Why don't we grow people food in IL?

I guess I could call this the summer of jam, because I can't seem to stop making it -- rose petal, strawberry, cherry, raspberry and blueberry so far.  With the new kitchen I finally have some counter space -- and near the range, no less.  After being without this luxury for so many years, it seems the food making and preserving projects I had dreamed up are all being realized.

Now, if only I could easily find some local produce to play around with.  After driving for nearly an hour to find the blueberries at a semi-local farm (which claimed they had black raspberries, but didn't), I was discouraged.  It was especially frustrating to drive through miles and miles of nothing but corn (okay -- there may have been a few soybean fields too).  I mean, don't we grow people food in Illinois anymore?  Do I have to buy tasteless strawberries grown halfway across the country?  I know they can grow here.  I grow some in my own back yard.

Believe me, I've driven for miles, visited several local "farmers' markets" and searched high and low for farmstands.  It makes me crazy! 

Anyway.  That's my food rant.  I'm looking forward to the few local farms that set up stands around town (Glasscock's and Siegel's) -- although they mostly sell local sweet corn.  Sigh.

Comments

[Bonney]

When my son went to college in Florida he said they never had fresh fruit from FL; they shipped it all north! All his oranges came from CA!!

[Donna]

My older daughter went to summer camp in Michigan (between Kalamazoo & Battle Creek). Every year on the way there or back (we would take her one way & her dad & stepmom the other), we would stop at the road side stands & buy flats of berries - blueberries, strawberries & raspberries. They were amazingly tasty & cheap. I made freezer jam (at the time we were living in the city & no AC except one unit which I bought in the living room.) I also think it tastes more like fresh fruit than the cooked kind. But I guess you have to go to Michigan to get good fresh fruit. Don't you have a Farmers' Market near you? There are several near here but the oak Park one is in an area with next to no parking & over a mile away It's also on Saturday morning & you have to get there early to get the best stuff. My arthritis hurts too much for me to be active before about 1 pm. There used to be a lot of small farms near Chicago but they were all bought up & turned into suburban subdivisions (the house my younger daughter & her husband still own in Napreville is in the subdivision that is actually called Old Farm). There is a CSA in Naoerville that you might be interested in for next year but it's more veggies than fruit. There used to be a ton of farmstands in the northwest suburbs & in northwestern Indiana. Don't know if any are left. When my daughter lived in Palo Alto, a lot of the fruit was imported even though they grow much near by.