In this issue:
Four Farm-to-You Delivery Options
View the Farm-to-You Webinar
A Multi-Farm Breakfast Taco
Farmers Markets: It’s Still Not May
Take a Quiz
Delicious, Nutritious and… Convenient?
The great COVID shutdown began a year ago, and the impact was immediate for Chicagoland’s local farmers. The few winter farmers markets ended their seasons abruptly, with the opening of the outdoor market season in jeopardy. Restaurant contracts dried up overnight.
But sheer panic gave way to impressive innovation. Green City Market and other local farmers markets began aggregating product from vendors for customer pickup and home delivery through the WhatsGood app. Farmers whose CSA (community-supported agriculture) sales had stagnated saw them come roaring back as consumers looked for delicious items with a side of food security.
And a number of farmers pivoted to e-commerce and home delivery models. This isn’t exactly new: Companies such as Irv and Shelly’s Fresh Picks have been buying from region farmers and delivering orders to customers’ homes since 2006. But the entry of individual farmers driving direct to consumers — and developing year-round sales independent of the May-October growing season — is a game-changer that likely will have a lasting impact on making local food more convenient to buyers.
This past week, I placed orders with three farms — Avrom Farm of Green Lake, Wisconsin; Three Sisters Garden of Kankakee, Illinois; and Nordic Creamery of Westby, Wisconsin, plus Village Farmstand of Evanston, Illinois, which since its launch last year has delivered products from farmers around the region.
Here’s a look at what each brought to my door:
At 25 years old, Avrom Farm Owner Hayden Holbert is quickly establishing himself as a local farm visionary. When COVID hit, he greatly expanded the farm’s beta e-commerce site, selling not only Avrom Farm’s incredibly delicious pasture-raised pork, chicken and produce, but also product from other farms. In the photo above, the country style pork ribs in the front are from Avrom; the big package of beef shanks is from Clover Hill Farm in Wisconsin; the parsnips are from Valley Farms (they grow them big in Michigan!); and the eggs are from Three Brothers Farm in Wisconsin. Come spring you can say hello to Hayden at Green City Market.
About 20 years ago, Tracey Vowell left her job as executive chef for Rick Bayless’ Frontera Grill to start Three Sisters Garden, a farm about an hour south of the city. She was a mainstay at Green City Market, where buyers waited anxiously for the arrival of her sweet corn. But when the pandemic hit, she immediately pivoted to all home delivery in Chicago. Three Sisters’ popcorn is just a cut above — my wife Barb enjoys it virtually every day — and the farm sells other dry goods such as beans and grains. I also purchased some delicious spicy radish microgreens and pea shoots.
I was familiar with Nordic Creamery from their long past stint selling at Green City Market, and I was pleased to learn that they were shipping boxes of their cheese for home delivery. That 5-year-old cheddar in the middle is over the top good.
Matt Wechsler is a documentarian who five years ago made Sustainable, a beautiful film about local farming that I highly recommend. Marty Travis of downstate’s Spence Farm was a central figure in the documentary. When COVID hit the region and farmers’ restaurant sales tanked, Matt, Marty and other partners came up with the idea of Village Farmstand, which takes orders from customers that are fulfilled by (mostly) regional farmers and made available for home delivery or pickup. My silver insulated bag this week included cremini mushrooms from River Valley Ranch (Wisconsin); Red Norland potatoes from PrairiErth Farm (Illinois); yellow onions from Piazza Produce (Indiana); sliced ham from Twin Oaks Meats in the Good Food farming hotbed of Fairbury, Illinois; traditional style tortillas from Tortilleria Zepeda (Wisconsin); and a loaf of rustic bread from the remarkable Ellen King at Evanston’s Hewn Bakery. And no, those kumquats are not a sign of global warming run amok; Matt brings those beauties in from San Gabriel Ranch in California.
Learn More
I had the pleasure last November of moderating — with my colleague Anna Crofts — a FamilyFarmed/Naturally Chicago webinar titled Farm-to-You: Delivering on the Promise of Local Food. Hayden Holbert, Tracey Vowell and Matt Wechsler, mentioned above, were joined by Mandy Moody, executive director of Green City Market, and Irv Cernauskas of Irv and Shelly’s Fresh Picks. Click the arrow below to enjoy their lively and informative conversation.
A Multi-Farm Breakfast Taco
I gave myself the challenge of making something with ingredients from all four deliveries. I’m a mostly scratch cook and I call my philosophy WTIF (for What’s in the Fridge), so it was pretty easy. I cut and browned a couple of slices of the Twin Oaks ham, threw in some leftover smashed PrairiErth potatoes, sauteed River Valley mushrooms and some Three Sisters microgreens, added a Three Brothers egg to scramble, topped with some Nordic goat cheese, and served on lightly toasted Zepeda tortilla.
Damn good taco.
Farmers Market Season… It’s Only a May Away
The Logan Square Farmers Market’s indoor market is taking place on Sundays through March 28, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at 3029 & 3031 N. Rockwell St. (a little off its usual beaten path). Logan Square is the only major indoor farmers market operating in the immediate Chicago area this year due to COVID social distancing restrictions.
Green City Market had to scrap its usual Saturday winter indoor market at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. But its year-round pickup and home delivery e-commerce option through the WhatsGood app has continued through the off season.
Meanwhile, a few markets have released their scheduled opening dates and they provide a ray of optimism that this will be a more normal year. The websites of the Logan Square Farmers Market and the Wicker Park Farmers Market both set Sunday, May 9 as the starting date for their outdoor markets. Still waiting to hear if Green City will return to its usual kickoff on the first Saturday in May (which is May 1).
Take a Quiz
Answer at end (no cheating!)
What is nixtamalization?
a) the process of saying no to factory farmed food
b) a system of no-till farming
c) a traditional method of preparing corn for tortillas
d) a process that enables you to be certified as a nixtamal
Answer: c). Traditional tortilla makers (such as Tortilleria Zepeda) soak and cook corn kernels in an alkaline solution, then wash and hull them, a method known as nixtamalization.
Til next time… Eat local.
Bob
Is there a website for Village Farmstand? I don't see a link in your article.