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Headed to the farmers' market? Make a beeline for booths operated by these first-rate farms.
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Vegetable stew: Check out our Summer Festival Guide for a downloadable map of the city's best farmer's markets, with information of what to buy and when to visit.
Any chef will tell you: The best dishes start with the freshest ingredients. Skipping the super-market and heading instead to one of the city’s farmers’ markets is the first step. But if you’re ready to take your green game to the next level, look for these vendors, whose veggies, fruits, cheese and meat are the best of the bunch. More inclined to make reservations than an organic veggie risotto? Lucky for you, the city’s top chefs are among these farmers’ best customers.
Tired of Bloody Marys made with mix from the bottle? Chris Covelli is your man. The Wisconsin farmer makes a celery-perfumed Bloody Mary mix from his farm’s organic tomatoes. He also concocts organic salsas, soups and raspberry preserves that will make you realize all those years of eating industrial jam have obfuscated the depth, sweetness and slight tartness of real raspberries. Covelli got his start growing tomatoes in the rocky hills of southwest Wisconsin near Baraboo. Those inhospitable conditions only fueled Covelli’s dogged determination, and he eschews technology like automatic seeders or weed burners in favor of manual techniques. He’s also one of the few certified organic farmers in the Midwest.
This past winter Covelli studied up on Joe Parker Anaheim and Big Jim chile peppers, so look for those to add a little Southwestern heat to your salsa when you’re loading up on tomatoes.
Where to try it
Covelli’s potatoes, onions and tomatillos often show up on the menu at Frontera Grill (445 N Clark St, 312-661-1434), listed as “Covelli Farm” products.
Where to buy it
Purchase seedlings (early in the season), heirloom tomatoes and jarred products at Federal Plaza Market(Adams and Dearborn Sts; Tuesdays, beginning Tuesday 15); Green City Market (south end of Lincoln Park between 1750 N Clark St and Stockton Dr; Wednesdays and Saturdays, beginning Wednesday 16); Wicker Park(Damen Ave and Schiller St; Sundays, beginning June 3).
Mick Klug is kind of the Thomas Edison of farming. Noted for his delicious asparagus, strawberries and black cherries, he’s a serial experimenter—he’ll grow 15 different varieties of peaches on his farm in St. Joseph, Michigan, just to see which tastes best. He also treated and grew separate plots of similar crops with little to no pesticides, and he learned that minimal spraying creates a better-tasting fruit. Klug focuses on flavor rather than appearances, so he produces fruits like Cresthaven peaches, a specialty of his farm (along with blackberries, raspberries and green beans). Compared to commercial peaches, this variety doesn’t have a bright, attractive blush, but it’s much sweeter. “We try to get them as tree-ripe as possible,” Klug says. “We lose some fruit that way, because some stuff gets overripe, but it pays off in the long run. It’s like coming down to the farm and picking it from the tree—but we bring the tree to you.”
Where to try it
Chef Benjamin Browning of Landmark(1633 N Halsted St, 312-587-1600) hails from near Klug’s farm; when the season hits in June, he’ll top a strawberry and rose–infused shortcake with Klug’s Honeystar strawberries.
Starting in mid-June, seasonally focused mixologist Adam Seger serves Klug’s bounty in a Black Cherry Caipirinha at Nacional 27(325 W Huron St, 312-664-2727).
Where to buy it
Federal Plaza Market; Lincoln Square Market(Lincoln, Leland and Western Aves; Tuesdays, beginning June 12); Lincoln Park Market(Armitage Ave and Orchard St; Saturdays, beginning May 19); Near North Market(Division and Dearborn Sts; Saturdays, beginning June 2); Green City Market.
While teaching at the University of Illinois, Leslie Cooperband (sustainable agriculture and community development) and Wes Jarrell (natural resources/environmental sciences) reinvented themselves as part-time goatherds, cheese makers and organic fruit farmers. At Prairie Fruits Farm—Illinois’ first recognized “farmstead” cheese facility, meaning it makes cheese from the milk of its own animals—Cooperband and Jarrell nurture Nubian and La Mancha goats. The close proximity to their animals “gives us greater control over how we care for our goats, which helps us maintain higher quality,” Cooperband says. And as Jarrell points out, “goat milk is fragile, so we have very strict standards of cleanliness and we have to cool it very quickly.”
Prairie Fruits Farm produces several cheeses, including an exceptionally light chèvre and a creamy Camembert. These and other cheeses are decorated with herbs from their farm, which also yields organic fruits such as gooseberries, quinces and currants.
Where to try it
At North Pond(2610 N Cannon Dr, 773-477-5845), fresh chèvre is mixed into herb dumplings for asparagus soup and into a hazelnut macaroon served with poached pear and salad. Vie(4471 Lawn Ave, Western Springs, 708-246-2082) uses Prairie Fruits’ chèvre for gnocchi that’s tossed with green garlic, roasted pine nuts and wild mushrooms, or paired with house-made preserves and pickles (Vie’s specialty) for a cheese plate.
Where to buy it
Cooperband is at Green City Market on alternate weekends, starting Wednesday 16, and her cheese is sold at Oak Park Farmers’ Market(Elmwood Ave and Lake St; Saturdays, beginning June 2) through Eric Larson of Marion Street Cheese Market (101 N Marion St, Oak Park, 708-848-2088)
Marilyn and Larry Wettstein raise some of the best meat sold in the area, and their farm, Organic Pastures, was organic long before places like Wal-Mart cared about the label. After Larry’s father died of cancer in 1990, the couple became concerned about the chemicals being used on their land, 500 acres just east of Peoria. By 1997, all their pasture and livestock were certified organic. A decade later the Wettsteins have built a customer base that’s addicted to the flavor of their Angus-cross cattle, Berkshire pigs and Katahdin lamb. Dean Zanella, executive chef at 312 Chicago, has been buying whole pigs from the Wettsteins for five years. “Their animals just taste great because they’re raised in the correct way,” Zanella says. “A lot of times, people have their pork and say, ‘What’d you do to this?’ And I say, ‘Nothing. You don’t have to do anything to it.’”
Where to try it
At 312 Chicago(136 N LaSalle St, 312-696-2420) the bellies are rolled and cured for pancetta; the jowls are made into impeccable guanciale, the secret behind great spaghetti carbonara; and the head is used for a terrine called testa. Paul Kahan of Blackbird(619 W Randolph St, 312-715-0708) swaddles the pork in duck fat and confits it, and finishes it with cavollo nero (Italian cabbage) and shaved chiogga beets.
Where to buy it
Evanston Farmers’ Market(University Pl and Oak Ave; Saturdays, beginning May 19).
The Nichols family has been selling at farmers’ markets for nearly 30 years. “Variety is our specialty,” Lloyd says of his 280 acres in Rockford, Illinois, and he’s got the heirloom seeds to back him up. A lot of farmers grow a few tomato varieties; Nichols grows 30. A lot of stands have apples; Nichols has nearly 200 different kinds (although, needless to say, not all make it to the market). “If it can be grown in this climate, we grow it,” Lloyd says. That includes artichokes and a small stand of fig trees—something Nichols admits he has no business growing in the Midwestern climate. He also earns raves for his three-colored currants and strawberries.
Where to try it
Chef Alex Cheswick of May Street Market(1132 W Grand Ave, 312-421-5547) hasn’t set his menu for the season yet, but he’s a fan of Nichols’s heirloom cherry tomatoes and golden Chicken of the Woods mushrooms, a fungi that the Nicholses harvest wild on their farm.
Where to buy it
Daley Plaza(Washington and Dearborn Sts, Thursdays, beginning May 17), Evanston Farmers’ Market; Federal Plaza Market; Green City Market.
