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The Lincoln Park Farmers Market Experience for a Good Food Kindred Spirit
It was never my intention for Local Food Forum to be so Chicago-centric as it has been since I launched in 2021. It turned out that way because I'm the sole employee, and because there was only so much content I could squeeze into the Substack newsletter format, even publishing almost every day.
While expanding the publication with more national content is a primary goal for my sparkly new and endlessly expandable website, to date I only have a handful of subscribers from outside the Chicago region. I was thusly pleased to learn last week that one of these subscribers — Ruth Katcher of my original hometown of New York City — was coming to town, and quickly offered to provide a farmers market tour.
Ruth and I met online on a food chat that author Mark Bittman was running at the time. We are kindred spirits in the local food world, as she has for many years run a community supported agriculture (CSA) program based in her community of Fort Greene in Brooklyn.
She was in Chicago because her husband's jazz band was celebrating its 30th anniversary at the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge in the Uptown neighborhood (he is a former Chicagoan who long had a regular gig at the Green Mill). I caught a set on Friday night and the band is very, very good.
I figured I would meet Ruth on Saturday morning at Green City Market in Lincoln Park, seeing as it's known as the city's premier farmers market and it has also been my local go-to since Barb and I moved to Chicago. This almost turned out to be a terrible misjudgment: The hugely popular Chicago Air and Water Show — which took place over the lakeside near Green City — started Saturday, and the immediate area was a traffic nightmare.
Fortunately, I reached Ruth in the nick of time to prevent her from getting caught in a mess from which it might have taken her an hour to extract herself. I also had an auspicious Plan B in mind, so she picked me up and off we went to The Lincoln Park Farmers Market, less than a mile away but worlds apart that day.
While Green City Market is a destination that regularly draws throngs, The Lincoln Park Farmers Market is much more of a neighborhood market. The change in plans gave me the opportunity to introduce Ruth to one of my favorite people, market manager Elsa Jacobson (who coincidentally formerly lived in Brooklyn). We discussed how Elsa took over the market a few years ago, saved it from a near-death experience, and turned it into the thriving and pleasant stop that it is today on the farmers market circuit.
Ruth enjoyed the visit, which included introductions to several of the vendors, and bought some items to share with the friends with whom she and Jeff were staying. Surrounded by the plenty of the market's peak season produce, she said one good thing about the CSA she runs is that it keeps her for spending too much disposable income by impulse buying at a farmers market. As you can see in the market haul photo below, I couldn't disagree with her.
There are tomatoes and garlic from Yang Town Farm (Richfield, Wisconsin); purple plums from Noffke Family Farms (Coloma, Michigan); Jun Bug honey kombucha (Chicago); sweet corn, bell peppers, eggs, golden plums and donut peachers from Los Rodriguez Farm (Eau Claire, Michigan); onions from Jacobson Family Farms (Antioch, Illinois); 100% rye bread (made with local organic Illinois grains) from Nourish (Algonquin, Illinois); and 2-year-old Swiss from Stamper Cheese (Chicago).
Want to be like Ruth and take a farmers market walk with Local Food Forum? Email me. All you have to do is ask.
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