“Designed to honor the seasonal arc of produce consumption that all farmers markets thrive on . . . the book also touts regional, fresh and the Midwest.” —Third Coast Review Founded in 1998 by the late culinary luminary, author, chef, and entrepreneur Abby Mandel, the Green City Market is the venerable year-round farmers market held in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. Since its inception, the Green City Market has grown into one of the most popular destinations for finding organic and sustainable produce and products throughout the Midwest’s extensive farm-to-table culinary movement. The Green City Market Cookbook is the first collection of recipes from the celebrity chefs, local farmers, loyal customers, and longtime vendors that make up the Green City Market community. Beautifully illustrated with full-color photography, the thoroughly tested recipes in this book represent a diversity of wonderful meals that can be created from the fresh, sustainable output of Midwestern family farms. Chicago’s leading chefs, as well as other market regulars, have contributed recipes simple enough for the inexperienced cook but sufficiently enticing to satisfy the most discriminating gourmet. Organized by season, The Green City Market Cookbook provides eager readers with recipes that make use of fresh fruits and vegetables that come straight from the small regional farms that are the lifeblood of the farm-to-fork movement. “This cookbook is a living breathing document to how we are connected to the land, the farmers, and each other. It will be your constant resource for the seasons, ingredients, and the most delicious ways to cook.” —Ina Pinkney, former chef/owner of The Dessert Kitchen Ltd. and cookbook author “A collection of locally driven recipes with stunning photographs.” —Zagat

"A guide to preparing organic, sustainable, and locally sourced farm products, with recipes from Chicago's leading chefs, and from farmers, volunteers, and shoppers of the Green City Market"--

Green City Market, A Song of Thanks celebrates founder Abby Mandel and the advent of the Know your food-know your farmer movement. Inspired by Alice Waters, but challenged by the shorter midwestern growing season, Abby defied the status quo and introduced seasonal, organic, sustainably farmed food to Chicago. Wooing farmers, chefs, and introducing a new mindset to shoppers, she created a legendary institution that spawned a network of farmers markets across the country. In this 20th anniversary reprise of Chicago's Green City Market, photographer Sharon Hoogstraten has crafted a moving homage to Abby's work and the market. Using a vintage poem by Edward Smyth Jones as a narrative script, essays from Chicago's top chefs, and two hundred pages of beautiful photography, she gives us a visual retrospective and permanent souvenir of a market you either know well-or will wish you did.Abby Mandel, chef, culinary genius, food columnist, was the creator of the Green City Market, an organic, sustainable and certified farmers market. Alice Waters called it "the best sustainable market in the country."Edward Smyth Jones, son of a Mississippi sharecropper, who longed to study at Harvard produced an extraordinary volume of poetry including A Song of Thanks. Published in 1911, this poem challenged the photographer and illuminates the market produce and seasons.An award-winning photographer, Sharon Hoogstraten has been documenting the Green City Market since 2008.

Cover -- Title page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- CHICAGO -- MICHIGAN -- OHIO -- INDIANA -- ILLINOIS -- MISSOURI -- IOWA -- MINNESOTA -- WISCONSIN -- What Is Next? -- Index -- back cover.

The Chicago Food Encyclopedia is a far-ranging portrait of an American culinary paradise. Hundreds of entries deliver all of the visionary restauranteurs, Michelin superstars, beloved haunts, and food companies of today and yesterday. More than 100 sumptuous images include thirty full-color photographs that transport readers to dining rooms and food stands across the city. Throughout, a roster of writers, scholars, and industry experts pays tribute to an expansive--and still expanding--food history that not only helped build Chicago but fed a growing nation. Pizza. Alinea. Wrigley Spearmint. Soul food. Rick Bayless. Hot Dogs. Koreatown. Everest. All served up A-Z, and all part of the ultimate reference on Chicago and its food.

The essential lifestyle guide for the millions of progressives on both coasts, The Nation Guide to The Nation will help left-of-center types find left-leaning shops, cultural institutions, and gathering places in their own hometowns and on the road. CULTURAL: Art collectives / activist documentaries / political circuses / film festivals / writers' colonies / left-brained bookstores / arts advocacy groups / indie book publishers / the 25 greatest political movies / detective stories for liberals SOCIAL: Organic and slow food restaurants / political saloons and bars / bookshop cafés and conversational coffeehouses / sexy singles meet-ups / reading clubs and discussion groups / camps for radical kids / parades and festivals / parks and preserves ENVIRONMENTAL: Activist groups / monkey wrenchers and sea shepherds / eco-friendly products / favorite green markets / super co-ops / eco-tourism / farm communes / energy solutions ORGANIZATIONS: Peace and anti-nuclear / feminist / GLBT / economic policy / immigrant rights / labor issues / campaign finance reform / civil liberties / radical mouthpieces / liberal think tanks MEDIA: Left-talk radio / press watchdogs / anti-corporate media / regional and local papers / alternative weeklies / a guide to the blogosphere GOODS AND SERVICES: Natural food stores / no-sweat clothing / socially conscious mutual funds / political tours / eco-beers and hemp pretzels / funeral homes and cemeteries (for a green send-off!)

Aimed at locals and visitors alike, this guide contains more than 50 sections that reveal fascinating details of Chicago's culinary and human histories of its diverse restaurants, markets, and bars, and explores the city's ethnic and local food traditions. Photos. Maps.