Farmers Market on Chicago's North Shore

Back home in north shore burbs of Chicago. Visited the farmers market in the Ravinia neighborhood of Highland Park. Nice little market, with two Michigan fruit growers, and three or four Illinois vegetable growers. Also, "The Cheese People", who sell various artisanal cheeses, one baker's stall, one olive and vinegar stall, and several other specialty food stalls. Mostly vendors I see at other area farmers markets.

I try to determine which fruit and vegetable vendors are actually farmers, and which are wholesalers, or some other form of seller who does not grow. One of the vendors at today's market, and several others at other markets seem like they go to a wholesale market and pick-up surplus. Next week I'll ask them.

I prefer to buy from the farmers/growers.

Still lots of red rasberries, blueberries, blackberries, pears, peaches, now apples coming on strong. It seems that the berries are available later than usual this year, but I'm not sure. I'll ask that next week also.

Here in the Great Lake region, we must enjoy these markets now, because after October, they disappear until June!

Two Great Places I Visited Yesterday

"Pastured" meat and eggs are becoming very popular nationwide, including here in Wisconsin where I've been staying lately. A couple simple google searches led me to Thundering Hoof Ranch, just north of Green Lake, WI. Run by a young couple, open a year or so, they are just getting started, but their cattle, sheep, hogs and chickens are clearly visible grazing in various paddocks across their land. Yesterday, they only had ground beef and eggs, so I purchased a couple dozen eggs, and several pounds of the beef. I scrambled some eggs for lunch, and just as pastured eggs should be, the yolks are dark orange, and whites thick and clear. And they taste great. This was my second visit here. I bought some porterhouse steaks last month, and they were also very tasty, although I left them on the grill just a minute or two too long.

The other place I visited was Soda's Farm Market, a small family-run store just a mile west of Green Lake' western shore, carrying mostly their own produce, supplemented by a few things that won't grow in this area. We go there almost every day when staying here. They're renowned in the area for their extraordinary sweet corn, but also have a huge variety of other vegetables, all freshly hand-picked. Many types of peppers and squashes, radishes from purple through many shades of red and pink, and also white. Many tomatoes, including heirloom varieties, and this time of year, three or four types of melons.

Two places that are small and very local. And the owners love to talk about what they produce, what's coming next week, next month, what didn't work out, recipes, etc. Compared to places like these, Whole Foods seems like Walmart. But back home in Chicago's north suburbs, I'm still trying to find anything like these places within a reasonable drive, with little success.

I forgot my camera, but next time I'll get some pics and include them.

Why Great Lakes?

I named this blog 'Great Lakes Real Food', because in addition to writing about food, I wanted to focus on a geographic area, specifically the region of the U.S. in which I live. Let me hasten to add that the 'Great Lakes' region also encompasses huge swaths of Canada, and I very much intend to include those areas in my explorations. So, geographically speaking, I am interested in learning about food that is grown, raised, caught, foraged, hunted, and minimally processed in small batches (canned, brewed, distilled, smoked, dried, etc.) in the huge area bounded on the west by the Duluth, MN and Thunder Bay, ONT area, all the way to the east end of Lake Ontario, and all land within a couple hundred miles of the shore of any of the five lakes.

This is a HUGE area, alot of which, especially on the Canadian side, I have never set eyes on. But it includes such great growing areas as Wisconsin, northern Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, southern Ontario, the vineyards, farms and ranches of western New York, including the beautiful Finger Lakes region.

So, combining my overly-broad definition of 'Real Food' with this huge area, what I want to do is discover, explore, sample, and when I feel like it, promote, places that anybody can travel to obtain real food, either directly from the producer, or from an outlet not far in time and distance from the producer. Where possible, I would like to meet the producer, see the fields or pastures or whatever.

My hope is that others who share my love of this huge region, as well as my interest in finding great food sources within it, will share any and all ideas they have. Until then, I'll be scratching around on my own and documenting as much as possible.

Now, I'm going out into the sunny, crisp September day to pick the few remaining apples on my tree in South Central Wisconsin, where I spend time when not in my Chicago area home.

What Do I Mean By Real Food?

Real food is picked from a vine, tree, stalk or other plant. Or it is milked or butchered from a naturally raised animal. Or it is caught wild from a natural body of water. Then whatever you do to prepare it for eating is done in small batches in your home kitchen. Or, for things like cheese, in small batches in a special prep area. I'm sure I've missed something, but that's what Real Food means to me. What does it mean to you?