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Plus, our webinar signup and aspara-looza.
My Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Yeah, this is the life. It’s May, the outdoor farmers market season is off to the races (and it happens to be Kentucky Derby day), and the weather, which can be unpredictable in Chicago this time of year, was just gorgeous for my Saturday visits to The Lincoln Park Farmers Market and Green City Market, about three-quarters of a mile east in the actual Lincoln Park.
Don’t get me wrong, putting out an average of five issues of Local Food Forum a week would be a challenge if this was my only job, and I have another major time commitment as communications contractor for Naturally Chicago, the non-profit that acts as the trade association for the packaged goods/business side of the Natural Products industry.
But it would be pretty crazy for a dude my age to work this hard if I didn’t love what I do and if I wasn’t totally committed to it. And this second career of mine has introduced me to so many wonderful people, those everyday heroes who are working in myriad ways to build a better food system. I’ve made quite a few friends this way.
There are some bumpy days, but all in all, I think I’m living a pretty charmed life.
Here’s today’s market haul still life. I’ll have more photos of a fine morning out in Sunday’s issue.
From Lincoln Park Farmers Market, River Valley Ranch cremini mushrooms (Burlington, Wisconsin) purchased from The Urban Canopy (Chicago); a baked donut from Daly’s Donuts (Chicago); kimchi from The Pickled Prince (Chicago); dried apricots from Stover’s Farm (Berrien Springs, Michigan); spring mix (on the toaster) and my first hakurai turnips of the season from Jacobson Family Farms (Antioch, Illinois); two bottles of Jun Bug honey kombucha (Chicago); and asparagus from Los Rodriguez Farm (Eau Claire, Michigan). From Green City Market, lettuce from Flatwater Farms and eggs from Finn’s Ranch (both Buchanan, Michigan) and Immunichi (a healthful cabbage-based fermented product) from Bushel & Peck’s (Beloit, Wisconsin).
Our next webinar — a week from Monday (May 13) at 7 p.m. central — is on topics of major importance to the future of a better food system: food education and improving the quality of food served to children in our nation’s schools.
Co-host Chef Sarah Stegner of Prairie Grass Cafe fame and I will discuss these topics with executive directors of leading Chicago non-profits in the food education space — Alexandra DeSorbo-Quinn of Pilot Light and Sebastian White of The Evolved Network — and Spence Medford and Christy Sherding of The Henry Ford outside Detroit, which is asserting a national leadership role on getting more locally produced, farm-fresh food into schools.
Click the button below to read all the details and to register, and scroll down below the following aspara-palooza to meet our guest experts.
Hail, Hail, The (Asparagus) Spears Are Here
OK, we’re about two weeks into this glorious part of the year when incredibly fresh and delicious asparagus flows into our Chicago-area markets, mostly from our friends across the big lake in Michigan. I’m digging into it (and digging it).
So thanks to our friends at University of Illinois Extension and UI Health for their informative video filled with tips on how to buy and prepare asparagus, and keep it fresh in the fridge for a few days. Thanks to Bianca Bautista of UI Extension Cook County, whose contributions — part of Extension’s Eat.Move.Save program — brighten up Local Food Forum every week.
Click below to watch the video.
Maybe the Easiest Delicious Thing to Make
Since we’re on about asparagus, I am sharing what I believe is one of the easiest delicious dishes you can prepare: roasted asparagus.
There is so little work involved in prepping roasted asparagus. Take a bunch and wash it carefully, making sure to get rid of any grit. This requires no knife skills: simply hold each spear in both hands and apply gentle pressure until the woody bottom end snaps off.* *
Place the prepared spears in a pan and add a splash of olive oil to coat. Sprinkle lightly with salt (and pepper if you like), and place in a preheated 375 degree oven. The timing is the only trick here: If you want the spears just cooked through, go with 15 minutes. If you want a little brown on them, go 20. If you want them really brown and crispy (kind of like asparagus fries), go 25. In all cases, check for doneness.
Do you also love roasted asparagus, or do you have another favorite asparagus recipe you’d like share? Please use the comments feature.
** Pop quiz: What can you do with those snapped-off woody stems? You put them in the freezer with other food scraps and then use them to make vegetable broth. Or if you compost, toss them into the bucket. #fightfoodwaste
Meet Our Amazing School Food Webinar Guests
Here is the amazing guest lineup for our next webinar — Food Education and Its Impact: How Schools Inspire and Feed Our Youngest Eaters — which takes place a week from Monday (May 13) at 7 p.m. central. Please join us!
Alexandra DeSorbo-Quinn has been executive director of Pilot Light since 2014. Created four years earlier by a group of leading Chicago chefs, Pilot Light was working to integrate food education into the curriculum at just one Chicago public school at the time that Alex became head of the organization. In the decade since, she has led Pilot Light to enormous growth and influence. The organization now works directly in many schools across Chicago and in more than two dozen school districts across the nation, has published Food Education Standards that are available for all schools to employ, and created the SnackTime Explorers program, a series of adaptable mini-lessons designed to supplement educators across the U.S. who participate in the USDA’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable (FFVP) program.
Sebastian White is a clinical psychologist turned chef who was working to divert children from gangs in an underserved community when he started The Evolved Network in 2020. The Evolved Network is a Chicago non-profit that works with young people from under-resourced communities to provide education and support through farm-to-table experiences. Sebastian currently provides cooking lessons for students in several Chicago schools. He is also raising money to achieve his ultimate goal: to build out a restaurant and urban farm that will provide young participants with job, business and food growing skills while providing therapeutic assistance for those who need it.
Also joining the webinar panel are Spence Medford and Christy Sherding of The Henry Ford, located in Dearborn, Michigan just outside Detroit. The organization has four working farms on its properties and has been very engaged in farm to school programs in its local area. Spence and Christy are spearheading a major national outreach as The Henry Ford is planning to hold events in five cities in October to highlight National Farm to School Month. The event series is a pilot for an ongoing national presence for The Henry Ford's farm to school advocacy.
About the co-hosts:
Sarah Stegner, a two-time James Beard Foundation Award winner, is one of the strongest voices for positive food systems change in Chicago and the nation as a whole. Click on the link to learn more about Prairie Grass Cafe, which she has co-owned for 20 years.
And for those of you who may just be getting to know me, I launched Local Food Forum in April 2021, after I worked for several years at a food systems non-profit. The goal of Local Food Forum is to provide a uniquely focused media platform about and for everyday heroes working across the spectrum of local food ecosystems.
Sarah and I thank our webinar series supporters: Mariano's, Landmark Pest Management, Chicago Chefs Cook, and Community Food Navigator.
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