2010 Farmers Markets

Frankfort market to open next weekend

Frankfort's farmers market will open for the season April 25 with some early crops and specialty items.
The open-air market will operate from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Sunday through Oct. 10 at Breidert Green, Kansas and Oak streets in downtown Frankfort.
<snip>
By the time the market reaches its peak this summer, Canino estimates there will be close to 40 vendors.
Blade sharpening will be available every week instead of only occasionally.

The 2010 outdoor Dane County market in Madison WI started yesterday - I'm going up this coming weekend, with a side trip to New Glarus to stock up on that fabulous beer. Summer is well on its way, people!

Dane Co. FM

That magical brewery in New Glarus

The Frankfort market is cool...lots of good, local and organic stuff. I make a stop there about every other week.

For sure check out the Moore Family Farm, Nature's Choice Farm, Majestic Nursery and El Gringo Loco. The Gringo sauces are GREAT, Have some Burn Uranus hot sauce in the fridge now.

http://www.frankfortcountrymarket.org/ourvendors.html
http://www.elgringolocomexicanfusion.com/flashpage.html
http://www.majesticnursery.com/

Schedule of Farmers Markets in South Suburbs

sundevilpeg wrote:The 2010 outdoor Dane County market in Madison WI started yesterday - I'm going up this coming weekend, with a side trip to New Glarus to stock up on that fabulous beer. Summer is well on its way, people!

Dane Co. FM

That magical brewery in New Glarus

My wife and I went to New Glarus last summer and really enjoyed it. There is a Woodman's down the street from the brewery that is slightly cheaper and may have some beers that the brewery has sold-out. Have a great trip.

FYI - The Local Beet has the most comprehensive guide to Farmer's Markets that I know of (and I don't just say that because I contribute to the site ). You can either peruse the list or enter your zip code to find a market that's open near you on any given day. It's currently in the process of being updated for the 2010 season and will include any new markets (or changes to existing markets), so if you don't see a market listed there, drop a line and we'll update it.

Another good source for locating markets is http://www.agr.state.il.us/agrihappenings/events/

Has anyone been to the Heirloom Tomato Stand on Clybourn? I wondered if it was worth the trip to attempt making homemade pasta sauce. Are the prices comparable to heirloom tomato stands at other farmers markets? Does anyone have a recommended type I should look for? Thanks.

LTH,

Small but sturdy Thursday morning Farmer's Market in the parking lot of Saint John's Church corner of Pratt and Kilpatrick. I doubt its every Thursday, I just called the church for clarification and got voice mail.

Have not seen any publicity about this, maybe if they called it a Pop Up Farmer's Market they would get some notice.

Enjoy,
Gary

Saint John's Evangelical Lutheran Church
4707 West Pratt Avenue
Lincolnwood, IL 60712
847-673-3378

G Wiv wrote:LTH,

Small but sturdy Thursday morning Farmer's Market in the parking lot of Saint John's Church corner of Pratt and Kilpatrick. I doubt its every Thursday, I just called the church for clarification and got voice mail.

Have not seen any publicity about this, maybe if they called it a Pop Up Farmer's Market they would get some notice.

Enjoy,
Gary

Saint John's Evangelical Lutheran Church
4707 West Pratt Avenue
Lincolnwood, IL 60712
847-673-3378

It is indeed every Thursday and not only are those delightful baking nuns there but Kapp's Farm too, and they sold me some mighty fine thin asparagus.

Hi- This is in answer to pielady's question about the heirloom tomato stand. I have not been there, but I can guarantee that it is going to be more expensive than most of the farmer's markets.

I have never canned tomato sauce, but most people use plum tomatoes to make sauce. Often you can get a whole peck of plum tomatoes, which is around 12 pounds, for ten dollars or less. Hope this helps, Nancy

FYI- I took a look at the list of farmer's markets on the local beet, and the market at the YMCA in Evanston, only takes place on Wednesdays, and not Wednesdays and Thursdays as posted on the site. I live 2 blocks from there, and there is only one person selling at that market, First Orchards, but they sell some stuff such as flowers that they do not sell at the Saturday Evanston market. I go there to buy sweet corn on Wednesdays. They have really good corn. They also have good tomatoes, beans, eggplant, peppers, peaches, apples and blueberries. On Wednesday they frequently mark their stuff down when they want to go home, which is usually around 3:00pm. I got corn a few times last summer for 10 cents an ear, and really nice fresh flowers for $1 a bunch. I think their market usually runs through August. Hope this helps, Nancy

Here is a Farmer's Market which just opened up this year:
Long Grove Farmer's Market

I took a look at the list of farmer's markets on the local beet, and the market at the YMCA in Evanston, only takes place on Wednesdays

Good heavens - are there really FOUR farmers markets per week in Evanston - and two are on Wednesday??

HI- The farmer's market in downtown Evanston is by far the busiest. I think there are around 40 vendors there. I have never been to the West End market on Saturday. That is near ETHS, and just opened up a few years ago. The West End market caters to people that live in the neighborhood, and they have always taken LINK cards. They have hair rolling and some other stuff, that you would normally not associate with a farmer's market. They also have a lot of community outreach at that market. I think the alderman for that area, was instrumental in getting that going.

The Ridgeville market was started by someone that could not attend the Saturday downtown Evanston market. Hope this helps, Nancy

Every year the Tribune publishes a comprehensive listing of area farmers markets, with city markets organized by day of the week and suburban markets organized by town. Click here.

I know there are a few folks on LTH who aprreciate hearing about places outside of Chicago, so here is a lead on a farmers market out Southwest I learned of from a reader of my blog.

The Bureau County Farmers Market, held from May - October from 8:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.. The draw here is the Menonite farmers who contribute their items to the market.

In particular:

Plow Creek Farms, from what I have learned offer fruits, garlic, peppers, herbs, etc., They use their own wheat for some of the baked goods they offer, and boil their own bagels. THey also offer beef(whole, half, or quarter) raised on their farm & CSA shares.

I have yet to get out here, but am making plans to do so asap.

Plow Creek Farms

http://www.plowcreek.org/farm/

Bureau County Farmers Market
435 S. Main Street
Princeton, IL.

Saturdays - May through October

8:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Is it just me or are the farmers market peaches subpar lately?

Pie Lady wrote:Is it just me or are the farmers market peaches subpar lately?

I've given up on them. The last batch I bought I was told to leave on the counter overnight. I did that, and the first peach I tried the next day almost had the texture and flavor profile of an apple. They improved over the next few days, but then they were pretty close to rotting. I just don't want to devote a lot of my time to managing my fruit.

I'm sticking with apricots, which I've had about a 90% success rate with this summer, and now I've moved on to plums. I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of grapes (in particular Jupiter seedless from Klug).

I don't think it has been a good peach season. I usually judge the season in part by the health and vibrancy of my neighbor's tree, and it just took a beating this year. Unpredictable weather early in the season, summer storms knocking the green fruit off the tree, etc.

Pie Lady wrote:Is it just me or are the farmers market peaches subpar lately?

If lately = the last 10 years, I agree.

Kennyz wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:Is it just me or are the farmers market peaches subpar lately?

If lately = the last 10 years, I agree.

Last year I found some at Evanston's and Andersonville's farmers' markets and they were great, and there were some Saturn peaches in Andersonville that tasted like candy. This year they've all been either bland or apple-like in texture with almost no flavor.
Monday when I shopped at Fresh Farms (all hail!) they had samples of peaches out and they stopped me dead in my tracks...I never had a cling peach that sweet. I guess I'll be getting my next batch there instead.

Hi- We've had a lot more rain than usual this summer, and that could be one of the reasons that the peaches have not tasted as good as last year. We've also had a smaller crop this year than usual because a lot of the peach buds got damaged by frost. We have a full crop this summer, but we have some of the best land for growing peaches in the county, and we will have a full crop, when other people will only have half a crop. I heard that a lot of growers in Michigan this year have been hit with bacterial spot this year too, and brown rot is always a problem in Red Havens when it is hot and humid like it has been this summer.

I took some of the Red Haven peaches my sister gave me last week, and I made some peach cobbler, which turned out great.

I tried a Saturn peach last year at the Evanston market, and I did not care for it. I have not seen any of those yet this year at the farmer's market.

Hope this helps, Nancy

Wow, I've had no problem with peaches this year. I'm most partial to Hardin Farms, which sells at Oak Park and many other markets for stone fruit, but I've got plenty good peaches from Mich Klug too.

The only thing I've had this year that's been iffy were some early, seckel type pears. Really good this time of year are the summer apples and the muskmelons.

I have had good Red Haven peaches from both Mick Klug and Noffke. They peak the second day and would bruise horribly on the way home from the market if they were any riper. The large one I had for dessert his evening was absolutely luscious as were the ones I used to make freezer jam last weekend. Ditto for the Dunkelberg plums eaten right before the peach.

jestinf, Mick Klug had Jupiter grapes at the afternoon Lincoln Square market today. His grape crop is not large this year compounded by birds doing more damage than usual. Flavor was good on my sample before dinner. See preceding paragraph for why I didn't eat more this evening. I was full. Tomorrow is another day with too many fruit choices.

I got good peaches last weekend at Green CIty but they were from one of the smaller farms - down the first row past Tomato Mountain - not the big orchards whose samples did not hit the spot. I'll have to check the name this week when I grab more.

Forgot to mention that I bought some kickass ears of sweet corn at the Bolingbrook Farmers Market Saturday. I had to cut each ear into thirds for a recipe (Corn and Bacon Succotash with Rice) and the juices kept squirting me in the eye. Lucky for me I wear glasses. I believe they were 5 for $1.
I also picked up some purple cherry tomatoes and small purple bell peppers. The tomatoes didn't seem to have a different taste, but Mr. Pie says the peppers were distinctly different. They're also very pretty.

has anyone seen Blue Marble at any of the farmers markets this year? they haven't been at Green City and I need some of that wonderful buttermilk!

This is probably a stupid question but I'll ask it anyway, what the hell. I bet that fresh buttermilk tastes different than the stuff in the stores. Whenever I try to drink it straight (the store stuff) it's too sour for me and I wonder what my dad sees in it. Is the fresh stuff better for drinking straight?

sarcon wrote:has anyone seen Blue Marble at any of the farmers markets this year? they haven't been at Green City and I need some of that wonderful buttermilk!

I'm reasonably sure I've seen Blue Marble at the Evanston market.