Green Youth Farm

This week, we went for the first time ever to Green Youth Farm.  It was worth the drive in the heat.

To give you an idea, Green Youth Farm is located in Greenbelt Forest Preserve off Green Bay Road in North Chicago.  It's a Chicago Botanic Garden project, which really got me interested.  Have you seen my post about Cabbage and Violets, just for a tiny sample of what the CBG has to offer to gardeners?

At Green Youth Farm, local teenagers from the area learn job and life skills while also learning about and working on a one-acre organic farm.  They work part time together with staff and learn about composting, natural pest deterrent options instead of conventional pesticides, and a ton of other great things. 

 The kids and I caught up to a local library group also strolling through the farm grounds and listened to a staff member explain the different plants and answer questions.  The workers, in the meantime, were all around taking care of plants and learning about different plants and methods of farming.

This familiar looking weed is purslane.  No, they don't sell garden weeds there.  But you can actually eat it!  And it's loaded with nutrients.  Purslane is another example of the Colombian Exchange, a weed commonly eaten in Europe that came over accidentally with white settlers just like dandelions did.

You can see purslane growing between these onions...

Check out this idea with tomato plants, basil and marigolds along the bottom outside edge of the row to deter pests and help the tomato plants.  Brilliant!  I plan on doing this next year in my garden.

This is what cilantro looks like when it "seeds".  The seeds become one of my favorite spices... Coriander!


Produce is sold every Wednesday and Saturday, from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., starting July 9 through October 8.  The best part?  It supports their efforts and keeps the program going.

When we had arrived, I assumed I would give the kids each a dollar to buy some produce with. 

I left with a half-bushel of organic produce.  The cost was a mere $15 and we also received a $10 coupon for our next visit as well as a recipe for a "Green Smoothie".  By my estimates, the produce would have cost me somewhere around double at the grocery store for organic produce, if I could even get it all in it's organic form.

I actually spoke to two of the teenage workers who kindly offered to carry my produce and watermelon to the car while I walked with my kids. In their words, this was their first year each and they loved it. They each said "I've learned so much."

I chatted with Chicago Botanic Garden yesterday and loved this...

 @PolPrairieMama Yes, the idea is to sell fresh organic produce at an affordable price for people living in food deserts.

— ChicagoBotanicGarden (@chicagobotanic) July 25, 2012

 These are blackberries getting ready to be picked in a couple of weeks.

Some grapes growing on an arbor.

The kids and I were curious as to what this flowering vine could be.  Any ideas?

A better photo of the vine...





I'd love if you would vote for Chicago Botanic Garden to receive a $25,000 grant from Plante Moran. 


What they plan to do with the grant funds:

Chicago Botanic Garden - To promote the enjoyment, understanding, and conservation of plants and the natural world.

With a $25,000 award, the Garden can purchase a cargo van to deliver fresh, affordable or donated produce to communities in need as well as local businesses that support program growth and development.





Green Youth Farm was exactly what I had been looking for:

• Serves the community
• Organic produce
• Actually affordable (I've been wanting to join a CSA but it was always out of our budget, this works even better for us!)
• Informative and helpful staff

I hope you go and check out Green Youth Farm.  This will now be on our weekly list of things to do.

Na razie...



Disclaimer:  I was not in any way compensated for writing this post or talking about or even visiting Green Youth Farm.  We went because we were curious and ended up loving it, enough to write about it.

Wordless Wednesday: Autumn at the Farm

Sisters and Best Friends...

I figured out where my Krasnoludki dissappear to everyday when they are supposed to be washing my dishes and folding my laundry...

I wish there was some way to share with you the mouth watering real pickle smell in this jar...  Note the lack of yellow food dye.

I recognize that I am holding a cheap point-and-shoot.  If any camera companies feel like contributing so that I can take better pictures of chickens, flowers and our trips to Poland, I would very gladly accept.

Na razie...

Wordless Wednesday: Autumn on the Prairie

Autumn, no matter where you are, involves certain things.  Pumpkins, falling leaves, apple harvest season, seasonal vegetables, animals preparing for winter...

Just north of me is Wisconsin.  Until I moved here, I didn't realize that Wisconsin and Illinois are the Pumpkin Capital of the USA.  This year was a tough year for growing pumpkins and I was unable to find the massive pumpkin fields this year stretching as far as the eye could see on the flat prairie covered with orange dots everywhere. 

Our older daughter's school gave out free pumpkins in the school parking lot. 

Did you know that pumpkins are not grown typically in Poland but that the trend is changing?  My Babcia until recently would grow pumpkins in her little garden in Wroclaw to make pumpkin butter with.  But she was always very progressive.  You can't help but love that woman.

Mr. Braveheart of Stiles Vegetable Farm and Greenhouse happily ate more corn from our hands this week.  We got glimpses of the baby ducks who had hatched a few short weeks ago.  They will be grown by the time winter hits.

Leaves keep sticking to our sweaters as the wind blows and as the children chase each other at school pickup every day attempting to toss leaves on one another.  Listening to their giggles, watching their smiles, that is why I get out of our car everyday for pickup instead of sitting in my car and not interact with other parents.

My latest haul from the local farm, Stiles.  Pictured are a Sunflower head to dry, carrots, an extra large zucchini (I baked a whole wheat zucchini chocolate chip bread with added flax seed and wheat germ for the class to enjoy for snack time), a head of cabbage, a butternut squash, a bag of apples, potatoes, a bunch of beets, radishes, a turnip and a rutabaga (they are two different vegetables).  All grown locally, 100% of the money I spent to buy them went to the local farmer and local economy.  There was less impact on the environment by trucking each item in from various places around the world.  The produce is fresher and, therefor, packed with more nutrients.  And I could see which fields each grew in.  That's why I buy local...

There are several types of squirrels here.  In Maryland, the black squirrel died off many years ago when there was a blight that devastated the local chestnut trees.  I learned this at Jerusalem Mill.  In Poland, the squirrels are red with cute little ear tufts or are the European ground squirrel which is coming back from the brink of extinction.

Here is a video of a Polish Red Squirrel just because squirrels are so darn cute...

I wold love to have this sign hanging in my house.  It is from a local apple orchard that sells apples and fresh unpasteurized apple cider in this small building on the side of the road.  You can literally walk in, meet the farmer's wife and see the man in the other room washing and pressing the apples.  100% of the money I spent on the apples and apple cider went to the farmer and, again, no trucking it in from various areas around the world.

What is going on in your area of the woods?





A side note:  Apple cider should be enjoyed right away.  Shake up the container, then pour.  Young children, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems should not drink unpasteurized apple cider.  However, you can heat up the apple cider (with a stick of cinnamon in the pan, if you like for added flavor) before drinking as a great cold weather drink and to kill any pathogens you might be concerned about.

Getting Back Into Our Groove

It's been hard adjusting to living out here on the Prairie.  It's beautiful, but difficult.

I've been trying to keep an open mind and embrace a new experience and remind myself that uprooting myself and readjusting to new surroundings is in my blood, it's what I was born into.  But it has been hard.

There are just some things I am used to and won't compromise on because they are important to my parenting style. 

One of those things is a local farm.  Not just any kind, either.  We should be able to feed the animals, get to know some of the animals by name and allow the children to feel comfortable about them.  The farmer should be pleasant and a bit chatty (like me!), willing to show me what's fresh or new, talk about the harvest, recipes, etc. in front of the children so that this becomes a natural part of their vocabulary.

We should be able to go picking in the fields for more than the occasional pumpkin, strawberries and apples so that the children have a broad understanding of how their food is grown.  Also, I've learned through personal experience that children are more likely to eat vegetables they picked themselves.

And I shouldn't have to pay money to enter either, just for a pony ride or produce or whatever we should do to or purchase.

It should be a farm that won't take every dollar I have for fun for the whole week to enjoy and should be one that makes it easy for us to visit once or twice a week.

We had been missing Hubers Farm and Webers Cider Mill Farm, among others which we were extremely familiar with back in Maryland.  Being on a first name basis with your local farmer and knowing that our food is fresh and not several weeks old before we purchase it is important to us.

Well, I'm happy to say we found the perfect local farm!  Stiles Vegetable Farm & Greenhouse.  It's actually in Wisconsin but it's the closest to us that fit our needs.  Perhaps we will find others as well as time continues.

Meet the rooster we are now on a first name basis with...

Isn't he handsome?  He likes grapes and when you call his name, he comes running up to you and begs for food.

My toddler found him walking out from behind the counter and started whispering "Mommy!  Mommy!  Ook*!  Ook, a chicken, Mommy!  Silly chicken (insert adorable toddler giggle)!"

She kept watching him and feeding him with grapes and corn.  She followed him around the whole farm stand like she was his little puppy, constantly stopping to laugh "Silly chicken!" and he kept pausing in his quest for food to allow her to catch up with him.

We purchased fresh ginger (I am hoping to make Thai peanut sauce noodles for myself today), tomatoes, sugar baby and Italian plums, green onions, and local raw honey.

Raw honey straight from the comb on the left...

My toddler ate raw corn and an Italian plum while I paid and found out about other activities around town that I could take her to do.


The lady farmer was knowledgeable, warm, and her husband is Polish so we talked about different types of pierogi.

When we got in the car, my toddler kept talking about the ducks and chicken and the corn until we picked up her sister.  She told everyone who would listen outside the school about them.  She told her Daddy hours later about the ducks and chicken and showed off the honey she had picked out.  She told her Dziadek about feeding the animals and about the baby ducks we saw and gave him a tomato and said "Eat dis, Dziadek!"

I think we will be fine.  We are getting back into our groove finally.

Na razie...


* Ook in toddler-speak means look



Some interesting resources about local farms in the Wisconsin and Illinois area

Wisconsin Local Farms (not a complete list but still worth checking out)

American Farmland Trust (Support local farms and check out their current effort "No Farms No Food" and information)

Local Harvest has a great tool for finding local farms, farmer markets, and other "sources of sustainably grown food in your area" including grass fed meats, etc.

The State of Illinois's Agricultural Department has a great Kids Page

I received no compensation for mentioning the farm we went to or for sharing any of the links above.

Polish Strawberry Bread or Chlebek Truskawkowy

I love picking strawberries.  As long as I remember, my mother, brother,and I would go to a local farm and pick strawberries for hours.  We would go home and she would make strawberry compote, jams, breads, and all sorts of other delicious treats with the strawberries we would pick.

My children from only a few months of age would sit in strawberries fields with Mama as I would pick the ruby red jewels from between dusty green leaves, rinse them with a bottle of water I would bring and give them to my children to eat.  The berries would still be warm and sweet from the sun and we would always leave the fields with my children's faces painted red and smiling, sleepy from the sun.

We recently went berry picking for our first time here in the Midwest and I baked a favorite.  Chlebek Truskawkowy or Polish Strawberry Bread.

I baked two loaves and 20 muffins with this recipe (all 20 muffins disappeared in a day and a half).

They can be eaten plain, or with strawberry jam, butter, cream cheese, or my personal favorite, sour cream with a sprinkle of sugar on top.



Ingredients:

1 cup Butter
1 1/2 cups Sugar
5 Eggs
4 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Cinnamon, if you like (Vanilla Extract, Lemon Zest or even a berry Brandy or Rum could be also used for flavor)
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 cup Sour Cream
3/4 cup Walnuts, chopped (traditionally, this bread is made with hazelnuts or walnuts or plain)
1 pound of Strawberries, washed, trimmed of their caps


Preheat oven 350 degrees.  Grease and lightly dust with flour two bread pans and muffin tray (or use cupcake liners for muffin tray instead).

Place walnuts in a dry frying pan and roast on the stove for a few minutes to bring out their flavor.

Cream the butter in a mixer.  Add sugar and cream more.  Add eggs, one at a time until well combined.

In a large bowl, combine thoroughly flour, cinnamon (if using a wet flavoring, add into the butter mixture instead), salt, baking powder, baking soda.

Add the flour to the butter mixture, a bit at a time to avoid making a floury mess across your kitchen.

Add sour cream.

The strawberries can either be added gently whole or, can be mashed with a couple of tablespoons of sugar and then added gently in. 

Add the walnuts in gently.

Pour batter into pans and bake for approximately an hour.  Cool on wire rack.

Smacznego!