So Cool to Be at the Market
If you had magical powers, I would be hard for you to conjure a more beautiful August 16 morning than the one we had.
I had a few food gaps that needed to be filled and I had a busy day planned, so I made an early morning dash to Green City Market in Lincoln Park. The temperatures were in the 60s and the blue sky was cloudless.
While the Saturday Green City flagship location is typically mobbed, the Wednesday morning is regularly chill, regardless of the temperature. Today was cool in every way.
The vendors’ tables were filled with the plethora of produce you’d expect in the middle of peak season, with piles and piles of sweet corn.
Watermelons have made the summer scene.
But every season also has some hints about the next. Mick Klug Farm (St. Joseph, Michigan) had the first grapes I’ve seen this year.
Nichols Farm and Orchard’s ever-expanding varieties of apples including some of their rare heirloom types. The brownish apples in the center are St. Edmund’s Russet; dating to the late 19th century in England, it’s not the prettiest apple, but it’s delicious and one of my favorites. On the right is a cooking apple known as Duchess of Oldenburg, said to have originated in Russia in the late 18th century.
Waiting for a bus can be boring, but not at the 151 stop across the street from the market. This bucolic scene is at South Pond, part of the Lincoln Park Zoo property.
My Green City Market haul included Himrod grapes, blueberries and yellow peaches from Mick Klug Farm; those russet apples and SunGold tomatoes from Nichols Farm and Orchard; an eggplant-tofu salad and tofu scramble from Phoenix Bean Tofu (Chicago); and eggs from Finn’s Ranch (Buchanan, Michigan).
Today also was a local food doubleheader with this shipment from Three Sisters Garden (Kankakee, Illinois), with a big old box of Tracey Vowell’s excellent sweet corn accompanied by summer squash and carrots.
Stay tuned… tomorrow’s Local Food Forum will promote two special events and this weekend’s regional farmers market schedule.
I'm a big Klug Farm fan - I stop there every weekend at the 63rd street farmers market. My favorite fruit!
I was thrilled to see little watermelons at our market in Madison. Perfect size for watermelon mojitos, and my potted mint plant is so abundant right now!