Lincoln Park's Finest...

And no, I don't mean frat boy all-stars.

I'm talking about the Green City Market, Chicago's only year-round farmers' market! In the winter, Green City is housed at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, and then outside in Lincoln Park (near Clark and Lasalle) when the weather gets nicer. Green City is always busy, and it promotes local, sustainable farmers, producers, chefs by bridging their efforts to the public, through education and special events.

One cool program that Green City Market features is called Club Sprouts, which offers a different locally grown food item to kids each day the market is open (Wed and Sat). The tots brave enough to sample the food receive a stamp on their Club Sprouts membership card. Once the card is filled with points, the child earns a certificate of accomplishment. Behaviorism at its finest!

Club Sprouts also offers chef demos and cooking classes for children only during the summer, which is a shame because this would be a wonderful field trip!

Another initiative in which Green City is involved is the Edible Gardens at Lincoln Park Zoo's Farm-in-the-Zoo, which was created in Spring 2005. The Edible Gardens were created to teach children how to grow healthy, delicious foods. Immensely popular, the Edible Gardens attracted more than 25,000 people in 2008, with more people predicted each year. With the hopes that the Gardens can serve as a foundation to "edible education," the area is built to engage children with hands-on growing, weeding, compost-making, harvesting, and preparing these foods for meals.

Fortunately, the Edible Gardens are open for field trips!