If you haven't stopped by the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum this season to grab some local produce, head over this Saturday. more ›

Also featured today: a songwriters' open mic at the Horseshoe and a reminder about Green City Market's first winter market of the year. more ›

Piece Brewery & Pizzeria bought its Wicker Park building, Lillie's Q is hosting a Mexican pop-up dinner on January 24, and the Green City Market is holding a Superbowl chili cookoff. more ›

Buy gently-used treasures from Frontera, Alinea, Charlie Trotter's and more, and the money goes to a good cause. more ›

If you haven't bought a copy of the Chicago Homegrown Cookbook, head to Green City Market this Wednesday, where author Heather Lalley will be signing copies. If you have already bought one, go anyway and meet Heather and swap recipes. The book, which includes recipes from many of our favorite chefs including Rick Bayless, Paul Kahan, Mindy Segal and Rob Levitt, is a beautiful testament to our vibrant local food community. What better place to get a copy than at Green City Market? more ›

A fundraiser for Step Up women's Network. The Neo-Futurists tackle Purple Rain. Green City Market's "Meet the Market" series hits Nightwood. more ›

We noticed a tweet from SeedlingFarms this morning, mentioning that shoppers should be sure to hit up the Green City Market this Wednesday, because it would be closed on Saturday. We hadn't heard anything, so we got in touch with them - it's confirmed: There will be no Green City Market this coming Saturday. more ›

"Every week, I find something I didn't realize was in season or I didn't realize was possible to grow here," explained Bruce Sherman, of North Pond Restaurant, as he picked over the produce on a recent Wednesday at Green City Market. Diners have gotten used to seeing producers and market names all over menus, and during the summer, Chicago restaurants are inundated with farm-to-table dishes. Sherman, and many other Chicago chefs, go a step further, and visit the market every week, talking to farmers (many of whom are now old friends) and picking up their orders themselves. We followed Chef Sherman through the market to learn how a chef shops for produce. more ›

Have you ever wanted to see what sort of music Stephanie Izard likes to dance to? Now you can experience it first hand. "Stagiaire Records," a chef-driven party at Old Town Social every Tuesday night from 10 PM to 2 AM lets you rock out with some of Chicago's most famous chefs, and the proceeds go to benefit the Green City Market. Quietly running since May, the party is now ramping up for the summer. more ›

When I arrived at the Green City Market BBQ at 4:30 yesterday afternoon, the thermometer had already topped 100 degrees. My shirt soaked through in the first 10 minutes - and my plight was nothing compared to that of the chefs, standing over hot grills. But, that's not what guests to the BBQ will remember. They'll remember the entire Chicago food world, including every restaurant you've ever heard of, standing out there cooking and sweating together, to support an organization we all love. more ›

Every time we go to a farmer's market, we're amazed by how much has changed from the week before. One of the best things about talking to farmers and buying local produce is that you get back in touch with the seasonality of food - when things are available and at their peak. Right now, the colors of the market are bursting into full bloom, as the market moves out of its green period and into the bright oranges, purples and reds of mid-summer. It's not quite peak harvest time yet, but if you haven't been to the market lately, go on Saturday. more ›

Last Minute Plan - Tonight at the Bristol, the Green City Market Junior Board is hosting a "Meet the Market" event. There is no admission price, pastries and sweets are free (courtesy of Amanda Rockman, the Bristol's pastry wizard) and cocktails will be $11. Created by mixologist Debbi Peek, with spirits donated by death door, the cocktails include a Blueberry Ginger Mule and a Raspberry and Rosemary Sour. For those who wish to learn while they drink, Paul Thelan from Hillside Orchards will be there to talk about farming, fruit and markets. The event runs from 6-9, and will be on the second floor. 2152 N. Damen Avenue. more ›

Anyone who went to Green City Market (as we did) on Saturday saw a strange thing. About a block to the south, there was a grid of unoccupied paths laid out, like a ghost farmers market was taking place at the same time. Now we know why - Green City Market announced today that it was moving (slightly) starting this Wednesday. more ›

Today's listings include a fashion and food event at the W Lakeshore and a concert at Katerina's. more ›

Green City Market quietly opened this morning at 7 AM. The market wasn't crazy busy, and the offerings were a tiny bit slim, since most veggies haven't started to come up. But getting back into the market, seeing friends and farmers and coming home with a bag of food were wonderful reminders of why we love eating locally. The big stars of the market today were starter plants - herbs, flowers and vegetables. Most of the vendors who will be selling piles of heirloom tomatoes in about 3 months were pushing plants instead, and we got a few seedlings for the Chicagoist garden plot. more ›

This weekend is the first Green City Market of 2011. Schwing! To kick things off, GCM is holding a food photo contest for all of you Chicago foodies out there, and the prizes are pretty sweet, in our humble opinion. The contest is “Farm to Table,” and the idea is to show the raw ingredients you buy at the market and how you transform them into your dinner. You should take pictures at the market, while cooking, and of the finished product. more ›

A couple of weeks ago, while perusing the Green City Market at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, we had a chance to sit down with Lyle Allen, the director of the market. We asked him about the future of the market, how they set their policies on local food and what it takes to run a sustainable local market. more ›

Unlike last year, when a fast but furious downpour hit just as the gates opened, the weather cooperated at last night's Green City Market Chefs BBQ. With the talents of most of the city's best chefs and cocktail alchemists on display, some folks have called the annual event "the real Taste of Chicago." It's certainly a Bizzaro version of Taste. While there weren't any turkey legs bigger than a baby's arm or random acts of violence, there was beer can chicken (courtesy of the folks at NoMI) and an estimated 2,000 people paying $100 a ticket for the chance to get their grub on during a hot and muggy Chicago evening. more ›

Strawberry season is short here in this part of the Midwest; the last good pints were sold weeks ago. If you want a fix, the folks at Seedling Orchard aren't growing just mere strawberries right now. more ›

After a few weeks of roaming the markets of the city, we finally made it to to Green City Market for the first time this past Saturday. If you haven't gotten a chance to go yet this summer, check it out - things have changed! The market seems much bigger, the stalls have been re-arranged and there are plenty of new things to see. We'll profile a few of those new things over the summer (Ed. Note: Actually, we've already started. — C.S.), but on Saturday we were more focused on getting as many veggies as possible. more ›

Superior kitchen majicks require a sharp set of knives. In our kitchen we have a meat cleaver for butchering larger cuts of meat, a Santoku knife for vegetables and delicate handling and an all-purpose chefs knife that does pretty much everything. All three were in good need of a sharpening requiring more than just a few turns across a sharpening steel. In the case of the all purpose chef's knife, there was a chip in the blade that needed to be fixed, as well. more ›

It is no secret that we're fans of mk. Pastry Chef Tony Galzin once made a sorbet that caused our dinner companion to close her eyes and moan. (See our interview with Tony here and a video of Chef Galzin plating dessert here.) He's struck the fine balance between sweet and savory and is now turning his expertise towards making the most of Chicago's sustainable markets. more ›

One of the most talked-about new restaurants in the Midwest is a road trip away in downstate Peoria Heights. June chef Josh Adams deftly meshes farm fresh food with progressive cooking techniques. It makes sense, since Adams has staged at Alinea and studied the localvore approach at the knee of Paul Virant at Vie. Adams recently partnered with a nearby farm to dedicate 80 acres of land for growing organic produce specifically for June. more ›

When we visited Green City Market a few weeks ago, we stopped at the administration table. Usually we breeze on by, eager to get to the produce, but a sign caught our eye: Become a Member of the Market! We're a sucker for memberships - museums, dining clubs, wine clubs, CSAs, you name it. Maybe it's the feeling of being part of something, of having some sort of access. Maybe it's the discounts, as memberships almost always seem to be worth what you pay. more ›

Green City Market switches locations from the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum to outside today. They've also opened up ticket sales for their annual Chefs BBQ on July 15. The event, now in its tenth year, brings together most of the best chefs around and has become one of the high watermark culinary events in the city. more ›

On April mornings, occasionally we wake up to mild weather. The breeze is blowing through our windows, we've tossed off the blanket during the night. As we hazily grope towards wakefullness, we instinctively think "which farmers market should we go to today?" Then, we come to our senses and realize that it's still April. For those of you who are having cravings, have no fear - it's almost time! more ›

Outstanding in the Field, which organizes farm dinners across the country matching local chefs with local farms, released its 2010 farm dinner schedule today. They'll be making two local stops in august. First, Paul Virant will handle cooking duties for a 4 p.m. dinner at Dietzler Farm in Elkhorn, WI on August 2. That'll be followed three days later by a return appearance of Mindy Segal and Aric Miech of Hot Chocolate at City Farm august 5 at 4 p.m. While we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner at Kinnikinnick Farm last year, the first-person accounts we heard about the City Farm dinner with Segal three nights later were overwhelmingly ecstatic, with praise for both the food the view of the Chicago skyline from the dinner. more ›

Public awareness of the dismal quality of our nation’s school lunches has grown immensely in the last decade. Yet despite modest improvements, and the admirable efforts of many, the National School Lunch Program is still in dire need of reform. Currently school districts are reimbursed $2.68 for each meal served to a child who qualifies for free lunch. After addressing overhead costs, schools are left with $1 per meal to feed a child. Due to lack of resources, the likes of processed chicken-part patties are a frequent menu item and fried potatoes in the form of tater tots continue to hold “vegetable” status. Sad but true. more ›

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced this year's recipients of the USDA Farmers Market Initiative Program. Green City Market was awarded a grant for $76,300. The grant money will help fund GCM's Farmer Scholarship Program, which helps facilitate participating farms in obtaining 3rd Party Organic and/or Sustainable Certification by 2012; staff salaries; the Edible Gardens program; and marketing materials for the market's electronic benefits transfer (EBT) program. [Inbox] more ›

Heirloom tomatoes are finally starting to roll into farmers markets throughout the city. With that comes some pretty outstanding cocktail recipes. First, there's the always busy Adam Seger of Nacional 27. Seger's monthly cocktail class was the subject of a cover story in the New York Times style section yesterday. The Paper of Record also published Seger's Heirloom Tomato Mojitonico recipe for Anthony and Rob to try at home. more ›