This Year's Weird Season Overlap
I'll be talking about it Sunday morning on the Mike Nowak Show with Peggy Malecki
Note to Readers
This is a bit unusual, but it appears that an issue of Local Food Forum that I published Saturday did not get sent out properly. My appearance on The Mike Nowak Show was Sunday (so obviously past), but I want to make sure anyone interested gets to see the articles about our weird overlapping growing seasons and the Taste of Eden Market that delivers food directly from farms to home.
I apologize if you have already seen this issue.
Bob
Talkin’ Season Overlap on The Mike Nowak Show
Just a reminder that I’ll be repping Local Food Forum on The Mike Nowak Show with Peggy Malecki tomorrow (Sunday 10/3) at 10 a.m. central. You can watch the livestream either at The Mike Nowak Show website or their YouTube page; you can also subscribe to the YouTube page by clicking in the upper right corner. They also stream live on Facebook and on Periscope (Twitter).
One of the topics we’ll be discussing is the weird overlap of seasons at our local farmers markets. The photo above puts it in a capsule: sweet corn, still going strong on October 2, next to winter squash and pumpkins with apples in the background at Nichols Farm and Orchard’s stand at Green City Market in Lincoln Park. Some of the photos below also speak to this unusual growing season. Big bins of tomatoes in October? Raspberries?
If you’re a local food fan you probably aren’t complaining about nature’s own season extension for some of our favorite summer crops. But since climate change is a suspect in all of this, it is a little creepy and scary. Is this year just a fluke or are the predictions that we’re becoming a more southernly growing zone coming true? Tune into The Mike Nowak Show where we’ll discuss.
All photos taken at Green City and © 2021 Bob Benenson.
Even with these above-average temperatures, all but a handful of our area’s farmers markets are scheduled to call it a year by the end of this month. But thanks to the rise of farm-to-consumer e-commerce — accelerated last year by COVID-related complications — there are more and more options for year-round access to locally farmed food.
Taste of Eden Market is one such option. It was launched by Michael J. Brankin in response to farmers market shutdowns caused by COVID. Michael and his team simply put an easy solution to a citywide problem, picking up from the farms directly and delivering to customers’ doors.
Their market is still going strong, hosting 20-30 local vendors and thousands of different products (depending on the season).
They deliver every Thursday to Chicago, north suburban Lake County, and some western suburbs. They pick up right from the farms and food crafters, so you are getting the freshest product possible — almost as if you went and picked it yourself. Michael likes to say that it is Amazon meets farmers market.
Michael also emphasizes that it is not a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. You only buy what you want from who you want.
A few of their farmer-partners are developing more hoophouses and greenhouses to extend their growing seasons so they can supply fresh foods all year round. In spring, they also offer hundreds of live plants so you can start your own veggie and herb gardens.
Feel free to check them out and peruse their store at www.TasteOfEdenMarket.com. And if you know a local farm that would like to offer their goods on the marketplace, just send a note to livingfood@tasteofedenmarket.com.
Editor’s Note: If you have a farm-to-home delivery service or have a farm that is doing its own home delivery, please let me know at bob@localfoodforum.com. I want to publish as comprehensive a list as possible after farmers market season wanes.
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