Your Ticket to This Years Farm Roast Celebration is So Much More Than Just a Ticket to Our Most Delicious Event of the Year

Every year, we gather and celebrate local farmers and producers along with the chefs, mixologists and purveyors who make their ingredients shine. The Farm Roast is a time where rare and distinctive ingredients on the Ark of Taste, a living catalog of heirloom varieties at risk of extinction, are front and center. From a dairy free horchata made with oat milk using oats sourced from Three Sisters Garden in Kankakee, IL to farro tabouleh with feta, mint, cucumber and Moon and Stars watermelon sourced from Stewards of the Land to a Cherokee Purple tomato jam - you'll find a diverse selection of drinks and dishes at this event.

But beyond being a celebration of biodiversity, the Farm Roast is also a fundraiser that helps Slow Food Chicago to be able to provide travel scholarships for community members and good food advocates so that they may have the opportunity to attend Terra Madre Salone del Gusto in Turin, Italy. This biennial global food conference happens in late September and brings together those dedicated to good, clean and fair food - artisan and small-scale food and wine producers, as well as a forum of exchange for producers and consumers. This year, over twenty individuals will be attending the international conference from the state of Illinois. So in buying your ticket to the 2018 Farm Roast, you are not only endorsing good food values by supporting local farmers and producers, but you are sponsoring the trip of a local midwestern food activist. 

Profiles of this year's delegates are below. Don't forget that you have the chance to meet a handful of these delegates in person at our Terra Madre delegate breakout session (happening at 4:15pm). The panel is free to attend, but advanced registration is encouraged.

Thank you, as always, for your support of our vision that our environment, culture and economy are profoundly affected by what we choose to eat. We believe that everyone should have access to high-quality food produced in a sustainable and equitable way. And when you partake in an event like that farm roast, you are voting with your dollars in alignment with this view. 

See you at the Roast!

-k

Katie Johnson, Slow Food Chicago co-President

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What: Slow Food Chicago's Annual Farm Roast Celebration

When: Sunday, September 9th, 2018 / 2pm-5pm

Where: Local Foods parking lot (1427 W. Willow Chicago, IL)

Tickets: Purchase general admission and breakout session tickets here.

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Slow Chicagoan Profile : Melissa Flynn of Green City Market

Melissa Flynn, Green City Market's acting Executive Director.

If you are a farmers market goer, most likely you've visited (or at the very least heard of) Green City Market. It is mecca for professional and home chefs alike, renowned for sourcing only the best from growers, farmers and purveyors who must be certified by an approved third party agency to ensure superior quality, environmental stewardship practices and sustainably focused processing. With a Link benefits matching program making Link and SNAP benefit dollars go even farther, and the expansion from their large Lincoln Park Saturday market to include a Sunday West Loop market and Thursday evening market at The Park at Wrigley - this commitment to keeping dollars circulating within the local economy, supporting local purveyors, sets Green City apart from the city's saturation of farmers markets. Read on for more about how they got started, the best part about working in this field, and Chicago where food economy has room for improvement.

How did Green City Market get started? How has GCM evolved since its beginning?

Green City Market was started in 1998 by Abby Mandel. After visiting Europe, and seeing their sustainable markets with world-class food, she thought Chicago was a world-class city that could implement a farmers market focused on local, seasonal produce. At first, Green City Market was a small market next to the Chicago Theatre with just nine local farmers. She begged all the local chefs of Chicago to come out to the market and support farmers. This was transformative to the Chicago culinary scene as many chefs started to focus on local, seasonal food for their menus.

Nearly twenty years later, Abby’s mission to bring local, sustainable and seasonal food to Chicago is ever-expanding and in full force. Green City Market has grown to almost 60 vendors. The market found a beautiful site for our largest location in Lincoln Park, continued with park settings in the West Loop in Mary Bartelme Park and Wrigleyville at the Park at Wrigley. Last year, we experienced crowds of over 175,000 visitors to our markets.

What would you be doing right now on a typical workday?

There is no typical day at Green City Market; every day is different. During the week, we split our time between our markets, our office and meetings. On a typical market day, I check in with our vendors, greet shoppers, and communicate with the community to provide the best possible market experience.

What’s the best part about your job? The hardest part?

The best part is working with the farmers and the shoppers. I learn something new from the farmers every market day. I also love the educational programs for kids.

The hardest parts of the job are balancing the competing priorities. There are so many opportunities for us to do more through education, access, and working with farmers.

Market fresh seasonal berries - cherries, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries!

What do you think is the biggest obstacle for Chicago’s food systems to overcome?

Chicago must overcome its limited accessibility to healthy food for all Chicagoans. Also, Chicago needs to improve its communication about how to buy directly from farmers, and the importance of buying direct and local. In this era, we constantly see advertisements for “sustainable food,” but there is no better way to ensure sustainability more than directly communicating with the people that grow your food and ask them about their growing practices.

How does your work relate to the Slow Food objectives (good, clean, + fair food)?

Our objectives align beautifully. As a non-profit that supports local food that is sustainably grown, we were one of the first farmers market in the country to require a third-party sustainability certification in order to be a vendor at our market. We empower local vendors by giving them a platform to sell their produce and products directly to shoppers and chefs.. We encourage people to create a meal together and cook incredible, local produce. There is nothing more unifying than gathering around a table of food that makes you feel good, and know that it comes from a good place.

What is your favorite Chicago (food related) social media account to follow (and why)?

We love to follow our vendors and other local Chicago accounts on social media. We keep in close contact with our vendors, so it’s great to get personal updates and social media updates to see what they’re up to. Not only are they our vendors, they’re also our family.

Doyenne d'Ete pears grown at Oriana's Oriental Orchard located in Skokie, IL.

What wins for trendiest brunch item that you spread on toast - avocado mash or beet hummus?

My personal preference is avocado mash, but I’m torn because it isn’t local! If I had to choose a trendy market brunch, it would be a toasted baguette from Bennison’s Bakery with Prairie Fruits Chevre and Ellis Farms Honey.

What’s your favorite spot or dish that emulates your ideal of a good (for health and pleasure), clean (for the planet), + fair (in production and access for all) bite to eat in the city or suburbs (and why)?

The first spot that came to mind was Cellar Door Provisions -- they go above and beyond what it means to create good food. They do everything they can to source local and waste nothing. In my opinion, they are true to what is local and what is seasonal.

Why Chicago? If not Chicago, where would you like to do your work?

Chicago is where I was born and raised. I chose to raise my family here with my husband. It’s a dense urban setting with a great community and access to healthy, local, sustainable food. But, if not Chicago, I would go to Rome, Italy. My husband and I agreed to go to Rome when our last child starts College.

Anything else you’d like to add?

I feel so lucky to be a part of Green City Market and the work we’re doing, including doing collaborations with great organizations, such as Slow Food. I believe that working together we can make our local food system better.

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Want to learn more about Green City Market? Follow along with what's growing, what's in season and the farm dinners, events and other programming coming up next!

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Canning Series : Winter Edition Recap

On Saturday, Slow Food Chicago Board Member, Kim Werst led a canning workshop at Kendall College. Participants learned about pickling, preserving, and even took home blueberry preserves they made themselves. Couldn't make it? Relive it via the photos below. Or get to it in your own kitchen with some of our favorite recipes. And don't forget to reference our favs, Pomona's Pectin for extra tips and tricks of the trade. There's truly nothing better than a fruity preserve to remind you of summer in the midst of a midwestern winter. 

****Please note - the linked recipes incorrectly state the use of "2 tbsp" of Pomona's Pectin. This should be adjusted to 2 tsp (as per the Pectin package instructions).****