asparagus & Garlic Scape Bialys? You’re on Notice.
I wrote recently about how much I enjoy the bialys baked by Sam Zeitlin and often available at his Zeitlin’s Delicatessen stands currently in eight local farmers markets. When I visited him at The Farmer at the Green market in the West Loop on Tuesday, he didn’t have bialys but he did have a tip: He will have bialys topped with asparagus and garlic scapes at the South Loop Farmers Market Grant Park on Thursday.
Wait, what? Asparagus and garlic scape bialys? That market is open on Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. at 1201 S. Michigan Ave., at the southeast corner of Michigan and Roosevelt Rd. You might want to get there early because I know a guy who is going to be there right at 4 to get his share.
I also want to make clear that I did not come home empty-handed on Tuesday, no sirree.
Zeitlin’s also makes great bagels, and I got four sesame (my favorite), plus I scratched an itch for one of their bagel dogs (planned for Wednesday’s lunch), the mandatory pickle slice and a black-and-white cookie, and if you don’t have a passion for black-and-white cookies, you didn’t grow up in New York. Plus grape tomatoes and strawberries (don’t forget to bring hard-sided containers) from Los Rodriguez Farm (Eau Claire, Michigan) and ground pork from Bennett Farms (Edwardsburg, Michigan).
Community Gardens to Benefit from Dinner at Mariano’s
The pretext for the dinner at Mariano’s West Loop event space on June 14 was a promotion for winemaker Chandon’s new Garden Spritz, a bottled cocktail made with champagne, orange liqueur, herbs and spices. Much as I like champagne, I might have questioned whether to attend if not for the other aspects of the evening: the dinner was prepared by three of my favorite chef-advocates, and proceeds from the event benefit the Chicago Community Gardeners Association.
The sumptuous menu was a collaboration of Chef Sarah Stegner of Northbrook’s Prairie Grass Cafe in her first outing as a Mariano’s Tastemaker Chef; Sebastian White, a protege of Sarah’s and the clinical psychologist-turned-chef whose nonprofit, The Evolved Network, seeks to help underprivileged youths through a farm to table experience and therapeutic services; and Arshiya Farheen, the Paris-trained pastry chef who owns Verzênay Patisserie in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.
First, a shoutout to Chandon, which kept those tasty Garden Spritzes flowing.
I may or may not have had four of these.
The meal opened with an array of appetizers served at the dining tables…
Roasted red pepper dip and crudites.
Strawberry-Balsamic-Basil-Pine Nut “Slaw” served over ricotta cheese.
Sliced prosciutto and roasted vegetables.
Verzénay baguette.
Bruschetta topped with shrimp tartare, burrata, peach, oregano and basil oil.
And then the main courses:
Slow-roasted salmon with citrus and rosemary.
Slow-braised BBQ brisket with mashed potatoes, roasted carrots and braised greens.
And for dessert…
And for dessert, a Verzênay lemon-lavender choux.
Working to build a better food system is reward in itself, but there are some nice perks every now and then.