FamilyFarmed's Fall Urban Ag Bus Tour

Back by popular demand, FamilyFarmed is running its second fall harvest Urban Ag Bus Tour! Hop on the bus and peek inside three of the leading farm sites in Chicago and experience some of the most amazing urban agriculture projects in the nation.

The bus will pick up at the Kitchfix location in the Gold Coast (1165 N State St.) and will travel to each of the three locations before returning. Muffins and other breakfast items will be waiting for you at Kitchfix, and a small Good Food snack will be provided along the way.

Tour locations are as follows:

Garfield Produce Company - Located in East Garfield Park, Garfield Produce Company is an indoor vertical farm and a licensed wholesale food establishment in the City of Chicago. The company was formed with the social mission of serving the neighborhood by building sustainable wealth and creating employment in Chicago’s impoverished areas, while growing some of the highest quality produce in the city.

Patchwork Farms - Chicago Patchwork Farms is a vegetable farm dedicated to transforming contaminated city land into biodiverse community space while improving accessibility of healthy food to our neighbors. We remediate vacant land on Chicago’s south and west sides; neighborhoods that are economically deprived and environmentally distressed, providing space in the community for outdoor gatherings, native pollinator habitat, and food crops. The farm’s diverse operation produces an extensive variety of vegetables, as well as eggs, medicinal herbs, preserved foods, honey, cut flowers, and a compost drop-off program. We host a high-demand 50 member sliding scale CSA pickup, and a pay-what-you-can farm stand – with the majority of our visitors walking or biking to the farm.

McCormick Place Rooftop Farm - Windy City Harvest runs the 20,000-square-foot rooftop garden at McCormick Place in collaboration with Savor…Chicago, the food service operation for McCormick Place. This experimental and commercial production location is testing the feasibility of growing herbs and greens in raised beds with a lightweight soil mix that formerly supported only sedum plants. The farm includes a microgreens operation, beekeeping, and vermicomposting. If the rooftop garden is as successful as expected, this project can be proof-of-concept for a whole new dimension of rooftop food growing. Produce grown on this site is sold directly to Savor…Chicago’s chef for convention food service.