Mark Your Calendars for Early October
Two great Good Food nonprofits have dinner events, plus this weekend's markets
Oops, I Did It Again
I appear to be playing “can you top this” with my friends at Three Sisters Garden in Kankakee, Illinois.
This is not the 22-pound watermelon I received from them a couple of weeks ago.
This is the 24-1/2 pound watermelon I received from them on Wednesday.
I will be cutting it down later today. I hope Excalibur (my chef’s knife) is up to it.
Kick Off October Fêting Two Great Nonprofits
Angelic Organics Learning Center and FACT Make Northern Illinois the Place to Be
Here is an idea for a great early fall getaway in far northern Illinois, the first weekend of October.
Two of our Good Food community’s most impactful nonprofits are having fundraising dinners/celebrations: Angelic Organics Learning Center at their home location in Caledonia (near Rockford) on Saturday, October 1, and Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT) at Duke’s Alehouse and Kitchen in Crystal Lake, in Chicago’s northwest exurbs. (Duke’s has an unfancy name but it is one of our region’s outstanding farm-to-table restaurants.)
Of course you can choose to go to one or the other. But why not go to both? Find a place to stay: Woodstock, which I wrote about on Wednesday, is a charming place in between Caledonia and Crystal Lake, and you’ll want to check out their Saturday farmers market. Then you can go to the Angelic Organics Center event, overnight, and hit some apple orchards and pumpkin patches while taking in the early fall foliage en route to Crystal Lake.
Below are the event descriptions from the two organizations. I recently interviewed their executive directors — Jackie de Batista at Angelic Organics Learning Center and Harry Rhodes at FACT — and will be publishing articles soon highlighting their important missions as we work together to build a better food system.
We are excited to invite you to join us on Oct. 1, 2022 from 5pm-9pm to celebrate and fortify the initiatives of Angelic Organics Learning Center. The Gather & Grow Farm Social is an intentional space and time set aside to learn how our work impacts you and our communities, and our opportunity to grow and regenerate the resources that fuel the Learning Center. Tickets are limited, so reserve your spot soon!
A ticket to Gather & Grow Farm Social offers our invited community a special evening to:
Partake in a menu of locally sourced small-plates created especially for us from Chef Paul Sletten and Abreo
Absorb the vibrant sounds of Bowmanville Swing as the musical backdrop
Engage deeper with the program directors, educators, board members and staff that are the beating heart of the Learning Center
Picture yourself with a goat at our Goat Selfie Stand
Buy your chance to name our new van and tractor, acquired recently as a result of the generous contributions of community members like you!
Please note:
This is an outdoor event, held on grass, bare ground and gravel, rain or shine (except in the event of extreme or dangerous weather)
Ticket price includes food and beverages, parking, live music and a short program with remarks from the Learning Center
Participation in some additional event features may be donation based
Masks are encouraged.
As an added note, the folks from Terra Vitae Farms and Broadview Farm and Gardens — with whom I visited during my recent field trips (click here and here) — will be attending and speaking at the FACT celebration. Both farms are recipients of FACT’s Fund-a-Farmer grants. Since 2012, FACT has awarded $857,000 in Fund-a-Farmer grants for projects that improve animal welfare.
Excalibur? Okey then, my indispensable Chinese blade is now called "The Beav." Just realized that I've had it for almost 50 years. Probably should sharpen it soon.
Hail brave knight! Enjoy the extended weekend.