Geneva Green Market: Geneva, Illinois - A Local Food Green Farmers Market

Aurora Library to host Rick Bayless cooking demonstration at Paramount Theater.

Award-winning Chicago chef, restaurateur, cookbook author and television personality Rick Bayless will appear at Aurora’s Paramount Theatre on Sept. 13 for a cooking demonstration, tasting and book signing.

The Aurora Public Library is hosting the program featuring two chefs who specialize in Latin cooking to highlight Hispanic Heritage Month. The event will begin at 1 p.m. when Chicago chef Dudley Nieto takes the stage to speak about regional differences in Mexican cooking.

Bayless, star of public televisions Mexico One Plate at a Time, will demonstrate his trademark Mexican cooking peppered with stories about the dishes he is preparing, his travels to Mexico, and the history behind the traditional Mexican recipes he loves.

Tickets will be available beginning Friday, Aug. 8. Read More…

Humidity isn’t the only thing that August has to offer in Kane and Dupage County. Come and check out a new variety of fresh produce available at the market! Here’s a short list of the fruits and vegetable available in August from Dekalb County, Dupage County, Kane County and Kendall County farms:

Vegetables:

• Cauliflower
• Corn
• Cucumbers
• Green beans
• Onions
• Squashes
• Zucchini

Fruits:

• Apples
• Berries
• Melons
• Tomatoes

Packing school lunches in reusable lunchboxes protects our environment from unnecessary waste, but it is also important to protect our children from food containers that are potentially harmful. Along with avoiding plastic-leaching #7 water bottles, we must now look for lead-free lunchboxes. Back in February 2007, the Boston Globe reported that while the Consumer Product Safety Commission told consumers that the amount of lead in found in vinyl lunchboxes was safe, the specialists that actually performed the tests were alarmed by the lead levels found in 20% of the lunchboxes that were tested. The CPSC’s argument was that food is rarely in direct contact with the lunchboxes and children are not likely to put their mouths directly on the boxes. Words such as “rarely” and “not likely” imply that there is a chance that children could be exposed to hazardous levels of lead if parents and children do not handle their toxic lunchbox properly. Although it is common sense that children should not lick their lunchbox, it makes even more sense to store food a non-toxic container.

There are inexpensive products available at www.leadcheck.com to test lunchboxes that you already own, but if you need to purchase new lunchboxes the Center for Environmental Health recommends avoiding vinyl altogether.  In the wake of these findings the FDA urges consumers to switch to paper bags as an alternative, but choosing between the environment and health is unnecessary. At www.reusablebags.com a number of lead-free, environmentally friendly bags are available.

The Kane County Chronicle did a cover story featuring the Fox Valley Farmers Markets and local food on August 8, 2008 entitled Think Local, Eat Local: Fueled by‚ buy local trend, farmers markets remain popular choice, by Jonathan Bilyk:

For more than 25 years, she and her husband, Phil, had hawked their homegrown produce at the Downers Grove farmers market.

But as fuel costs grew, the couple, owners of Stojan Produce in Maple Park, had to cut one of their weekly market appearances loose.

And Downers Grove was the one to go this year, swapped for a weekly appearance at the Campton Hills open-air market.

So, Stojan said she is happy to see that business at the other seven markets at which she and her husband vend their produce – including the markets in St. Charles, Batavia and Elburn – appears to be holding steady or, in some instances, picking up this year.

“We seem to be going along smoothly,” Stojan said. Read More…

The Chicago Tribune August 6, 2008 Good Eating section featured an article entitled Roadside Americana: The farm stand has a place in our hearts- and we’re happy to report, on MapQuest too by Emily Nunn:

And with the help of readers, who sent us their favorites by e-mail and post (see list), we headed straight to two contrasting but charming examples of what “farm stand” (and even “family farm”) can mean today.

Now, we have hope for an America that cares more about farming to feed its people than farming to feed its cars.At the suggestion of Mary Ann Schwarzbach of Geneva, we drove 35 miles from the heart of Chicago past the modern menagerie of big brand-name stores, through affluent lanes of Lincolnshire to a different land altogether, to Prairie View, where we paid a surprise visit to Mary Sue Didier and her son, John, at Didier Farms.

They are part of a family that has hung on through two World Wars, the Great Depression, the land squeeze of suburban sprawl and the precipitous rise of global agribusiness giants like Cargill (whose profits from commodity trading for the first quarter of 2008 were 86 percent higher than the same period in 2007). Which is something special, because since the 1940s, the number of farms has dropped to 2 million from 6 million Read More…

Curds and Whey Cheese Company owner, Rob Murphy, works directly with cheese makers to bring outstanding regional, artisan and select international cheeses and butter to Geneva. One submission to vitalinfo at AOL raves, “Curds and Whey is as well stocked as any cheese stand I know. Rob is passionate and extraordinarily knowledgeable. His stock is not wholly focused on local cheeses, but is almost entirely focused on artisan and farmhouse cheeses. As such he has several local cheeses.” For this Oak Park resident Curds and Whey was well worth the hour drive.

Murphy’s commitment to quality cheeses has led him to value dairy products that have come from grass-fed, hormone-free cows. He now carries Sassy Cow Creamery Farmstead Organic Milk, which is a small family-owned dairy farm and creamery located right outside of Madison, Wisconsin. Log on to sassycowcreamery.com to read how this up-and-coming organic dairy farm meets Murphy’s high standards. Curds and Whey is Geneva’s own trustworthy dairy supplier. To find out just how much of a genuine asset that is log on to cornucopia.org, where you will find accurate and detailed information on many of the organic dairy suppliers in the nation.

The Chicago Tribune August 1, 2008 Metro section featured an article on the 3rd Annual Veggie Fest, a two day community event, the largest event of this kind in Chicagoland, expected to draw 10,000 people in Naperville Illinois.

Enjoy delicious healthy food, live bands, and great talks from professionals. Visit the vendors and pick up valuable information on healthy living. Discover something new about your own health by participating in on site screenings. All of this with no admission charge and free drawings for prizes.

• Children programs-face paintings, crafts, singing
• Live music‚ bluegrass, folk, jazz and latino
• Cooking demonstrations with sampling
• Health talks by medical experts
• 40 food vendors-restaurants-exhibitors
• 11 health-education booths
• Blood pressure, lung capacity, body fat, & sugar level measurements

Read More…

Summer season is here and the Geneva Green Market is in full swing.  The month of July in the Fox Valley growing region offers a wide variety of produce that will tantalize your taste buds and diversify your garden.  Come to the market to find fresh, local food to enhance your every-day meals! Here’s a brief sample of the fruits and vegetable available in July from Dekalb County, Dupage County, Kane County and Kendall County Illinois farms:

Veggies:

• Beans
• Bell peppers
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Eggplant
• Onions
• Radishes
• Squash

Fruits:

• Blueberries
• Cherries
• Peaches
• Raspberries

The Chicago Tribune featured a cover story with Chef Jeremy Lycan, of Niche Restaurant and vendor Heritage Prairie entitled “Support Your Local Farmer - Movement to eat food grown within 100 miles of home is gaining traction” in the July 6, 2008 issue:

Growing concern about such “food miles” has inspired many consumers to become locavores.

Betsy Zinser, 44, of Batavia began her pursuit of locally grown food two years ago after finding that a bag of broccoli in her freezer was produced in China.

Deri Gray, 47, a dedicated locavore in Geneva, said the ability to trace her food to its origin has given her peace of mind, particularly while health officials have been focused on tomatoes as they probe a nationwide salmonella outbreak.

“I knew right away the tomatoes I got here wouldn’t be tainted,” Gray said outside the Heritage Prairie Market in Elburn. “It hasn’t been touched commercially, so there’s nobody in between contaminating it with any disease.”

Many locavores cite a different reason for their dietary decision: Locally grown food is fresher, more nutritious and tastes better. That may explain why many chefs in the Chicago area’s trendiest restaurants feature locally grown ingredients.

“We’re finally getting back to craving the flavor and textures of produce that’s extremely fresh,” said Jeremy Lycan, chef at Niche Restaurant in Geneva.

Lycan gets his rib-eye from Dietzler Farms, a 750-acre farm in Walworth County, Wis., about 65 miles from his restaurant. And he gets garlic and beets from Heritage Prairie Market.

The New York Times featured an article on the trend of local food and community supported agriculture, or CSA, entitled “Shoppers buy slices of farms” by Susan Saulny in the July 10, 2008 edition. Highlighted in the piece was Geneva Green Market vendor Erehwon Farms:

“The CSA provides a base that’s certain, and we get the money when we need to spend the money,” said Beth Propst, who farms the fields at Erehwon, using the abbreviation for community-supported agriculture. “Having the money upfront and guaranteed, that gets us through at least the beginning of the season.”

Tim Fuller, Propst’s longtime companion and business partner in running the farm, said: “People are coming to us. We do very little marketing except for explaining what we do. It’s amazing.”

With a wry smile, Fuller said he considers himself both personal farmer and personal trainer, because shareholders under his direction are going to break a sweat.

“There’s always pressure on,” he said. “This is a complicated business, growing so many crops. We do everything by hand for more than 100 different crops.”

“I think people are becoming more local-minded…” said Nichole Nazelrod, program coordinator at the Fulton Center for Sustainable Living at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, a national clearinghouse for community-supported farms. “People are seeing ways to come together and work together to make this successful.”

Cattleana Ranch in Omro, Wisconsin, Thomas and Susan Wrchota offer grass fed meat and organic produce through a community-supported arrangement.

“We don’t do millions in revenue, but we make a living, which is rare,” he said. “Our goal is to provide a full portfolio of products for folks who want sustainable products. Up until about five years ago, we had to do a tremendous amount of guerrilla marketing. The consumer who is interested now, they’re doing their homework. They know the health and taste benefits.”

Some shareholders said they found the arrangement a bargain compared to grocery shopping… Most agreed that the urge to buy and spend locally to avoid the costs and environmental degradation that come with shipping and storage was behind the decision to join. Shareholders can pick up their goods at the farm or at a store across the street.

“From a ‘going green’ standpoint, it’s an appropriate thing to do,” said Gerard Brill, a musician who bought a share of Erehwon. “Like everything organic, it’s not a bargain, but what price do you put on being healthy? Considering all things, it’s actually a very good deal.”