Why Buy Local? Nutritious and Delicious
Plus, link to this month's Buy Fresh Buy Local Illinois article (can you guess the topic?)
Nutritious and Delicious
It’s Day 3 of National Farmers Market Week, and today we share the graphic from Illinois Farmers Market Association (ILFMA) that highlights health benefits of buying food from local farmers.
As discussed earlier, the full flavors you get when you bite into food from farmers markets as a lot to do with the fact that the items were picked just a day or two earlier at their peak ripeness. That is also a major reason why locally produced foods generally have higher nutrient density than food that has traveled many miles and is often days and even weeks out of the fields before it gets to your plate.
Plus, the enhanced taste of locally produced food — and even the physical beauty of the rainbow of colors you see at the farmers market — may prompt you to eat a more balanced diet that includes plenty of veggies and fruit.
Delicious and nutritious? That sounds like a win-win.
Three Illinois Markets, Different Styles, Same Goals
You probably won’t be shocked to learn that the article I produced this month for the Buy Fresh Buy Local Illinois Directory is about… wait for it… farmers markets!
Every week is a farmers market week for us local food advocates. But this week is special because it is National Farmers Market Week, celebrated by more than 300 markets in Illinois and more than 8,000 nationwide.
To celebrate the occasion, the Buy Fresh Buy Local Illinois article is focused on three widely dispersed markets that have very different customer bases and styles, but the same goals: to support local farmers, build local economies, and build a better food system based on the freshest, most nutritious, most delicious and most sustainably produced local food.
You'll meet Mercado de Colores, which serves Chicago's under-resourced, mostly Latinx Little Village neighborhood; Macomb Farmers Market, located in a mid-sized west-central Illinois city that is a college town, a county seat, and a regional center for industry; and the brand-new Marshall Farmers Market in a small southeast Illinois city that combines 2022 food values with lots of nostalgic charm.
You'll also get to read all of ILFMA’s seven best reasons for supporting farmers markets, and a link to the Buy Fresh Buy Local Directory where you can find nearby markets wherever you are in Illinois.
A Glimpse at Oak Park’s Historic Market
My schedule has a little mid-summer flexibility, so I’m seizing the opportunity to visit a few markets that aren’t on my usual rounds. On Saturday, this journey took me to Oak Park, the populous suburb on Chicago’s western border best known as home to creative geniuses such as Ernest Hemingway and Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Oak Park Farmers Market was founded in 1976, making it one of the region’s oldest continuously operating markets. It is open Saturdays through October 29 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and is located in the parking lot of Pilgrim Congregational Church (seen in the background of the photo immediately below) at 460 Lake Street.
Geneva Lakes Produce (Burlington, Wisconsin and Kankakee, Illinois) had a wide range of vegetables for sale.
Chanticlare Farm (Winfield, Illinois) had a variety of types of garlic.
My Oak Park market haul included onions, green beans and zucchini from Geneva Lakes; chicken leg quarters from Finn’s Ranch (Buchanan, Michigan); sweet cherries from Ellis Family Farms (Benton Harbor, Michigan); tomatoes from The Farm (Westmont and Westchester, Illinois); and rainbow carrots and lots of lettuce from Vangies Farm (Richfield, Wisconsin).