I woke up this morning to a hazy sky and 70° temperatures, perfect for my first venture to the famous and busy Chicago Green City Market to meet the amazingly influential Alice Waters. I drove to my mom’s house with enormous iced coffee in hand, and met up with her, Eo, and my stepdad, then we went and picked up my sister.
We pulled up to the market and were greeted by friendly faces saying “Welcome to the market!” and one of my favorite Spring/Summer sights: vendor tents! There was a line that we immediately got in to purchase Alice Waters’ books, and to meet and have her sign the books. I bought her newest cookbook, The Art of Simple Food and started getting nervous to meet the person who has been beyond influential in the food world.
I handed her my book, nervously shaking and I told her that I was honored to meet her. She smiled, signed my book, and I took this picture as she signed my sister’s book. My mom bought a different book, The Edible Schoolyard, which chronicles the mission to help kids learn where their food comes from, and the work involved in growing it. She helped an urban school in Berkeley, CA turn an abandoned schoolyard into an organic garden. The book is full of photos, stories, and letters the kids wrote about their favorite foods. It’s one I may pick up a different day!
After we got out of the book-signing line, my sister had to go to work, so we wandered around the market, which was apparently about 1/6th the size it is in its peak months. I taste tested a bunch of cheeses, my favorite being a raw milk cheese from Wisconsin. The Saxon Creamery had 3 raw cow’s milk cheeses that I was just in love with: one “sweet” , one “creamy” and one “robust”. They were all so fabulous, and I may have to order some of their cheeses from their website! The girl I met from the creamery was so nice and helpful, and when I mentioned my food blog, she let me take a picture!
She explained a bit about how the cheeses are made, and that they’re a small, family owned creamery that makes their cheeses from the same herd (ok, well, the younger cows) that has been providing milk for their creamery since 1870!
Then, I continued through the remaining stalls, stopping to taste everything I possibly could! There was granola, dried fruits, preserves (more on those to come), baked goods, and even more cheese! The next cheese I tried was from the Brunkow Cheese company of Darlington, Wisconsin. I couldn’t resist it. Why? Well, first of all, it was a soft cows milk cheese which is a weakness. Second, it had hot peppers in it, yum! Third: it was gently warming and browning on a small grill, and tasters were encouraged to try it warm. Apparently, this baked cheese is a specialty of the farm. It has all the whey pressed out of it, then its baked, then re-heated for enjoyment… and enjoy it I did!
Next came the flower stall, which has always been a favorite of my mom and mine. I remember going to the farmer’s market growing up and leaving with armfuls of flowers. Today was no exception! My mom’s pretty cute, huh?
I went back to the dried fruit/preserves stall to buy a jar of the amazing preserves that I had tasted… vanilla peach preserves could possibly end up being the best oatmeal addition ever! Seedling Produce had the most amazing preserves and dried fruits! The photo of the preserves will be below, don’t worry… then I wandered a bit and found a gorgeous mushroom vendor:
I refrained from any purchases, but the next time I go, there WILL be mushrooms purchased! I’m sure they’ll just get better as the season goes on. It started to rain just as we started heading back to the car, so I covered my purchases and walked quickly back to the car.
Next up: lunch! I was so excited when my mom suggested we all go for my favorite thing! SUSHI! We ended up at another childhood favorite place, Kuni’s Sushi in Evanston, IL. I remember when this place opened, and we used to turn up our noses at how “gross” eating raw fish was. Now? They have some of the best sushi around!! I got what was called an omakase roll with tuna and avocado, and a spicy tuna roll. Oh, and of course a piece of freshwater eel:
Everyone’s sushi was simply delicious! Thanks for a fun day everyone, and a special thanks to Green City Market for hosting such a cool event! In case the memory of today ever starts to fade, I have the best proof that it did, indeed, happen:
When I got home, I spent a while paging through my new amazing cookbook and then Adam and I went to Sweet Tomatoes for our weekly salad, soup, and soft serve fix. This was definitely a great day.
**Please keep our blogland pastry chef, Jenna, in your thoughts and prayers after the untimely and sudden death of her brother. I can’t even imagine what she’s feeling right now, and it’s all I can do to send positive thoughts her way.**
Looks like you had an excellent day. Peach vanilla preserves sound like they would be awesome! And sushi…yum
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DUDE. You AND Whitney (from whitneyinchicago – have you read her blog? You must!) got to go to Green City today and I completely failed! I’m so sad I missed it.
Those pictures, by the way, are all goooorgeous!
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what a fun day! the market looks really neat.
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Mara, that mushroom place was featured on “Food Finds” and has amazing mushroom salsas!!
Sounds like you had an amazing day!!
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Oh my gosh, what an awesome time!!!!!!!!!!
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Thanks for stopping by the blog. I am a HUGE Green City fan. I live like 2 blocks away from the location in the summer so I am really spoiled. I bought $2 worth of baby bellas from the mushroom vendors and used some on my lunch today. Seedling is AMAZING. I still have a jar or two of their apple butter leftover from the fall. You will have to come back once the market is is full swing. I will say that it was only about a 1/3 the size of the normal market. Its pretty amazing. Three Sisters Garden has wonderful sprouts and black beans. Great bread from delightful pastries…and the list goes on.
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what a perfect perfect day … greenmarket, alice waters, sushi, peach vanilla preserves. what could be better?
Sarah (Tales of Expansion)´s last blog post..Nuts, balls, and freebies
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Ah what a wonderful day! I so wish it would have worked out for me to teleport and be in two places at once
Those mushrooms look seriously yum.
I’ve never heard of Kuni’s – how am I so bad at Evanston restaurants?! It looks great – of course, can’t go wrong with sushi!
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Oh you are going to LOVE that cookbook Mara, I do! What a fab market so early in the year. We have rhubarb poking up and that is it! Well I lie we do have a local creamery so we are very lucky there, with milk, cheese and (ahem) ice cream, which I hear is very good. I saw the the 8 things list and I will get on that…soon
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Yay, another food blogger who hits Sweet Tomatoes! We love it in our house…if only I could eat for free like the kiddos!
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such a fabulous day!!!
Looking forward to read your review of the book.
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what an amazing day! I love Alice Waters! she is amazing chef!
and what an interesting thing I learned about cheese from the same herd of cows since 1870! I love me some raw cheese…it’s tough to find, though!
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Sounds like a great day! I LOVE cheese and always have to taste it. There is nothing better than some good, flavorful, interesting cheese!
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Amazing! I am super jealous.
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sounds like such a fun day! my goodness – after seeing your mom, now i know why you and your sister are so gorgeous!
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That’s wonderful you got to meet Alice Waters! And I love outdoor markets. I fell in love with them when I first visited Italy many years ago, and then my passion continued when I later lived in France.
Ah, so glad to hear you had some raw milk cheese — one of my favorite things to eat and it’s actually quite good for you.
Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful day!
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what a great day!! you had me at hot pepper cheese!
I’ve never been to that market, but LOVE farmers markets – can’t wait until June and July when all the produce is ready!!
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The market looked like so much fun! I love browsing through all of the products at the market. I’ll have to check out that cookbook- looks right up my alley.
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mmmmmm sushi!! and yes your Mama is adorable!
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Mara,
What a fun day! Your mom it too cute. She looks so young! I love fresh flowers – always one of my favorite stalls, but I’m in awe of the mushroom man. I love fungi!
Enjoy your bowl of peach vanilla oats, and will you stop it with the sushi pics?!? They always remind of your brilliant scarf…the one I didn’t win.
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Hi Mara!!! Thanks for sharing your knowledge on Reza’s!! It’s Great to know that there’s better, and I 130% agree with you on the fact that Reza’s chicken dishes are a MUCH better size/deal than the fish, now you know not to get the fish! hahahah
I’ve been to Kuni’s too, but I wasn’t all that impressed with the size of our dishes. hahah they were SMALL!!! But the fish is definitely fresh and tasty.
I wish I went to that open market with ya! Where’s it at?!?! I can’t wait for the farmer’s market to re-open downtown!! It’s right near where i live and they always have such fresh fruit and lots of baked goods!
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Great day to be at GCM. I was also staring at that nice array of mushrooms you photographed and now I regret not getting some.
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Hey…great choice on the Vanilla Peach preserves. My husband and I were at the Green City Market last weekend and picked up the Pear Butter from the same place (Along with their dried strawberries–yum!!).
I love the Green City Market and can’t wait until it’s outside in all it’s summery glory!
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so cool!!! >> and I Was there!!
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I do love a farmer’s market, and I am so jealous that you got to meet Alice Waters. I’m reading The Art of Simple Food right now, and it is such an amazing primer on so many things. I think the food really comes to life in its pages. I’m glad you had such an amazing day.
Peach vanilla preserves? Heaven!
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The Art of Simple Food is such a Gem!!!
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too cool
and I loved this week’s cute food saturday!
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So I totally ditzed out and thought I added you to Google Reader last week, but yeah, I failed. So now I’ve got some catching up to do. Lucky you at Green City!! I just moved away from Evanston and can you believe I never went?! Yeah. I like the Seedling company stuff, as they’d show up at E farmer’s market every week. The dried peaches are great, but my husband wouldn’t eat them because they looked like “chicken livers”. But seriously, they are good.
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