We are so grateful to Leslie and Wes of Prairie Fruits Farm in Champaign and Phil and Debra at Country Cottage Farm in Fisher for their generous donations of manure this year. Our compost-sharing relationship is just another prime example of sustainable agriculture right here in the Midwest.

In industrial-sized agriculture, animal waste has become a frightening source of pollution. Large populations of animals living in confinement generate more waste than most large cities– which then ends up polluting our air and water, as well as contributing significant amounts of methane gas to the atmosphere, a serious instigator in the climate crisis. However, the hard, dedicated and loving work of small farmers like Leslie, Wes, Phil and Debra produces a sustainable source of meat, poultry and dairy products without pollution. The amount of animal refuse produced by the sum of small farming operations such as Prairie Fruits and Country Cottage generates just enough “waste” to not be wasted and just enough food to feed our region. Eight truck-loads of nutrient-rich manure were tilled into our garden beds this November to replenish the soil for the next year’s crop. Their animals have helped our garden grow!

This weekend as I enjoyed a tender quiche of Country Cottage eggs with Prairie Fruits fresh chev and hearty greens from under our own cold frames, I was again reminded of the ways in which we are all connected. Tiny Greens is proud to be a part of sustainable agriculture in the Midwest with such generous neighbors. Check out Prairie Fruits Farm and Country Cottage Farm for more information on delicious eats in Central Illinois!

It’s never too late in the season to introduce a new baby micro-green to our line-up. Maybe that’s because micro-greens are omni-seasonal! Cressida is a curly leaf cress, sometimes referred to as peppergrass. It has a bite similar to arugula with a mustardy sharpness. Cress gives a great, tangy contrast to creamy egg salad or potato soup. Limited availbility this Wednesday, we hope to have curly cress baby micro-greens available regularly beginning this Saturday. Come to the market and try something new! See you all there!

At Tiny Greens we are constantly looking for ways to make our business more environmentally friendly. One recent accomplishment in this area was to replace nearly all of the disposable items we use at the farm and the farmers’ markets with recycled and/or biodegradable products. These products include:

• Recycled toilet paper, paper towels, and deli paper
• Spudware Bioforks made from potato starch and packaged in cellulose
• Bagasse plates, trays, to-go boxes, and toothpicks made from expelled sugarcane
• Cups, lids, and shopping bags made from corn starch

Our forks, plates, trays, to-go boxes, toothpicks, cups, lids, and bags are all compostable, so instead of generating waste we are converting these products into nutrient-rich compost to use on the farm. We want to be sure that these products will actually biodegrade in a reasonable amount of time so we designated a corner of one of our compost heaps as a test section and will be digging around in a few months to make sure they’re gone!

We source these products from a company called Treecycle, which offers eco-friendly alternatives for conventional disposable products. Visit them at www.treecycle.org.

Hey Champaign-Urbana! In case you missed it, check out this great write-up from this Sunday’s News Gazette, front page of the Arts & Entertainment section.

Lucky us, rain is a farmer’s best friend. I guess, so long as it doesn’t flood. Though we are a bit later to blossom than many of our neighbors, our organic gardens are really starting to come of age this season. Slow and steady wins the race, right? This week, look for gorgeous red ace beets, tons of green bell peppers and several varieties of chile peppers, green and purple basil, scallions, cucumbers, baby carrots, zucchini and much, so much more to come!

Our first peppers of the season are here! Available in limited quantities tomorrow at Green City Market, we are proud to bring the peppers eponymously known as Banana Bills, for Bill Bagby, of course! With thin, crunchy walls and a mildly sweet heat, banana bills are a very popular pepper for pickling later in the season when more plentiful. However, enjoy these early beauties thinly sliced on a pizza or in a quesadilla–don’t forget the baby micro-cilantro!– or stuff them with a bit of Brunkow’s Jalapeno Brun-uusto cheese, then batter and deep-fry for a spicy, crunchy chile relleno appetizer.

While most of our baby micro-greens take only one to two weeks from seed to table, we’ve been nurturing our baby micro-basil since early April and we’re so excited that the sun and heat have done it well. We’ll be bringing a purple variety to the market this weekend and selling it live, in soil, $4 for 3.75″x3.75″ containers and $14 for 10″x10″ trays. Unfortunately, the basil cannot be cut to order, as with our other baby micro-greens, because the oxidation reaction resulting from being cut with a metal blade would turn it brown within days. However,  it is very easy nurture your baby micro-basil plant at home and cut it as needed for maximum freshness. Store your baby micro-basil at room temperature or outdoors and water daily.  Cut as needed. Because the basil is kept alive with its roots in tact, your baby micro-basil will stay absolutely fresh for weeks– if you don’t eat it all up sooner!

Hey sprout, fans! Check out this video with Martial Noguier of one sixtyblue at ChicagoLive. He stopped by Tiny Greens a few weeks ago during his chef demo at Green City Market.

See you all tomorrow at the market!

This weekend we’re mixing up our greens! If you liked the baby kale, look for our mixed bags of baby rainbow chard, spinach and red Russian kale. More tender, baby lettuces, red and French Breakfast radishes, as well as white and purple bunching onions.

This past Wednesday in Chicago, we were so excited to encounter the very first strawberries of the season from Ellis Farms. They’re the most magical touch on our Magical Morning Breakfast Tart, also featuring Tomato Mountain’s strawberry raspberry preserves, Prairie Fruits Farm chevre, Ellis Farms honey and crushed walnuts on our sprouted wheat tortilla

In Chicago, we’re also very excited to have Christie Phillips helping out at the Tiny Greens Kitchen this weekend while Chef Daniel Asher is exercising his culinary prowess at a special event in Colorado. And be sure to stop by the Green City chef demo at 10:30 to see our friend Greg Christian of Greg Christian Catering showcase the best of late spring in the Midwest.

This Wednesday our organic gardens have bequeathed us with radishes, bunching onions, chives, and finally baby lettuces! We’ll be giving the kale a rest this week. We also have limited amounts of sage and peppermint.

We’d also like to give thanks to the many vendors who have been supporting our kitchen so early in the season with fresh, organic, local products for our wraps, sandwiches, quesadillas, pizzas and salad. Thank you to Bennison’s for your light, chewy, whole wheat sandwich bread. Thank you to Mick Klug for your tender, crisp asparagus. Thank you to Ellis Farms for your thick, sweet honey. Thanks to Tomato Mountain for your tart, sugar-free strawberry jam in our “magical breakfast tart.” Thank you you to Growing Power for your early but juicy and sweet beefsteak tomatoes. Thank you to Brunkow Cheese for the Jalapeno Brun-uusto, Mozzarella and 2-Year Raw Milk Cheddar. And thanks to our neighbors at Prairie Fruits Farm for your sweet, light, creamy chevre. And starting this week, thanks you to Iron Creek for your crisp romaine. All of these amazing vendors at the market make us so happy to be in the Midwest year-round, but especially this spring. We are proud to support you, our fellow market vendors. See you all tomorrow, bright and early!