EDIT 2012: Sadly all that remains of the open air market is Long Acres Farms, the produce stand. Lupe hopes there will be a supermarket soon. The closest supermarket is Schnucks on Olive. Lupe likes this post though, so she is leaving it up, for auld lang syne.
Lupe loves summer at the Market in the Loop. The plaza fills with vendors selling jewelry and clothes, tarot and psychic readings, books, and homemade items. The drum circle resumes. Aspiring musicians serenade the crowd with their best performance. Artists bring out their canvases, to sketch the scene and try to sell their work. Little children laugh and play while their parent's shop, browse, and people watch. Teenagers swarm back and forth through the shoppers, filling the air with youthful hormones and high spirits.
If Venice Beach in California and the Bastille Saturday market in Paris had an illegitimate child, it would be the U. City Market in the Loop.
The Long Acre Farms at the market is open three days a week year round. Lupe tries to shop there as much as possible. They are so much cheaper than the grocery store, and it is really important to support local businesses and also local growers. (Locally grown produce, even if it isn't organic, is better for you. It comes from the same environment that you in live in, and therefore can nourish you more.)
They also have great honey from Gibbons Bee Farm. Honey bees pollinate about 2/3's of our food. Lately they have been disappearing. They aren't finding the bodies. It's all very X-Files. (What ruined the X-Files movie for Lupe was the use of bees. Corn is self-pollinating.) This phenomenon is called Colony Collapse Disorder. They think the bees are getting lost on the way home. Orperhaps a virus or fungus.
If you haven't had a chance to enjoy the Market in the Loop, find a sunny Saturday this summer to check it out. Lupe guarantees you will enjoy it as much as she does.
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