So I knew before I moved to the windy city that I wanted to join a Chicago CSA. Community Supported Agriculture is basically an alternative form of marketing food (usually veggies, but increasingly fruit, flowers, dairy and meat too) that cuts out the supermarket or farmers market. Traditionally the members (buyers) of a CSA would pay for an entire season, at the beginning of the season, so the farm can pay for seeds, labor, supplies, maintenance etc throughout the season knowing that they are financially secure. It’s a lovely mutually beneficial relationship between eater and grower, that reconnects people to their food, people to each other, and everyone to the land. Yay!

So I checked out Local Harvest, a great site that directs people in any city in the USA to the various local food options in their area. I found a whole lot of CSAs in Chicagoland that exist during the summer season, but I need some winter food! Although temperatures will be frigid and it will be snowy, cold season farming is a growing trend in the Midwest. Season extension is one of the main foci of the Student Organic Farm at Michigan State University (the incubator for my interest and passion for sustainable agriculture), and there are a number of farms in this area that use a variety of techniques to provide food all winter long.

But very few farms deliver their winter goodies to CSA members. Then I found Irv and Shelly’s Fresh Picks. It isn’t a traditional CSA, it’s more like a CSAmalgam — Irv and Shelly basically coordinate a number of farms in the area, organize it into their website, and deliver all over the Chicago area. So I found three friends, and we decided to get a weekly family box of produce. Saturday we got our first shipment of delicious local organic food! Here we are, each of us holding up our favorite item from the week:

They also sent us a little sheet of all the veggies and fruit that we recieved. Each item has a name, a farm it’s from, and some cooking ideas. We split up the big box o food, and I ended up getting Baby Bok Choi and Brussel Sprouts (Full Harvest Farm, Hartford, WI), Honey Crisp Apples (Lehman Orchards, Niles, MI), Red Leaf Lettuce (Genesis Growers, St. Anne, IL), and Crimini Mushrooms (River Valley Ranch, Burlington, WI). Here is my share of the items, for a total of $11:

So from this week forth, I will only be going to the 61st Street Farmers Market and Hyde Park Produce to supplement my CSA share. Hoorah for good food!

Today has been very productive…not particularly for my academics, but it was my “break” from the 700+ pages of reading for classes over the last week! It has been a film-filled day.

I woke up this morning to rain, and thought my plans to film more at the 61st Street Farmers Market were ruined. But by 10 the rain had cleared up quite a bit and I biked down with the camera bag strapped to my back. Last week, my group from Fire Escape was able to get some great establishing shots and close-ups of veggies, but we didn’t bring the consent forms for filming interviews or getting recognizable shots of people. This week we came prepared with the right forms, and captured a few hours of great market interactions. I am still getting used to the camera and sound equipment, and we will have a look at the footage later this week. Unfortunately, the camera malfunctioned around 1, and we weren’t able to figure out a quick fix. I’m getting a great introduction to the obstacles facing documentary filmmakers! I think we will be entering an exciting little piece in Chicago in 60 Seconds from this footage, but shoot the documentary footage two weeks from today. It will be a blustery fall-winter day, and our plan is to follow a day from harvesting to (indoor winter) marketing. More details as they happen!

Later in the day, I went to a free film screening at doc films. I had heard quite a bit about the brand new documentary The Garden from my foodie/farmie friends, and I was thrilled to hear doc would be screening it for free! I love all these freebies lately (last night I went to see Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile for free through U Chicago Presents), but I would’ve paid to see this film.

Here is a little blurb from their website on the backstory:

The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country’s most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community.

But after just two weeks of filming for what would’ve been a purely positive documentary, this garden faced the threat of eviction via eminent domain rights of the City of Los Angeles. The story quickly becomes political, as we watch the underhanded techniques of a privileged few impact this poor community. Many of the community gardeners take to action when they are threatened with eviction, and the film exquisitely lays out the history, characters and events that transpire. Today, there is no garden and the lot remains vacant, but the passion and solidarity of the South Central Farmers is inspirational and educational for anyone involved in food/agriculture activism.

I had the chance to speak with Scott Hamilton Kennedy for a bit after his q&a following the screening, and mentioned my various film projects. He was very encouraging and offered a few words of advice, namely to keep chugging through even when you feel like you hit a brick wall. Timely advice considering my various obstacles these past weeks!

The film premiered at the LA Film Festival, and won Best Documentary at SILVERDOCS. I also just joined their facebook fan group, but that’s because I’m a facedork like that…Check out these videos on youtube to learn more, and see the movie!

Speaking of movies, I’m about to go see Let the Right One In downtown, whee!

A note on the other side of what you consume: the liquids. Check out this article I just read about Midwestern wines. It referred me to the Drink Local Wine idea, which I’ve heard about (and participated in) more in the last years.

As a Michigander, I consider myself lucky in the realms of local adult drinks. At Michigan State University, a number of my friends and I got into beer brewing and wine making. Most of it turned out awesome, and some of it was pretty questionable. My friend Jay referred me to the Alaskan Bootleggers Bible for inspiration and technique. It doesn’t get much more local than your own kitchen, right?

Luke knows how to brew up a storm

Every year when I was young we would make a trip to Uncle John’s Cider Mill, especially in October to get a pumpkin from their patch and visit the haunted barn! A few years before I turned 21 they opened their own Fruit House Winery, adding tasty wines, hard ciders, and sparkling drinks to their more kid-friendly ciders. My favorite is the Fruit House Red, as I’m not too wild about sweeter wines.

While in France a few years ago, my friends would laugh every time I mentioned Michigan’s wine industry. But there are plenty of delicious and affordable wines around these parts. Last summer a few friends and I went up to the “pinky” of Michigan’s mitten, and I was impressed and surprised at the wealth of vineyards and wineries. We had a great time with friends who were all growing food or making wine, among other things. I’ll keep this limited to the drink-related places on that trip:

• Brian works at Chateau Chantal, a B&B/winery/vineyard with incredible views of the Grand Traverse Bays. We got a tour and a private tasting, yum
• Christin works at 2 Lads, an uber-modern winery that utilizes gravity-flow processing to save energy and to handle the delicate wines with greater care. Another tour and tasting (and yes, we visited one winery after another)
• Andy (former SOFer) works at Peninsula Cellars, a landmark winery with a fabulous Cab Franc…and I’m told they have a good Pinot Noir, but I’m not really into that Earthy flavor thang…

The region was, at the time in early June 2008, bouncing back from a late and devastating frost. It hit the vineyards pretty hard, particularly the ones on flatter (rather than hilly) plots of land. We’ll see how the wines from 2008 fare after this early trauma.

While I’m still new to Chicago, I recently tried August Hill’s Hieland Red, and it was a deep rich (nearly figgy, but dry) blend that inspires me to try more of their wines. This winery is about 90 miles Southwest of Chicago, and I’m keeping my eyes peeled for other local drinks. And of course, my friends, this isn’t limited to wine.

My favorite local adult beverage of late has been the delectably hoppy Harvest Ale from Goose Island. While the Goosey beers are plentiful and quite local, I’m surprised at the lack of other local breweries. Am I missing something? I checked out the Illinois Beer page, but I haven’t heard of any of the listed beers from Illinois. Further investigation at my local liquor store is on the way!

Perhaps I have been spoiled in Michigan, surrounded with so many delicious local microbrews that I have been blind to the virtual tastybeer famine going on even in the great state of Illinois. Michigan has its own Brewers Guild, and you can check out the locations on their interactive map. Close to my heart is the Michigan Brewing Company, who (rumor has it) will be opening a new brewpub in Lansing, my hometown and the capital city. Hoorah! Bell’s is also famous far and wide, for the beer and the great brewery venue.

But enough about Michigan! I want to drink local Chicagoland beverages as much as possible. Suggestions?

I was listening to NPR this morning when I heard a clip about this story from the Chicago Reporter. The article highlights some issues facing the sustainable food concept here in Chicago: namely, that of ACCESS. Whose neighborhoods are served by groceries, markets, and food co-ops that offer organic food? How sustainable is organic food if it isn’t socially sustainable? The authors hit on the very real disproportionate access to good food in Chicago.

Of the 77 communities and 209 grocery stores in the Chicago Reporter’s study, the white communities represented less than 1/3 of the population, yet had 2/3 of the organic stores. Particularly outrageous to me was that

The Midwest’s largest distributor of organic food, Goodness Greeness, is located in Englewood. The company ships organic produce to 1,200 to 1,500 grocery stores across the nation. Ironically, none of them are in Englewood.

The story is not all doom and gloom, however, as it focused on how some Chicago farms, gardens, and organizations are working towards more equal access to good food. The article also said that many black communities have farmers markets offering organic foods. It was exciting to realize that 61st St Market represents both of the projects given as examples in the article: Gods Gang and Growing Power. I’m looking forward to getting more involved in this market and other sustainable food projects here in the south side of Chicago…