I was lucky enough to join the Chicago Spring Fling 2009 here in Chicago for a tour of Rick Bayless’s Urban Farm where over $20,000 of produce is produced for his two restaurants, Frontera Grill and Topolobampo.

Related articles:

1. Live From the Farm: Weeds
2. Live from the Farm: Cilantro
3. Live from the Farm: Radish

Pike Place, Seattle, WA

It was a great trip to Seattle.  Lots of great food and perfect weather.  I was disappointed by the farmers markets we visited, although I’m hoping it had more to do with the timing (May) than the types of fruits and vegetables that are normally available.

Related articles:

1. Farmer Jay in Seattle

Pike's Place Market, Seattle, WA

Happy Memorial Day!  I’m leaving the farm behind for the weekend and taking a trip to Seattle.  When the summer gets hot, I’ll talk about how to water while you’re on vacation but we’re not up to 90 degree days yet.

I’ll return from the weekend with highlights from the Seattle farmers markets and vegetables we don’t often see here in the Midwest.

Enjoy.

Related articles:

1. Seattle
2. Happy Friday on the Farm
3. Monitoring the Weather

Michael Pollan and Bill Kurtis

The event was held in the auditorium along with three overfilled overflow rooms — I was lucky enough to get into the main room (although in the last row).  My apologies on the quality of the picture.  While I brought my real camera, I thought I might get kicked out for taking too high quality of a picture.  The camera phone will have to suffice.

Michael and Bill covered all of the hot topics in food and organics including HCFS, local food, school lunches, and Whole Foods.  Michael gave a shout out to local urban farming great Will Allen of Growing Power, last years MacArther winner, for growing food in a sustainable greenhouse in the cold.  Here is a quick link to the super hot compost that heats the greenhouse.

Michael also gave the audience a chuckle with his comment, “Salads are overrated.”  Working off of his Will Allen comment, a number of audience members wanted to know how do we eat local in the winter. Michael raises a good point.  We’re so trained to get whatever kind of vegetable whenever we want it, we assume we should be eating salads in January.  As much as Will can get lettuces and spinach growing in March, we should be eating winter, storage vegetables like potatoes and squash.

Finally, Michael talked about school lunches after a great question from a Chicago Public School teacher.  How are Chicago Public Schools suppose to teach kids about food and how are they suppose to afford organics.  While giving many examples, it is important to note that the School Lunch Reauthorization is this year.  Slow Food USA will be starting a campaign to bring better meals to schools.

Michael also plugged David Kessler’s new book The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite.

I took all of the vegetables that I plant and laid them out on gardeners.com’s tool.  Take a look at the results.

Image from gardeners.com

They specifically target the Square Foot Gardening principles (and easily cross sell their products), but it is worth a look.

I am in the process of drawing (by hand, on paper, the good ole’ fashion way) my gardening diagram so that you can see what I am growing.  I should have that ready in the next few days.

Enjoy.

Link to the tool.

There was considerable good produce (much grown in greenhouses or under cold frames this time of year) to choose from including tons of plants.  Looking at my growing pictures from the past few weeks, you definitely don’t get the appreciation of the amount of work it takes to get to the point that you can buy the plant in a pot.   Many of the plants at today’s market looked great.

I was shopping for food, though.  First stop, Nichols Farm.  They had an early bag of basil that looked great.  I’ll likely through it in a pasta dish this weekend.

Next up, beautiful looking radishes.  I’m growing big round varieties, so it is a treat to try something different.  Don’t forget, the leaves are also edible.  Chop them up and toss them in a salad for an interesting kick.

Flamin’ Fury Peaches (which grows a fine peach) was selling asparagus at the market today — 2 bunches for $5.  Asparagus is really hard to grow, so I have no problem buying.

Finally, there is nothing better than market eggs.  Go buy grocery store eggs and crack one of these side by side.  No comparison.  Bright, bright yellow yolks and a much better taste.  I always get my eggs from TJ’s (which also sells them at the GCM during the winter).

As I was wondering around the market today, I kept smelling burgers.  And they were good smelling burgers.  Sunday Dinner was cooking up burgers, brats, and breakfast sandwiches.  A bit early for a burger, I opted for the breakfast sandwich with eggs, cheese, and saugage from Twin Oaks Meats.  It was so good, I wasn’t able to take a picture.

It’s good to be back outside.  Summer is almost here.

Related articles:

1. Green City Market, April 18, 2009
2. Holidays and Seasonal Foods

• Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame will be at the Green City Market at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (2430 N. Cannon Dr.) on April 25th from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., signing her book, The Edible Schoolyard. [amazon-product]0811862801[/amazon-product]

• Save the Date – Michael Pollan writer of Omnivore’s Dilemma will be at the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, Harold Washington Library Center on Monday. May 18 at 6:00 p.m.
  [amazon-product]1594200823[/amazon-product]

Related articles:

1. Friday Weeds – April 17, 2009
2. Friday Weeds – April 10, 2009
3. An Evening with Michael Pollan

The first celebration of Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, was a raucously exuberant affair. In New York, Fifth Avenue was closed to traffic. People picnicked on the sidewalk; dead fish were dragged through midtown; and Governor Nelson Rockefeller rode a bicycle across Prospect Park. Students in Richmond, Virginia, handed out bags of dirt (to represent the “good earth”); demonstrators in Washington poured oil onto the sidewalk in front of the Interior Department (to protest recent oil spills); and in Bloomington, Indiana, women dressed as witches threw birth-control pills into the crowd (no one was quite sure why). All told, some twenty million Americans took part—far more than the man who thought up the occasion, Senator Gaylord Nelson, Democrat of Wisconsin, had expected. “That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day,” Nelson later said. “It organized itself.”

What we celebrate isn’t the Earth Day as it was envisioned — it is more like a Hallmark version.  NBC changes its peacock to green, all this week we should do something good for the environment, but come this Sunday, we’re back to “normal.”

The one thing that you can do that will last all summer is plant a vegetable.  Forget all of the fancy things I talk about on the website.  Go to Home Depot or Lowes, buy some spinach seeds and throw them in backyard in a square foot spot.  Don’t worry about raised beds, fertilizers, or proper spacing.  By June 1st, you’ll be able to make a spinach salad.

Hopefully that will encourage you to plant a full garden by next Earth Day.

If you follow @GreenCityMarket on Twitter, you were notified that Cannon Drive was closed this morning for the Wrigley “Start Early Run” Race.  Walking through Lincoln Park, I was caught up in the action.

Caught at the Wrigley "Start Early Run" Race on the way to the market.

Sometimes you have to stop and smell the flowers.  In my case, I stopped to photograph ducks in the North Pond of Lincoln Park.  I walked all the way up to the edge the pond — about 2 feet from the ducks — and they just sat their while I took a picture.

Ducks of the North Pond, April 2009

Sorry about the side track, back to the market.  Luckily for us, Growing Power is able to start their vegetables in a greenhouse or cold frame (I should have asked) so they have a variety of greens ready to eat today.  I picked up both the arugula and salad greens.

Salad Greens and Arugula from Growing Power at the Green City Market

It’s rare to get scallions this early and they really smelled good (and strong — my entire bag smelled like scallions.  I also picked up mint and sorrel leaves from Nichols Farm, both of which looked great.

Mint Leaves from the Green City Market

Sorrel Leaves from the Green City Market

Scallions from the Green City Market

And finally to round out my Green City Market trip, I picked up Green Offerings bunch of tulips.  They’re very closed now (I purposely picked them like that) so hopefully I can watch them slowly open all week.

Tulips from Garden Offerings at the Green City Market

And since I was one of the first 200 to show up, I received a basil pot!  This one will go on my kitchen counter in a small pot.  Thanks Green City Market!

Basil Pot, a gift from the Green City Market

It’s far too nice to be inside today.  I’m back outside to enjoy the weather before it starts raining tomorrow.  Have a good day!

Related articles:

1. Friday Weeds – April 10, 2009
2. Friday Weeds – April 17, 2009
3. Friday Weeds – April 24, 2009

Green City Market
Saturday from 8:00 am – 1:00 pm
The last of the Green City Indoor Markets (we’re moving back outside!). The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, 2430 N. Cannon, will host The Market inside the Museum from 8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

I will be getting my eggs there as well as whatever else looks good.

North Shore Distillery
Introduces Mole Poblano
Our new limited release spirit is coming out this week.

Taking inspiration from traditional Mexican mole sauces, and specifically Mole Poblano, we infused and distilled seven types of chili peppers, cacao beans and a wide range of herbs and spices into this wonderful, complex spirit. The color and flavor of Mole Poblano comes solely from the peppers, chocolate and spices.

I own their traditional gin and it tastes (and smells) homemade.

Slow Food Chicago Event
Morel Hunt
Saturday May 2nd 9:00 AM
Join Leon Shernoff hunt for morels.  Leon is a mycologist and the editor of  ‘Mushroom The Journal of Wild Mushrooming’, the only North American consumer magazine for people who hunt morels, porcini, and other interesting fungi.

Related articles:

1. Friday Weeds – April 24, 2009
2. Friday Weeds – April 10, 2009
3. Green City Market, April 18, 2009