Fall in Flight
A flock of geese, with the downtown skyline as a backdrop, near Belmont Harbor on late Friday afternoon. Are these geese flying south? Hard to say. Our city geese tend to be very well fed and insulated against winter’s cold. Sticking around saves a long arduous commute, and they are safe from hunters here. We usually have a good number of these birds as permanent city kids.
There are more fall color photos below, after this.
The Tall and Short of Winter Squash
If you’re a regular Local Food Forum reader, you may remember the bit of fun I had a few weeks ago about the giant watermelons I received from Three Sisters Garden. I turns out that they also grow butternut squash big in Kankakee — but also small.
The one in the middle of this squash scrum clocks in at a little more than six pounds. I see many happy nights of butternut squash soup ahead for the Benensons. But I also got a bunch of their mini-butternuts, some of which are small enough to be a personal pan squash.
A pretty nice squash family photo, if you ask me.
Green City Market’s Winter Market Plans
Green City Market made it official: There will be an indoor market this winter, though a bit away from its former location at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
The new market, branded GCM Avondale, will be held at 3031 N Rockwell St. It will begin on December 3, two weeks after the November 19 conclusion of the outdoor Green City Market locations in Lincoln Park and West Loop.
This is the first winter market for GCM since 2019-20. That market was cut a bit short by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The museum location was deemed too small to allow for sufficient social distancing over the next two winters. The decision to choose the Avondale location — which Logan Square Farmers Market used as its 2020-21 winter market — appears to make the exodus from the museum permanent.
As you can see in the photo above, my latest Green City Market haul Saturday reflects a bank toward this season’s seasonal. There is kale from Jacobson Farms (Antioch, Illinois); beautifully white cauliflower from Wholesome Harvest (Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin); sweet potatoes from Frillman Farms (Prairie View, Illinois and Berrien Springs, Michigan); red candy apple onions from Froggy Meadow Farm (Beloit, Wisconsin); and apples and my season’s first brussels sprouts from Nichols Farm and Orchard (Marengo, Illinois).
I bought a bunch of apples that I didn’t feel like piling up for the photo, but the sampler is three different varieties. There are two heirloom varieties — Cox’s Orange Pippin and Esopus Spitzenburg — and Empire, a newer variety that is dear to my heart because it is from my home state of New York.
Here are the details about the winter market from Green City Market, followed by a crowdsourcing appeal.
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We're thrilled to announce that after the pandemic pause, GCM will host an indoor market for the winter season beginning on December 3 at our new location in Avondale.
Our new indoor market, GCM Avondale, is located at 3031 N Rockwell St. This is located steps from the Rockwell on the River building complex where the GCM team has its year-round office.
GCM Avondale will be open from 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. on select Saturdays between December 3 - March 18. Street parking will be available on N Rockwell St. Stay tuned for our list of participating vendors.
Until then, we'll see you outdoors on Saturdays in Lincoln Park and the West Loop through November 19 and on Wednesdays in Lincoln Park through the end of October.
Let Me Know About Your Winter Market
I dropped the ball a little on publicizing Chicago region markets last winter and I’m committed to do a better job this year. If you work for a market that plans a winter season, or the market you love is wintering over, please let me know.
I will be doing research to try to root out all the winter markets, but it takes a lot of clicking and I don’t want to miss anyone. A friend has already alerted me that there will be a South Loop winter market at L&A Healing Studio in Chicago. I welcome any info about other locations.