Kennyz wrote:

stevez wrote: I bought some eggs from Mint Creek farms, which turned into a wonderful omelet this morning

Me too, and I also had a wonderful slow-cooked omelette this morning with a little truffle salt, and a toasted day old Bennison's baguette. There's really nothing like fresh-from-the-farm eggs.

Ha! We bought some, too and they were wonderful -- along with some Bennison's baguette, which I warmed up in the oven this morning. I cooked up a pair of the eggs over-easy (foregoing my usual omelette), just so I could savor their unadultered eggy flavor. Aside from that sensational 'like when you were a kid' flavor, what really struck me was how fragile the shells were -- completely unlike commercial eggs, which have to be whacked pretty hard to crack.

I also picked up some Honeycrisp apples from a vendor whose name I can't remember and they were excellent, too -- firm, crisp and nicely balanced between sweet and tart. If the market weren't so far from my house, I'd be a customer there much more often.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Kennyz wrote:

stevez wrote: I bought some eggs from Mint Creek farms, which turned into a wonderful omelet this morning

Me too, and I also had a wonderful slow-cooked omelette this morning with a little truffle salt, and a toasted day old Bennison's baguette. There's really nothing like fresh-from-the-farm eggs.

Ha! We bought some, too and they were wonderful -- along with some Bennison's baguette, which I warmed up in the oven this morning. I cooked up a pair of the eggs over-easy (foregoing my usual omelette), just so I could savor their unadultered eggy flavor. Aside from that sensational 'like when you were a kid' flavor, what really struck me was how fragile the shells were -- completely unlike commercial eggs, which have to be whacked pretty hard to crack.

I also picked up some Honeycrisp apples from a vendor whose name I can't remember and they were excellent, too -- firm, crisp and nicely balanced between sweet and tart. If the market weren't so far from my house, I'd be a customer there much more often.

=R=

Great minds think alike. We got some of those honey crisps too. I believe they were from Hillside Orchards (the same people who make the wonderful chestnut chips about which I often rave). With a wedge of semi-hard slightly-aged goat cheese from Capriole, the apples were a wonderfully sweet and crisp accompaniment.

Kennyz wrote:Me too, and I also had a wonderful slow-cooked omelette this morning with a little truffle salt, and a toasted day old Bennison's baguette. There's really nothing like fresh-from-the-farm eggs.

You said a mouthful, my friend.

Mint Creek Egg white Omelette (pre-flip)

Ham, bell pepper, broccoli and onion

Mint Creek Scramble

Ham, bell pepper, onion and Gruyère

HI,

From talking to several LTH people as they were leaving yesterday, I think my showing up just after 10:30 was a stroke of good luck. I was able to slip in before they enforced a line and try everything without tremendous lines because the first wave was already leaving.

I talked to a manager who said they have other food tastings planned for this winter season, though she couldn't recall the themes. If they get a similar response, then they may have to figure out how to better manage the crowds. If I was there to shop only and had to wait in line to access the vendors, I could see reasons for vendors and shoppers to have their dander up.

Of course to pick out LTH people at this event was like shooting fish in a barrel. We were everywhere with a few I had not met before who kindly introduced themselves. It is always nice to put a face to a screen name, though daunting to remember the real name and the screen name.

Gary's pulled pork emphasized the pork better than the other offerings with a bonus it was on a Bridgeport Bakery roll. The other pulled pork on the mini pumpernickel roll was by Chef Troy Graves of Tallulah & Eve. While the pumpernickel roll was overall a better quality roll, it was really too good, too firm and took away from the pork. Gary has long advocated the cheap soft white bread for BBQ, which does a good job of supporting role without stealing thunder from the main character: the pork.

Gary is certainly blessed to have received the larger Weber Smokey Mountain, because he smoked seven pork shoulders on the big boy and three on the standard sized WSM. That was over 80 pounds of pork shoulder he processed and under very unpleasant weather conditions: -8 degrees in the morning and -11 early evening. He certainly is master of the WSM smoker, because many would have begged off under those conditions.

Team Low and Slow was headed by Gary with supporting roles by Ms. Wiv, Ccrush and jazzchef. There seemed to be one other person, though I don't who she may be.

While I enjoyed every bit I got walking around the stations, I was especially charmed by Vie's charcuterie and Prairie Grass' personally made sausage. For a free tasting event, the samples were far more generous than some tastings I have paid for.

Regards,

swine dining wrote:Just wondering how much you cooked for the event, and my sympathy/empathy for smokin' out in the cold.

Grace,

Smoked 80-lbs of bone-in pork shoulder from Twin Oak Meats and passed out approximately 500 tasting portions. We brought 300 Bridgeport Bakery rolls, but quickly realized we'd run out serving both top and bottom and went to a single side, which people seemed to like.

While we ran out of rolls, slaw and pickled red onion at the end we still had pulled pork which I dropped off at the Salvation Army.

Glad you had a chance to stop by, always nice to see a fellow BBQ person.

Enjoy,
Gary

Twin Oak Meats
Thomas & Amy Ifft
Fairbury, IL
[email protected]
http://www.twinoakmeats.com
815-692-4215

Bridgeport Bakery
2907 S Archer Ave
Chicago, IL
773-523-1121

ronnie_suburban wrote:Ha! We bought some, too and they were wonderful -- along with some Bennison's baguette, which I warmed up in the oven this morning. I cooked up a pair of the eggs over-easy (foregoing my usual omelette), just so I could savor their unadultered eggy flavor. Aside from that sensational 'like when you were a kid' flavor, what really struck me was how fragile the shells were -- completely unlike commercial eggs, which have to be whacked pretty hard to crack.

I also picked up some Honeycrisp apples from a vendor whose name I can't remember and they were excellent, too -- firm, crisp and nicely balanced between sweet and tart. If the market weren't so far from my house, I'd be a customer there much more often.

=R=

Hum...we also bought apples and eggs (and milk, buttermilk, and corn meal). It's funny that you mentioned the shells being easy to crack. I made some sourdough pancakes yesterday with the Mint Creek Farms eggs and commented that the shells seemed really strong. So, what's the deal with shell thickness? I looked at a few websites and this industry site seems to echo the common wisdom in a clear manner:

Egg Facts from the American Egg Board wrote:The egg's outer covering, accounting for about 9 to l2% of its total weight depending on egg size. The shell is the egg's first line of defense against bacterial contamination.

The shell is largely composed of calcium carbonate (about 94%) with small amounts of magnesium carbonate, calcium phosphate and other organic matter including protein.

Shell strength is greatly influenced by the minerals and vitamins in the hen's diet, particularly calcium, phosphorus, manganese and Vitamin D. If the diet is deficient in calcium, for instance, the hen will produce a thin or soft-shelled egg or possibly an egg with no shell at all. Occasionally an egg may be prematurely expelled from the uterus due to injury or excitement. In this case, the shell has not had time to be completely formed. Shell thickness is also related to egg size which, in turn, is related to the hen's age. As the hen ages, egg size increases. The same amount of shell material which covers a smaller egg must be "stretched" to cover a larger one, hence the shell is thinner.

Seven to 17 thousand tiny pores are distributed over the shell surface, a greater number at the large end. As the egg ages, these tiny holes permit moisture and carbon dioxide to move out and air to move in to form the air cell. The shell is covered with a protective coating called the cuticle or bloom. By blocking the pores, the cuticle helps to preserve freshness and prevent microbial contamination of the contents.

Since we both have eggs from Mint Creek Farm, it's possible that we have different definitions of thick vs thin shells. Or, the eggs are from a mixture of younger and older hens. I seem to recall that the Mint Creek people replaced their flock of chickens earlier in the summer (anyone remember those really little eggs they had for a while?).

Darren72 wrote:Since we both have eggs from Mint Creek Farm, it's possible that we have different definitions of thick vs thin shells. Or, the eggs are from a mixture of younger and older hens. I seem to recall that the Mint Creek people replaced their flock of chickens earlier in the summer (anyone remember those really little eggs they had for a while?).

Apparently so, on our defintions. I only have commercial eggs to compare these to, which seem so much harder to crack. It's been a couple years since I bought farm eggs for myself and can't remember what their shells were like the last time around.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Darren72 wrote:Since we both have eggs from Mint Creek Farm, it's possible that we have different definitions of thick vs thin shells. Or, the eggs are from a mixture of younger and older hens. I seem to recall that the Mint Creek people replaced their flock of chickens earlier in the summer (anyone remember those really little eggs they had for a while?).

Apparently so, on our defintions. I only have commercial eggs to compare these to, which seem so much harder to crack. It's been a couple years since I bought farm eggs for myself and can't remember what their shells were like the last time around.

=R=

I cracked a dozen Mint Creek farm eggs this weekend, and there was a pretty wide variance in shell hardness. The larger ones had much softer shells than the smaller ones, which is to be expected. Mint Creek has big flock of chickens with wide age diversity - the older ones lay larger eggs with softer shells. In any given dozen, there's likely to be a mix of harder/ softer shells.

Commercial egg producers add extra carbonate to the chicken feed, because those eggs need to be packaged for further travel and additional handling, as compared to your local farmer's eggs.

Freshness should not really affect the hardness, but it may appear to. In fresher eggs, the membrane under the shell is less developed. As the egg sits around, that membrane develops and an air pocket forms between the shell and the albumen. Because of the air pocket and developed membrane, you get more of a "cracking" sound when you crack open an older egg. Fresh eggs don't have the developed membrane or the air pocket, so when you crack them you may get the illusion of a softer shell because it sounds and feels different from what you're used to (if you usually use commercial eggs).

Hopefully this goes without saying - but if there is even a hairline fracture in your raw eggs, discard them. They're highly exposed to salmonella contamination.

I forgot to mention that I also picked up some salt caramels at the GCM yesterday. I ate one and discarded the rest. The caramel was overcooked and tasted burnt. Sorry, I don't remember the name of the vendor to warn you off of these, but if you seen caramels at the next market, inspect them carefully before buying.

i received an email this morning from lyle allen, manager of the green city market, in response to my email offering constructive criticism about the 'snout to tail' event. i feel confident that things will be much improved on february 7. the vendors will be more accessible to shoppers who haven't rsvp'd and who don't want to deal with crowds interested in free food. he says that the food tastings will have their own separate room and the vendors will be spread out into more of the museum, including the catwalk and the lobby. i'm looking forward to another great market. justjoan

justjoan wrote:i received an email this morning from lyle allen, manager of the green city market, in response to my email offering constructive criticism about the 'snout to tail' event. i feel confident that things will be much improved on february 7. the vendors will be more accessible to shoppers who haven't rsvp'd and who don't want to deal with crowds interested in free food. he says that the food tastings will have their own separate room and the vendors will be spread out into more of the museum, including the catwalk and the lobby. i'm looking forward to another great market. justjoan

good news, thanks for sharing. I suspect it's also unlikely that the rest of the GCM events will feature a lineup of household-names as deep as Bayless, Kahan, and Wiviott. The crowds are certain to be smaller. I hope not too much smaller, as I want this market to be a big success. Chicago needs a year-round winter market.

I received a similar email from that fella at the Green City Market as well(although I did not email him with my thoughts regarding the event).

Hopefully they work on the whole RSVP thing, in the future if an RSVP list isnt going to be used to gauge/limit particpation, they shouldnt bother having one.

I will keep an eye on their future events, and see if any seem worthwhile enough for me to make the trek into the city.

Greetings all,

For 10 years, Green City Market has dreamed of becoming a year round market. We took a monumental step forward this past Saturday. The response from the general public speaks to the need to establishing a year round farmer’s market in Chicago and that message came through loud and clear: Chicago wants and needs us.

We learned a lot from this first event. Upcoming markets will offer chef demonstrations staggered throughout the day and located in another room at The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. I’m working with the staff at The Museum as we look to expand the presence of The Market and our farmers giving everyone the opportunity to shop in a comfortable environment.

My thanks to so many LTH supporters for coming out on a cold, January morning and being part of the event. I appreciate everyone’s patience as we work through logistics planning for the next market, Saturday, February 7, and send reassurance that we will continuously strive to improve the experience for all who attend.

Last, but not least, special thanks to Gary, Team Low and Slow, and all the chefs who participated Saturday. Everyone is still raving about those pulled pork sandwiches, Gary.

Hope to see you next month!

Lyle Allen
Executive Director
Green City Market