Green City Market

I'm going to start this post by saying that I freaking love farmers markets. Something about the combination of fresh food, friendly vendors, and the community atmosphere at farmers markets just makes my soul smile. The weather is FINALLY warming up here in Chicago so the markets are starting up again--or in the case of Green City Market, just moving back outdoors.

I found out about the market on one of my favorite food blogs, Lottie and Doof. After reading a post about a local chef who makes some delicious tamales, I knew I HAD to go and get some for myself. Note: I read that post at 1:30 in the morning on Friday evening (I guess that's technically Saturday morning) and the market opened at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday. I immediately got into bed with dreams of tamales dancing in my head.

When I got up, I quickly showered and packed up my purse then caught a bus to the market. My first stop was obviously the tamale tent and when I got there I saw a giant "SOLD OUT" sign. Break. My. Heart. I spoke to the chef for a minute and was assured that she'd be back every Wednesday and Saturday with a much larger supply so she didn't sell out as quickly. Have no fear, I'll get my tamale yet!

Since the reason for my visit was a bust, I decided to look around and enjoy the other vendors' fare. I got a scoop of candied maple pecan ice cream from Snooklefritz, which was absolutely DIVINE, and looked around.



I think my favorite was the River Valley Farmers tent. They are mushroom farmers (swoon!) and they had a beautiful set-up complete with free samples, and some delicious products. I ended up buying some garlic lover's pasta sauce from them and I'm pretty excited about it!



My other purchase of the day was some fresh ciabatta rolls from Crumb. The foccacia slices looked HEAVENLY but I couldn't justify the $3 because I no longer have a job haha. Maybe next time? The chef was so sweet and was really working the crowd well. She did a great job--I will definitely be a repeat customer.




All in all, the market was fabulous. I learned some important lessons!
1) have a dog. I felt really out of place without a furry friend.
2) get there EARLY! Almost all of the prepared food was sold out by the time I got there (around 10:15) so next time I'll have to make an effort to get there earlier in the day.
3) always bring an umbrella. It started sprinkling a little bit so I had to head home because I didn't want my camera to get wet. If I had brought an umbrella, that wouldn't have been an issue. Silly me!