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Saturday Morning at Green City Was Just Peachy (and Tomato-y)
It's the first weekend in August, and Chicago's local growing season is just about as peak as it gets, with favorite fruits and veggies now arrived in abundance. If you're a farmers market regular, you know. If you're not, then this is absolutely the time of the year to pay a visit and see what all the excitement's about.
Chances are you'll become a farmers market regular too.
How about those beautiful stone fruits at the Green City Market Lincoln Park stand of Mick Klug Farms (St. Joseph, Michigan) in the photo above. Yellow and Saturn (aka Donut) peaches, nectarines, and plums. Yum.
Cannonball! Iron Creek Organic Farm is growing those great big cantaloupes in La Porte, Indiana.
Our favorite fruit-that-we-eat-as-a-vegetable are now pouring into Chicago region markets. These are field tomatoes at the stand of Nichols Farm and Orchard (Marengo, Illinois).
Bell peppers (these also at Nichols) are a near-rainbow of colors, with red, orange and yellow peppers now in force.
Nichols also produces the widest range of apple varieties among orchards serving Chicago-region farmers markets. Their range of summer apples is growing, with some red-skinned varieties now in.
And of course there are big piles of sweet corn, such as these at the stand of Smits Farms (Chicago Heights, Illlinois).
My market haul? Red bell peppers, three tomato varieties, and Summer Red apples from Nichols; white mushrooms from River Valley Ranch (Burlington, Wisconsin); and peaches, yellow and Saturn, from Mick Klug Farms.
Can't Take the Heat? Get Your Delicious Local Food Delivered to Your Home
Maybe you find this stretch of hot, humid weather off-putting? Or maybe big piles of corn and ginormous melons are a bit much for you to heft around the market.
Then home delivery may be your salvation. I've written many times about Three Sisters Garden in Kankakee, Illinois , which does home delivery through much of Chicago. And while I did hit the farmers market today (August 3), I did get a big box from Three Sisters.
Sweet corn is farmer Tracey Vowell's signature crop — it has been just amazing so far this season — and I got a dozen ears. There's also my first local cantaloupe of the season, weighing in at just more than seven pounds; summer onions; and a couple of arrowhead cabbages.
If you are in Chicago and want to learn more about Three Sisters Garden, click the button below.
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