This Farm Is As Urban As It Gets
Enjoy a photo essay on Urban Growers Collective's "Art Farm" in Grant Park
In This Issue
• Farmers Market Week Day 6 Schedule
• Note to Readers: Weekly Market Schedule Now Goes Out on Friday
• Urban Growers Collective: Farming Doesn’t Get More Urban Than This
Farmers Market Week Day 6 Lineup
Friday, August 6
Lake Bluff Farmers Market, Village Green, Lake Bluff, 7 a.m. to noon
Lake Zurich Farmers Market, 200 S. Rand Rd., Lake Zurich, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Mundelein Farmers Market, 10 W. Park St., Mundelein, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Schaumberg Farmers Market, 190 S. Roselle Rd., Schaumberg, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
St. Charles Farmers Market, 307 Cedar Ave., St. Charles, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Note to Readers
We are making another (and hopefully last) adjustment to how we publish the weekly farmers market schedules.
Because most of the markets are on Saturdays and Sundays, we will begin sending out the full week market schedule on Friday afternoons (beginning today). This way, the weekend markets will be at the top of the schedule instead of at the end of a very long list.
We’re happy to make whatever pivots are needed to better serve our audience.
Farming Doesn’t Get More Urban Than This
Local Food Forum on July 8 published an article about Urban Growers Collective, its South Chicago Farm (the largest of the eight the nonprofit runs), and the amazing mission-driven work the organization does in promoting urban agriculture, new farmer incubation, community gardening, job training, food access, food as a tool for economic development, and more.
On Thursday, we visited Urban Growers Collective’s farm in Chicago’s downtown Grant Park, where the beauty of the plants is displayed against the backdrop of the city’s skyline. The crops are artfully displayed purposefully: The project is called “Art on the Farm,” with the plantings in spirals around the perimeter of a big lawn.
Here is how the farm is described on Urban Growers Collective’s website:
Established in 2005, Grant Park “Art on the Farm” is located on the northwest corner of Congress Parkway and Columbus Boulevard, kitty-corner to Buckingham Fountain. Right in downtown Chicago, this half-acre farm is a partnership with the Chicago Park District.
This “landscaped” farm is used to teach folks how to grow an abundance of crops in a beautiful way and to explore the intersections of art, creativity, food, and farming. Here, we grow vegetables, culinary herbs, and edible flowers. These crops are planted in a way that demonstrates gardens can be both productive and pretty.
Our Youth Corps ambassadors are trained at this site to grow food and to give free tours to the thousands of people who walk past this site annually.
Youth Corps is Urban Growers Collective’s on-farm after-school and summer jobs programs for secondary school students. They have two more tours scheduled this summer, coming up next Wednesday and Thursday (August 11 and 12) at noon.
Click the button below to reserve a space. As noted, you can go a block over to Buckingham Fountain, or just a few blocks north to the Art Institute of Chicago.
Enjoy the photos. (All photos copyright Bob Benenson.)
