The Family Farmed Expo, as writer Jacob Wheeler details in the March issue of MM, is coming to Chicago once again. Tickets for this 3-day event, which runs March 11 to 13 at the UIC Forum at University of Illinois at Chicago are still available and may be purchased online.  Advance online tickets purchased online include a $5 discount to the Saturday Local Food Festival and a $50 savings off the event’s 3-day pass.

If you have children, bring them along. They’ll get in free on Saturday when accompanied by an adult. The Kids Corner, hosted by local nonprofit Purple Asparagus, will include arts and crafts, story time, a reading corner of books related to food, farming and nature, taste testing of local food items, an explanation of label reading, and face painting.



Throughout the remainder of the year, the Family Farmed website is a terrific local resource for information on Community Supported Agriculture in the area. Their 2010 Chicagoland CSA guide lists website and contact info, location and categories of farm offerings by CSA.

If you’ve never joined a CSA before or considering adding to or switching your yearly CSA share, MACSAC, a Madison, Wisconsin organization that supports local agriculture, has a helpful primer on “Reasons to Join A CSA” and “Things to Consider When Choosing a CSA”.