Local Food Forum Staff Must Wash Their Hands
I hope your holiday weekend is as chill as this guy.
Gone to the Dogs
I’m trying to visit at least one or two markets each week that I haven’t been to yet this year. That put Green City Market’s satellite location in West Loop at the top of my Saturday list.
Now most farmers markets these days welcome shoppers to bring their well-behaved dogs with them. But if you really love pooches, then the West Loop market is the one for you. That’s because the market shares space in Mary Bartelme Park with its very own dog park. Our cat Hobbes (seen in the photo at the top) wouldn’t approve, but it’s an extra bit of fun watching these rascals romp around.
And of course there are plenty of pups waiting patiently in lines with their humans. Who’s a good dog!
There are a couple other cool features of Mary Bartelme Park, located at 115 S. Sangamon St. One is the metal sculpture that functions as a fountain when the plaza isn’t crowded with shoppers and venders.
The other is a small rise in the middle of the park. Over the past few years at Green City Market West Loop, Jacobson Family Farms’ stand has been king of this hill.
It’s Not for Lack of Bread
My second stop was Publican Quality Meats (PQM), located at 825 W. Fulton Market St., part of the One Off Hospitality Group and directly across Green St. from its parent restaurant, The Publican (housed in the red brick building in the photo).
With the rise of the better bread movement, there are excellent bakeries represented at most farmers markets these days. But I’ll seldom turn miss an opportunity to buy a loaf of amazing Publican Quality Bread, run by James Beard Award winner Greg Wade, and it was certainly worth the easy half-mile walk from the Green City West Loop market.
I used to be a fairly regular PQM customer pre-pandemic when I worked a mile walk away in River North. But first came the COVID interruption, then I started working at home in Lakeview all the time, and the shop was a little out of my way.
The worst thing about that is I got to see less of Rob Levitt, PQM’s master butcher and head chef. Prior to Rob’s move to PQM four years ago, I got to know him well (and learned a lot about meat cuts) first at his stand-alone The Butcher & Larder shop and then when he moved the store into the Local Foods grocery (which unfortunately ceased operations recently).
So lucky me, Rob was working the meat counter at PQM when I stopped by on Saturday. It was busy so we just chatted briefly, and I couldn’t resist buying some kielbasa for a holiday weekend dinner along with my loaf of seeded rye.
If you want a more immersive bread experience, make sure to visit Publican Quality Bread’s stand-alone bakery at 1759 W. Grand Ave. in the West Town neighborhood.
Take the 8 Bus
Then I hopped the northbound bus to pay a return visit to The Lincoln Park Farmers Market, located a block east of Halsted on Armitage. I got to spend time with market manager and good friend Elsa Jacobson, who expressed pride at the steady stream of shoppers at this neighborhood-style market and noted that some major produce vendors will be joining the market’s lineup next week.
It has been an unusual spring, with below-average temperature breaks and increasing concerns about the lack of rainfall. Yet many of the crops that are in market are not only beautiful but kind of supersized, as the radishes pictured above at the Los Rodriguez Farm stand bear out.
Taking the Long Way Home
I hadn’t really planned a swing through Green City Market’s flagship location in Lincoln Park. But the weekend bus schedules are a bit unpredictable, and I decided it was just as easy as anything else to walk the three-quarter mile and catch the bus that goes straight home. And I can report that the market, as has been the case all season, was filled with a happy mass of humanity.
Given that I made four stops on the way, my markets haul was pretty modest. Clockwise from upper left, chicken parts and hot dogs purchased from Finn’s Ranch (Buchanan, Michigan) at Green City West Loop; from Green City Lincoln Park, bratwurst from Jake’s Country Meats (Cassopolis, Michigan) and plain yogurt from Rocky Road Dairy (Mulberry Grove, Illinois) sold at the Mint Creek Farm stand; that seeded rye and kielbasa from Publican Quality Meats; and rhubarb from Los Rodriguez Farm (Eau Claire, Michigan) purchased at The Lincoln Park Farmers Market.
Want to create your own market adventure? Local Food Forum’s ever-growing schedule of this week’s farmers markets will be published in tomorrow’s newsletter.