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?

Greetings! I am thrilled to be one of the bloggers for Sustainable Farmer, and in fact this is my first blogsperience so I have that first-day-of-school anticipation and excitement too! Let me get this ball rolling by introducing myself:

At the Berkeley Farmers Market

I’m a 22 year old living in Hyde Park, on the South side of Chicago. I was born and raised in the Midwest, and darn proud of it! My dad comes from a farming family in the Midwest, and my mom comes from an Iranian family, so I was lucky to be raised on mostly homecooked Persian meals and fresh herbs from the garden. Food is the stongest tie I have to my Persian heritage, and I am proud to say that I’ve learned countless recipes and techniques from my mom and her family. Beyond my mom and dad, I need to give some shoutouts to my mentors and friends at MSU!

Yet until I entered the RISE program at Michigan State University, I was never really conscious of the complex path between farms and my belly. With the guidance of Laurie Thorp, my passionate and wise adviser and mentor, I joined a student group called the Ecological Food and Farm Stewardship. Through EFFS, I started volunteering on MSU’s Student Organic Farm, helped set up MSU’s first on-campus Organic Farm Stand, co-organized dozens of events, and met a new community. The group of people involved with the student group and the SOF included students, faculty, researchers, CSA members, and hundreds of kids and adults who come to the farm each year for hands-on education.

Mountain of salad greens for CSA

During the summer of 2006 I did an intensive internship at SOF, working hard every day in the fields and hoophouses, going on trips to other farms and sustainable institutions, leading kids on tours at the farm, and eating the fruits of our labor. Big shoutouts to Corie Pierce, Jeremy Moghtader and Jay Tomczak for having unique and complementary styles that helped push us as interns, but gave me a far deeper educational experience than I’ve ever had in a classroom. Never before had I felt so connected to a community, to the land, and to the food I was eating. My experiences at SOF continue to impact my life profoundly, and I have watched the farm change and evolve just as my life has blossomed with more purpose and energy. I shall write more about the SOF, the inspirational people involved, and all their exciting projects in coming posts!

So I finished up my Honors Bachelor of Science at MSU in Environmental Policy from the IDS department - this major allowed me to structure my own curriculum and focus on what mattered most to me. My cognate (MSU’s fancy word for minor) was in Anthropology, which allowed me to look at the human side of environmental policy, particularly in sustainable agriculture issues. My anthropology mentor Laura DeLind helped me sift through the complexities of how CULTURE fits into AGRICULTURE. She also helped me find a fitting way to round off my bachelors, by spending my last semester in France studying various aspects of sustainable food production. Jim Bingen leads the program, and helped me in countless ways with his guidance and research expertise. I stayed in France for the remaining two months of summer 2007, traveling and wwoofing on various organic farms in the Southwest and East sides of the country. It’s amazing how quickly you can learn a language if you live with French families! And amazing how quickly you can forget if you don’t make an effort to study after leaving france:P

The view from my room…my first wwoof experience!

From August 2007-May 2008 I lived in Trinidad and Tobago, where I researched the networks and policies around organic agriculture through a US Fulbright Grant. I will write more in future posts, but this was my first research experience, and my first truly independent taste of life. Thousands of miles away from home, I spent my days reading up on history, meeting with groups of farmers and marketers, helping organize various events with an organic shop, and making a handful of very close friends. Two of my close friends are bloggers themselves, Gillian and Elspeth, and both of these strong women infinitely enriched my experiences in T&T. I was interviewed for a podcast that Fulbright does, and I presented some of my research at the Caribbean Food Crops Society’s annual meeting. Living in the Caribbean for a year impacted my life in ways I hadn’t expected, and I’ll certainly be posting more on this later!

Prepared local organic lunch at Sun Eaters Organics

Earlier this summer my travels took me up to California for a few weeks, then up to Oregon and later to Seattle and nearby Vashon Island. My boyfriend Matt and I made the trip by train, and throughout the month we visited dozens of places working through various means towards a more sustainable future for agriculture, energy, the environment and human well-being. I brought a video camera with me and I’m finishing up some editing this week, so you can look forward to some visual bites in the near future!

Last week I started the Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago, an intense nine-month whirlwind of theory, methods, and research where each student constructs their own unique program. I’m focusing on Anthropology, Caribbean studies, and -of course- food and agriculture. Living in Hyde Park for only a month now, I’m already falling in love with this community and finding my niche in the city. I’ve been going to a farmers market every week at 52nd and Harpers, and I’m planning on visiting the Experimental Station to check out their urban garden, farmers market, other projects and all the people who are helping make this happen. Learning about shooting and editing documentary films is another goal for the year. Fire Escape Films, a student group at U Chicago, seems to offer the perfect venue for this endeavor. My first project is already in the works, but I’ll leave you wondering about this for now:o)

I’m off to class now, but hopefully this is a good snapshot of where I’m coming from. When you come to read my blog, you can expect a mix of news about food and agriculture and my experiences with sustainable food. I also want to declare a new word to enter the foodie lexicon - YARDEN - it’s a home/kitchen garden in your yard. I’ve seen (and eaten from) plenty.

Enjoy the last weeks of warm weather everyone! I’m looking forward to autumn colors and biking in scarves and mittens:o)