Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’m so psyched to be a member of Chicago Locavores now. The group’s blog does these great little interviews with local businesses that focus on buying local. I’m definitely intrigued with Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks. This couple has this great to-you-door fresh produce delivery business that rivals the idea of a CSA. Not onlyContinue reading “Buy Local Tip: Irv & Shelly's Fresh Picks”

Today’s Tribune headline “Support your local farmer” caught my eye. It’s always good to scan the local paper and see something about farming or healthy food initiatives. I had to read past the jump to see that local Farmgirl Nina Interlandi Bell, from our old Rogers Park stomping grounds no less, has started a groupContinue reading “Lawmakers Are Catching the Locavore Craze”

Lots of activity at The Farm. Just in time for the 4th, all the planting for the season is through, including a native garden complete with black corn, pole beans, squash, pumpkin and gourd. Also, I got word this week that a trapper nabbed a thieving mink at a Grant County CSA, but not beforeContinue reading “A Thief is Captured, We Hope”

One of my inspirations, the “lifestyle brand” MaryJane Butters, has a new book that the NYTs described as a “dilly,” whatever that means. “MaryJane’s Outpost: Unleashing Your Inner Wild” is the third for the Farmgirl queen and sounds like it has some potential. Butters certainly knows how to marry the Tomboy/girlie girl concepts with herContinue reading “Summer Farmgirl Reading”

I learned a little more about reading organic wine labels with this piece from the Seattle Times. I actually have enjoyed the organic wine I’ve tasted. Seems smoother to me and (without sulfites) doesn’t turn my face red. But like many things on the market, I’m increasingly suspicious of the word “organic.” There’s just tooContinue reading “Defining Organic: Some Help With Wine”

Here are some handmade Lincoln Logs that Hoosier Outsider crafted for he and the Future Farmkids to tinker with. They were a big hit with FFB and FFG.

I haven’t had much chance to get out of the office at lunchtime, but today I slipped out to walk through the Daley Center Farmers Market. I was on the hunt especially for rhubarb so I can finally make some strawberry rhubarb pie this weekend. But, of course, I ended up coming back to theContinue reading “Arabesque Farmers Market…Only in Chicago”

While we were down in Central Indiana last weekend we picked up another Easley Winery red to give the winery another chance: Sweet Barrel Red. I should know better by now not to even try wine bottles that boast “fruity” flavor. Fruity indeed. Fruit packed in corn syrup sweet. Add some bubbly and you haveContinue reading “One More Wine Down”

We were only at The Farm for two days and two nights, but it seems like we were there for at least a week. Here are the highlights: — Picked seven quarts of strawberries…brought home two (since the rest were eaten or sold out from under me). — Swam with the kids.— Collected eggs. —Continue reading “Taking Advantage of Every Summer Solstice Minute”

The Washington Post quotes environmental experts who argue that the record-breading Iowa flooding these last few days aren’t simply acts of God. As the theory goes, the levee breaches can be attributed to radically remade landscapes: Plowed fields have replaced tallgrass prairies. Fields have been meticulously drained with underground pipes. Streams and creeks have beenContinue reading “Are Farmers To Blame For Midwest Flooding?”