Stringing together even two interesting words has seemed a challenge of late. Late-summer lethargy? Age-related brain cell loss? Allergies? Who knows. Who cares? Here, instead, are are some pretty pictures, shot this morning in the greenhouse and gardens behind the Pacific Garden Mission. PGM is a Chicago institution; originally founded in 1877, the shelter stood … Continued
My story on anarchist coffeepreneur David Meyers and the nascent Chicago Coffee Confederation is up/out now at/in the Reader. What didn’t make it into the story so much is the larger picture of the Chicory Center philosophy. Meyers’s On-the-Fly Farm is sort of operating at a low simmer right now, but the idea was (and … Continued
Slow Food USA president Josh Viertel kicks off the new soup season at Hull-House on August 25. More, here.
I hear it is back-to-school time out there in the rest of the world, which means it is a good time to plug next week’s Slow Food-sponsored Eat-In at Daley Plaza. Moving kids away from a diet of high-fructose corn syrup and processed meat byproducts would seem to be an a priori go0d, but even if … Continued
Back in the 90s, before the internet, and before I got all into food and growing things, I put out a zine. You remember zines — little magazines printed on paper? You bought them at indie record stores? Or Quimby’s if you were lucky enough to have someplace like that in your town? Anyway. Ours … Continued
IMO the most revealing — and hopeful — bit from an excellent interview with the equally excellent Will Allen. [grist.org] EH: If you could change one thing about how cities are run, what would it be? WA: All city planners should be required to incorporate green space and food growing into their urban plans. The American Planning Association’s magazine new … Continued
WBEZ producer Kristin Moo did a short little piece on the Greenhouses of Hope at Pacific Garden Mission, where I’ve been volunteering for the last eight months. I was out of town the day she came down to tape, but I wouldn’t have been able to contribute anything that Nance and Sayre — and our … Continued
At least the worms managed to make a quart of castings before they died. I was impressed. I have a writing deadline to meet, which means that this weekend my writing process kicked into high gear. That process being to do everything else I could possibly think of to do around the house other than … Continued
“Today the average American spends a mere 27 minutes a day on food preparation (another four minutes cleaning up); that’s less than half the time that we spent cooking and cleaning up when Julia [Child] arrived on our television screens. It’s also less than half the time it takes to watch a single episode of … Continued
I’m on my way out this this morning to interview David Meyers, of Resistance Coffee fame. David is an energetic — and presumably well-caffeinated — anarchist and activist, a lynchpin of Chicago’s growing coffee subculture. His coffee is rich and chocolatey. And, he delivers. I’m hopefully writing something up for the Reader, for a few weeks … Continued