Curious Creature » Farmers Markets

Week 5 – Federal Plaza Farmers Market – 6/10/2008 – Strawberry time!

ccnet — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:03:00 +0000

Strawberries, rhubarb in full effect at the market this week and asparagus still around in profusion. Nichol’s Farm had the first sugar snap peas of the season. They also had some salad greens.

Slowly we’re getting there…it’s going to be a great summer.

Week 1 – Daley Plaza Farmers Market – 5/15/2008

ccnet — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:28:00 +0000

Same as Federal Plaza in that there wasn’t much to be had veggie-wise (no surprise). Nichols Farm was there again and my friends at Labriola were there with their fantastic bread. I picked up a loaf of marble rye which smells fantastic. I’ll post some pictures once I get them off of my cell phone.

Week 1 – Federal Plaza Farmers Market – 5/13/2008

ccnet — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:25:00 +0000

Well, there wasn’t much to see but damn was it good to see the market back (not to mention it was a perfect day weather-wise). Nichols Farm was back and one of the few with any actual vegetables. They also had out lots of potted herbs, etc. I bought some asparagus and fingerling potatoes from them.

The rest of the market was basically bakeries and things like that.

Not much else to say in the first week I’ll be posting updates throughout the season. Below are some photographs.

Farmers Markets!

ccnet — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:11:00 +0000

They’re back! The city of Chicago downtown farmer’s markets started on Tuesday at Adams and Dearborn. The season is under way!

The markets are over

ccnet — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 06:49:00 +0000

Never had a chance to write about this until now. October 31st was the last day of my favorite farmers market. I was fortunate in that it was a beautiful day. I grabbed the last batch of fresh wax beans that I could as well as some potatoes from Nichols Farm. Chicago’s Green City Market is still in operation, indoors, through the end of December and I hope to get time to make it up there on a Wednesday.

I missed the markets when they closed last year but this year they really took on a much larger significance in my life and the lives of my family. I will be anxiously awaiting them to reopen next May.

Week 23 – Federal Plaza Farmers Market – 10/16/07

ccnet — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 04:00:00 +0000

The season is really winding down. The number of vendors is shrinking. I’m becoming depressed that really soon there won’t be any farmer’s markets available to me for quite a long time. I didn’t buy much today, just heirloom apples from Nichols Farm

Northwestern Greening

Northern Spy

Red Stayman

Week 22 – Federal Plaza Farmers Market – 10/09/07

ccnet — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 04:08:00 +0000

Back to the market for apples for making a pie (and of course some for eating).

For pie:

Northern Spy

Idared

For Eating:

Ultrared Jonathon

Regent

Week 20 – Federal Plaza Farmers Market – 9/25/07

ccnet — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:25:00 +0000

I’ve not bought anything at the last couple of Tuesday markets. I’ve been extremely busy at work and did not have the time to make it over the prior two weeks. I finally got a chance to get there this past Tuesday and Fall was in full effect in the vegetables available at the market. Lots of apples, squash, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, etc.

My friends at Nichols Farm had their usual, wonderful selection of apples and I picked up about 6 to try some heirloom apples that I haven’t had a chance to try yet as well as a newer variety.

Roxbury Russet

Fameuse

Suncrisp

The Suncrisp variety is a pretty new (in the scheme of things) cross of the Golden Delicious and Cox Orange Pippen apples. Fameuse, also known as a Snow Apple because of its white flesh, is a very old variety mainly grown in Quebec. Roxbury Russet is known as the oldest apple variety in the United States, first being planted in Roxbury, MA (now a neighborhood in Boston) during the 1600′s. Both Fameuse and Roxbury are supposed to be great dessert apples.

4 more weeks to go for the market. It wraps up for the year on October 31st and boy will I miss it once it’s gone. But then there is always something to look forward to next May…

Week 17 – Federal Plaza Farmers Market – 9/4/07

ccnet — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 04:31:00 +0000

Beautiful day for the market but there were lots of vendors missing. Not sure what the deal is. The standard response I got when I mentioned it to others was “yeah but its September” which is fine but the vendors who were there seemed to have plenty of stuff for sale. Nichols Farm had 30 varieties of apples for sale this week but I’m made that I ended up missing the Wolf River apples. I really like those but I was very happy to see the Cox’s Orange Pippens and I’m really looking forward to Northern Spy for pie. What I really need to do is find out how to put apples in long-term storage for winter. Prairie Spy apparently stores very well so I need to find out how to make this stuff last….if only even for pies during the winter

This weeks take (all from Nichols Farm):

Apples
- Cortland
- Cox’s Orange Pippen
- Sweet Sixteen
- Prairie Spy

Other Stuff
- zucchini
- garlic

Farmers Markets – Not this week

ccnet — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:28:00 +0000

Ouch. I missed all of the markets this week because of work. I was out at a conference on Tuesday and today I missed the Daley Plaza market because of work. However I found out about another market that is closer to my office on Thursdays that is over by the Sears Tower. I’ll have to check that one out next week.