Chicago City Provisions organic farm dinners

by Katie Hammel on

It’s Green Travel Month here at Gadling, so to get into the green spirit, I booked a special dinner with Chicago’s City Provisions Catering and Events, an eco-friendly catering company. City Provisions works with local farmers and suppliers, sends its organic waste back to farmers for composting, and sources all of its ingredients from organic and sustainable providers. The company offers catering services both off-site and at its city space, and is in the process of opening up a deli. It also hosts a monthly supperclub. In winter, dinners are held at the storefront location, but in the warmer months the meal is served out on a local farm, using fresh ingredients grown on-site. August’s dinner was held at Heritage Prairie Farm, about an hour north of Chicago. Heritage Prairie also does its owns farm dinners, but drinks and transportation are not included, as they are with City Provisions.

At 1 p.m., my husband and I arrived at the City Provisions location in Chicago. While we checked in, we were offered soft drinks – served in 100% compostable glasses – and light snacks. Then we, and the 38 other diners, boarded the biodiesel bus for the ride out to the farm. Along the way, we were introduced to Cleetus, the mastermind behind City Provisions. We enjoyed some BLT sandwiches, tomato gazpacho, and Great Lakes Brewing beers, and prepared ourselves for the upcoming feast.

Once at the farm, we met the owners and the farmers who work the land. They led us on a tour of the small property and explained the sustainable practices they employ to make the farm as efficient as possible. While Heritage Prairie is not a certified organic farm, the methods they use, such as allowing weeds to grow in certain areas rather than using pesticides, are green and eco-friendly. One of the most unique features of the farm is the three movable greenhouses, which allow the farmers to engaging in a practice known as “four-season farming”. The greenhouses are on tracks and can be moved up and down the length of the field, covering different sections as needed. This allows the farm to harvest some crops as late as January, long past the time when most other farms have halted their efforts for the year.

The tour took us through one of the smaller greenhouses, where we saw the wooden growing beds where seeds were left to germinate. Due to the farm’s small size, it’s very important that it be as efficient as possible. To ensure that every inch of the field is productive, the soil beds in the growing greenhouse are cut up into smaller squares, and only the successful ones are moved to the field. In this way, no field space is wasted. After exploring the grounds, we browsed through the farm’s market for honey made on-site and fresh produce and herbs grown at the farm.

By 5 p.m., we were sitting down to dinner at an elegantly-dressed table in the field. As we helped ourselves to baby eggplant baba ganouj with pita chips, servers began pouring the beer that would accompany each course. Provided by Great Lakes Brewing, one of the most environmentally-responsible brewers in the US, the beer was paired according to each course, and many of the dishes utilized the beer for their sauces.

Over the next three hours, we enjoyed five courses of delicious, fresh-from-the-farm food expertly prepared by the City Provisions chefs, who were all decked out in organic cotton chef’s jackets that had buttons made from nuts rather than plastic. Between each course, we had the chance to mingle with fellow diners and we learned about the process of brewing beer and about the sustainable practices at Great Lakes Brewing from owner Pat Conway.

Our first course, a delicate micro-green salad, was topped with sun gold tomatoes and a vinaigrette made with Grassroots beer from Great Lakes and honey produced on the farm. Next came a colorful mix of seared rainbow chard, baby leeks, currants and pine nuts, with crispy pancetta served over brown rice with a balsamic sauce made from the accompanying Edmund Fitzgerald Porter.

Course three – a zucchini cake topped with basil creme fraiche and served with baby carrots and more of the farm’s microgreens – was just as delightful. By the time course four rolled around, everyone at the table had become fast friends, and we traded stories while oohing and aahing over the grilled pork brat that was topped with grain mustard and served with potato salad and green beans in a browned-butter sauce.

Just when we thought our tummies had been filled to bursting, the final course was brought out. A light-as-air pavlova was topped with caramel-honey cream and fresh peaches and was served alongside a rich Glockenspiel beer. As we licked the last of the cream from our forks and tilted back our glasses to catch the last drops of beer, the chefs were busy setting up another surprise. While dinner had ended, the evening was far from over, and as we stood from the table, we saw that a bonfire had been started, more beer was ready to be consumed, and the ingredients for classic s’mores were laid out nearby. We drank, ate, and relaxed while enjoying the searing colors of the sun setting over the fields.

At 10 p.m., it was time to re-board the bus and return to our city lives. Our indulgent dinner may not have single-handedly saved the planet, but our support of farmers and producers who use sustainable methods may help encourage other restaurants and farmers to take a step in a greener direction too.

Can’t make it to Chicago to book a farm dinner with City Provisions? Here are some other green-focused farm dinners around the country.

Austin, Texas – Dai Due Supper Club
Portland, Oregon – Plate & Pitchfork Farm Dinners
Old Lyme, Connecticut – Dinners at the Farm
Ashville, North Carolina – Maverick Farms
Boulder, Colorado – Meadow Lark Farm Dinners
Point Arena, California – Oz Farm
Various locations – Outstanding in the Field

Stay at The Blackstone and explore Chicago by bike

by Katie Hammel on

We’ve been talking a lot about green travel this month. Well, here’s one more way you can do your part to reduce the impact your travels have on the environment. Book a room at The Blackstone in Chicago through October 31, and you’ll be given two Strida bikes to use for the duration of your stay.

“Bike Chicago” package prices range from $199 to $269 per night and include overnight accommodations for two, a city map and the use of two bikes. Strida bikes are the world’s lightest collapsible bikes, so you can easily pedal around town and then fold up the bike and carry it with you on the bus or El if you need to travel farther than you’re willing to pedal. And because biking all over Chicago can take a lot out of you, The Blackstone will also provide you with some tasty fuel – a picnic lunch for two from Mercat al la Planxa, a Catalan cuisine restaurant inside the hotel.

The Blackstone is a Marriott property located on Michigan Avenue, near Grant Park. While it’s not the cheapest accommodation you’ll find in the city, the hotel’s restored luxury (it was originally built in in 1910), excellent service, and ideal location make it well worth the price. For the date I checked, the bike package was only $40 more than the basic rate, an amount you could easily spend on cabs over the course of a weekend. So overall, I ‘d say this is a pretty good deal. See Chicago, save some money, and do a little to help save the planet at the same time.

Cahokia Mounds – Native American marvel

by Jeremy Kressmann on

We tend to associate ancient civilization with places like the Pyramids in Egypt and the ruins of Italy and Greece. But we happen to have some impressive and scenic ruins of ancient culture right here in the United States. Not far from St. Louis lies Cahokia Mounds, a massive ancient monument that at the peak of its power rivaled the medieval cities of Europe.

Not only is Cahokia Mounds one of only eight cultural World Heritage Sites in the United States, it’s also among the more astonishing untold stories of the history of North America. From around the year 650 until 1400, Cahokia was the crown jewel of the Mississipian culture, a religious and cultural center that was largest city north of Mexico.

Within the 2200 acre grounds lie the remains of over 100 earthen mounds, the largest of which, Monk’s Mound, rises over 100 feet high and covers 14 acres. In a part of the country that tends to be mostly flat, Cahokia’s highest mound makes for an imposing geographic reference, dominating the nearby landscape. During your visit to Cahokia, take the opportunity to wander the giant earthen mounds spread across the site and visit the fantastic museum that tells the story of the mysterious Mississippian people.

Cahokia represents a significant part of our country’s indigenous history that lies before us in plain view, waiting to be discovered. Just like the Native American words that give many of our states and cities their names, it’s a history that is at once blatantly obvious yet easily obscured. It’s only when we begin to dig beneath the surface and uncover the true stories of places like Cahokia that we can start to understand the history of this great place we now call the USA.

Scenic America: The Great Lakes Circle Tour

by Grant Martin on

Summer is a fantastic time to enjoy the upper Midwest, the few months where temperatures are warm enough to wear shorts, roll down the windows and even maybe (gasp) go for a swim. And there’s no better way to explore the region than on The Great Lakes Circle Tours, a series of lovely drives around the massive inland lakes, visiting coastal towns, drinking in the charming culture and enjoying the bucolic landscape.

Lake Michigan’s is among the finest. The coastal towns in southwest Michigan (recently covered by Intelligent Travel) are flush with deciduous forests, rolling sand dunes and friendly small towns, while the northern Lower Peninsula has gems such as Petoskey, Sleeping Bear Dunes and Traverse City, host of the outstanding, annual Cherry Fest.

Passing into the Upper Peninsula brings wide open roads, rolling coniferous hills and sense of dual seclusion and warmth, with a host of friendly yooper towns and enough black flies to populate a small planet.If you’ve got tome, you can also make it up to the Pictured Rocks National Lake shore, (pictured), that’s a bit further away.

On the west side of Lake Michigan, drive through cheese town in Green Bay and beer town in Milwaukee before you dip into Illinois and the cosmopolitan metropolis of Chicago. The full spectrum from beach town to upper peninsula to Chicago will take you about three days if you’re in a hurry.

Hidden midwestern gem – Galena, Illinois

by Scott Carmichael on

Galena Illinois is one of those real undiscovered and hidden gems. Nestled in the north west corner of the state, it is right across the Mississippi river from Iowa. The National Trust for Historic Preservation added Galena to its 2004 list of America’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations.

The village is conveniently located “in the middle of nowhere” – about 20 miles from Dubuque, IA and 80 miles from Rockford, IL. Getting to Galena from the Chicagoland area takes you through some of the most scenic winding roads in Illinois, and folks from Chicago will probably be amazed to see that their state really does have some hills.
Things to do in Galena

Downtown Galena has a perfect balance between old charm and modern updates. You still get that old main street feeling, without feeling like things haven’t been updated in decades. Everything is well preserved. The main street stores offer something for everyone – from old fashioned candy stores to a fantastic variety of eateries and coffee shops.


Staying in Galena

Staying in Galena is the best way to enjoy the area past “daytrip”. In fact, given the 3 hour drive from Chicago, staying overnight may be the only way to really enjoy the scenery. Thankfully, Galena is home to some of the best places in the state to spend the night.

Galena has over 100 B&B’s, several chain hotels and 2 large resort hotels, including the award winning Eagle Ridge resort, with a 63 hole golf course, spa and 4 different restaurants.

During the winter months, the Chestnut Mountain resort is where you’ll find 19 different ski trails in a hotel overlooking the Upper Mississippi River. Its rooms are fairly basic, but the location can’t be beat.