Chefs Cleetus Friedman, Patrick Sheerin, Jr, and Jeremy Lycan have a couple of common denominators:  they are chefs, they are successful at their craft and they use local food in their restaurants. They are coming together to share their wisdom with local farmers about the local food movement in providing the freshest, most nutritional food to the guests that dine at their establishments.

The three Chefs are participating as a panel in the Farm Forum sponsored by the Geneva Green Market, NFP. The panel is to share with the audience (farmers and chefs) successes and challenges of using locally grown specially crops in their menus. The GGM, NFP is bringing farmers and chefs together to discuss how it is effective to utilize locally grown specially crops, meats and dairy. This is a free event to farmers and local chefs and restaurateur owners.

After meet and greet we will be excusing the chefs and speaking directly with the farmers who would like to having a booth at any farmers market.  Laurell Sims of Growing Power Chicago will present what make a successful stand at a farmers market.

What: Farm Forum sponsor by the Geneva Green Market, NFP
When: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 starting at 8:30 am
Where: First Congregational Church of Geneva, 321 Hamilton Street Geneva, IL 60134-2148
Who: Open to all chefs/farmers/restaurant owners in Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane, Will, McHenry, Kendall, and Lake Counties

Forum Layout:
-8:30 am to 9 am meet and greet/ coffee-muffins served
-9 am to 10 am chefs panel
-10 am to 10:30 meet & greet exchange of info between farmer & chef (fast-dating style)
-10:30 am to 11:30 am Growing Power
-12:00 questions and wrap-up

The Geneva Green Market, NFP group is devoted to education of the health-giving nature of locally grown food, local sustainability, and conservation of resources.

Refreshments served, please call/email to RSVP to reserve.

Call 630.208.9321 or email GGM. NFP

The 2010 FamilyFarmed Expo is a mere week away. It’s been coined as “The Midwest’s Premier Local Food Event” and may eventually become the nations local food event at the rate it’s growing. The Expo is spread out over three days of carefully crafted events that are designed to connect local family farms and artisan food producers to connect with consumers and trades business.

The Expo kicks off on Thursday, March 11th as the first ever Farm to Fork Conference takes place. This conference was put together along with FamilyFarmed and the University of Chicago Business School. This daylong conference has been designed to educate investors and farmers. Also, food processors will learn about local food opportunities.

Friday is another packed day that will feature a local food trade show. A screening of the movie Fresh that is being sponsored by the Geneva Green Market, NFP and concludes in the evening with the highly anticipated Localicious Party.  This year in conjunction with Expo will also be the 5th Annual Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council Summit (CFPAC); Growing Healthy Food Systems: Block by Block.

At the summit learn, strategize and connect with others who are all Growing Healthy Food Systems, Block by Block!

- Activate your neighborhood council
- Contribute to a policy-working group
- Share a delicious meal
- Hear from Roots of Change President Michael Dimock

Working Groups Sessions include (descriptions and facilitator information available at familyfarmed.org):

•    Greening the Food Desert
•    Healthy Food for All
•    Chicago Storm water as Resource
•    Land Use Policy for Urban Agriculture in Chicago
•    Food Access/Farmers Markets
•    Healthy Corner Stores
•    Youth and Good Food
•    The Illinois Fresh Food Fund & Civic Engagement 101

Michael Dimock, President of Roots of Change (ROC),  This will offer a great opportunity to hear from a leading policy expert from California and learn how we can encourage similar policy initiatives in Chicagoland!

The ROC network includes a dozen foundations, 400 hundred innovative nonprofit, business and government leaders, 25,000 Californians, and 10,000 residents of other states. Since 2007, ROC has injected or attracted $6.9 million to spawn a future-oriented agriculture and food production chain in California appropriate for the 21st Century. In 2008-9 ROC managed the San Francisco Urban-Rural Roundtable, which led to Mayor Gaven Newsom’s Executive Directive on Healthy Food for San Francisco. This groundbreaking policy has reoriented city policy and planning to focus on hunger, urban agriculture and healthy, sustainable and regional food sourcing for city institutions and restaurants. A second ROC-supported Urban-Rural Roundtable began in February 2010 in Los Angeles to support Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s intention to create a healthy food policy for that city.

Locally sourced light breakfast, hot lunch and snacks will be provided for CFPAC attendees.

Consumer Day is on Saturday. Featured will be cooking demos from celebrity chefs, educational seminars and an interactive Kids Corner.  Exhibitors offer a wide selection of local food, gifts and useful information to help you eat locally and healthy year-round.

Online registration is still ongoing through Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 ~ There are a variety of ticket options available. Save $10 by registering prior to the event! To register visit Brown Paper Tickets or

Location: UIC Forum 725 West Roosevelt Road, Chicago IL 60607

Earlier this month, the Illinois State Beekeepers Association (ISBA) announced it is supporting Illinois state legislature on Senate Bill 2959. Senator Dave Luechtefeld introduced the bill in January of this year to recognize raw, unadulterated honey as an agricultural commodity. The ISBA is working with the state to recognize the unique properties of honey and to aid in eliminating burdensome regulations upon Illinois beekeepers.

Honey, in its pure and untainted form, is a healthy farm product possessing documented anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. It is used around the world as a wound dressing because of its antibacterial nature. Honey is a natural sweetener preferred by many as their sweet of choice Read more

• Who: Rick Belding, of Chicago Botanic Garden
• What: Organic Cultivation of Backyard Apple Trees
• When: Sunday, February 21, 2010, 2:00pm
• Where: The Conservation Foundation (Historic Clow House), 10S404 Knoch Knolls Road, Naperville, Illinois

Slow Food Cityʼs Edge is pleased to present Rick Belding, pioneering orchardist and head of the fruit and vegetable collection at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Rick will provide specific information on methods and formulations used in the organic care of Chicago Botanic Gardenʼs apple orchards. His insightful presentation will provide homeowners with the requisite information on how to grow Americaʼs favorite fruit in their own backyard. Rick is a leader and a generous educator and with the knowledge gained at his presentation we will be able to continue the work of the Slow Food movement to preserve countless varieties of heirloom apples.

Come prepared to learn and taste an heirloom apple treat. We will also make some varieties of heirloom apple trees available for sale and future pickup…

Tickets may be purchased directly from Brown Paper Tickets for $20 – Event ID 96757 http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/96757

For additional information, contact: info [at] slowfoodcitysedge [dot] org

February is Fiber-aury month at the Community Winter Market. Rivendell Alpacas has been joining us each week with examples of their handmade quality fiber goods; from raw fibers to spin and beginner’s kits to assorted handmade products such as mittens, hats, slippers and beautiful scarves and toasty blankets. They have also been doing talks and small demos while offering sign-up and information for additional instruction, either privately or class setting.

Rivendell Alpacas started in 2000 when Jill and Gordon Muirhead moved from California to Gordon’s family farm in Plato Center, IL. Jill was already serious about alpacas and learning everything she could when the opportunity to start Rivendell Alpacas presented itself. Asked how they came up with the name they said it was in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: “Rivendell was a safe place for the elves. We want our agisters to know that it is a safe place for the alpacas as well.”

Alpacas, though not native, are being productively raised and enjoyed throughout North America. They produce some of the world’s finest and most luxurious natural fibers. Fiber, which, is said to be almost indestructible and yet be healthy (being hypoallergenic and lavishly soft) and comfortable to wear due to the absence of the scratchy “prickle” with many other fibers. Furthermore, alpacas produce fleece that is available in over twenty colors with many variations. Having this astounding natural spectrum delights those that work with alpacas as it eliminates any need for dyeing. By removing this step from the process it further protects the fiber and enhances it’s resilience, softness and flexibility.

Rivendell Alpaca Farm can have over twenty alpacas at any given time. Though they do not wish to expand their herd far beyond that so that they can train the alpacas to be “human friendly”. Each fury friend has a name which one might come upon in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings “real” Rivendell. How do all the alpacas stay safe and secure you might be wondering. Francesca, the llama, is on guard duty and has proven herself a valuable protector.

Water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen and is essential for all known forms of life. Without there is no life. We need water to drink, to wash our hands, to cook, to water plants and many other things. Water is the most abundant liquid on Earth. It covers more than 70% of the earth’s surface. The earth’s supply of water is constantly being recycled. It is evaporated from the oceans by the sun and is given off by the forests. The vapor condenses into clouds, which rain out onto the land. The land water runs off into the lakes and rivers, which then run back to the seas, and the cycle is complete. The total amount of water on Earth, in the form of oceans, lakes, rivers, clouds, polar ice, etc.

Below are two reports that discuss the issues facing the water supply:

The Syngenta Corporation & Atrazine: The Cost to the Land, People and Democracy by the Land Stewardship Project and Pesticide Action Network North America January 2010 (under breaking news), visit http://www.landstewardshipproject.org

Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use: the First Thirteen Years by Author Charles Benbrook, PH.D., Chief Scientist the Organic Center, visit http://www.organic-center.org

Community Supported Agriculture consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community’s farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production.

Typically, members or “share-holders” of the farm or garden pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer’s salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm’s bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production. Members also share in the risks of farming, including poor harvests due to unfavorable weather or pests. By direct sales to community members, who have provided the farmer with working capital in advance, growers receive better prices for their crops, gain some financial security, and are relieved of much of the burden of marketing. Read more

AT one time specialty fruits/vegetables were defined as vegetables and/or herbs that were not traditionally grown in the U.S. but were imported to the U.S. or were grown in the US, although on a limited scale. Specialty vegetables were also referred to as exotic, unusual, world vegetables, and/or high-value crops.

On the United States Department of Agriculture’s website the definition of Specialty Crops is stated as follows:

The Specialty Crop Competitiveness Act of 2004 and the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 have defined specialty crops as “fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops (including floriculture).” Eligible plants must be intensively cultivated and used by people for food, medicinal purposes, and/or aesthetic gratification to be considered specialty crops.

Specialty vegetables are sometimes called the “eccentric ones”. What may be common to some couldn’t be more foreign  to someone else. They can, and often are, oddly colored, shaped or shaped (at times all three). Others you can’t tell apart till the first sample. Specialty crops can be often difficult to grow, can be  grown out of season, or are “foreign” to where they are grown. They may be miniatures or heirlooms or vegetables prized by epicurean cooks. Despite all their differences what they all can have in common, besides being somehow unusual, is that they often command a higher price than their ordinary counterparts. Specialty vegetables are in greatly increasing in demand. Read more

Who: 5th Annual CFPAC Summit
What: Growing Healthy Food Systems: Block by Block
Where: UIC Forum – University of Illinois at Chicago
When: Friday, March 12th 2010, 8:00am-5:00pm

Please join us at the 5th Annual Chicago Food Policy Summit to learn, strategize and connect with others who are all Growing Healthy Food Systems, Block by Block!

• Activate your neighborhood council
• Contribute to a policy working group
• Share a delicious meal
• Guest Participant: Michael Dimock, Roots of Change

Online registrations has begun!
to purchase tickets: http://www.familyfarmedexpo.com/foodpolicysummit/summittickets.html

$40.00 donation covers cost of Summit
$60.00 donation covers Summit + Advertising space in program
$100.00 donation covers Summit + Family Farmed Localicious Party
(limited scholarships are available – become a sponsor to help offer additional scholarships!)

Scholarship Information and Questions? info [at] chicagofoodpolicy [dot] org
For more details and to view the schedule visit: www.chicagofoodpolicy.org <http://www.chicagofoodpolicy.org/>

Hope to see you there!

–
The Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council (CFPAC) facilitates the development of responsible policies that improve access for Chicago residents to culturally appropriate, nutritionally sound, and affordable food that is grown through environmentally sustainable practices.

Chefs and localvores have long been singing the praises of farm-fresh eggs and most can’t imagine having any other then free-range from the farm. Ask a chef and a localvore what makes them loyal to farm fresh eggs you’d probably get two different answers.  Chefs tend to favor the texture, freshness and richness of golden hues. Where a localvore might initially focus more on how the eggs were raised. The chickens are outdoors in the pasture where they are free to roam at their leisure, get all the sunshine they want. As well as freely forage for there own food of grasses, worms and insects, all while enjoying the breezes of the season.

Most farmers that raise free-range chickens have movable pens or houses for their chickens. These “pastures” are moved from place to place giving the chickens fresh grazing areas on a regular basis. With this set up, the chickens will have some protection from predators.  What about antibiotics and hormones you ask? Antibiotic-free means that the chickens were never fed antibiotics at anytime in their life.  Chickens do not need antibiotics to grow and be healthy. Chickens raise their own resistance by being a their natural environment. Farmers focus on good husbandry (breeding and caring for farm animals ) practices such as sanitation. All chickens are hormone-free. Despite numerous marketing and labeling statements by many egg producers, hormones have not been used in the poultry industry for over 50 years. So whether you see a carton of eggs that have “hormone-free” on it or not be assured that the the eggs are hormone-free. Read more