Andersonville Farmers Market

Good for you and good for the community, could be the mantra of three vendors at the Andersonville Farmers Market: Glow Superfood, Dilly Dally Provisions and Westside Bee Boyz.

Glow founder Mary Tobias is a Chicago chef who received her degree in culinary arts from Kendall College and worked for an array of well-known Chicago restaurants: Stephanie Izard’s Girl & the Goat, Grant Achatz’s Michelin-starred Roister, Matthew Kenney Cuisine at Althea. As an ice cream lover, she was inspired to create a delicious, good-for-you, guilt-free alternative. Glow Superfood is plant-based, with ingredients like young Thai coconut, rich in potassium, manganese and magnesium; MCT oil, medium chain fatty acids that boost memory and lower cholesterol; 10 species of organic mushrooms for gut health, healthy aging, immunity and lower inflammation levels; sunflower lecithin and almond milk. Dairy-free, gluten-free, non-GMO, it nourishes body and brain. Frozen treats come in flavors like Hazelnut Chip, Cinnamon Oatmeal Raisin Cookie, Pistachio Wheatgrass, 8/$48.

The roots of Dilly Dally Provisions go way back before its 2020 launch by Jordan Queen and Gilead Fishel.

Queen grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and spent summers with his grandmother, Agnes, “Nanaw,” who grew nearly all her own food – and who preserved, pickled, or canned everything left at the end of summer for the winter months ahead. He attended culinary school in Asheville, NC, worked in restaurants for more than 20 years, and had been tinkering with recipes when the events of 2020 made him realize it was time to turn his hobby into a business.

Queen found a business partner in Fishel, his brother-in-law and friend, who had spent his early childhood on a kibbutz in Israel. Surrounded by people who sustained themselves with crops grown in the middle of the dessert, Fishel learned to approach life with a bias for thinking differently. Initially an agriculture major in college, he instead graduated in psychology and later received a master’s in business technology. He has been a Fortune 500 product leader, but in his free time, he enjoys being in the kitchen, perfecting his hummus recipe.

Enjoy their Fermented Giardineria Relish ($7 9-oz. jar), comprised of cauliflower, bell peppers, celery, onions, carrots, green chiles, vinegar and spices, lacto-fermented in a salt water brine solution for up to two weeks; Pineapple Hot Sauce, made of just three ingredients: pineapple, lacto-fermented green chiles and organic lime juice – great on eggs, rice or grilled fish ($8 5-oz bottle) and Pickled Red Onion, ($6 9-oz. jar).

Westside Bee Boyz, LLC is Chicago’s first urban apiary services company, and a purveyor of natural, locally harvested honey. Founded in 2014 by Thad J. Smith, the minority-owned and operated company is on a mission to promote entrepreneurship through sustainable community development and beekeeping initiatives on the West Side. It offers education and promotes urban beekeeping in youth detention centers and prisons and showcases related products from other minority- and women-owned businesses.

“We believe that each piece of land is a gemstone, an underutilized asset that can bring attention and funding to model the benefits of doing more with less through sustainable community development,” Smith says on his website. “We only sell unfiltered, unpasteurized, raw honey straight from our hives to the jar. No preservatives, no chemicals, no additives.” Available in 6-oz, 12-oz, 24-oz, and 48-oz, along with honey water, honey sticks, beeswax candles, honey soaps, honey soda and honey lotions. A portion of proceeds grow its community makerspace.

-Suzanne Hanney

Dilly Dally Provisions

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