The Chicago skies are gloomy this morning, so I thought I’d brighten it a bit with some fauna and flora photos from my stroll to North Pond in Lincoln Park the other day. This fellow is a male wood duck, whose glorious plumage makes him one of the more handsome waterfowl. Next sunny day I’ll be back because the place should soon be teeming with adorable floofy goslings. More photos of the great outdoors way below.
This Weekend’s Market Schedule
Adding 95th Street Farmers Market in Chicago
First, a farmers market update. The 95th Street Farmers Market, located in the Beverly Hills neighborhood in Chicago’s Far Southwest Side, opens its 2021 season this Sunday (May 2) from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The May 2 date had been listed as tentative so 95th Street was not included in the Market Monday rundown of this week’s markets.
We’ll use this as a prompt to repost the list of this weekend’s openings in Chicago metro. You can always count on Local Food Forum to tell you where to go.
Saturday, May 1
(click the market name for weblink and the address for map)
Downtown Evanston Farmers Market, 1800 Maple Ave., Evanston
7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Grayslake Farmers Market, 201 Center St., Grayslake
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Green City Market Lincoln Park, 1817 N. Clark St., Chicago
7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Kankakee Farmers Market, S. Schuyler Ave. & Merchant St., Kankakee
8 a.m. to noon
95th Street Farmers Market, 1835 W. 95th St., Chicago
8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Palatine Farmers Market, Smith and Wood Sts. (Train Station), Palatine
7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Park Forest Farmers Market, 152 Main St., Park Forest
7 a.m to noon
The Lincoln Park Farmers Market, 2001 N. Orchard St., Chicago
7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Woodstock Farmers Market, Historic Woodstock Square, Woodstock
8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
I am planning to be at Green City Market at the crack of dawn Saturday, pop over a few blocks to The Lincoln Park Farmers Market to say hi, and then back to Green City to do my actual shopping. Since I’ve been mostly self-isolating for nearly 14 months, I decided to let my freak flag fly, and my hair is longer than it’s ever been. So if you see a kind of hippie-looking old guy running around with a camera, feel free to say hi… but make sure to check. Given what we’ve been through, there may be more than one old hippie-looking guy with a camera.
Thursday Throwback to Opening Day 2019
As we covered in the April 19 Local Food Forum, Green City Market’s 2020 opening day was seven weeks late and pretty subdued because of COVID. So let’s time travel all the way back to the old normal of May 4, 2019, when GCM was celebrating its 20th anniversary on a lovely spring day.
When you go to market this spring, safe shopping guidelines, including a mask requirement (yes, even for us fully vaxxed folks), are still in effect. But the weather forecast (fingers crossed) is beautiful, with sunshine and a high of 77 degrees, though you may need a jacket if you’re an early riser. And maybe the zeitgeist will be a little more hopeful than last year.
Photos from the 2019 kickoff:
Indoor, Growing
The April 21 Local Food Forum featured a story about Jill Tessler, a neighbor and friend who, with the love of the copious sunshine on the south side of our high-rise, has succeeded in growing a variety of vegetables, herbs and fruit in her apartment. Today we are happy to post photos from Laura Pichon, another indoor farmer who has generously shared her basil, sage and thyme with us.
Laura is very special to us because she was the very first paid subscriber to Local Food Forum. So be like Laura. I mean with the indoor farming. OK, also the paid subscription thing.