Tag: Good Food movement

It’s A FamilyFarmed Birthday Fundraising Faceoff!

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

FamilyFarmed CEO Jim Slama celebrates his birthday is Thursday; Communications Manager Bob Benenson’s birthday is Tuesday. Now two things that FamilyFarmed and Scorpios have in common is that they are 1) passionate and 2) highly competitive. So Bob threw down the gauntlet and challenged Jim to the first-ever FamilyFarmed Birthday Fundraising Faceoff. Read here about how you can make donations to Team Jim or Team Bob… all proceeds go to FamilyFarmed’s effort to build a better food system.

Good Food Is The Growth Sector In Grocery Industry

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

“Just within the past 10 years, this industry has skyrocketed. Everything around this industry has completely changed. The consumers who shop this industry have changed. It’s no longer just the crunchy hipsters in Boulder.” That is how Anubhav (Anu) Goel described the fast-rising demand for Good Food at the start of his data-driven keynote speech at FamilyFarmed’s Good Food Accelerator Application Celebration at 1871 Chicago last week.

Paul Virant

Paul Virant: A Good Food Chef Who Keeps On Giving

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

“Farm to table” dining may have become commonplace on Chicago’s restaurant menus. But Chef Paul Virant was in the vanguard of the movement just 13 years when he opened Vie restaurant in the suburb of Western Springs. And he is all about giving back to the community. Within a recent three-day span, Paul did a cooking demo with the Gardeneers audience for schoolchildren in Englewood, then was the honoree for Angelic Organics Learning Center at their annual dinner.

Kim Bartko’s Decade of Good Food Leadership Earns Grateful FamilyFarmed Sendoff

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

FamilyFarmed salutes longtime associate Kim Bartko, and wishes her success, as she steps aside to focus on her new business venture: Outbound Lab, which seeks to advance the Good Food movement in the U.S. and around the world by forging partnerships between foreign food innovators and domestic food businesses.

Good Food Earns Its Metal at Chicago’s Jean Banchet Awards

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

Interest in a better way to eat is ingrained in the culinary culture in Chicago. So the Jean Banchet Culinary Awards ceremony — which doubles as a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation — is always a good day for Good Food.

Inovasi Still Innovating Farm to Table in Suburban Chicago

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

John Des Rosiers was still in his early 30s when he opened Inovasi, a highly regarded restaurant in the Chicago North Shore suburb of Lake Bluff. Yet he already had many years in the kitchen behind him. In fact, it would not be a wild exaggeration to say he was born to be a chef. Read about his career and dedication to sourcing from local farmers in the latest installment of the “Farm to Table: Keeping It Real” series.

Farmers Markets on a Budget: Time to Save Some Change

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

We at FamilyFarmed are all about encouraging our readers to become farmers market customers — if they are not already — and enjoy the super-healthy, nutritious and delicious products sold by their local and regional growers. That is why we have an annual tradition of welcoming National Farmers Market Week with an article full of tips about how to save money at farmers markets.

Chicago’s Phoenix Tofu Rising Farther With Expansion, Media Attention

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

Jenny Yang and her Phoenix Tofu company in Chicago are shining examples of how FamilyFarmed’s Good Food Business Accelerator helps food and farm entrepreneurs build their businesses. Yang is launching a major expansion in response to fast-rising demand, which was the subject of a recent profile in the Chicago Tribune. We have republished an article we wrote about her and Phoenix Tofu last year, with a link to the Tribune story.

Mayan Café: A Real Farm to Table Leader in Louisville for 10 Years

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

The Mayan Café presents traditional cuisine of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula that since 2007 has delighted diners (and reviewers) in the restaurant row in Louisville’s East Market District, a.k.a. NuLu. And they have done so in part by going all in on sourcing ingredients as locally as possible, a decision that made them a farm-to-table front-runner in Kentucky’s most populous city. Good Food on Every Table is pleased to present a q-and-a with Shadle and Ucan as our first out-of-Chicago article in our “Farm to Table: Keeping It Real” series.

James Beard Awards, Welcome Back … What’s New in Chicago Good Food

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

Last year, FamilyFarmed welcomed the first-ever James Beard culinary awards to Chicago with an article providing the sweep of Good Food activities in our hometown. So with the JBF Awards coming back to town on May 2, the best second helping we could think of is this rundown of the biggest Good Food developments in Chicagoland over the past year.

Butcher Rob Levitt’s Good Food Festival Ham Class Builds on His Customer Service Efforts

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

Rob Levitt of The Butcher & Larder at Local Foods, one of Chicago’s leading butcher shops, is conducting a ham-curing workshop at FamilyFarmed’s Good Food Festival on March 26. Read here about Levitt’s love of ham, his dedication to providing the highest quality products, and his devotion to consumer education about meat.

How SAAGE’S Shared Kitchen Boosts Startup Food Businesses: A Good Food Festival Story

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

SAAGE Culinary Studio in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois, is a shared-use commercial kitchen providing startup food businesses with access to all the commercial grade equipment that they need to make their products. Owner Gayatri Borthakur discusses the philosophy behind the business, which will be a participant in FamilyFarmed’s Good Food Festival & Conference.

Local Is On The Rise As Selling Point For Craft Distillers

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

Many of those involved in the Good Food movement believe that craft distilling deserves to be considered part of it, but the question has been raised about whether a distilled spirit needs to contain ingredients produced by local farmers in order to be considered truly local. Many producers now are touting local sourcing as a major selling point.

The Stars Came Out For Family Farmers at Farm Aid 30: Photos

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

Farm Aid’s effort to assist family farmers and expand the Good Food movement continue year-round, so the organization started by big-hearted music legends isn’t just about the music. But Farm Aid’s annual benefit concert is what made it famous. And the 30th anniversary concert they staged in our hometown of Chicago on Saturday was one hell of a show.

Farm Aid 2015 in Chicago

Photos From Farm Aid 2015 Show The Event Is About the Movement and the Music

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

As always, the Farm Aid concert held Saturday in Chicago was one of the entertainment events of the year, featuring founders Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp, fellow Board member Dave Matthews, and numerous other great performers. But as this photo essay by Good Food on Every Table shows, Farm Aid is about much more than the music.

New Sugar Beet Store Sweetens Chicago’s Food Co-op Scene

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

Chicago has been something of a laboratory for the rise of the Good Food movement. Yet there has been one element of the movement that has been largely missing in Chicago: food cooperatives. Until now.

Chicago's Green City Market

Food Navigator-USA: Research Group Says Consumers Value ‘Local’ Label

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

Foods and beverages carrying a “local” label appear poised to become the leading symbol of trust and transparency to consumers as the authenticity halo of such terms as ‘organic’ and ‘natural’ lose momentum, claims market analyst The Hartman Group — as reported by the FoodNavigator-USA.com website.

Sustainable Food News: Survey Says Nearly Two-Thirds of Farmers Markets Gaining Traffic

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

The U.S. Department of Agriculture kicked off the 16th annual Farmers Market Week Sunday, announcing a 64 percent increase in customer traffic in markets open for at least two years.

Green City Market haul

Celebrate Farmers Market Week by Saving Some Money

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

There are so many reasons to go out with your shopping bags during National Farmers Market Week and celebrate the rapid rise in the number of farmers markets across the nation. One of them may surprise you.

Rick Bayless

Chicago’s Green City Market Chef BBQ: Celebration of Good Food Dampened but Undampered

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” says the longtime motto of the U.S. Postal Service. If Thursday evening’s annual Chef BBQ staged by Chicago’s Green City Market is an indication, that applies as well to connoisseurs — at least as when it comes to rain.