Pollan makes a good point: You won't find any HFCS at the farmer's market. Farmers' markets, food co-ops, small independent grocers with an emphasis on "real" food are out there and growing, but still the big chains rule. The chains are what keep food processing plants and factory farms busy. But you won't find heirloom apples or tomatoes in most big grocery chains. You WILL get to talk to the person who planted the seeds, worked in the hot sun and heavy rains to make sure their crops were perfect by going to the farmer's market. You can even buy shares in the farm from where you want your beef & chicken or your weekly vegetables to come from. More and more these farms are offering drop offs around the city at shops like ours. I think as a consumer this is very rewarding and exciting: it's kind of like the stock market - you buy shares in the farm (called "Community Supported Agriculture") and when the weather cooperates, well your return is robust. When wind and hail sometimes mercilessly ruin crops and fox destroy the chicken coops, your investment can be a bit disappointing, but you are partnering with the farm so that long term you both benefit (not to mention our environment and local economies...)
So writing about farmer's markets leads me to another thought: if you've ever purchased preserves or brownies or salsa or many other products outside of raw vegetables or local meat, those products are mandated by the City of Chicago to be prepared in a commercial kitchen. This ensures the integrity of the process: the kitchen has a license that dictates it be inspected by local officials to make sure that kitchen is in compliance with things that prevent foodborne illness and other 'bad' things...however, many of the vendors we've seen pop up in Chicago over the last few years are just getting their feet wet with their business. They're using the markets as a way to 'beta-test' their products, or they simply aren't at a production level that allows them to have a store front - an endeavor that takes A LOT of capital and has high demands (like rent, utilities, payroll, property taxes and much much more). So, in lieu of taking the risk too soon, or taking on too much, these small-food entrepeneurs are lucky enough to be able to go to kitchen incubators: shared commercially-inspected kitchens that exist by renting out use of the kitchen to several businesses at a time, usually by the hour.
Kitchen incubators are terrific - in fact, they've been the launch pad for several small Chicago businesses: Floriole, Hoosier Mama Pie Company, Vella Cafe. These ladies all got to test the waters by prepping food at Kitchen Chicago, then selling their goods at farmer's markets to see how people would like their product and it worked! This week city of Chicago health inspectors crushed a couple of businesses (and livelihoods) when they inspected a commercial kitchen incubator & destroyed thousands of dollars worth of food that had been stored/prepared at the kitchen. Now here's the crazy irony: the city will not issue business licenses to food vendors that don't have a physical address. Kitchen incubators serve as the physical address & the licensed kitchen that inspectors can go to to make sure everything's on the "up and up"...individual food businesses can then apply for their licenses using the kitchen's address and each have a separate inspection.
This week officials were at Kitchen Chicago completing inspections and upon discovering some frozen fruit being stored by a food artisan using the shared space, proceeded to throw away all of it (oh, after pouring bleach all over it). Read the piece written by Monica Eng of the Chicago Tribune, who happened to be there collecting info for a separate story:
http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/thestew/2010/02/health-department-destroys-thousands-of-dollars-of-local-fruit.html#more
To me, as a small-business owner who proudly and CONFIDENTLY supports many small-food producers who work out of commercial kitchens, I think the actions by the city are a blow not just to small business, but to much of our population. The city's actions imply that large-scale food processors and companies who choose profits over local communities are more important than trying to bolster our local food economies. Forget the slap in the face to people who can't afford to feed their families & to those who picked the fruit (that the city threw away) at 5am to get it to the farmer's markets to people who CHOOSE to support the local/sustainable movement. I need another day or two to wallow in this sad state and after that, I'm going to do my best to continue to support local foods, continue to run my business with integrity and with a mission to help in my own way to heal our food system. Please forward Monica's blog post on to as many people as you can. We need light shined on this type of behavior and we need better and more straightforward and FAIR rules put in place for small business. Thanks for listening!
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