Green City Market Issues?

I was surprised to learn at this morning's market that next week's Saturday market had been cancelled due to the Air and Water Show. Two different farmers went on to tell me that they're hearing lots of rumblings from the Alderman and "the city" that they're not happy about how large and congested the market has become. The implications of that were unclear, but their insinuation was that the Air and Water Show was a convenient excuse for cancelling the market.
Has anyone else heard rumblings like this? I'm going to reach out to my Alderman (Waguespack) to express support, but am interested if there's more to this than I'm hearing.

I wish they would instead cancel the Air and Water show which makes like unbearable here in Old Town ... But every other year the market has gone on so this seems odd.

I'll be very interested to see what others know since I'd hate to see an issue with the market - though wasn't some work just done on the space? Was that paid by the city or the market?

NO MARKET THIS SATURDAY

Due to the Air and Water Show, Green City Market will be closed Saturday, August 18th. We'll return with all your favorite vendors on Wednesday, August 22nd!

Thank you. We apologize for the inconvenience.

I believe market was closed in prior years during the air & water show

Closed last year but iirc open the one before. I'd love to see it open and providing the farmers a chance to sell to the massive crowd about to invade.... having moved, my new apt is even closer and so even louder this year - some Three Sisters corn and tomatoes would make the weekend so much easier to survive!

Green City Market will not be starting its West Loop farmers market on Saturday as planned.

Ald. Walter Burnett Jr., 27th, told DNA Info he was concerned about high levels of traffic at Halsted Street and Fulton Market, where the market was to be held in a privately owned parking lot.

Green City Market was scheduled to debut its chef-driven farmers market Saturday.

"It's not looking incredibly promising right now," Mark Psilos, Green City's associate director, told DNA Info. "We're working on getting it open as soon as possible."

The alderman favors a site at Randolph Street and Racine Avenue, where there's a parking lot owned by the Chicago Transit Authority. That is the preferred spot of the Randolph/Fulton Market Association, a West Loop neighborhood group.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/ ... -hits-snag

Despite a hiccup last weekend with Green City Market Fulton's original opening date, the much-anticipated opening of the outdoors farmer's market is now set for Aug. 9.

The market will be held in the parking lot at the corners of Halsted and Fulton Market streets every Saturday starting this weekend through October, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/ ... pens-aug-9

I wonder what vendors will be there. I would rather they add another day/week , for a total of three times per week, than another location . I guess I missed the memo.

pairs4life wrote:I wonder what vendors will be there. I would rather they add another day/week , for a total of three times per week, than another location . I guess I misses the memo.

Per the Crain's article:
Amazing Shrimp

Bennison's Bakery

Brunkow Cheese

Bushel & Peck's

Ellis Family Farms

Genesis Growers

Green Acres

Heartland Meats

Hillside Orchards

Iron Creek Organics

Leaning Shed Farm

Mick Klug Farm

Mint Creek

Nichols Farm & Orchard

Nordic Creamery

Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery

River Valley Ranch and Kitchens

Seedling

The Flower Garden

Pairs - I had the same reaction but perhaps enough of the farmers are producing large quantities and can support and staff multiple locations at once.

I get rather stuck in my ways about ideas like this so I'm trying to just see it as spreading the wealth - but it always seems that expansions are where organizations fall down such as the Hyde Park Coop with their big second store that destroyed any chance of saving the budget.

Going to go eat a big bowl of tomatoes from the market this AM and stop being too curmudgeonly.

Thanks Dave148.

Siun , we ate all of the lettuces I picked up this morning + most of the carrots, 1 large heirloom tomato, a cherry turnover, a cherry scone, a honey lavendar scone, and foccacia. Almost everything I ate today came from the market this morning.

Okay, I will say it now. It would be great if in addition to the Wednesday and Saturday markets, they broke the rules and did a Monday market. I am unaware of any Monday markets in the vicinity.

pairs4life wrote:Okay, I will say it now. It would be great if in addition to the Wednesday and Saturday markets, they broke the rules and did a Monday market. I am unaware of any Monday markets in the vicinity.

There's always the Monday morning Lincoln Square market. That one is in the vicinity of me, but your location may vary.

stevez wrote:

pairs4life wrote:Okay, I will say it now. It would be great if in addition to the Wednesday and Saturday markets, they broke the rules and did a Monday market. I am unaware of any Monday markets in the vicinity.

There's always the Monday morning Lincoln Square market. That one is in the vicinity of me, but your location may vary.

Lincoln Square's farmers' market is Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon.

Because God forbid those lazy farmers should get a day off from us!!!!!

Mostly kidding about that but I do feel that there are soooo many opportunities for us to go to markets, not sure why adding a day that is likely left off the schedule intentionally would be beneficial to anyone. As for GCM adding a location, racking my brain to try and understand how that's an issue. It costs a lot in transportation and manpower to get the produce to Chicago--why not be able to cover two areas off one load in. I'm missing how that would impair anyone's shopping experience.

BR wrote:Lincoln Square's farmers' market is Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon.

So it is.

boudreaulicious wrote:Mostly kidding about that but I do feel that there are soooo many opportunities for us to go to markets, not sure why adding a day that is likely left off the schedule intentionally would be beneficial to anyone.

I would rather have more opportunities to buy directly from the farmers versus going to the grocery store around the corner from me. But I know I can always get to the grocer, the Dill Pickle Co-Op, Stanley's,Plum Market, or Fresh Picks. Perhaps it is intentionally left off because they need a rest, or perhaps as I said earlier, I missed those surveys when they were trying to figure out needs/desires of shoppers.

I think expressing my desires seems to have offended you.

Hi- I just looked on the Local Beet, and you are right there are no farmer's markets in the city of Chicago on Mondays. I thought maybe there would be one downtown. You have to go to Elmhurst or Countryside to find one open on Mondays. The great majority of the farmer's markets are held on Saturdays because that is when people most want them. With Sunday coming in second. The problem is that there are only so many farmer's, and so you have waiting lists for spots at Green City, Evanston and Oak Park, because the farmers know they can make lots of money at those markets, but you don't have enough farmers to go around at the less profitable markets. You can make a whole lot more money at Green City than you can at the Cicero market or whatever. I do not even know if Cicero has a market. They had an article in the Trib. recently about how most Farmer's markets are scrounging around trying to find enough farmer's for their market. In the article that I read, they said that Nichols will only sell at farmer's markets where the customers can afford their produce. They do not want to sell at a market, where their $6 a pound sugar snap peas do not sell.

The Evanston market expanded a few years ago, to accommodate all the people that wanted to sell there, and yes they seem to be busier than they used to be, although the market has always been busy. I have noticed though that the great majority of the new people selling there are not farmer's, but are people selling baked goods or crepes or bottled goods. If anything the number of farmers has maybe gone down. I personally know two Michigan farmers that are not coming there anymore, and I heard that one of them is not able to farm anymore due to lots of health problems. Hope this helps, Nancy

So taking a deep breath - is anyone here up to speed on the overall market for farmer's markets - thinking of issues like is there enough food produced by small farmers to support more neighborhood farmers markets? How big do you need to be to manage selling at somewhere like GCM and where does that line cross into a less artisanal, more big business model? Just curious now about the dynamics of all this.

For example, does GCM evolve by adding locations in conjunction with a small group of farmers growing bigger and bigger to sell at those added locations? The vendors at the new location are all existing vendors for example.

Do we encourage more sustainable food production by instead expanding the selection of vendors?

Curious what folks think or if anyone can point to good ideas on this?

The farmer's you are referring to such as Mick Klug and Nichols are not getting bigger. They are just doing less wholesale business at their farms. A big part of the problem is that farmer's are getting older, and are eventually unable to farm, and none of their kids want to take over the farm. Even if somebody else wanted to go into farming, it is hard to get bank financing. Most of the farms are sold through land contracts, because of this reason, and if the family selling the farm wants their money now, they are often forced to sell it to somebody who is going to use it for something other than farming.

I know that Henry Brockman who sells at the Evanston market, has been asked repeatedly if he will sell at another market, and he just tells people that it would be spreading himself too thin. He sells at Evanston and he has a CSA and he sells to a few restaurants, and that is all he can handle.

I am actually surprised that logistically all those farmers can handle selling at both of the Saturday Green City markets. Does anybody know if they have the same hours of operation. I got the impression that the Fulton Street Market was going to cater more to restaurants, and so maybe they don't need as much help to man the tables there, as opposed to the Lincoln Park market, which mostly sells in small quantities to families. Hope this helps, Nancy

One more spin on things.....

Last year, corn was around $6/bushel (after a high of $8 in the aftermath of the 2012 drought). This year, it's just above $3.

At $6/bu, it's a lot easier to make money by planting a crop in the spring and harvesting once in the fall. One trip to market with a semi load(s) of corn is easier than picking a pickup load, three days a week and driving into town.

At $3/bu, going to the extra trouble to make money starts looking more attractive.

When the crops were planted this year, the price was still pretty good, it keeps dropping as the season goes on, and the crop in the field keeps looking better. The bumper crop will kill the market.

I wonder if you'll find more produce guys at the Farmers Markets next year.

Just giving you the view (I assume), of the guys standing on the other side of the produce tables.....

Tim

Hi Tim- There is actually somebody who is 80 now who used to sell fruit and veggies at the Evanston market, and when I asked why he and his wife were not there this summer, I asked around at the market, and finally when I asked somebody who has a farm in the same town, and she said that their Grandson was selling for her this summer, and I could ask him. The Grandson told me that they bulldozed all of their peach and cherry trees, although they kept some apple trees, and in their place they planted soybeans. because it is a lot less work. The next week I mentioned this to another one of the farmers that sells there, and he knows what they are talking about. He has 100 acres of fruits and veggies that he sells at three markets 2 1/2 hours from where he lives, and he has 700 acres of soybeans, and his soybeans take a lot less time than the fruits and veggies do. I asked John about the soybean market though. I heard that there were too many soybeans being planted, and he said right now the market is ok, but he does not know what it will be like in a few months.

Hi- I just dug up the Chicago Tribune article that I mentioned in a previous post about how many farmer's markets are scrounging to find farmer's. Here is the link. It was in the 8/2 Trib.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... story.html

In the article they mention that part of the problem is that there are a whole lot more corn and soybean farmer's in Illinois, than there are farmer's that raise fruits and veggies, and most of the fruit and veggie growers have much smaller farms, and in order to make any money, they are forced to grow crops that they can charge more money for such as specialty produce. It costs somebody selling heirloom tomatoes, a lot more money to raise those tomatoes, than it does for somebody raising tomatoes for Del Monte. Hope this helps, Nancy