Every spring, when Little League games begin, three little words strike terror into the hearts of health-conscious parents all over the country: post game snacks. When I hear the phrase, visions of neon colored sugar water and Costco valu-paks brimming with sodium and artificial colors fill my head.

I try to advocate balance as my son’s chief dietician. As my mom says, one bag of junk won’t ruin your body. As a result, I don’t forbid Thor from taking a bag of Doritos or a bottle of Gatorade but instead let him decide for himself. Fortunately, he usually politely declines knowing that healthier and tastier alternatives await at home (Greater Than coconut water and Tia tortilla chips are delicious natural alternatives to these chemically enhanced treats).

This year, however, is different. My husband, our team’s coach, and I paid for Purple Asparagus to sponsor the team. Forgoing the folksy tone, I’d adopted for past emails as snack mom, I drove straight to the heart of the matter. From my email:

“Some of you may have seen a recent article in the Trib suggesting that kids who play organized sports eat more junk food because of the treat culture pervasive in youth leagues. I’d like us not to be that team. To encourage that, I want to give a few guidelines.

• The post game nosh is a snack, not a treat. If our team track record persists, they’ll be plenty of time for those (both of the kid and adult variety) towards the end of the season – the White Sox like a good party. But after a game, the kids need something to replenish their energy, not send them into sugar shock.
• Please be conscious of allergy concerns. If any of your kids has a food allergy, please let me know. I know we all want our kids to be safe and will accommodate any food allergies.
• Let’s try to avoid foods with artificial colors, high fructose corn syrup, and lots of loaded sugar and salt. I promise I won’t bring your kid kale chips if you don’t bring mine Cheetos.”

You know what? Thus far, we’ve had awesome snacks ranging from a banana and a bottle of water to homemade pumpkin whoopie pies.We’ve got a winning record not only on the field but also in the snack realm. Do I attribute this to my well-crafted email? I wouldn’t flatter myself. I think we lucked into a great group of parents. And, perhaps, sometimes folks just need a little encouragement to pass up the potato chips in favor of the apple chips.

Recently, I made my lemonade pink from a mushy blood orange I had around, but generally this time of year, I make it pink from our wonderful local strawberries.

Pink Lemonade

Serves 4
For three years running, we’ve served Pink Lemonade as the beverage portion of my snack rotation, using strawberries to create the hue.
1/2 pint strawberries

3 lemons, approximately

2 tablespoons of sugar syrup

Hull the strawberries. Puree them in a blender or food processor. Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a 4-cup measuring cup. Add enough lemon juice to the strawberry puree to make 1/3 cup of juice. Fill water into the cup to measure 3 cups total of liquid. Stir in sugar syrup. If the lemonade is too tart to your taste, add more sugar syrup gradually.

For the 4th year in a row, Slow Food Chicago will procure several locally raised hogs, get them to a few area chefs who traffic in locavore dining, and build a party around it.  This forthcoming Pig Roast at Goose Island Beer Company raises money to send farmers to Terra Madre this fall in Italy where Slow Foodies from all over the world will convene “support sustainable agriculture, fishing, and breeding with the goal of preserving taste and biodiversity.”  Enjoy the tastes of sustainable and biodiversity, Sunday, June 10, 2-5 PM.  Tickets can be purchased via Brown Paper Tickets.

Goose Island Beer, with the help of Slow Food Board members, including Beetniks Wendy Aeschlimann and Jeannie Boutelle, lined up a great and interesting set of restaurants for this year’s Pig Roast.  The line-up includes Top Chef-testant, Heather Terhune and Sable Kitchen and Bar; underground caterers set to go public, X-Marx/Flour and Bones; great friends of Beet, Mark and Liz Mendez with Vera; vegetable specialists, Green Zebra handling the non-pig portion, and Uncommon Ground, where the Local Family just celebrated a daughter’s birthday, rounding out the savory items.  La Boulangerie will provide dessert, and it’s not just Goose beers to wash it all down.  There will be cocktails by Templeton and coffee from Intelligentsia.  As we always say, the best way to encourage good eating is through good eating (and drinking).

Slow Food Chicago primarily raises its funds through its annual Pig Roast.  We expect you’ll want to go because of the line-up of food and beverages, but you should really want to go to support the important work Slow Food Chicago does for our food community. Part of their mission involves meeting with like-minded folks around the world, learning and sharing, and that’s why it is critical to have funds to send our farmers along. Yet, other parts of their mission stand much closer to home.  Slow Food Chicago helps cultivate a community garden on Chicago’s West Side.  They run workshops on topics like canning, and they are working to put together resources to help us all slow down in the way we approach our food.  Show your support for Slow Food Chicago on June 10th.

Go here for more information and to purchase tickets.

Spring in Chicago means you never know what the weather is going to do. Inevitably, it rains while you are trying to shop, which it did this past weekend. Besides a market bag, another farmer’s market must is an umbrella. I couldn’t help myself from taking another picture of the swiss chard from Genesis Farms, it should be called rainbow chard for all the colors that it had. I didn’t get by Growing Homes table at The Green City Market but their swiss chard that I saw in some of the shopping bags was enormous. The other very cool bounty this time of year are wild ferns which I picked up at Green Acres booth. The ferns have a very nutty, earthy flavor and all I do is saute them up in a pan for a few minutes and they are good to go. You can read what Mo does with the nettles she picked up from Green Acres here.  Our full ideas of what’s in season now can be found here.

Another new development that occured is that the Green City Market went live with their third party certification requirement this past weekend. The GCM accepts the American Grassfed Association, Animal Welfare Approved, Certified Naturally Grown, American Humane Certified, Certified Humane Raised and Handled, Food Alliance Certified, The Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program and the USDA Certified Organic. Go to the links to find out the detailed information about each program. Whether you believe in labels or not, these certifications are one way to be assured how the vegetables are grown and the animals are raised without having to do the farm due diligence yourself. Bravo, Green City Market! Now on to the weeks ahead!! A quick heads up that there is a great fermentation workshop on the board for May 25 at the Chicago Cultural Center at 12:15pm.

We’ve listed below some of the markets around now as well as other great eat local events.  For a bigger listing of Chicago area farmer’s markets use our 2012 Market Locator.

Make the most of your market experience with our tip sheet.

WHERE TO FIND LOCAL FOODS

These stores specialize in local foods:

Butcher and Larder 1026 North Milwaukee in Noble Square, Chicago

City Provisions Deli 1818 West Wilson in Ravenswood, Chicago

Dill Pickle Food Co-op – 3039 West Fullerton, Chicago

Downtown Farmstand 66 East Randolph in the Loop, Chicago

Green Grocer 1402 West Grand Ave in West Town, Chicago GG has weekly wine and beer tastings check their website or twitter for details.

Marion Street Cheese Market 100 South Marion St. Oak Park

Provenance Food & Wine - 2 locations Logan Square 2528 N. California Lincoln Square 2312 W. Leland Ave. Provenance has weekly free tastings of food and wine products, check their website for details.

Publican Quality Meats – 835 W. Fulton, Chicago

Southport Grocery and Cafe 3552 N. Southport, Chicago

WHAT TO DO NOW

Ongoing through June 10th Chicago – Feast:Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art Smart Museum University of Chicago Go here for all the projects associated with it.

****The last day to register for Seven Generations Ahead “Fresh From The Farm” Educator Training workshops is May 16th.

May 16

Chicago - Green City Market  7am – 1pm Lincoln Park across from the Farm at the Zoo. Chef demonstration will be Heather Terhune of Sable, 10:30 – 11:30am.

Chicago – Floriole Monthly Dinner with Guest Chef Nathan Sears of Vie. Floriole Cafe and Bakery  1220 West Webster $75 5 Courses excludes beverage, tax and gratuity. Reserve a space here.

Chicago – Worm Composting 101 – Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum 6-7pm Learn the basics of worm composting, you’ll leave with a completed starter bin. 10$ members $15 non-members register here.

May 17

Chicago – Ladybug Bash Stars and Cars at Grossinger Autoplex to benefit Chicago’s Ladybug Chapter which works on easing the struggles of childhood cancer. 1530 N. Dayton 7pm to 11pm

Chicago – Food Truck A Go Go starts for the summer at 694 Wine and Spirits. 694 North Milwaukee 6-9pm Each week a different lineup of food trucks will park outside the store. Go to the link to see which trucks are showing up this week.

May 19

Chicago – Green City Market – The featured chef will be Meg Colleran Sahs of Terzo Piano. The hours are longer 7am to 1pm and the market moves further south in Lincoln Park, right across from the Farm in the Zoo.

Chicago – Edible Gardens Workshop – Planning For Summer Transplanting Warm Weather Crops This is a FREE Monthly Hands-on Gardening Workshop Series in The Edible Gardens with Jeanne Pinsof Nolan, founder of The Organic Gardener, Ltd. Workshops will be held from 9:30am-10:15am.  Respond to RSVP@greencitymarket.org to reserve a spot.

Chicago – 61st Market sponsored by Experimental Station – This market which is becoming “the” market on the south side, opens today, go to their website for further details. New vendors will be there like Penny Pastries, look for him.

RESCHEDULED for Saturday June 9th (Issues due to road closings from NATO conference)  Chicago – The Plant Spring Open House -1400 W. 46th St. 12pm – 5pm Come on out  for free food and and a home-brewing beer contest! They will ,also, be giving tours of the building every half-hour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. for $5 (half off the regular price!). Come see their progress, including a huge step forward on the renewable energy system, a new growing bed in the basement, and tons of work done in the kitchen spaces! More info here.

Chicago - Craft Day Afternoon Fizz Bar and Grill – 1-5pm 3220 N. Lincoln Ave. A joint venture between Fizz and The Map Room in honor of craft beer week. For $60, taste 45 craft beers, food, and a commemorative glass. Make a reservation here. Proceeds benefit the Hamilton School.

Evanston –  The Downtown Evanston Farmers Market opens for the season and will be open today, May 5th through November 3rd. The market is celebrating its 37th year and will be open from 7:30am to 1pm at University Place and Oak Ave.(just east of Railroad Ave.) behind the Hilton Garden Inn. Free parking is at the adjacent 1500 Maple garage.

Evanston – Evanston Garden Fair (5/19, 5/20) – 9am – 4pm Central Street 2 blocks west of Green Bay Road Organic and locally grown seedling sales The Talking Farm will be selling their organic and locally grown herb plants (such as cilantro, dill, oregano, and parsley), bok choi, spinach, kale, and many varieties of tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. They will also have perennials and berry plants. Expert gardening advice, too!

Geneva - Geneva Green Market – 27 N. Bennett (Geneva Place) – 9 AM – 1 PM – Read a report from Beetnik Melissa Owens who finds, among other things, basil, at this market here.

Grayslake – The Grayslake Farmer’s Market Centennial Park and Center St. 10:00 Am – 2pm

La Fox – Heritage Prairie Farmers Market – 9-1 pm. 2N308 Brundage Road, La Fox, IL

Morton Grove – Morton Grove Spring Farmer’s Market –  8am – 12noon 6210 Dempster St.

New!! Oak Park – Opening Day of Oak Park Farmers Market – 460 Lake St just one block west of Ridgeland Ave. 7am – 1pm The Market is much more than a farmers’ market. It is an Oak Park tradition, a Saturday gastronomic event (the donuts have a devoted following), a concert site, a social event and a great place to pick up super-fresh produce, traditional and unusual plants, fresh cheeses, honey, flowers, vinegars, herbs, and much more. The Oak Park Farmers’ Market also features unique items for sale at the commissioners’ table, including items you can’t find anywhere else, such as reasonably priced T-shirts, one-of-a-kind items and bags, all offering a beautiful, functional way to support the market. Today is the start of Oak Park Green Days and will include Slow Food Chicago.

New Location!! St. Charles – The Saturday Farm Fresh Food Stuffs market has moved and is now at Trellis Family Farm 8-4pm 2N492 Kirk Rd.

Woodstock – Woodstock Farmers Market 8am – 1pm at historic Woodstock Square There will be a pie-eating contest!

May 20

Chicago – Glenwood Sunday Market – The Glenwood Bar Glenwood Ave at Morse 9am – 2pm

Chicago – Food Sanitation Class Logan Square Kitchen – 9:30am – 12:30pm -2333 North Milwaukee Get certified with the Chicago Health Department required for all food vendors at a farmers market, special event, street fair. $35 Go here for registration and more information.

Evanston – Evanston Garden Fair continues 9am – 4pm

Frankfort – Frankfort Country Market Downtown Frankfort – 10-2 – Might find paella.

May 21

New!! Chicago – City Provisions Finch’s Beer Dinner 6pm -1818 West Wilson – Join them for the release of Cleetus’s new collaboration, Toasted Summer, a kolsch style ale brewed with pan toasted hops and applewood. They will also be featuring Cleetus’ Slackjawed Dunkel and other specialties from Finch. 95$ Please call 773-293-2489 for reservations, only 16 seats are available each night.

May 22

Chicago – Brown Trout Farmer’s Market 5-8pm 4111 North Lincoln Ave. In North Center, near the Irving Park Brown Line stop, this new “micro” farmer’s market sponsored by “Ground Up Chicago” .

Chicago – Lincoln Square - C & D Family Farms selling their all natural free range meats from 7 to 11 am in the parking lot at Lincoln & Leland.

Chicago – Chicago Rare Orchards Project (CROP) – Inaugural lecture series by leaders of crop diversity and sustainable development. 6pm Haas Park Fieldhouse 2404 Washtenaw Ave. (entrance on Fullerton) The speakers tonight will be Melissa Tobias and Dan Schnitzer Sustainability Educators, The Academy for Global Citizenship. This event is free and open to the public.

New!!! Chicago – Women in Green monthly meeting – Hosted by Shannon Downey of Pivotal Productions at The Greenhouse Loft in The Green Exchange 2545 W. Diversey Ave. 5:30 pm Interested in attending or learning more? Contact Wig.Chicago@gmail.com

Chicago - Food Sanitation Class Logan Square Kitchen – 5-8pm 2333 North Milwaukee Get certified with the Chicago health Department required for all food vendors at a farmers market, special event, street fair. $35 Go here for registration and more information.

Woodstock - Woodstock Farmers Market at historic Woodstock Square  8am – 1pm

SAVE THE DATE!!!!

May 23

New!!!! Chicago - Spring Slow Food Chicago Dinner featuring Harvest Moon Farms, Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm & FEW Spirits at Uncommon Ground Devon 1401 W. Devon Ave. $65 includes tax, gratuity and a donation to Slow Food Chicago’s Terra Madre campaign. For reservations please call 773-465-9801.

Chicago – Red Meat Market “Meat-Up” – Goose Island Brewery 6-9pm $62.50 GETS YOU, $100.00 of local, sustainable, all natural Grass-Fed Beef. Save 38% and meet other 100% all natural meat lovers and make it social!
Upon arrival with a purchase of a ticket, you will receive seven pounds of delicious Grass-Fed Angus Beef direct from Black Earth Meats and the lush green pastures of southwestern Wisconsin.

Chicago – City Provisions Dinner with Greenbush Brewing Company from Sawyer, MI. 1818 West Wilson 6pm Featuring Terminator X and Loud Mouth Soup, Cleetus’s two collaboration beers. Greenbush will also be launching the “yet-to-be-released-outside-of-the-tap-room” Lagniappe, a toasted pecan ale. 95$ Please call 773-293-2489 for reservations, only 16 seats are available each night.

Chicago – Castilla La Mancha -Experience the wines of Don Quixote’s Spain in Chicago The Hotel Palomar 505 N. State St. 10:30am – 4:00pm Reserve spot here

Countryside – “Introductions to Chickens…Urban Style!“. The workshop runs from 7:00-8:30 p.m. at their offices in Countryside (near the intersection of I-55 & I-294).  The cost is $10.00 for non-members, and free for members.

May 24

Chicago – The Daley Plaza Farmers Market Opening Day - 7am – 3pm Country Financial will have a booth and will be giving away my absolute favorite market bag!! The design on the Country Financial bag is the student winner of their design contest. I cannot wait to see it!!

Chicago - Edible Chicago and Brooklyn Brewery present  ”A Celebration of Beer, Food, and Stories” Beer Bistro 1061 W. Madison 5-7pm Event is free, RSVP to events@ediblechicago.com Pick up an Edible Chicago, taste Brooklyn Brewery’s latest release  beer and enjoy food by local purveyors. The Second Quarterly Carousal party will be held at Beer Bistro.

New!! Chicago – Cooking With Grayson – Logan Square Kitchen 2333 N. Milwaukee 7-11pm 5 Rabbit Cerveseria teams with Chef Grayson Schmitz (Top Chef Texas: Season 9) As guests will prepare the family dinner with Chef Schmitz paired with 5 Rabbit Beers $125

May 25

Chicago – Kedzie Brewery Grand Opening Party – Revolution Brewing celebrates the opening of its new brewery at 3340 N. Kedzie. 5-10pm $15 Tickets go on sale April 27th.

New!! Chicago – The Art of Fermentation – Chicago Cultural Center – 78 E. Washington 12:15 – 1:30pm Sandor Katz presents his new book about fermentation, culture, and community. Come share kraut, meet Sandor, hear about his new book, get a copy inscribed to you, and ask questions.

May 26

New!! Chicago – Taste of Fresh Moves to celebrate the one year anniversary of Fresh Moves, Mobile Produce Market 1-5pm 3750 W. Ogden 4th floor The event is designed to highlight the many talents of theit customers and supporters in the Westside communities that they serve. This celebration will feature live food demonstrations and tastings from local celebrity chefs, performances by Young Chicago Authors featured poets, a student art competition and judging, food games for the young and young at heart, a screening room for food documentaries, acro-yoga demonstrations, raffles and prizes, music and more. All are welcome and it is free but RSVP by May 21st to thetasteoffreshmoves@gmail.com.

FD!! Champaign – Prairie Fruits Farm starts their dinner season – “A Dinner of Spring” 4410 N. Lincoln Ave – H2Vino, Caveny Farms Lamb 5 courses, $10

New!! Hinsdale – Terra Brockman speaks at Wellness House, “Changing the World One Meal at a Time” 10:00am – 11:30am 131 N. County Line Rd. Terra Brockman, Author of The Seasons on Henry’s Farm and Founder of The Land Connection will discuss her brother’s organic vegetable farm, her sister’s organic fruit farm, and the ripple effects of our food choices–including the health, economic, and environmental benefits of supporting local farmers.

May 27

Chicago – Premier of the documentary “Bitter Seeds” at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival sponsored by The Jane Addams Hull House. 3:15pm 164 N. State St. The film is focused on the farmer suicides surrounding their use of genetically modified seeds and the effects on their crops. Purchase tickets here.

For the summer schedule including Farm Dinners please go to our Farm Dinner calendar, it is time to make reservations for your summer farm dinners now!!!

I told you April was the time to join me as a local family. Then, I spent most of the rest of the month arguing just why you should be a local family. Advice. There was some, like get a CSA.   Mostly, it was talk of the pleasures of a year in the eat local life.  I figure, commit to eating local, and the rest will follow.  And buy the book.

There are a lot of great books out there to help you with your quest to be a local family.  (Believe me, this Local Family has about all of them.)  We did not have the one my Mother was reading a few weeks ago on her Kindle.  And when she started telling us about it–put an egg on it; make a crust; yesterday’s pasta is today’s pancake; pickle it–it sounded not like an episode of Portlandia, but like all the Local Family posts I had been meaning to write.   After all, we say in this Local Family, about Mom, she can take any batch of leftovers, fry and egg, and call it dinner. She was saying it too. What was such book, filled with wisdom.  An Everlasting Meal, by Tamar Adler, my Mother told us.  Soon we had our own copy.

Not since I read Mama Meichulim had I read a book more apt for the locavore life.  Unlike the growing library of eat local tomes, Ms. Adler’s book contains not one picture of rolling farm fields or happy content animals.  There are no arrays of farmer’s markets produce; no shots of grizzled farmers; not one close-up of dirty fingernails.  There are, hard to believe in this day, no pictures at all.  There are few recipes either, but I’m getting ahead of myself.  Adler makes the case for eating local without once ever going there.  At best, I could find this passage:

By the end of the week you will have eaten vegetables a dozen ways a dozen times, having began with good raw materials only once. You will also have a number of satisfying conversations. You have eaten a raw bite of kale stem and wondered whether next time it should be pickled. You will have tasted a particular soft, cold vinegary beet, and realized you wanted to make beet soup again and serve it cold. You will have been silently practicing that ancient conversation in which cooks and their materials used to converse, feeling out unfamiliar conjunctions, brushing up.

If that does not describe a CSA subscriber or farmer’s market devotee, it will surely drive you to be one.

An Everlasting Meal will drive you to cook and eat and want to be a locavore to have those dozen vegetables to boil and roast and make into good salads. Ms. Adler only gives you the occasional recipe for making your local food. She teaches that it is not recipes, however, that make for good eating. It is an understanding of the meal. That a wedge of good cheese, which you can have from your farmer’s market, will provide as good a dinner as anything, especially if you open up a good bottle, beer wine or cider (which I’m not sure she mentioned). That there should be bread and ample supplies of rice or polenta or some other base, perhaps even home cooked sauerkraut. It is how to approach things.  Mostly that the best approaches are usually the simplest and the ones we might not even think about any more. Boil your meat and vegetables is the first thing she teaches. I’ll come back to the much good advice inside Everlasting Meal in subsequent posts. I’m telling you today, you’ve committed to being a local family. Buy the book.

So while at the market this morning, I found myself drawn to a mound of nettles (thank you Green Acres Farm). Hum, never thought to cook with.  I mean why would I want to bite something that thinks nothing of biting back?  Wondering what they taste like I forgot all that I knew, broke off a leaf and proceeded with tasting…did you know that the little stingers on the nettle are at the base of the leaf?  Yep, my bottom lip now knows. Witnesses (certain farmer who shall remain nameless) to this and no one stopped me?  Clearly I provide a bit of entertainment at the market at 6:30am. Hey, someone’s got to.

After lots of chatting up of fellow-market goers, and recalling all the natural asthma and allergy remedies I have been reading about lately, I make the plunge and purchase a bunch of the nutricious stingers. Something good about it being a cold blustery day, my gloves were on.

Throughout Russia and most Nordic countries, after long cold winters, and nearing the end of wintered-over produce, some of the first signs of green and good for you came in the form of nettles. High in iron, antioxidants, and vitamins nettles are a true super-food. Steeped in boiling water nettle ‘tea’ (tisane) makes for a great overall health tonic. Heck, just steeped some and already feel healthier. Who needs ‘The Master Cleanse’?

Pesto, pasta, risotto, sauteed, and a variety of soups are some of the preparations I have found. ALL, can’t stress enough, ALL preparations entail cooking (in boiling water at the very least) the nettles. Or did you forget my experience already?  I haven’t, my lip is still stinging. Wait a sec’, maybe I am onto the next ‘lip plumper’…save that for health and beauty blog..

Since I have been on a pasta and rice tear the past couple weeks, and because the weather is back to feeling wet and chill, soup is the order of the day for the nettles. This version I concocted, came about from wanting to combine a number of other early Spring herbs and greens (remember the sorrel?). So easy. So fast to assemble. So tasty. And sans a scant amount of butter and olive oil, low cal and healthy. Thinking who needs that afore mentioned fancy detox diet, I am just gonna keep making and eatting nettle soup.

Mo’s Nettle Soup (sans sting)

2 T green garlic, chopped fine
3 T green onion or leek, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 T olive oil
3 cups nettles (mostly leaves), packed*
1 quart plus 1 cup chicken broth
3 cups Italian spinach, chopped & packed (yeah any fresh spinach will do)
4 small potatoes, diced
1/2 – 1 cup sorrel, chopped
1 T (plus more for garnish) snipped chives
1 T lemon juice
zest of a whole lemon
salt & pepper to taste
nutmeg to garnish
yoghurt or sour cream to garnish

Heat butter and olive oil in the bottom of soup pot. Add green garlic and onion and saute til tender.  Add the nettles*, cover with chicken broth.Begin to warm over medium heat. Add potatoes, and spinach and cook until all veg are tender. Remove from heat. Add lemon zest & juice, sorrel, salt and pepper. With the aid of a ‘boat motor’ (aka handheld blender) puree.  Serve in bowl with a dollop of yoghurt or sour cream, or better yet, creme fraiche, and a sprinkle of chive. Springtime in a bowl.

*always handle raw nettles with gloves on.

A couple of weeks ago I saw an idea going around Pinterest that looked interesting, make ahead crock pot meals. I liked it! I love using the crock pot, it’s almost like someone else made dinner. I often cook things like spaghetti sauce and soup in big batches to put some in the freezer. So I decided to give it a go.

First stop, gather the ingredients. I started with recipes from a couple of different sites (although I never follow recipes exactly, these are pretty close to what I did).

I made a total of 5 different recipes from these two sites:

http://www.ringaroundtherosies.net/2012/02/freezer-cooking.html

http://mamaandbabylove.com/2011/04/05/freezer-cooking-with-slow-cooker-recipes/

I made Teriyaki Chicken, Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken, Peppers & Sausage, Beef Fajita, and Cilantro Lime Chicken. (These all link to the blogs where the recipes are, you’ll have to scroll down each page to the right spot.)

Next it was time to do the prep. This is the step that makes this worthwhile. It took me about an hour and a half to wash, peel and chop everything, which is quite a while, but now I don’t have to do that each time I want to start a meal in the slow cooker.

It took about another hour to make sauce and assemble the bags. Regardless of the recipes (told you I didn’t follow them exactly!) I did not add any of the meat. I just put in the veggies, sauces and seasonings for each meal into a ziplock freezer bag and labeled each.

I use our meat, of course, so that means no boneless, tasteless chicken breasts, but the recipes work great with whole or half chickens in the crock pot. It just means that when you serve them you’re pulling the meat off the bones. (We usually just do it as we eat, but you could bone the chicken and put the meat back in the pot before you serve.)

Finally, the clean up. It looked bad, but really only took about half an hour. All together I prepared 10 meals in about 3 hours. That works out to about 18 minutes per home-made, veggie-filled, processed-food-free meal! It takes just a few minutes to put the meal in the slow cooker and dinner time clean up is easy too, just one pot.

This is definitely an experiment I’ll repeat!

Beth Osmund
www.cedarvalleysustainable.com

For the first time in our eat local memories, farmer’s markets ran all winter in the Chicago area. Both Green City Market and Evanston pretty much never quit marketing, and our friends at Faith in Place put out their regular string of roving winter locavore bazaars. And there were plenty of other options too. Beet Reporter Jeannie Boutelle did an outstanding job tracking them down all season. This is the time, however, when we cannot list all the area markets in one weekly calendar. This is the time when farmer’s markets are in season.

We love farmer’s markets. We love tracking the seasons, watching the colors change from early green, to summer’s burst of ripe red to the fall’s waning browns. We love how it pleases the senses. We love the anticipation of meals based on what we see. We love talking to farmers and learning of life away from the city. We love partaking in the full bounty of our local agriculture. We love the artisans who offer us interesting and better foodstuffs. We love farmer’s markets.

To share our love of farmer’s markets, the Local Beet has put together a Market Locator to help you find one. You can search it by city, time of day and day of the week, to find one that fits your need. We have also compiled our biggest list yet of tips for maximizing your market experience. We’re here to help.

In addition to our Market Locator and Shopping Guide, we will be publishing all sorts of materials showing our love and devotion to farmer’s markets. Beet Reporters will be checking in from various markets (and it’s never too late to volunteer for a Beet beat). We’ll have recipes, guides to seasonal produce, and advice on making your seasonal bounty last. We love farmer’s markets.

Do enjoy what’s in season.

Although time will ultimately tell, the forecast now seems bleaker. In Southwest Michigan, which provides the Chicago-area with most of its local fruit, there was another hard freeze on April 27th — the fourth hard freeze in April. In Northwest Michigan, several nights dipped down into the 20s, although some cloud cover helped to protect plants and trees. With each freeze, more crop was potentially reduced. All tree fruits have been affected by the freezes, and many farmers say they no longer have the potential for a commercial crop.

Sweet/tart Cherries. In both Southwest and Northwest Michigan, farmers have predicted that sweet and tart cherry crops have been almost completely decimated. In Southwest Michigan, most tart cherries are chocolate brown, which means that the flesh of the cherry was frozen to a brown color, and will never grow to be plump and juicy. Many cherry farmers in both areas are now only managing the health of the trees for next year’s crop. In Northwest Michigan, generally known as the heart of Michigan’s cherry crop and where the National Cherry Festival occurs annually in Traverse City, tart cherries continued to decline with each new freeze event. Sweet cherries were not making it out of the shuck stage. As a result, the cherry industry has worked with Michigan State University, the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as Sygenta, to obtain a 24(c) special local need registration  for clearance to legally use chlorothalonil beyond shuck split due to unusual crop concerns this year. However, with the 24 (c), growers must follow a series of restrictions in order to use this product legally throughout the growing season to ensure that post-shuck split applications of chlorothalonil do not result in illegal residues.

Brown tart cherries. The flesh of these cherries has been frozen, and will never be plump and juicy. Image: Mark Longstroth, MSU Extension

Peaches/Nectarines/Apricots. In Southwest Michigan, apricots are scarce, and most were wiped out by the April 27th freeze. Nectarines have pulled through so far a little better than peaches, and peaches might have some crop.

Apples/Plums/Pears. In Southwest Michigan, apples have undergone severe damage. Plums are scarce. The pear crop has suffered widespread loss. In Northwest Michigan, apples might have pulled through enough to produce a decent crop.

Juice/Eating grapes: Some good news for Concord and Niagara grapes – some places in Southwest Michigan have reported new growth on vines that were previously damaged by frost.

Berries. Another bright spot. In Southwest Michigan, blueberries have generally escaped damage due to their later blooming and growth. Many farmers have been irrigating fields for frost protection. Some good news: Strawberries are blooming, and are expected to arrive early, possibly in 1-2 weeks.

Wine Grapes. In Southwest Michigan, wine grapes on the whole are faring better, as they are late(r) bloomers, and did not progress as much during the March warm-up. Damage is not as widespread, though some early varieties, such as Chardonnay and Riesling suffered more than others. In Northwest Michigan, Chardonnay and Riesling are showing bud burst now, but are faring unevenly block to block. Overall, though, bud survival has been very good.

Pest control. In both Southwest and Northwest Michigan, farmers are adjusting pest control in light of recent weather events to manage fruit that may be more vulnerable to infestation or infection.

What does this mean?

Certainly, farmers will continue to monitor the situation. I’m told by some that if there is a tree fruit crop, it will be very small, and priced accordingly. What to do if you’re a locavore? Focus on strawberries, which will be here early in approximately 1-2 weeks. Eat blueberries, raspberries and melons. Like the Cubs, wait ’til next year. Support your local farmers’ markets even more vigorously — especially the fruit farmers who bring alternative crops to market.

Primary source:  MSU Extension Reports

I started by chopping two leeks from the farmers market and sauteing them in oil for a couple of minutes with 1 tablespoon of garlic and 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary. I decided to use a ham hock from Meadow Haven Farm in my soup so the night before I boiled it in water for about an hour. This soup doesn’t take very long to cook so I wanted to give the ham hock a head start. I added 6 cups of vegetable stock, peeled and diced 2 potatoes, drained 1 can of white beans and added it all to the pot along with the ham hock, brought it to a boil and allowed it to simmer for about 30 minutes until the potatoes were very tender.

Meanwhile, I roasted the asparagus on 450 for about 5 minutes until it was tender. I sprinkled with some salt and chopped it roughly so it added a nice texture to the soup. When I added the asparagus to the soup, I also added another drained can of white beans. I removed the ham hock and tore it apart. It was a very surreal experience… being elbow deep in pig grease, but it was delicious. Once everything was heated through, I shaved some thick slices of Parmesan overtop to add just a little extra oomph. This soup is delicious. And it’s more local than not, so we’re making progress! The little local additions to your meals really do add up and they can make a tremendous difference to the farmers and/or vendors you choose to support. Take a chance and buy something (like a ham hock) that you have no idea how to use and then just go for it. I bet it will end up a great success.

Kelly Hewitt cooks her way through life forcing herself to try new things. Her obsessions include canning and learning how to grow her own vegetables this summer! Kelly loves cooking fairly minimally and buying food from people that she actually knows. Catch up with Kelly’s blogging at eatatkellys.blogspot.com

1. 

   Dandelion jelly-Delicious, golden color and honey-like flavor

   1 Quart fresh, bright dandelion flowers
   2 quarts water
   2 tablespoons lemon juice
   1 package powdered pectin
   5 ½ cups sugar

   
   

   Snip off stems and green collar of sepals under blossoms. Be sure you have picked in an area free of spraying and animal traffic and I feel you can simply hand swipe each blossom to clean off. Once you wash the blossoms they become very difficult to handle so I try to avoid doing that. In an enameled or stainless steel saucepan boil the petals in 2 quarts water for 3 minutes. Cool all the way down even if it takes several hours. This will impart the maximum color to the liquid. Strain through a coffee filter. Measure 3 cups dandelion liquid. Add lemon juice and pectin. You need pectin and acid for jelly to set. Bring mixture to a boil using a large jelly kettle. Add sugar all at once and stir constantly and boil at a high rolling boil for 2 ½ minutes. Turn off heat and when bubbles subside, quickly skim off any gunk from surface with metal spoon. Using wide funnel, pour into small, sterile jars(boiled for 10 minutes). Use toothpick to pierce any airholes in the jelly. Hot water bath 10 minutes.

   Makes 5 or 6 jars

   
   

   
   

   1. Violet Jelly-Beautiful, clear violet color with fruity flavor. Contains rutin, good for varicose veins(limited demographic)

      1 pint violet flowers
      juice of ½ lemon
      2 cups of sugar PER cup of juice
      3 ounces liquid pectin

      Collect enough violet flowers to fill a pint jar. Stuff the jar with as many flowers as possible. Cover the blossoms with boiling water and cover. Keep out of the bright sunshine for 24 hours. Color will appear aqua at first.

      Strain the infusion through a coffee filter, removing blossoms and debris. Place the juice in a heavy saucepan. Add the lemon juice, mix thoroughly and bring to a boil. Boil for one minute. Add sugar and pectin. Bring to a hard boil and hold for 1 minute. Turn off heat, skim surface.

      Pour into hot, sterile jelly jars and seal. Hot water bath 10 minutes. Makes 4 ½ pint jars.

      1. French Sorrel Pesto-Delicious on pasta or soup or steamed vegetables. Store in freezer

         2 cups packed sorrel, washed and stems removed
         1/2 cup fresh parsley
         2 cloves garlic
         1/2 tsp. salt
         1/4 cup pine nuts
         1/4 cup olive oil
         1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
         1/4 cup chicken stock, if needed to thin

         Combine all ingredients in a food processor, except chicken stock. If the pesto appears too dry, add the stock.