To Market, To Market

By Joanna Miller in Food on Jun 12, 2006 2:00PM

If you’re like Chicagoist, summer is usually a time for a renewed effort to eat better and exercise more, mostly to offset our time spent at various drunkfests. We usually find inspiration for healthy, or at least more wholesome, eats at local farmers markets, which are now in full swing around the city.

Green City Market in Lincoln Park is the city’s only all-organic, all-sustainable market, and it offers a variety of programs and events in addition to a bounty of edible goodies. On Saturday, June 17, join Gale Gand and Gio of Tru for a cooking demonstration. Turn your produce into something unforgettable with a Green City recipe.

Chicagoist made our first trip to market this past Saturday. We braved the early morning rain and headed to the North Center farmers market, though we’d heard it was on the sparse side. Sure enough, there was one lonely tent set up when we arrived (they told us the bread guy was on his way), but they had the three things we’d come looking for – asparagus, strawberries and rhubarb – so we didn’t leave disappointed.

Once home again (jiggety jig), we decided to turn our ingredients into a hearty farmers market brunch. The asparagus was the main attraction in our frittata, paired with yellow onions and cheddar cheese.

Although some people find it too tart, we’ve always been huge fans of rhubarb, especially when it comes in pie form. But we try to keep our baking efforts on the simple side, so we opted for this strawberry rhubarb cobbler from Simply Recipes (we substituted flour for the tapioca, and it worked fine). Easy and so delicious. Those sweet Michigan strawberries were the perfect complement to the tangy rhubarb. A couple scoops of vanilla ice cream, and we were in heaven.

OK, maybe not so much healthy, but oh so good for the soul.