Rolling Out the 2025 Chicago Region Outdoor Market Schedule
Find It Through November on the Local Food Forum Website Homepage
The full-scale Chicago region outdoor farmers market season is so close you could almost... taste it.
That's why Local Food Forum is launching our Chicago outdoor farmers schedule. The schedule is permanently pinned to the website home page (though we will publish a reminder at the beginning of each week for subscribers in the Substack newsletter).
I hope you find the schedule useful and access it often. And it is SO important to support our local farmers, so please share the schedule and urge people you know to join the happy crowds at the farmer market(s) of their choice.
Shoppers are Farmers Market-Ready Despite Roller-Coaster April Weather
Warmer Weather Looms as May — and Multiple Market Openings — Near
"April is the cruelest month," wrote T.S. Eliot in his poem The Waste Land. That sentiment may ring true for Chicagoans hoping for a nice, steady temperature rise toward the outdoors season.
So far this spring has mainly alternated between above-average, near summerlike warmth and below average chill. And Chicago is living up to the old joke, if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes: The temperature was near 80 on Friday, and in the 40s for Chicago's Green City Market’s Saturday morning opening.
Nonetheless, fingers crossed on the reliability of the advance weather forecast. It shows temps in the 50s and 60s into the beginning of May, and if that’s so, asparagus can’t be far behind.
This Local Food Forum article cuts through the chilly mist and looks on the bright side of life.
Open Letter Calls on Administration to Cease Attacks on Non-Profits
Organizations Urged to Sign Onto This Important Campaign
I received a note from Colleen Connell, executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, requesting that Local Food Forum publish an open letter calling for the Trump administration to cease its ongoing attacks against non-profit organizations that are performing valuable work for American people across a range of topics and issues — including efforts to build a better, healthier, more sustainable and more humane food system.
I agreed readily and you will find the text of the open letter in this Local Food Forum article with a link to add your organizations to the list of signatories.