Oak Park Farmer’s Market, July 16

Oak Park Farmer’s Market, July 16

Up before dawn (up all night, actually), I figured I’d check out the OP Farmer’s Market. Heck, farmers get up early, right? Well, at 5:00 AM, there’s not much going on. Not a total surprise.

Click to enlarge pix.



Some trucks started pulling up around 5:30. Then I passed out for about 30 minutes. I shot this pic lying on the ground in front of Pilgrim Church, just before losing consciousness.



At 6:00, lots of trucks started pulling in the lot and within seconds stuff started happening (really, tents were erected at amazing speed).



Then I passed out again, only to be roused by the silver strains of the OPFM country band. This is a cool get-together of neighborhood guys who sing all kinds of country tunes I’ve never heard of, and play a large range of instruments: a mandolin, usually a couple of stand-up basses, guitars, harps, banjos, it’s quite a show.



Today was the first appearance of corn at the market (at least the first I’ve seen), but three or four containers was all there was, and it wasn’t cheap: 4 for a buck, or 35 cents each.



I’ve become quite of enamored the blackberries at the market. They are so vastly better than the blackberries I get at Dominick’s or Maxwell Street Market. Plump and exceptionally juicy: just washing them tints the water a deep purple. I also dig it that when you sprinkle a little sugar on them, something chemical happens that makes the berries super soft (I checked McGee for an explanation of why this happens, but no luck; if you know why, I’d like to know). I buy my berries ($3.00/pint) from a stand run by a nice old blonde lady and her somewhat stooped husband. I said to her husband during the first day of the market, “Good to see you again,” and he said, “Well, I wasn’t sure I’d make it.” I didn't know if he meant "make it" that day, or, you know, in general.



Nichol’s had a bunch of other berries…mostly gooseberries, which were attractive, but I wasn’t sure how to prepare them. Just add sugar, I suppose. I guess I’m not sure how to eat gooseberries; I've only had them in jam or pies.



Speaking of pies, there’s this place at the market that sells pies, and though I’m no connoisseur of the crust (as say, the likes of C2, MG, or SZ), these lard-made fruit pies are damn good. You can get the cherry pies in three varieties.



One of my favorite places at the market is the Beeline honey place. Since MAG brought this company to our attention last year, I’ve enjoyed many hives worth of their delicious amber insect sauce. These guys continue to come up with line exensions (like body rub and candles), and I think it’s cool that there’s an actually a functioning apiary on Independence in Chicago. I hear that if you eat the honey produced in your region, you will gain resistance to some pollen allergies (tough for me to gauge; never had allergies).



At the market, the effects of the drought are apparent. There simply is not the minor cornucopia I’d anticipate at this point in the summer. For small farmers who maybe don’t have extensive irrigation systems, this rainless heat has clearly been very difficult. For really really small farmers (guys like me, who are actually up and working before dawn, just like our agrarian ancestors, working our land...in my case, a 4X4 plot), this heat has been terrific. My tomatoes are doing remarkably well. Thanks for asking.

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:I also dig it that when you sprinkle a little sugar on them, something chemical happens that makes the berries super soft (I checked McGee for an explanation of why this happens, but no luck; if you know why, I’d like to know).

You’re watching osmosis in action. It’s actually not a chemical process, that is no chemical bonds are made or broken. You’re seeing the effects of the movement of water. Osmosis is the passage of water through a selectively permeable membrane from a region of high (water) concentration to a region of lower concentration. The cells of the berry are permeable to water but not the larger sugar molecules. Water flows out of the berry cells into the sugary exterior until its concentration equalizes. Thus the berries shrink and become soft as they lose water while the sugar crystals dissolve in the water that’s released.