Can't find anything in Chicago!!!!

[dentmom]

I am having a heck of a time finding a brick and mortar co-op here or any place that carries grass-fed beef, etc. Nevermind the challenge of good milk. How is this possible? This is a huge area! Anyone able to help?

[organicmidwestmama]

what about whole foods? i thought they were pretty decently stocked there when i visited, they carry farmers creamery brand non-homogenized, low temp pasturized milk i believe. but i did research the area before i traveled there and they do not have a single consumer or worker owned food co-op.

[chattyprincess]

I have this same problem living in the Toronto area, whole foods is here and thats about it!
I would look into maybe trying to contact some of the farms in the outlying areas (that will probably take some google reasearch) and find out if they do a farm gate day to buy products from them or if they have a local "drop time".

[kl5]

Originally Posted by organicmidwestmama

but i did research the area before i traveled there and they do not have a single consumer or worker owned food co-op.

The Dill Pickle Coop in Logan Square is member owned and run. There used to be the Hyde Park Coop on the South Side but that closed a couple of years ago. That said, Chicago is definitely way behind on decent natural foods groceries.

As mentioned, Whole Foods does carry the Farmers Creamery line of dairy, which is all from grass fed cows farmed by a collective in Iowa. They also occasionally carry some grass fed beef, but it is usually stew meat or similar, long cooking cuts. (I think there is more available frozen, but we don't buy much meat there so I have never really examined the offerings.)

I really like the Green Grocer on Grand, which carries a lot of local dairy and (frozen) meats, a lot of which is grass fed. I have also heard great things about Calma Foods on the Northwest Side, for Amish dairy and meats, though now I look at the locations, I am not sure they actually have a store anymore, but rather act as a distributor. Bruno's Organics offers home delivery and drop-off of local grass fed meats and dairy (including raw). I used to buy their jersey milk and it was always great. I know there are a couple of small stores in the loop that also sell local/grass fed, but I will have to edit with that info later, as I am not sure of names.

But possibly your best option is buying from farmers markets in the summer (Green City and 61st Street are two of the best) and seeking out freezer meat directly from farmers for the rest of the season.

[JElaineB]

I buy a lot of my meat from Wallace Farms (grass-fed beef and lamb, pastured poultry, Niman Ranch type pork and wild caught seafood). They do a a "buying club" and drop off in Chicago area once every month or two: http://www.wallacefarms.com/scripts/buyingbeef.asp.

[NaturallyKait]

I know how you feel! I live in a small town, and there's no where to buy grass fed meats, raw milk or anything like that, or at least that I can find. I have a friend who lives on a farm who can sell me mostly grass fed beef, but the weather here prevents them from feeding 100% grass all year, since there's snow from October until May some years...So they end up getting grain and hay those months, but at least there's no antibiotics. I can't find chicken/pork etc though, or much organic produce unless I want to pay my whole salary for it at the grocery store. We don't even have Whole Foods

[dentmom]

i looked at WF-not too much selection and i'd rather support a co-op. Thanks for the info here!

[chattyprincess]

kaitlyn...I find that its REALLY hard to find good meat, dairy and eggs in canada. I am glad to know this isn't just me!

[proptart]

chattyprincess - I just want to comment so people don't get the wrong idea about Canada.

I live in a city of 190,000 people - a conservative government town in the middle of the prairies. We have 3 organic food stores, one of which has an instore meat counter and plans for a bakery. There are 2 CSAs available in our area as well as a farmer's co-op. They all offer grass-fed beef, pastured chickens and eggs, and the co-op has grass-fed goat and lamb available. I've found a great source for pastured pork. We have a wonderful farmer's market in the summer and there's a number of market gardens within a half hour's drive. I can get raw Jersey milk with a little effort. Off the top of my head I can think of 3 restaurants that feature local, and often, organic food.

It's taken me some time to find all these resources but they're out there. I don't want to sound snarky but I can't believe that it's that hard to find grass-fed beef or pastured eggs in Toronto (a city of 5 million people surrounded by some of Canada's richest farmland). Here's a website that might help you in your search:

http://www.organicagcentre.ca/Consum...al_ontario.asp

[chattyprincess]

Proptart, I have had this discussion so many times with other local tf moms its not even funny. We might be "surronded" by this land but in order to get to there it is over an hour drive and that is just skirting the edges. On top of that you are then competing with the thousands of people here to get those same things.
In downtown Toronto in the summer time they have a farmers market where people line up 100 people deep for pastured eggs (no joke) they only sell 1 dz to each family to make it fair. They cost $10 a dz and after a 45 min drive in, $8 to park your car and then another hour waiting for the eggs...its just to much...that works out to over $20 for a dozen pastured chicken eggs and over 3 hours of the day! (you are not guarenteed to get the eggs either, they always run out!)
We struggle to find local and grassfed beef/poultry and pork. Pastured eggs are an impossiblity to even stumble across. That is lovely that you can get raw local milk, I am highly jealous! Raw milk is actually illegal in the country of canada unless you own the cow. I don't know if you have heard about micheal schmidt (im sure you have) but its a HUGE legal battle going on here in ontario over raw dairy and the gov't. All the local farmers( by local I mean withine an hours drive of us) are at this point to scared to get slapped with a court summons to sell the milk so all you have are shady people under the table selling it! Or if you are lucky enough you already belong to a raw milk farm coop about 2 or so hours from our home. ( http://www.realmilk.com/real-milk-canada.html)
I have a neighbor who eats mainly tf who is orginally from Alberta. Whenever her mother comes to visit she is shocked at the lenghths that we go to trying to find things that to her she takes for granted as always having avaible and are just a minute down the road (we have 3 tf family's on our block and we try really hard to help each other out accquiring these things, we trade off weeks in the summer so that only one of our families has to drive 1 hour to get eggs and organic produce once a week. and then there is also a women who I don't use that drives 2 hours (each way) to get raw milk and distributes it to other families in the area she switches weeks with a few other families as well.)The Csa's are all full in this area and we have been wait listed since moving here 2.5 years ago(to over 5 dif farms). Slots are given to families who have used the csa the prior year and very few open up each year.
We struggle all the time and worry about the health of my dd, ourselves and our unborn baby and try SO hard to provide these things to our children. Sometimes its not so simple as other people view it to be. Looks can be misleading. Look at the op she lives in chicago, Illinois is a HUGE farm state and even then it is a struggle of trying to find these things without running from one end of the city to the other every week!
I agree that these resources are way more abudant and easily found in the western parts of Canada (and I think alot of areas in quebec and most of the smaller towns/townships in this country as well.) but to my knowledge of Toronto and the GTA as well as nova scotia (my sil lives there with her fam) this things are really hard to find a good and consistent source of.

[proptart]

I guess sometimes it pays to be able to live in a smaller community. It sucks that Torontonians can have access to many things that other parts of the country miss out on (especially arts and culture) yet it's so difficult to access traditional foods.

Again, wasn't trying to be snarky. I just thought you were a little broad when you said it was hard to find TF foods in Canada.

[kl5]

Originally Posted by JElaineB

I buy a lot of my meat from Wallace Farms (grass-fed beef and lamb, pastured poultry, Niman Ranch type pork and wild caught seafood). They do a a "buying club" and drop off in Chicago area once every month or two: http://www.wallacefarms.com/scripts/buyingbeef.asp.

Here is a great article about Wallace Farms from the Atlantic Food site. Thanks for mentioning them! It's really nice to hear about another exceptional farm in the area.

[JElaineB]

Originally Posted by kl5

Here is a great article about Wallace Farms from the Atlantic Food site. Thanks for mentioning them! It's really nice to hear about another exceptional farm in the area.

Cool, thanks for linking the article!