Green City Market, Chicago

You know it’s spring when among the hearty staples of winter—potatoes, apples, eggs, and milk—the first tender shoots of green begin to appear.

I’m here to tell you that Spring has officially reached Chicago.

When we headed to the market, the sun was bright and the breeze was soft, a perfect spring morning completely out of keeping with the news that snow would be blanketing the Midwest the next day. The excitement of Spring continued when we reached the Peggy Nortbaert Nature Museum where the new bi-weekly market is held every first and third Saturday of the winter months. Market volunteers stood ready to direct market-goers to the upstairs location where we were greeted by local favorite Intellegentsia Coffee, as well as generous samples of cheeses and Blue Marble milk from Wisconsin. What a welcome!



Inside the market room a loop of market tables displayed their wares. We made a circle. And another. But what to buy? Remembering the market’s theme of the month, Bacon and Eggs, we decided to collect ingredients to make a simple Spring breakfast:

- a pound of organically cured, thick slab bacon, courtesy of Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm out of Ottawa, Illinois, 90 minutes SW of Chicago.
- a boule of sourdough from Bennison’s Bakery, an Evanston institution since 1938
- a dozen pastured eggs from TJ’s Pastured Free Range Poultry in Piper City, 100 miles south of Chicago
- one bunch of ramps from Nichols Farm, a family farm specializing in variety in Marengo, Illinois, 60 miles NW of Chicago. In addition to ramps they had eight varieties of potato including German Butterballs, Norland Reds, Russian Bananas, Red Thumbs, and Russian Blues