Author Archives: Virtual Farmgirl

Chicago health inspectors have destroyed thousands of dollars of food belonging to a pastry chef and catering business that didn’t have their licenses in order at inspection time. Inspectors visited Kitchen Chicago, a culinary incubator for emerging chefs, last week and again this week. I’m a big fan of the shared kitchen concept. The arrangementContinue reading “Inspectors Destroy Thousands of Dollars of Food at Shared Kitchen”

Connecticut food activist Mark Winne, who has long advocated for policies to fight hunger and make farm-fresh, organic food available to low-income residents, will be speaking at next month’s Food Summit 2010 in St. Louis. The summit is being organized by the Healthy Youth Partnership, which is looking for ways to combat childhood obesity. WinneContinue reading “Food Activist Mark Winne Headlines St. Louis Food Summit”

Tonight, I was rushing to try to get supper on the table. I was a little behind because we had to go to the polls to vote (conveniently located where we pick up our Future Farmkids) this evening. So when I got home, I set to making supper: baked chicken w/Spice House’s Milwaukee Iron SeasoningContinue reading “Processed Food Mishap”

Southern Illinoisans aren’t there yet, but the Daily Egyptian reports that my neighbors downstate are edging closer to building a sustainable food system – one in which residents can get fresh produce from farms not more than 250 miles away. The region needs more than willing farmers to pull off a fully connected system. StorageContinue reading “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back”

We’re pretty proud of ourselves that we never come close to filling our garbage bin each week. If anything, we’re overflowing our recycling bin. I expect we’ll trim that down quite a bit more when we start composting this spring. But I’m in awe of this Gloustershire family of three who managed to reduce theirContinue reading “English Family Aims for Zero Waste Lifestyle”

The Local Beet, one of my favorite buy local/foodie news site, has a new contributor. Chicago lawyer Wendy Aechlimann, who splits her time between the Windy City and wine tasting through Michigan, will make The Case For Local Wine. Out of the gate, Wendy starts making her case for supporting local winemakers. These will soundContinue reading “Chicago Lawyer Makes The Case For Local Wine”

There are so many houses in my life like the one Cheryl Tevis writes about for Agriculture Online. They dot the countryside between Oak Park and The Farm, some boarded up, others succumbing to the elements. There are homes from my childhood, meticulously maintained by grandparents and great grandparents, that are in various states ofContinue reading “Sometimes It's More Than Just a House”

Today was an Institute Day at my children’s elementary school. I’m still not exactly sure why, the week after Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, our kids are off school on a Monday. I’m told the teachers are receiving extra training on these days (isn’t that what summer is for?), but I don’t recall ever gettingContinue reading “Lazy Day With the Kids”

For years I’ve heard from friends and family about “progressive” dinner parties – not the kind of progressive as in political leanings. Here, the idea is that everyone plays the role of host and guest, often starting at one house for appetizers, then heading to another for the main course and the final house forContinue reading “Taste of Barrie Park”

As if I needed any more encouragement to explore hobby farming, AOL’s Wallet Pop has a recent story about the upswing in so-called lifestyle farming. A lifestyle farmer, according to this piece, takes on a manageable 1 to 12 acres. And these folks make up a remarkable half of the 2.1 million farms in theContinue reading “Lifestyle Farming Takes Root”