City Find: Wagner Farm

During our first week here in Skokie, we took a morning trip to a little historical tribute to farming families in Glenview, IL: Wagner Farm. We've passed by this little farm-life restoration many times on previous visits during our treks to Glenview's Trader Joe's (Hello Skokie. Get on the TJ bandwagon!), but for some reason we never thought to stop, until now. We had a wonderful morning learning about dairy cows, fresh chicken coop eggs, and watching the sheep try to stay cool in this humid Midwest heat.

Wagner Farm is one of the very few still-standing farms of Cook County, and is surrounded by vibrant suburban life, homes, and major roadways. The Wagner family owned, lived, and farmed on this property from 1855 until the death of Rose Wagner in 1997!!! It now functions as a museum-like tribute to this farming families history. Aside from the farm animals and green gardens, there are indoor interactive exhibits where children (and adults!) can learn about whole food and it's origin, including their "shop through history" 1930's grocery store. Also on location and open for exploration is the original farmhouse - the home of the Wagner family - with furniture and all! So interesting!

Their tagline is "If your kids think that milk comes from a carton, corn comes from a can, and chicken from a cellophane wrapped package - it's time to visit Wagner Farm!". If you're in the Chicagoland area and looking for some fun and educational trips to do with young children in tow, I'd highly recommend stopping by for a visit. You can check out more about the farm and it's programs here.

Garden Eats!

Nothing like pausing the backyard play to pick some garden bounty and ring the snack bell! It's amazing how much more open children are to eating new things when they partake in the process. Picking the fruits and veggies from the earth, cutting, mashing, and tossing made it that much more plausible for curious, yet timid, little palettes. (Thank you again Estee Berkowitz - now start with your radical-homemakers mom blog already!!!) Chunks of avacado, cherry tomatos, and chopped leek was never consumed by children with such gusto! Plus, watching it go straight from earth to mouth... the nutrient viability must have been intense! :)

Freida pulled a leek from the ground and exclaimed "that was freaking awesome!" - to my delight and Estee's horror. :))

Smart Snacking

Sometimes a nutritious snack in only an innovation away. Try adding some bling to their peanut- butter-dunking apple slices for a brain boosting, energy lending, nutrient laden snack! (Yes, it's a bit of sugar and coloring - but this definitely trumps the Bissli! Plus, all together it'd probably equal a half of lollipop.)

Subtle Color in the Kitchen

As you're all well aware of by now, I lean quite toward the minimalist persona. Recently I've been seeing a lot of bland toned kitchens, and I'm smitten!! I've always loved the crisp and classic freshness of a white kitchen, and the warm and textured vibes of a wooden kitchen, but now I'm veering toward the immaculate cold and earthy cement and concrete kitchens (weird, I know!). Anyways, if I lived in even the most amazing cold and colorless kitchen, I'd imagine I'd add pops of subtle color to the heart of the home via colored tools like these:

Ladies & Gentleman Studio Colored Serving Utensils, from $35

Cutting Edge Series Colored Cutting and Serving Boards, from $12

Opinel Colored Knife Set, $68

Shout-out to the Daddies!!

Happiest Father's Day to all you fantastical Daddies out there!!

It took me about 4 years to finally realize that the DaddyFroo in this house is not as keen on the sweet breakfasts (french toast, waffles, pancakes, cream etc.) as he would greatly prefer a savory spread. That's what he got this morning. Sunny sides on french baguettes, smoked salmon, garlic and herb butter, muenster cheese, tomatos, basil etc.. Apparently I have been found guilty of committing the all-too-popular male-crime of assuming my spouse liked what I liked. This breakthrough breakfast tray puts us in a better place. :)

We all know the secrets to a happy man: food. (Plus some other more interactive things.) So showing them some yearly gratitude is easy as pie. Or in our case, rye.

Freida usually enjoys the cooking part of breakfast time, so I opted to get her involved in some other ways this year (since we were skipping all that pancake flipping!). We've been working on sprucing up Daddy's workspace (his looks rather drab now that mine is decked out!). We made a simple little framed handprint, wrapped it in newsprint, and topped with a paper tie!

Shout-out to all you wonderfully helpful and happy husbands!! We could never do this job without you!!!