Farmers markets offer healthy options, opportunity to meet growers
When Tom Anderson and his wife Nancy were raising their two boys, eating didn't get more local than their Palatine backyard.
"They grew up on fresh vegetables," Anderson said. "My older son, who never really liked vegetables, would say 'Oh, are these from the garden? I'll try them.'"
Anderson, who gardened at his Michigan Avenue home for 34 years, opened his own booth at the Palatine Farmers' Market in 2012. By 2013, he sold his Palatine home and expanded to a 10-acre farm in Marengo, where he grows tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, spinach and other veggies for the market.
"Almost everything we sell, we picked the day before," Anderson said. "It's really caught on - eating locally and sustainably. Everybody's craving it."
A growing trend
That craving for local fare likely has contributed to a rapid growth in farmers markets throughout Illinois in recent years. In 1994, there were just 97 markets statewide, said Pat Stieren, executive director for the Illinois Farmers Market Association. Today, 375 markets are registered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Stieren said, making Illinois the third largest state for farmers markets, behind California and New York.
"It's just the local food movement," Stieren said. "I feel like Chicago is driving the movement. Cook County has the population. That's what's driving the markets and the energy."
Five years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched a "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative aimed at building stronger local and regional food systems. Improved access to healthy, nutritious food, job creation and reducing the amount of resources for transporting food were other major goals of the initiative.
"Young farmers are coming forward in their 30s wanting to make a difference," Stieren said. "People are more educated."
From fields to forks
Health experts say produce can start losing nutrients within two to three days of being picked, making it crucial to shorten the distance food travels after harvest.
"The produce at [the farmers market] is brought straight to you, so there's no shipment time," said Toby Smithson, spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. "A lot of nutrients will lessen with that time factor. We want to get the most bang out of our bite."
The Palatine market, which opened for the season May 3, started 24 years ago with only six vendors, said Marg Duer, market manager and Palatine village clerk. Today, the market has about 30 vendors and a more nutrition-savvy clientele, she said.
"We started out with, 'Is this apple best for pies?'" Duer said of the questions customers were asking in the early 1990s. "Now that has grown into, 'Was anything sprayed on this apple?'"
Individual markets create their own thresholds for how far food travels to be considered local, Duer said, with some limiting distance to 200 miles. Palatine defines local as no further than 100 miles, allowing food from nearby states such as Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin.
Although his produce is not officially certified organic, Anderson said he uses no pesticides. While growing apples on his former Palatine property, he bagged each individual apple on the trees to prevent pests and pollutants from damaging the fruit. He also removes insects such as the Japanese beetle by hand from his crops.
"I don't think it's harder," Anderson said. "For one thing, if you spray it, you're spending a lot of time spraying it. You're getting the chemicals on yourself and that's not healthy for you."
For longtime farmers such as Bonnie Ogle, who runs Ogle Family Farm in Sugar Grove with her husband Paul St. John and their three daughters, the renewed interest in locally sourced food is a welcome trend. Ogle and her family sell pasture-raised chicken, duck and turkey eggs and various meats at the Batavia and Oswego farmers markets during the summer.
"We're glad to see people appreciating being able to get local products," Ogle said. "When I grew up, you didn't eat watermelon in the winter. You ate in season. When you eat out of season, the food has to travel hundreds if not thousands of miles, which has an environmental impact."
Friends and neighbors
To John Bradley, manager of the Northfield Farmers' Market, which opens May 24, farmers' markets offer more than face time with local food growers. The events are a chance to connect with the community, he said.
"It's going to get a cup of coffee, buying some stuff and seeing your neighbors," said Bradley, who runs the market along with the Winnetka-Northfield Chamber of Commerce. "It's a meet and greet type of thing."
One of the oldest farmers markets on the North Shore, the Northfield Farmers' Market was so popular, it helped inspire "Wednesday in the Woods" at Hubbard Woods Park in Winnetka. The evening farmers market takes place weekly in June and July and includes a concert series.
"It's like combining Ravinia and a farmers market," Bradley said.
While visiting the Palatine farmers market on a recent Saturday with her two children, Maggie, 10 months and Benjamin, 3, Krissy Bergle said the social aspect of the market is as important as the local food.
"We really just come for the atmosphere," said Bergle, of Palatine. "It's the beginning of summer. Who doesn't love a good farmers market that you can walk to?"
As for the Andersons, their backyard garden turned Marengo farm definitely is a family affair. Tom Anderson's youngest son, Phil, works on the farm, using his mechanic skills to refurbish tractors and other equipment. He also helps his dad man the booth each week at the Palatine market, but never envisioned himself becoming a farmer someday.
"Growing up, I thought I'd have a little garden," Phil Anderson said. "I didn't think I'd actually be working in a field on tractors."