Evanston’s downtown farmers market will pack up its fall flowers and produce stands after its last run of the year Saturday. Four of the city’s five seasonal markets have already closed for 2011, allowing local farmers some downtime after the year’s growing season.
“There’s not a lot to do as a farmer in the winter in Illinois,” Medill freshman Zoe Brockman said.
Her family owns Henry’s Farm in Eureka, Ill., and sells produce at the Evanston Downtown Farmers Market from May to November.
“Winter is a time to rejuvenate,” she said.
Henry’s Farm does not sell produce during the winter months unless leftover root vegetables or eggs remain, Brockman said. Instead, Henry Brockman, farm owner and Zoe’s father, spends winter preparing for the next year, she said.
Northwestern’s own campus garden, located on Norris University Center’s south lawn, also hibernates in the winter months, said Thea Klein-Mayer, Weinberg senior and president of Wild Roots.
“We let everything die and then plant cover crop so in the spring the soil will be fixed with nitrogen,” Klein-Mayer said. “We have to organize for the next season – make sure plants are ordered and plan crop rotation.”
Some organizations unaffiliated with Evanston or Chicago sponsor winter markets. Faith in Place, a non-profit organization committed to facilitating sustainability, organizes occasional winter markets hosted in churches throughout the Chicago metropolitan area.
“The winter markets are dual purpose because they give farmers a necessary outlet for business during the off-season when most farmers markets are shut down,” said Leila Shooshani, congregational outreach and support coordinator for Faith in Place. “At the same time, winter markets also allow consumers to maintain face-to-face relationships with farmers and eat locally and sustainably throughout the winter.”
Faith in Place has scheduled 16 non-denominational winter markets in the Chicago area between November and March, two of which will be held in Evanston.
One market will be held Jan. 21 at Lake Street Church, 607 Lake St., and another will be held Feb. 12 at Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, 303 Dodge Ave. Immanuel Lutheran Church also will hold its annual market the Saturday before Thanksgiving at its 616 Lake St. location.
Discussions of a consistent winter farmers market in Evanston are circulating among local organizations and farmers, said Michael Miro, manager of Evanston’s Ridgeville Market.
“It’s being thought about right now, and I’ve been in discussion about it with Friends of Evanston Farmers Markets,” Miro said. “First we need to determine if it’s feasible or even desirable, but if there is a venue for it, I think it’d be great.”
Robin Schirmer, a former coordinator of Chicago winter markets, said that venue could be the Oak Street Market. She described a potential market to be held three times a week at 1516 Oak St., a former venue for local produce sales in Evanston. Schirmer said Oak Street Market was a hotspot for local vendors in the 1970s and 80s.
Despite uncertainties of the establishment of a winter market in Evanston, residents do have some access to fresh produce in the winter, said Judith Dunbar Hines, director of culinary arts and events for the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture. Other area markets can provide a variety of products such as stock root vegetables, eggs, cheese and dairy products, pickled products, salsas and alpaca wool, Hines said. Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand in the loop also sells fresh produce and other local farm products six days a week year-round, Hines said.
But the best way to eat locally and sustainably in the winter season is to save and freeze or pickle fresh produce during the growing season, Brockman said.
“We don’t really buy any food in the winter from the grocery store because we have so much stocked up from the summer,” Brockman said. “It is possible to eat locally all year round.”
