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Chillin' Out at Green City's Chicago Region Outdoor Market Kickoff
- Bob Benenson
- Apr 5
- 4 min read
Welcome Back, From Indiana Ramps to Delicious Baked Donuts
It would be silly to do a publication called Local Food Forum if I wasn't a farmers market fanatic. The late winter-caliber chill and the big coat and the puddles from overnight rain couldn't keep me away from the kickoff of the Chicago region outdoor market season opener today (April 5) at Green City Market in the city's Lincoln Park — and all the woes of a challenging work week melted away.
Let's start with the first big seasonal produce news: Ramps are here.
Ramps are the wild-grown allium plants that each year are the first locally harvested outdoor crop to show in the markets. Last year they came in early (by about mid-March) and were in profusion by Green City's first-Saturday-in-April opening. This year they're coming in slower, and these beauties at the stand of Kajers Greens (North Judson, Indiana) were the only ones I saw in my market walkabout.
This is a rare example of my second career as a local food writer and advocate colliding with my first career as a political journalist.
U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (on the right in the photo) came to Congress in 2009, and I wrote about him during my last couple of years in D.C. He has been our U.S. House representative since we moved to Chicago in 2011, and this is one of several times that I've run into him at Green City Market.
He was getting a tour from Taylor Choy (center), chief operating officer at Green City Market, and stopped to pick up some beautiful produce from Kyle Jacobson (left) of Jacobson Family Farms (Antioch, Illinois). Good to see you, congressman, and keep fighting the good fights.
Mick Klug Farm (St. Joseph, Michigan) is a pillar of the Green City Market community and is one of the first farms with which I connected when I started my Chicago farmers market shopping 13 years ago.
Before Green City moved up its outdoor season start to early April, the arrival of Mick Klug Farm's asparagus in early May was the surest sign that spring was full on. I think this year I will finally make a montage of all of my first-of-the-season asparagus photos taking at the Klug stand.
Abby Klug Schilling (on right in the photo) is the daughter of the eponymous Mick Klug and is now a co-owner of the farm. She also is a fellow Michigan State University grad and we chatted about the Spartans' fantastic run to just short of the Final Four. Go Green!
I don't write too often about sweets, but I'm really excited about Daly's Donuts' debut at Green City Market. I met founder Conor Daly (left in photo) and his then-fiancee (now wife) Alejandra in 2022, their first year of operation, when they made a late-season start at the nearby Lincoln Park Farmers Market.
Oh, how they grown! Along with Green City and The Lincoln Park Farmers Market, they serve at several other markets, and are soon to open a donut and coffee shop in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
The secret to their fast rise is that their donuts, made from a recipe that Alejandra spent years perfecting, are baked and not fried, which makes them lighter (and delicious, of course). As the old potato chip ad used to say, I bet you can't eat just one.
All and all, a lovely season opener, even if we could have used another 10 or 20 degrees.
My market haul from left: whole chicken, ground beef and eggs from Finn's Ranch (Buchanan, Michigan); those Daly's Donuts; a loaf of black rye bread from Dorothy's Bakery (Chicago); lettuce from Nichols Farm & Orchard (Marengo, Illinois); cremini mushrooms from River Valley Ranch (Burlington, Wisconsin); Kajers Greens ramps; Mick Klug's Honeycrisp apples; and carrots from Frillman Farms (Berrien Springs, Michigan). I hit all four states in the Lake Michigan region!
Wait, there's more. I got a delivery order from my friend Tracey Vowell at Three Sisters Garden in Kankakee, Illinois. That's delicious sweet winter spinach on the left; radishes and their tasty, nutritious greens; and chives.
We definitely did not order this, but we'll keep it anyway.
REMINDER: Local Food Forum celebrated its 4th anniversary on April 1. To mark the occasion, we're conducting a joint subscription drive/fundraiser, with 20 percent of all proceeds going to Farmers Rising, the farmer education non-profit based in Caledonia, Illinois.
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