You Share, I Share, Everybody Wins
Send us your farm dinner/tour info; also the weekend market guide
In This Issue
• Help Us Share Your Farm Dinners and Events
• Your Weekend Farmer’s Market Guide
• Reminder: USDA Comment Period is Your Chance to Support Local Food
Help Us Share Your Farm Dinners and Events
Farmer friends (and friends of farmers)… Now that the COVID clouds are lifting, I’m sure the return of farm dinners and other events is not far behind. While some will pop up in my social media feeds, the best way to ensure that we share your events with our audience is to let us know directly.
Please email bob@localfoodforum.com to let us know when your dinner/event schedule has been posted… or even to just let us know that it’s in the works so we’re on the lookout for it.
Farm dinners and visits are special to our local food community and we want to help you get the word out.
Your Weekend Chicago Metro Market Guide
Local Food Forum wishes Oak Park Farmers Market a great opening day on Saturday!
Because of the volume of information, we limit the farmers market listings on Local Food Forum to those in the Chicago metro area. Links to locators in the rest of the Lake Michigan states are below.
Saturday, May 22
Weather.com Forecast: Partly cloudy, high 81
Accuweather Forecast: Partly sunny, high 82
Division Street City Market, 100 W. Division St., Chicago
7 a.m. to noon
Downers Grove Farmers Market, 5001 Main St., Downers Grove
7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
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.
Homewood Farmers Market, 18020 Martin Ave., Homewood
8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Kankakee Farmers Market, S. Schuyler Ave. & Merchant St., Kankakee
8 a.m. to noon
Oak Park Farmers Market, 460 Lake St., Oak Park
7 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
61st Street Farmers Market, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave., Chicago
9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
South Chicago Farmers Market, 9000 S. Mackinaw St., Chicago
9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Lincoln Park Farmers Market, 2001 N. Orchard St., Chicago
7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Woodstock Farmers Market, Historic Woodstock Square, Woodstock
8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Sunday, May 23
Weather.com Forecast: Mostly cloudy skies early, showers later, high 82
Accuweather Forecast: Clouds and sun, an afternoon thunderstorm, high 82
Logan Square Farmers Market, 3107 W. Logan Blvd., Chicago
9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
95th Street Farmers Market, 1835 W. 95th St., Chicago
8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Vegan Paradise, 1400 W. 46th St., Chicago
11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Wicker Park Farmers Market, 1425 N. Damen Ave.,Chicago
8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Click links below to find other regional markets at:
Illinois Farmers Market Association
Michigan Farmers Market Association
Wisconsin Farmers Market Association
Reminder: USDA Comment Period is Your Chance to Support Local Food
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on February 24 issued Executive Order 14017, titled America’s Supply Chains. The order, prompted by the bottlenecks and breakdowns that occurred in the nation’s food supply in the early weeks of the COVID crisis last year, drew little attention. But it could ultimately have a dramatic impact in boosting local food… as long as enough local food advocates utilize the USDA’s public comment period that runs through June 21.
According to the Federal Register posting by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service:
USDA will use public comments received through this notice to inform our thinking regarding how available authorities and funding related to food supply chain resilience can help to increase durability and resilience within the U.S. food supply. We are particularly interested in comments addressing local and regional food systems, creating new market opportunities (including for value-added agriculture and value-added products), facilitating fair and competitive markets (including traceability and supply chain transparency), advancing efforts to transform the food system, meeting the needs of the agricultural workforce, supporting and promoting consumers' nutrition security, particularly for low-income populations, and supporting the needs of socially disadvantaged and small to mid-sized producers and processors.
There is no guarantee of a generational shift toward a food system that is more local, sustainable, transparent, fair to workers, accessible to all and supporting the needs of small-to-mid-sized and socially disadvantaged producers and processors. But these are changes for which many of you have sought for years, and the fact that this executive order has placed them on the table is breathtaking.
We will be commenting and recommend that you do too. Click the button below to go to Regulations.gov, enter Executive Order 14017 in the search box, and then hit Comment.
Note: Nonprofit Jobs and Events is taking the week off so we can plan to expand our reach. If you work for a nonprofit and have an event (or events) you would like to see listed, please share at bob@localfoodforum.com.
Take a Quiz
The U.S. Department of Agriculture popularized which phrase to promote the nation’s farmers market?
a) Eat the Rainbow
b) Buy Fresh, Buy Local
c) Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food
d) An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away
Answer: c) USDA in 2009 launched its Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Initiative to coordinate the work of USDA’s 17 agencies and many staff offices that invest in local and regional food systems