Author Archives: Virtual Farmgirl

Flooded fields at Genesis Growers Weather is a friend and enemy when it comes to farming. For weeks, the region where many of our farmers was pelted by heavy rain. Just when the rain stopped, it’d start again, swamping farmland, ruining full crops of watermelon, lettuce and more.  This while our farming friends on the WestContinue reading “Benefit at Vie to Support Farm Wracked by Spring Storms”

Most weeks I’m at the Oak Park Farmers’ Market, I’m working the info booth. But this week I got to go and just listen to the music, buy a dozen donuts (to skip the line) and pick up a dozen freshly picked ears of corn. As much as I enjoy volunteering to support the market,Continue reading “'Meet the Farmer' Video in the Making”

One of my favorite things about the Oak Park market has nothing to do with the farmers or the produce. At each market there are two groups of musicians that faithfully show up, instruments in hand, to play with other like-minded musicians. It’s wonderful to see how the bluegrass band, aka The Farmers’ Market Band,Continue reading “Thriving Music Scene at the Farmers' Market”

The week my daughter got her Holland Lop rabbit — Phillip — she had his birthday noted on the calendar. And she’s been counting down the days until June 25 ever since. So here we are, with our party for a rabbit complete with: Carrot cake Fresh Farmers’ Market fruit Veggie spread We didn’t doContinue reading “Party for a Rabbit”

American Farmland Trust is promoting its 7th Annual farmers market celebration and is soliciting ratings from consumers about their local markets. I’m posting in part to promote the celebration and solicit recommendations for my favorite local market. And I’m posting because the categories, while easy to rate, show how important markets can be to aContinue reading “Four ways the Oak Park Farmers' Market is making a difference in the community”

Great video by Oak Park TV’s Joe Kreml featuring Farmer Mark Millitzer from Tree of Life. This is part of Joe’s Meet-the-Farmer series. Check out other market videos on YouTube and here.

These were fun to make for the kiddo and easy enough to pull off while prepping for Easter. The recipe, via Pinterest, is courtesy of The Cookie Rookie. In our version, we used leftover just about everything so we had to halve the recipe and used a mix of milk and dark chocolate. We alsoContinue reading “Twix-inspired cookies”

These are my new favorite deviled eggs. I altered this recipe from Little Broken a little bit by using roasted instead of boiled beets. I also didn’t have fresh dill close at hand, so I garnished the stuffed eggs with slices of roasted beet and capers for a little green.

Opening day of our 2014 Farmers Market season went off better than I’d hoped. There’s always a bit of a scramble: Our market manager had new folks to train. Plus, we have six commissioners and new volunteers to get up to speed. That plus an unprecedented four new vendors: Ingram’s Bread; Hazzard Free Farms; RiseContinue reading “First haul of the 2014 market season”