Sunday, October 24, 2010
Heritage Prairie Farm (about an hour west of Chicago)
Family-style Supper from 3:00 to 6:00 pm
$125 per person or
$145 package (includes round trip transportation from Chicago)

Purchase your tickets here!

Join FamilyFarmed.org and event sponsors Lettuce Entertain You and Whole Foods Market for a farm dinner at Heritage Prairie Farm. The supper will feature fresh ingredients from the day's harvest, plus food from other local ranches, farms, orchards and dairies. Join us for a multi-course, family-style meal prepared by some of the leading Lettuce Entertain You chefs:
Marc Bernard , Big Bowl
John Chiakulas , Foodlife/Mity Nice
David DiGregorio , Osteria Via Stato
Michel Briand and Susan Weaver,
Mon Ami Gabi/Caf� Ba-Ba-Reeba

This event will benefit FamilyFarmed.org, one of the country's leading non-profit organizations working to support family farmers and local food. Your contribution will help FamilyFarmed.org expand their Farm to School program, which includes a partnership with the Chicago Public Schools to help procure $2.3 million in local fruits and vegetables to serve to public school children. Your contribution will also help FamilyFarmed.org bring fresh local fresh fruits and vegetables from family farmers to other area schools and large scale buyers.

Click here for menu, details and to register for the supper.

Click here to donate to FamilyFarmed.org.


Thank you to our generous host and major event sponsors Heritage Prairie Farm, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Whole Foods Market, and Chicago Social Magazine.

This summer and fall, Seattle artist and urban planner Sarah Kavage has been in Chicago conducting a learn-by-doing art and research project called Industrial Harvest.  The project started with the purchase of a futures contract for 1000 bushels of wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade.  Kavage also purchased 1000 bushels of real wheat, had it milled into 20 tons of flour, and is giving the flour away to nourish people.  The bulk of the flour is going to food banks and soup kitchens in the Chicago area, with smaller amounts going to individual bakers and organizations doing work around food and agriculture issues. 

Wheat, the world's oldest crop, has always been a metaphor for nourishment on one hand and commerce on the other.  By removing a tiny unit of wheat from the commodity system and using it to nourish people, Industrial Harvest explores both of these metaphors.  The project is also an investigation of the Chicago Board of Trade and its influence on Chicagoland's history, farming community, and what we eat.

Kavage has given away about 15 tons of flour so far, and is still seeking contacts for bulk donations of the remaining 5 tons. 

Email Sarah here for more information. Individual bakers can pick up smaller amounts of flour at upcoming farmers' markets around the Chicago area over the next month. 

Please click here for more information on Industrial Harvest, including a schedule of upcoming markets, events and appearances. 

Excerpted report overview by Vicky Ranney, Co-Developer of Prairie Crossing & Chairman, Liberty Prairie Foundation

Interest in healthy local food has spread across the country, fed by concerns about obesity, food-related diseases like diabetes, and the methods of industrial farming and food production.  Michelle Obama's White House garden and prominent writers such as Michael Pollan have put these issues into the national spotlight.

The strong public appeal of local and sustainably grown food has not been lost upon
residential developers. A group of practitioners from around the country - developers, architects and farmers - recently gathered in the historic Byron Colby Barn at Prairie Crossing in Illinois to talk about their designs for incorporating agriculture into new communities and how they have worked. They discussed various models and the benefits and challenges of this type of development, which is sometimes referred to as agricultural urbanism. The two-day session began with a tour of Prairie Crossing, one of the first modern developments in the country planned with a working organic farm, and included five instructive presentations of new communities organized around farming. These examples provide useful ideas for future development.

On the assumption that the ground under our economy may be shifting, and that the future of development lies with community designs that take into account climate change, public health concerns and new forms of agriculture, it is appropriate to consider the best innovative farm-based communities. This report summarizes findings from the workshop and reviews practices and issues that landowners, developers, design consultants and public officials might find useful as they consider building or encouraging communities with farms.

Download the full report from the Prairie Crossing website.