Author Archives: Virtual Farmgirl

Saturday was opening day at the Oak Park Farmers Market and I’ve known for a while what I would be getting: Asparagus and rhubarb. These are the flavors I crave about this time every year. For some reason, I haven’t managed to use the asparagus yet. But I whipped up a delicious strawberry-rhubarb pie today,Continue reading “Welcome Farmers. Thanks for the Good Eats”

Back to back games means a quick turnaround wash since this is my son’s first year of t-ball and we only have one uniform to work with. Here’s what I got after Tuesday’s game: ground in ball field dirt, grass stains and a sprinkling of watermelon Italian ice, courtesy of Nick’s… After some detergent andContinue reading “I Could Be a Clorox Commercial”

My back is still recovering from Saturday’s Irving Yard Sale. That’s my excuse for not posting an update until now. But I can report that the sale — which was our first big fundraiser for the Irving Schoolyard Project to replace the massive 60-year-old blacktop with multipurpose green space — was a success.  I’m toldContinue reading “Bringing in the Green”

A friend of mine, Jill O’Mahony Stewart, posted this to her Facebook page this week and I just couldn’t resist sharing. It’s from a house down her street in Oak Park. And from what I understand, the vicious hen’s name is Edna. We see so many of these signs warning visitors about dogs, you know,Continue reading “Beware, Chickens”

A few weeks ago, during Earth Week, my kids and all of their classmates sent a message to the world: They’re serious. They’re tired of the 60-year-old blacktop that blankets nearly 90% of their play area. They want a ball field or two, shrubs and just about anything that grows from Mother Earth. So doContinue reading “Biggest Yard Sale Ever – Coming to Irving This Saturday”

I posted over the weekend about TulipMania coming in a couple weeks to the Garfield Park Conservatory. But there’s another event at the century-old conservatory this week that’s a must attend for beer lovers, especially hopheads, who have a special appreciation for local brews and foods. On May 13 – this Thursday – seven breweriesContinue reading “Garfield Park Conservatory is Hop-ing This Week”

I’m a huge fan of supporting local farmers. So community supported agriculture, where families like mine get to buy a share of the harvest each season is a great fit. But my experience last year with a half share from Kings Hill Farm often left my kitchen overwhelmed. Veggies unfamiliar to us and the quantitiesContinue reading “CSAing This Year? Join a Support Group”

I’d always wondered what happens to the thousands of tulips Chicago plants around the city to give us all a much needed burst of color after enduring a long winter. Turns out that the city gives them away. Or at least they give away quite a lot of them at the Garfield Park Conservatory. ThisContinue reading “TulipMania Coming May 22 to the Garfield Park Conservatory”

Winning isn’t everything. But it sure feels good, at least once in a while. After several weeks of straight losses, albeit with improvement each week, my son’s t-ball team finally got a mark in the win column. They came closer than they’d ever been on Tuesday night. But today, they played some really good defenseContinue reading “Finally. A Win”

At 10 a.m. Central Time, sharp…or pretty close to sharp anyway…we headed to the garage where our guinea pig Fluffy has taken up what we hope is temporary residence, per orders of the iFarmer’s allergist. It was time for a visit, but we also wanted to capture the moment on camera as part of theContinue reading “Banished: Our NY Times 'A Moment in Time' Submission”