Happy Tuesday, Local Food Forum Friends. It is a busy morning and I need to get the word out that Lincoln Square Farmers Market is open today until 1 p.m., so I’m putting out the following question and hope a bunch of you will answer. This could provide the basis for an upcoming story.
The question: Why do you buy local food?
People engage with local food for so many different reasons. It’s delicious and fresh. It’s healthy. It’s sustainably produced and avoids environmental degradation. Its livestock farmers follow humane and responsible practices. It is aimed to treat farmers, workers and consumers fairly.
Please share your main reason(s) for buying local food.
Early on in my weekend career as a farmers market salesguy, we showed up to work the Thanksgiving market at the Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Evanston and it had been so cold that season that the boss only had bagged carrots to sell, and didn't need both me and my son to work. The boy got the nod, and for the first time in years I was free to wander the market and see what everyone was selling. I brought home several items, like sunchokes and some bitter greens, that I had little to no experience in using.
Everything becomes an echo chamber if you're not careful, and I tend to cook with the same somewhat large handful of ingredients, and only read about what to do with them, and wonder why everything tastes the same.
Talking to farmers and the cooks that shop at the market, and the citizen-shoppers who are also remarkable cooks has changed my cooking life.
As to the local part of the question, I'm in it for the practical reasons. Fresher, more nutritious, longer-lasting. And I soak up the passion of some of the growers. There is nothing like being able to speak directly to the people who grow your food, and to learn about their methods and their devotion to growing things the right way for themselves, their customers, and the planet itself.
I want to support local farmers/producers who work way too hard and get up way too early and travel way too far (in some cases) to get to the Meridian Farmers Market for my benefit here in the East Lansing, Michigan area.
One of our biggest reasons for buying local food is to support nearby farms or food producers and the jobs they create. For instance, we've been buying Phoenix (Jenny's) Tofu for many years, often at farmers' markets but also at the production site on North Broadway in Edgewater. The owner Jenny Yang recently expanded to a former auto garage down the street, and now operates from three buildings on the 5400 block of Broadway. She told us that when she launched the expansion she checked with her employees and they said they wanted her to stay in Edgewater so that the workplace would remain close to their homes.
This past year at the Logan Square winter market we enjoyed the output of several other local businesses: Star Farm Chicago, an urban farm in the Back of the Yards neighborhood; Sfera, which makes wonderful Sicilian-style arancini near Addison and Kedzie; and Fons vegan empanadas, which just opened a retail outlet at 2566 N. Clark St. And of course River Valley Ranch's terrific and very fresh mushrooms.
So, local economic development. And of course good tasty food.
I want to live in a vibrant community with lots of interesting local businesses, including farmers growing local food, owned and operated by people who live in the community and care about it's future.
Discovery, Bob.
Early on in my weekend career as a farmers market salesguy, we showed up to work the Thanksgiving market at the Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Evanston and it had been so cold that season that the boss only had bagged carrots to sell, and didn't need both me and my son to work. The boy got the nod, and for the first time in years I was free to wander the market and see what everyone was selling. I brought home several items, like sunchokes and some bitter greens, that I had little to no experience in using.
Everything becomes an echo chamber if you're not careful, and I tend to cook with the same somewhat large handful of ingredients, and only read about what to do with them, and wonder why everything tastes the same.
Talking to farmers and the cooks that shop at the market, and the citizen-shoppers who are also remarkable cooks has changed my cooking life.
As to the local part of the question, I'm in it for the practical reasons. Fresher, more nutritious, longer-lasting. And I soak up the passion of some of the growers. There is nothing like being able to speak directly to the people who grow your food, and to learn about their methods and their devotion to growing things the right way for themselves, their customers, and the planet itself.
I want to support local farmers/producers who work way too hard and get up way too early and travel way too far (in some cases) to get to the Meridian Farmers Market for my benefit here in the East Lansing, Michigan area.
One of our biggest reasons for buying local food is to support nearby farms or food producers and the jobs they create. For instance, we've been buying Phoenix (Jenny's) Tofu for many years, often at farmers' markets but also at the production site on North Broadway in Edgewater. The owner Jenny Yang recently expanded to a former auto garage down the street, and now operates from three buildings on the 5400 block of Broadway. She told us that when she launched the expansion she checked with her employees and they said they wanted her to stay in Edgewater so that the workplace would remain close to their homes.
This past year at the Logan Square winter market we enjoyed the output of several other local businesses: Star Farm Chicago, an urban farm in the Back of the Yards neighborhood; Sfera, which makes wonderful Sicilian-style arancini near Addison and Kedzie; and Fons vegan empanadas, which just opened a retail outlet at 2566 N. Clark St. And of course River Valley Ranch's terrific and very fresh mushrooms.
So, local economic development. And of course good tasty food.
Local food is more nutritious and tastes BETTER!
I want to live in a vibrant community with lots of interesting local businesses, including farmers growing local food, owned and operated by people who live in the community and care about it's future.