Uncommon Farm
In This Issue:
• Some New Entries in the Market Opening Days List
• Green Garlic: Seasons of Change at Three Sisters Garden
• Take a Quiz
Start Planning Your Farmers Market Journey
In keeping with a cherished tradition that we began way back last Monday, here is your Market Monday listing of farmers market opening dates. I’m dreaming up some sort of paid-subscriber-only contest with a prize for the person who submit photos from the most farmers markets. Stay tuned.
We are in touch with the City of Chicago Markets — including Daley Plaza and Federal Plaza in the Loop — and will report their opening dates as breaking news as soon as we get them. If you are a market manager/customer/vendor and find that a market is missing from the list, please email me at bob@localfoodforum.com to let me know!
— Bob
Saturday, April 10
Saturday, May 1
Downtown Evanston Farmers Market
Green City Market Lincoln Park Chicago (Saturday)
The Lincoln Park Farmers Market Chicago
Sunday, May 2
95th Street Farmers Market Chicago (tentative)
Tuesday, May 4
Lincoln Square Tuesday Morning Farmers Market Chicago
Wednesday, May 5
Green City Market Lincoln Park Chicago (Wednesday)
Thursday, May 6
Lincoln Square Thursday Evening Farmers Market Chicago
Sunday, May 9
Logan Square Farmers Market Chicago
Wicker Park Farmers Market Chicago
Wednesday, May 12
Andersonville Farmers Market Chicago
Saturday, May 15
61st Street Farmers Market Chicago
Saturday, May 22
Saturday, May 29
Huntley Farmers Market [note below]
South Loop Farmers Market Printer’s Row Chicago
Tuesday, June 1
SOAR Farmers Market Chicago Streeterville
Wednesday, June 2
Thursday, June 3
Low-Line Market Chicago (Lakeview)
Saturday, June 5
Green City Market West Loop Chicago
Horner Park Farmers Market Chicago
Sunday, June 6
Glenwood Sunday Market Chicago
Mount Prospect Lions Club Farmers Market
Portage Park Farmers Market Chicago
Sunday, June 13
Jefferson Park Farmers Market (tentative) Chicago
Wednesday, June 16
Thursday, June 17
South Loop Farmers Market Prairie District Chicago
Saturday, June 19
Note: Huntley Farmers Market hosts an indoor/outdoor market on April 10 and May 8.
Green Garlic: Seasons of Change at Three Sisters Garden
Tracey Vowell is founder and owner of Three Sisters Garden, a farm in Kankakee, Illinois. A longtime vendor at Chicago’s Green City Market, Tracey pivoted to e-commerce and home delivery in 2020, right at the start of the COVID pandemic, and it went so well that she doing all of her business that way this year.
Tracey is one of the farmers who have volunteered to participate in Local Food Forum’s Seasons of Change series, sharing updates and insights about the farm throughout the season. Today she discusses green garlic, the sought-after early-season plant that, when left alone, produces the familiar garlic bulb later in the year.
Over to you, Tracey… — Bob
Green Garlic is our first big spring crop every year. The first in three edible stages of garlic, the individual garlic cloves are planted, pointy end up, about an inch below the soil line in the fall. It just begins to grow, maybe a couple of inches above the soil, as freezing weather begins, and the tiny plants go dormant until spring.
Very similar to green onions, the garlic starts its life cycle as a slender stem, with long and — in the case of garlic — flat leaves. We will harvest green garlic until the scapes start coming, usually in late June or July.
More on those scapes later in the season, but know that they are the signal that heads are beginning to form down below. The cloves will swell at the base of the plant to form the heads, usually finishing to our fresh-dug garlic about mid-August.
How to Make Green Garlic Confit
This green garlic confit is something that I make a jar or two of each year, and I have taken to using it for so very many things. Of course, this highly seasonal crop is delicious just thrown onto the grill or chopped into a pot of cooking soup. But it is so worth making this simple recipe, as having this stable jar of garlic oil and bits of tender green garlic in the fridge — to near effortlessly add flavor to a wide range of dishes — is so convenient and delicious.
The flavor is a bit more complex, and the slow cooking in the fat really tenderizes the greens. The recipe could not be much simpler.
1 lb. green garlic
1 dried hot pepper (I like chipotle because of the smokiness in the flavor, but consider your heat tolerance and what you have on hand; a shake or two of pepper flakes will work too)
1 quart or more fat or oil (I use either pasture-raised lard or virgin-pressed coconut oil because I have a position about highly processed seed oils, but use what you like)
1 lime
Remove the root end from the green garlic and slice into 1/4-inch rounds, all the way up through the greens. Place in a colander, wash thoroughly in running water and drain well. Place in a good-sized sauce pan — taller is better than wider — and add the quart of oil or fat, completely covering the garlic once melted (add just enough more to cover if needed).
Place the pan over medium-low heat for 10 minutes or so, just to get things going. When everything has warmed and a few bubbles are coming up, reduce the heat to as low as possible, and continue cooking for at least an hour. The vibrant color will fade from the greens, and everything will become tender.
As the garlic slowly cooks in the oil, turn to your hot pepper, break it open and shake out as many seeds as possible. Set the pepper in the cooking garlic for a minute to soften, then remove and drain. Chop the pepper thoroughly, and return to the pan. Cook at least 10 minutes more.
Turn off the stove, add the juice from the lime and about a teaspoon of salt. Stir and give it some time; the salt will be slow to dissolve. Taste and adjust seasoning, ladle into a jar or two, and push all the way to the back of the fridge and leave it there for a couple of weeks. Anytime you might want garlic oil, you have it. And anytime you might like to add easy garlic flavor to a quick dish, it is ready for you.
This mixture will keep for a very long time, but it is important that the fat always cover the solids. If the oil is becoming depleted, it is time to use up the solids. Thoroughly cooked and certain that the oil is always covering the garlic, expect an easy 8-10 months safely in the fridge.
For more information about Three Sisters Garden home delivery in Chicago, please visit their website. Deliveries are made on Thursdays with an order deadline of Tuesday at 11:45 p.m.
Take a Quiz
How many farmers markets are there in the United States according to the most recent National Farmers Market Managers Survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture?
a) 2,312
b) 5,697
c) 8,140
d) 12,105
Answer: c) The Survey, which covered the year 2019 and was released in 2020, determined that there were 8,140 farmers markets in operation across the country.