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 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

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. SB 2959 will ensure beekeepers the ability to maintain their bee colonies that serve a critical role as pollinators to Illinois crops. The pass of SB 2959 would further support Illinois economic networking between beekeepers and consumers at the local level

The Illinois State Beekeepers Association is appealing to the support of the citizens of Illinois and asks them to call upon their respective State Senators to support SB 2959. If you need help identifying who they are, following the instructions at District Locater to identify them.

If you would like to track the status of the bills as they move through the legislature on the bill number and you will be shown the current status.

Illinois Senate Bill 2959

House Bill 6132

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

A day of workshops and speakers which will bring us together – leaders, volunteers, students, advocates, cooks, gardeners, and greenies of all shades. Come share your ideas and work together!

• meet other Fox River Valley environmental groups and volunteers so that we can help each other and work together more effectively in our missions
• hear experts in various fields so we become more knowledgeable,
• find inspiration and motivation

Please visit Greenbatavia.org for more information

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.

There’s a new, huge movement rolling through Kane County and beyond. Throughout our communities, locals have become ecstatic for year round farm-fresh, regional foods and recipes. Finding viable, fresh alternatives to repetitive grocery store products has become high on our list!

The Geneva Green Market, the leader in providing local food options for foodies and chefs, announces the launch of a book discussion series — Green Chatter Matters! Here, locals will find green chatter about what matters -from environment, farming, local food and economy, and sustainability. The current selection “The Seasons on Henry’ s Farm” by Terra Brockman promises to be full of mindful, mouthwatering morsels about great food grown by people near you. Future books will be selectively chosen on a variety of green subjects.

Join us as we kick off the first Green Chatter Matters, on Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 7 p.m. at Inglenook Pantry. Ms. Brockman will entertain us with family stories, literary and scientific reflections, and week-to-week farm events, from her most recent work, The Seasons on Henry’s Farm. If you have yet to get your copy of this engaging read additional copies will be available for purchase at the Community Winter Market on Saturdays January 23 and 30. Make sure to get your copy autographed on Tuesday.

In her book, Ms. Brockman takes readers on a journey through a year in the life of small-scale farmers committed to producing healthy, nutritious food in a way that enriches the land for generations to come. Ms. Brockman appeals to all who not only eat to live, but who live to eat.

For further information or questions about the February 2, 2010 Green Chatter Matters, hosted by the Geneva Green Market, email us genevagreenmarket [at] gmail [dot] com.

• Get an intimate look at what real local farming is about.
• Learn how to grow food without pesticides.
• Get an appreciation for the seasons week by week.
• Deliciously accompanied by seasonal recipes.

Pick up your copy to today at www.terrabrockman.com.

Please drop us a line at genevagreenmarket [at] gmail [dot] com to let us know your coming or facebook at geneva green market, nfp.

Through engaging family stories, literary and scientific reflections, and week-to-week farm events, The Seasons on Henry’s Farm is a mindful and mouthwatering invitation to eat great food grown by people near you. By taking readers on a journey through a year in the life of small-scale farmers committed to producing healthy, nutritious food in a way that enriches the land for generations to come, Terra Brockman appeals to all who not only eat to live, but who live to eat.

Terra Brockman Writer. Speaker. Food and Farm. In 2002, she founded The Land Connection, a nonprofit working to save farmland, train new sustainable farmers, and connect consumers with fresh local foods. It all started when a For Sale sign appeared near Terra’s family farm one late spring day in 2002. The following year TLC was successfully able to save it’s first parcel of IL farmland. As posted on there website:

The Land Connection envisions community-based food systems in the Midwest,
in which every farmer has the opportunity to grow food in a sustainable manner, and every person has the choice to enjoy local and organic foods.

As part of there fund raising efforts, The Land Connection publishes a
stunningly photographed wall calendar containing fascinating fun facts about gardening, agriculture, and food history with plenty of room to fill in your own events and facts.

This Saturday, come meet Terra and get a copy The Season’s on Henry’s Farm. The Land Connection calendars will be available as well. They make great gifts, and don’t forget to pick copies for yourself while your too. Fresh vegetables from Henry’s farm will also be available.

We guarantee it will be one of the best hams you ever tasted. Winter market and vegetables? Yes! –and plenty of them. Tables overflowing with fresh, locally grown vegetables from the traditional root crops to tender leaf greens, salad mix and micro greens. You’ll have to see it to believe it. Homemade fresh baked goods with seasonal flavors; Holiday spice pound cake, honey pecan rolls, French baguettes and other breads, spiced pecans and almonds.

Wine Time (http://winetimegenevail.com) of Geneva will be sampling wines. The temperature may be cold and dreary outdoors but at the Community Winter Market it’s cozy and alive. There is too much to list it all. So if you haven’t been by the Community Winter Market yet, stop on by and say hello.

Still at a loss with what to get the foodie people in your life, dedicated environmentalist, or finding just the right something to help someone who doesn’t know, or isn’t sure, how and where they can eat more locally and get product. Determined to be an eco-conscious gift giver this season? Choosing appropriate gifts for the people on one’s list can be challenging enough. Introduce them to a Geneva Green Market, NFP (http://www.genevagreenmarket.org/about-us/membership) with a Geneva Green Market, NFP Membership.

There are several membership levels to choose: seed, planting, sprouting, growing, harvest and Geneva Green Market Benefactor. Membership contributions help support educational demos, lectures and programs. Some of the benefits that GGM, NFP members get are discounts and specials to classes and events and local merchants that are only available through a GGM, NFP membership. Geneva Green Market, NFP Membership: the gift that keeps on giving all around.

Terra Madre Day – or Mother Earth Day- took place December 10th, 2009. All over the planet countries big and small and people from all corners hosted and participated in a wide range of actions and activities at the, first ever, Terra Madre Day.

It was a day of education, sharing and taking pleasure in the bio-diversity around us. Over 1000 events took place globally which ranged from shopping at local farmer’s markets to community festivals and community meals, demonstration’s, film presentations, picnics, exhibits, workshops, seminars, speakers, rallies, seed exchanges and seed preservation, planting, preserving food and preparing food based on food traditions, slow food and the slow food ark and many, many more.

Terra Madre is an expansive network of food communities that are devoted to producing quality food in a responsible, sustainable way (much like our ancestors did). In Torino, Italy there is a major bi-annual conference put on by Terra Madre intended to nurture discussion and introduce innovative concepts in the field of food, gastronomy, globalization, and economics.  The next conference is in October, 2010. Terra Madre Day also celebrates the 20th anniversary of Slow Food. It was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life.