Upcoming Events

November 2012

Two Brothers Brewery Tour and Tasting: Nov 4th?

Kallari Chocolate & Wine Tasting Event: Nov. 15th

2013

June: Summer Solstice Meet Your Farmers Potluck

_________________________________________________________

 2012

FALL IS TIME TO PRESERVE AND STORE



  2012 Past Events & Programs

Garfield Farm 23rd Annual Heirloom Garden Show

Join us at Garfield Farm Museum's Heirloom Garden Vegetable Show, Sunday, August 26th from 11:00AM - 4:00PM

During the show, visitors can tour the museum's heirloom gardens and interact with Midwestern growers showing off their favorite heirloom flowers, herbs, fruits, and vegetables.

The garden show highlights the importance of preserving genetic diversity in the very plants that we rely on for food, medicine, and enjoyment. Many of these heirloom fruits and vegetables have unique tastes, cooking traits, appearances, and disease or insect resistance that may not be found in the more common grocery store varieties.

The chance to meet backyard gardeners, many of whom are members of the Seed Savers Exchange (SSE), a nonprofit organization that has connected plant enthusiasts from around the world, is reason enough to attend the show. SSE is a remarkable grass roots effort that began in 1975 and is based out of Decorah, Iowa. Seed Savers receives a portion of the proceeds from the show.
 
Vicki Nowicki will host our Slow Food City's Edge Table and raffle off a basket of beautiful organically grown vegetables. She will be speaking about the upcoming Terra Madre Conference in October which she and Mary Gorski will both attend as members of our Slow Food City's Edge Chapter.  
  
Slow Food City’s Edge is a chapter for the Kane, DeKalb & DuPage counties in IL. We are looking for members interested in participating and learning about the slow food movement. Slow Food is an international organization with more than 100,000 members worldwide who celebrate local and seasonal food traditions, support sustainable agriculture and embrace the pleasures of eating good food around the table. Slow Food City’s Edge is committed to our community and the environment.

Additional Information:

Garfield Farm 23rd Annual Heirloom Garden Show

Heirloom seeds and seed saving at Seed Savers Exchange.

Food in Jars

Spend a evening with Marisa MacClellan. A canning expert, food preservation blogger, educator, jar collector  and newly added- author.

When:

Saturday, August 25th

5pm

Where:

The Nourish Kitchen

Rsvp & purchase ticket(s).

A Joint Potluck Picnic at Garfield Farm with

Slow Food Chicago

When: Sunday, July 29th      

               2:30 to 6pm

Where: Garfield Farm & Inn Museum

             3N016 Garfield Road in La Fox, IL 60147

Sign-Up: You must have a ticket to attend this  event. To purchase ticket(s) please click here:  Garfield Potluck Picnic

Event Details:

Food:

Vegetarian “Snail” Pasta from Valentino Pasta
Dessert: Organic Blueberry Crisp
Drinks: beer, soda & wine provided by Duke’s Alehouse & Kitchen in Crystal Lake

Farm:

-Take guided tours of the house and barn
-Visit with heritage breed livestock
-Learn about life on a 19th century farmstead -
-Games- Baggo(aka beanbags, bags, cornhole)
-Kiteflying
-Running bases & more!

***Feel free to bring a game!

***Bring a small dish to share & blanket to sit on.

ABOUT GARFIELD FARM:

Garfield Farm and Tavern is a 374-acre farmstead and former 1840s teamster inn 40 miles west of Chicago and 5 miles west of Geneva, Illinois.

When Timothy Garfield and his family built the brick inn on the family farm in 1846, it became a center for community activity. It was an inn for hundreds of teamsters and travelers, a ballroom for jubilant 4th of July Dances, a meeting place, and a place to drop in for good company and a mug of hard cider.

The coming of the railroads ended the inn-keeping basis for the Garfields, and they continued to till the Kane County soil. The last Garfield family owner, Elva Ruth Garfield, founded the museum in 1977 to teach about America’s prairie farm heritage.

The museum brings together the farming experiences of the past 150 years with an appreciation of the natural environment that the Garfields found when they came to Illinois.

Read more

DIRECTIONS TO GARFIELD:

VIA CAR- Garfield Farm is on Garfield Road just north of Rt 38 between Geneva & Elburn (about 3 miles west from Randall Road). From Rt 38 go north on Garfield Road about 1/4 mile to Garfield Farm.

VIA METRA- Transportation from the LaFox Metra Station may be arranged with Slow Food City's Edge only for Union Pacific West Line train 505, arriving at LaFox at 1:56 p.m.  Return transportation will be provided for train 514, leaving LaFox at 6:29 p.m. You must indicate when buying tickets if transportation is needed. Please check Metrarail for latest schedule.  



~*~



Summer Solstice Potluck-Meet your Farmers

When: Wednesday, June 20 @ 6:30

Where: Country Cooking School

               N369 LaFox St.
               St. Charles, IL 60175

Sign-up: You must have a ticket to attend this event. To purchase ticket(s) please click here: Summer Solstice Potluck Tix

Meet local farmers who grow your food and wish them well for an abundant growing season!

Come join us as we listen to local food farmers, FernDell Farm and Pure Prairie Farm talk about their farms, goals and growing practices. Why do they do what they do and where does slow food fit in. Meet other like minded folks over all while enjoying a meal together in the pleasant setting of the colorful gardens of Country Garden Cuisine. We will also be able to taste product from the farms.

Refreshments of lemonade, iced tea and water will available. This is a potluck. Please bring your own table setting. BYOB Welcome!

 2011 Past Events

Saturday, October 15:Chili Cook-Off

Our first ever chili cook-off, so get your kettles ready and come up with the award winning chili favorite. The winning chili will receive a $50.00 grand prize. You can bring a chili to enter or just bring a spoon for tasting.  

The event will be held in the historic barn on the Newkirk residence at 3N369 LaFox Road, just north of Campton Hills Road, St. Charles. Time 5-9:00 p.m. There will be a barn dance after the tasting with dance callers, so bring the whole family and any interested friends.

Cost: $15 each and children 10 years old and under will be free. Any adult who has prepared chili (one cook per family) can get in for $12 and be eligible for the $50 grand prize!

To register: send a check to our treasurer Laura Andersen with address above. If you would like to pay at the door, please email Vicki Nowicki at vnowicki@comcast.net to RSVP so that we may have an accurate count of attendees.

To Register: send a check for the number of persons participating to our Slow-Food treasurer.  

Laura Andersen

3N890 Emily Dickinson Ln.

Campton Hills, IL 60175



Event Details

Date: Saturday, October 15, 2011

Time: 5:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Location: 3N369 LaFox Road, St. Charles, IL (Historic Barn)

Cost: $15.00 / Adult, $12.00 Adult with Chili Entry / Kids under 10 years old are free

Questions: email vnowicki@comcast.net

Cheese Making for Beginners

Thursday, June 23, 2011 from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Jennifer Downing on Nourish will be teaching a class on cheese making. Fresh cheeses of ricotta, mozzarella, goat and mascarpone will be demonstrated and sampled. Learn the basics of cheese making. This Slow Food event will take place at Country Garden Cuisine Cooking School, 3N369 LaFox Road, St. Charles.  Class time is 7 to 9 p.m. cost for the class will be $50.00. To register for the class send in your check to our slow food treasurer Laura Andersen.

Make checks payable to: Slow Food City's Edge

Mail to:       Laura Andersen

                  3N890 Emily Dickinson Ln.

                  Campton Hills, Il. 60175

Organic Gardening in Small Spaces

March 6, 2011 at 2:00 PM

All participants will receive free admission to the Arboretum for the whole day!! 

Bill Shores has exceptional experience with small space gardening. With an extraordinary knowledge of soils and skill for food production, he is growing food for Chef Rick Bayless's three Restaurants in Chicago both in Rick's backyard and on the rooftop of one of the Restaurants. In these spaces, he is producing pounds and pounds of greens and microgreens and more each week. In addition, he is recycling wastes from the restaurant kitchens through the elegant vermiculture system that he has created to produce an incredible, organic environment for the vegetables, an environment which just gets better every year.

You cannot miss this opportunity to learn from the very best "slow food maestro" in the city.  He's got it all!!

Cost is $25.00 which includes all-day admission to the Arboretum

Click Here to Purchase Tickets

Apple Grafting Workshop

March 20, 2011 at 1:00 PM

Presented by Oriana Krajewski, Expert Orchardist Midfex and Market Fruit Grower, Specializing in Asian Pears

Cantigny Gardens Greenhouse

Thanks to Bill Shoemaker, from the University of Illinois Extension Service, we have come up with a great idea for an apple that would work well in a home garden.  Bill spoke at our Harvest Dinner in November and he told us about an apple called Pixie Crunch. It has very little pest pressure, so it might not need much chemical treatment and could be grown along the guidelines that Rick talked about last year.  Secondly,  it tastes somewhat similar to Honey Crisp.

Oriana will teach us how to graft the wood of Pixie Crunch (scion wood) while it's dormant onto the root stock of a dwarf tree or a small tree.  The graft will have time to knit together before the growing season starts. We need Apple trees in our American home gardens!

Cost: $45.00 Price includes admission to the workshop and the Pixie Crunch tree. Attendees will have access to additional trees for grafting at a nominal fee.  

Click Here to Purchase Tickets

Event to be held in Downer's Grove, IL

Vicki will give a hands-on blueprint for organic vegetable gardening in her own garden in Downers Grove that she and her husband Ron have gardened in for 30 years.

Please Bring Salad or Dessert
We will provide snack and main dish
Cost $15.00

Connect with us Friend us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Watch us on YouTube Read our blog Meet the crew