Our trip to Green City Market

Last weekend Lily and I took the opportunity to check out Chicago's Green City Market. This is Chicago’s only year-round farmers’ market. During the warm seasons it is held every Wednesday and Saturday at the south end of Lincoln Park. The market moves indoors when the cold and snow start hitting in full force.

Green City Market functions as a conduit connecting a number of local and sustainable farmers, producers, and chefs to the general public through educational programming and special events. We went around to all of the different vendors, but there were a few that stood out to us.

The first was Seedling Enterprises. Started by

Peter Klein, an MBA graduate from the University of Chicago, Seedling is based in South Haven, Michigan and distributes throughout Michigan and Illinois. They grow over 80 varieties of fruit and produce their own ciders and blends. When we visited them they were featuring a large selection of apples and a few kinds of apple cider, including goldendelicious and cinnamon spice. Their ciders are 100% natural and are cold pasteurized to maintain that old-fashioned taste.

Besides farmers' markets, Seedling also distributes to some small groceries and coffee shops, staying as local as possible, and makes direct deliveries . During the winter months they focus on preserves, driedfruits, and frozen cider. Seedling also produces some hybrid fruits such as pluots. It was a hot day when we were out at the market so Lily and I enjoyed one of their mixed berry smoothies.

We also visited Sunday Dinner, a local artisan and completely sustainable catering service, and Heartland Meats, a sustainable farm specializing in Piedmontese breed. Sunday Dinner combines their passion for local, seasonal, and sustainable products with their core values of friendship and family. Their emphasis on the sense of community that bonds people while eating is reflected in their commitment to provide highly personalized attention when catering special occasions.

Heartland Meats is well known for the extremely high quality of their meats, which often exceed the nutritional recommendations of the American Heart Association. Their cattle are raised without hormones or animal by-products. They have their own federally inspected processing plant which allows them full quality control through the production process.

And of course, not passing up a chance to learn more about the baking & pastry industry, Lily zeroed in on the Hoosier Mama Pie Company. The artisanal bakery has a wide range of fruit pies, chess pies, key lime pies, cream pies, and quiches. Although they have been selling at markets for several years, they have only had their own store since early 2009. The pies they sell at markets use ingredients purchased from other market vendors, demonstrating the value they place on local solidarity. Much to Lily's interest, Hoosier Mama also has a number of internships available for students.

Green City Market is a fantastic place to not only get high quality food, but also feel connected to the community. Back in Tacoma, farmers' market were one of our favorite places to go, and it was great to try our first one out here. We will definitely be making some return trips, if nothing else just for me to have another one of those mouth-watering hamburgers.

Here are some more pictures...