In This Issue
• Farmers Market Updates
• News From Non-Profits: Events and Jobs
• Take a Quiz
Lake Shore View (and Forecast), April 23, 2021
Brightening skies and a forecast high around 60? After the wintry blast earlier this week, we’ll take it.
The forecast for this weekend: chilly, with rain on Saturday. For Monday and Tuesday, sunny and in the 70s. Vintage Chicago spring.
Division Street Market Opening May 15
I learned yesterday that Chicago’s Division Street Farmers Market in the Gold Coast/Near North Side will be opening for the season on Saturday, May 15. This is the first City of Chicago market to set its opening date… others to follow.
Tomorrow (Saturday, April 24), the Wicker Park Farmers Market will hold a pop-up market at The Joinery, located at 2533 West Homer St. Nineteen vendors are listed as participating.
As reported earlier, the outdoor markets in Grayslake and Woodstock, in Chicago metro’s northern reaches, have started their seasons.
News From Non-Profits: Events and Jobs
Angelic Organics Learning Center, located in Caledonia, Illinois, is hiring a Communications and Development Manager to help tell the story of its amazing 200-acre farm campus in Northern Illinois. This position can be mostly remote, if desired, or can work out of the offices in Caledonia or Chicago. The ability to be present at various locations throughout northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin throughout the year is required.
Chicago Market, a food co-op under development in the city’s Uptown neighborhood, is holding a live walking tour of its historic building adjacent to the Wilson Red Line stop on Saturday, May 8 from noon to 12:30 p.m. This 30-minute meet-up will give you a sneak peek of the local, sustainable, community-connected grocery store that YOU can help build. Chicago Market Board members will also be on hand to answer any questions about becoming an Owner of the Co-op.
Growing Home is a nonprofit that grows more than 17 tons of organic produce each year on a little more than one acre of land while providing job training, farm skills and job placement for ex-offenders and others with employability issues. On Friday, May 7 from 10 a.m. to noon, the organization will hold an online ribbon cutting ceremony for Honore Street South, the third farm in its West Englewood campus on Chicago’s South Side. This farm site actually opened in April 2020, but the ribbon cutting ceremony was postponed due to the pandemic. All of the USDA-certified organic produce grown on this farm site was distributed in and around Greater Englewood in 2020 and will continue to be going forward.
The National Young Farmers Coalition seeks a Land Campaign Organizer to mobilize young farmers and ranchers across the country to advocate for justice-centered land policy change: “The Organizer will work closely with the Land Campaign Director and organizing staff at the Coalition to support all aspects of our land campaign — including coalition building, messaging, policy advocacy, and fundraising — with a focus on grassroots engagement. This work will center on BIPOC-led organizations and farmers, with the goal of raising public awareness of the land-related challenges young farmers face, engaging farmers in telling their stories, and changing policy.”
Naturally Chicago is a program of Chicago nonprofit FamilyFarmed that provides learning experiences for early-stage entrepreneurs featuring Good Food industry experts. Naturally Chicago’s online Office Hours program on Friday, April 30, 9:00-10:00 a.m., features Tracey Halama, President of Vital Proteins, discussing a topic vital to early-stage Good Food businesses that want to grow and thrive: Achieving Scale. There are few companies that better exemplify a soaring growth curve than Vital Proteins, whose collagen-based products have ridden the wave of consumers' growing interest in health and wellness.
The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park is taking its annual Butterfly Ball virtual this year… and it’s free! The event supports all the educational outreach initiatives of the Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and, according to the museum, provides “a chance to get up close with our animals, collections, and scientists in a more intimate way than we have ever been able to at the Butterfly Ball.” The event runs from 6:00-7:00 p.m. on Friday, May 7.
Take a Quiz
May 1 is the kickoff of Chicago’s farmers market season, with Green City Market, Downtown Evanston Farmers Market and more heading outdoors through October. What kind of weather could we expect?
Yesterday’s quiz showed that the historic average high temperature on May 1 is 65, but that encompasses some wide variations. Over the past 10 years in Chicago, what is the highest temperature reported on May 1?
a) 91
b) 85
c) 81
d) 78
Answer: b) Twice in the past 10 years, in 2013 and 2018, the high temperature at Chicago Midway Airport on May 1 was 85 degrees.