WHITNEY YOUNG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

farmers market, so there’s less opportunity for it to be mishandled or cross-contaminated. It carries the name of the producer on it. This is their life’s work, and their reputation is on that label. I sense that there’s a real desire to ensure great quality and safety.”

Regularly buying fresh food from a farmers market allows families to get into the habit of eating in season. “Cooking seasonally allows you the opportunity to capture the incredible flavor profiles of what’s fresh. It has just been picked and tastes incredible—very different from the flavors you get from grocery store products that were produced someplace else, maybe even weeks or months ago,” Maxwell explains.

Myhre concurs: “If we can build our habits, cooking preferences and skills around those seasonal rhythms, that’s a really beautiful benefit. It’s awesome for me to know that these herbs were harvested yesterday. There’s also a wide diversity of products. You’re not going to see 12 varieties of squash at your big-box grocery store. I’m always surprised by what I see, and it’s a really fun experience as somebody who loves food. Taking home really great-tasting products that were produced with so much care is a central benefit.”

For many, the farmers market is a community gathering. In addition to local growers, they often include cottage food vendors offering homemade jams and jellies, baked goods, sauces, preserved and pickled items and other delicious foods, as well as arts and crafts vendors and musical entertainment. “The wonderful thing about the farmers market is that it leads with joy,” Myhre says. “It’s fun. You don’t invite friends to the grocery store, but you might meet your friends for coffee at the farmers market.”

Sandra Yeyati, J.D., is a professional writer and editor. Reach her at SandraYeyati @gmail.com.

Whitney Young High School Students Practice Fair Trade Activism

by Maya Westbrook, Lila Aspin and Vivian Miltner

Whitney Young’s Fair Trade Club was founded in 2018, and focuses on the fair trade movement and the many social and environmental issues that surround it. Recently, with the help of Metropolis Coffee (MetropolisCoffee.com) and Chicago Fair Trade (ChicagoFairTrade.org), as well as donations from other fair trade companies, Whitney Young’s Fair Trade Club has opened a coffee shop within their school in order to promote fair trade coffee. They are currently selling fair trade tea, hot chocolate and Metropolis Coffee to students every morning and are working on expanding their product range. The club plans to donate any profits to mental health and workers rights organizations.

The club also holds events for their school community to educate the student body about these issues and integrate fair trade into the goods sold at school. Some of their past events include clothing swaps, school-wide fundraisers with fair trade-related activities, hosting speakers such as former child laborer Nasreen Sheikh, who inspired the founding of the club and movie screenings. One member says, “Joining the fair trade movement changed my life. From meeting lifelong friends to discovering my future career path, fair Photo courtesy Aria Hoesley trade has forever altered the way I view the world and my place in it.” The club holds biweekly meetings with all of its members with each meeting focusing on a different aspect of fair trade. At these meetings, the club’s executive board presents on a range of informative topics from fast fashion to human trafficking and fair trade labels.

Whitney Young High School’s Fair Trade Coffee Café

Lila Aspin, Vivian Miltner and Maya Westbrook showing samples of fair trade coffee For more information, visit FairTradeCampaigns.org/campaign/whitney-young-high-school. Maya Westbrook, Lila Aspin and Vivian Miltner are founding members of Whitney Young’s Fair Trade club. They are interns with Chicago Fair Trade and co-host the Chicago Fair Trade Podcast, Rethink Ethical. Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, located at 211 S. Laflin St., is operated by the Chicago Public Schools district. For more information, visit WYoung.org.

“There is this invisible dividend in the Fair Trade world … It’s Hope, Pride and Dignity, because people are solving their own problems through Fair Trade.” ~Paul Rie, CEO of Fair Trade USA

Blogs Beckon Armchair Naturalists to Investigate Local Nature

by Sheryl DeVore

Andrew Morkes grew up enjoying the rolling hills, trees and daddy long leg spiders he saw when his dad took him hiking in the 15,000-acre Palos Forest Preserves. “I treasure that,” says Morkes, whose father passed away 25 years ago. Today, Morkes works to help others treasure local nature, and that’s one reason he started his blog five years ago, called, “Nature in Chicagoland” (NatureInChicago.Wordpress.com).

Morkes traveled in the United States and farther afield to see nature when he was in his 20s and 30s. But when his 11-year-old son Liam was born, he knew he’d have to stay closer to home. That’s when he began to more earnestly explore and journal about nature in Chicago’s backyard. He started the blog, which can get up to 2,000 readers a month, and then published Nature in Chicagoland: More than 120 Fantastic Nature Destinations That You Must Visit. The book features 210 photographs and updated blog entries, as well as 60 percent new material.

“The one thing I notice, there are a lot more people writing about nature and photographing nature, and posting that on blogs,” Morkes says. “There’s an explosion of that, and I think that’s good.” Nature blogs in the region focus specifically about one group of animals; for example, birds seen at Montrose Harbor or insects in northeastern Illinois. Others reveal what can be seen in natural areas in Lake, Cook, Will, McHenry and DuPage counties.

Morkes, a professional writer and editor, says that nature blogs convey the author’s passion for the outdoors and offer readers a chance to go exploring. “People will write and ask where is one of the remotest, wildest place to go in the Cook County area,” he says. After they’ve visited there, they’ve written him letters saying the experience was just what they were looking for. “I had someone from Florida who moved up here,” Morkes recalls. “They said my book will be perfect for them to learn about places in the Chicago area to explore.”

Morkes says as soon as his son was old enough, he and his wife took him hiking near and far. “The blog and the book tell the story of my son growing up outdoors and us teaching him about the outdoors,” Morkes says. “Though photos make great memories, stories written down in real time as a blog can be more compelling.”

One of the favorite places he blogs about is Cap Sauers Holding Nature Preserve, in Palos Park. “It is literally the wildest place in Cook County. It’s one of the most isolated,” Morkes explains. “I love the ravines, the creeks, the prairie.”

His son Liam says that his favorite natural area closest to home that his father has blogged about is North Park Village Nature Center, in Chicago. Liam likes the boardwalk where he can watch frogs and a big hill he can climb. Another place Morkes blogs about is Messenger Woods, in Homer Glen. “The blooming Virginia bluebells there are wonderful in spring,” he says.

Morkes has also blogged about Keepetaw Preserve, in Will County, a little-known natural area. “It has amazing views there, and the limestone was quarried from the area many years ago to build some of the old buildings on Michigan Avenue in Chicago,” he says.

His blog also takes readers to places in

Left: Andrew Morkes and his son, Liam, 11, hike the Sand Ridge Nature Center, in South Holland.

a different season then when they typically visit. For example, Lake Renwick Nature Preserve, in Plainfield, is known for its heron rookeries in spring and summer, but Morkes went there last winter to explore the preserve and discovered thousands of geese and ducks making noises from the marsh. “It was pretty amazing,” he says. “Sometimes people in Chicagoland have their two or three go-to spots, and that’s it. I feel like there are so many neat places that people aren’t aware of.”

Morkes has a bucket list of places in the region he’d like to visit. He crossed off Nachusa Grasslands last year and says, “I loved the bison there. I enjoy the solitude and the wildness of it.”

Some nature bloggers zero in on specific animals. For example, Robert Hughes, of Chicago, writes the Montrose Birding Blog. “Montrose Point is one of the most popular and renowned bird and nature sanctuaries

in the United States,” Hughes says. “Empowering people with the information they can use to make informed decisions about birding Montrose is a passion of mine.” Hughes has written the blog since 2011 and includes photos he’s taken of birds he’s discovered; for example, white-winged scoters on Lake Michigan in March. A retired naturalist with the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, Carl Strang has been writing his nature inquiries blog since 2008. He focuses on natural history investigations in northeastern Illinois, especially singing insects, dragonflies, Andrew Morkes published a book birds, mammals and gecontaining his nature blogs and ology. “By investigations, photographs about preserves he’s I mean a broad range of visited in the Chicago region. studies from general or anecdotal observations to more focused scientific studies,” Strang explains. Strang, who holds a Ph.D. in wildlife ecoogy, reveals new discoveries he’s found Messenger Woods Nature Preserve in Homer Glen with blooming Virginia bluebells in the region through his blog. For example, he recently recorded the sounds of a slow-tinkling trig, a type of cricket, in the Chicago region, which he had never documented before. Strang includes the songs of crickets and other singing insects on his blog. “I hope that this blog will encourage children and teachers to learn about science from the inside by conducting their own inquiries in the outdoors,” Strang says.

Sheryl DeVore has written six books on science, health and nature, as well as nature, health and environment stories for national and regional publications. Read more at SherylDeVore.wordpress.com.

Nature Blogs from the Chicago Region

Here are some Chicago region nature blogs that offer inspiration to get outdoors as spring returns.

The Montrose Birding Blog: TheOrniphile.info/wordpress Neighborhood Nature: A blog about the nature found in neighborhoods and parks in Oak Park and on Chicago’s west side— NeighborhoodNature.wordpress.com Lake County Nature: Find your niche—LakeCountyNature.com Discover Chicago Nature: Connecting to nature in and around Chicago— DiscoverChicagoNature.home.blog The Buzz: Forest Preserve District of Will County— ReconnectWithNature.org/newsevents/the-buzz Nature Inquiries: Natural history investigations in northeastern Illinois and the surrounding region— NatureInquiries.wordpress.com Nature’s Storytellers: A Blog About Nature in Our DuPage Forest Preserves— DupageForest.org/blog/topic/nature