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Logan Square Farmers Market Now Selling Produce From The Plant

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Jan 29, 2013 10:35PM

The Plant, the 93,500 square-foot former warehouse in Back of the Yards that is now Chicago's first vertical farm, took another leap forward in its mission. The Reader's Mike Sula reports that produce from The Plant—specifically greens and mushrooms—are now being sold at the Logan Square Farmer's Market.

Our own Anthony Todd wrote in the Sun-Times of some of the obstacles The Plant had to overcome in order to get this far. Sula writes that having waste from The Plant's tilapia farms going directly to the soil for the greens makes the produce perfect to eat without cooking and even without dressing in oil and vinegar.

It's almost a shame to even dress it with oil and vinegar, as it's a riot of distinct flavors and textures in each bite: peppery, buttery, crunchy and tender, from meaty purple-veined leaves to feathery wisps of greenery. They taste like they were pulled from the dirt on a sunny, late April morning.

Sula also raves about the lion's mane mushrooms, which he writes has the taste of shellfish when cooked.

Logan Square Farmers Market calls the Congress Theater home during the winter, but we'd be down with traveling to The Plant to buy this produce directly.