And The Dreams That You Dare to Dream…
… really do come true. Last evening’s brief storm produced a long-lasting rainbow over the lake.
Farmers Market List Tweaks
A couple of quick fixes to this weekend’s farmers market schedule published in yesterday’s Local Food Forum:
• The 95th Street Farmers Market in Chicago will take place on Sunday (May 2). The market was inadvertently included in the Saturday list.
• The Lincoln Park Farmers Market hours on Saturday are 7:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m, not 7-12:30.
The Mike Nowak Show with Peggy Malecki
Local Food Forum is happy to recommend The Mike Nowak Show with Peggy Malecki, live-streamed Sundays, 9:00-11:00 a.m central, at https://mikenowak.net as well as on Facebook and Periscope (Twitter).
I became well acquainted with Mike, a veteran journalist, and Peggy, publisher of Natural Awakenings Chicago, in my work at FamilyFarmed. Their show is about gardening, green living and the environment, and they are strong supporters of a better, more local food system.
This Sunday’s show is a case in point. One segment is about the Vegetable Garden Protection Act, also known as the Right to Garden Act, which has passed the Illinois House and Senate and awaits the signature of Governor J.B. Pritzker. The guests are Nicole Virgil from Right to Garden and Ari Bargil of the Institute for Justice. The push for the legislation was sparked by the Virgil family’s long effort to reverse the city of Elmhurst’s ban on a hoop house they wanted to install in their backyard to grow vegetables.
Mike and Peggy also preview International Compost Awareness Week (May 2-8) with Benjamin Krumstok from Composting Partners and Mike Dimucci from Garden Prairie Organics. Both are involved with the Illinois Food Scrap Coalition. (See the IFSC item below and register for their free Lunch and Learn Series with presentations every day next week from Monday through Friday).
News From Non-Profits
Chicago Market, a food co-op under development in the city’s Uptown neighborhood, is holding a live walking tour of its historic building adjacent to the Wilson Red Line stop on Saturday, May 8 from noon to 12:30 p.m. This 30-minute meet-up will give you a sneak peek of the local, sustainable, community-connected grocery store that YOU can help build. Chicago Market Board members will also be on hand to answer any questions about becoming an Owner of the Co-op.
Growing Home is a nonprofit that grows more than 17 tons of organic produce each year on a little more than one acre of land while providing job training, farm skills and job placement for ex-offenders and others with employability issues. On Friday, May 7 from 10 a.m. to noon, the organization will hold an online ribbon cutting ceremony for Honore Street South, the third farm in its West Englewood campus on Chicago’s South Side. This farm site actually opened in April 2020, but the ribbon cutting ceremony was postponed due to the pandemic. All of the USDA-certified organic produce grown on this farm site was distributed in and around Greater Englewood in 2020 and will continue to be going forward.
The Illinois Food Scrap Coalition is marking International Compost Awareness Week with a free virtual Lunch and Learn series. The programs will begin at noon central every day next week from Monday through Friday (May 3-7). Each day will have a different subject: Grow (Monday), Eat (Tuesday), Compost (Wednesday), Repeat (Thursday) and Ask the Experts (Friday). Click the button below to register.
The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park is taking its annual Butterfly Ball virtual this year… and it’s free! The event supports all the educational outreach initiatives of the Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and, according to the museum, provides “a chance to get up close with our animals, collections, and scientists in a more intimate way than we have ever been able to at the Butterfly Ball.” The event runs from 6:00-7:00 p.m. on Friday, May 7.
Take a Quiz
There is one food product referenced in the song Somewhere Over The Rainbow, enshrined by Judy Garland in the 1939 move The Wizard of Oz. What was it?
a) lemon drops
b) lemonade
c) caramel corn
d) lollipops
Answer: a) Dorothy Gale, the melancholy Kansas teenager played by Garland, sang, “Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that’s where you’ll find me.”
I hope tomorrow finds many of you at a local farmer market.