The Edible Gardens by Green City Market

Chicago’s Green City Market is home to The Edible Gardens, a 5,000 square-foot urban agriculture project growing in the heart of Lincoln Park Zoo’s Farm-in-the-Zoo. As Green City Market’s primary educational outreach program, The Edible Gardens’ mission is to connect Chicago youth with their food hands-on, and to ensure that families have the knowledge, experience, and inspiration to help support a sustainable food system.

Green City Market founder, Abby Mandel, established the project in 2005, envisioning a garden the likes of Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, a place for children and families to learn about where their food comes from and how to grow it themselves. Together with The Organic Gardener Ltd. founder, Jeanne Nolan, The Edible Gardens was born and now occupies a full 5,000 square-foot growing space.

Today, Jeanne and The Organic Gardener team maintain The Edible Gardens in partnership with Green City Market. Welcoming over 25,000 visitors annually, the Gardens are open to the public from April through November. The Organic Gardener’s educators and Lincoln Park Zoo’s volunteers work together to host school groups, field trips, and adult workshops throughout the season.

Local schools and community organizations can arrange for a free tour of The Edible Gardens by contacting ediblegardens@greencitymarket.org. Tours include an interactive walk-through of the Gardens, seasonal produce tasting, and a hands-on garden activity - planting, watering, turning compost, harvesting, seed saving, and more. Garden curricula varies with the seasons, and may include lessons on pollination, organics, seed germination, composting, and climate.

On Wednesdays, scheduled tours of The Edible Gardens can be combined with a visit to Green City Market, located just across the road from the Gardens. This market portion includes a guided tour of the fifty-plus local Midwest vendors at market, a meet-and-greet session with a local farmer, and a seasonal tasting table of fruits, veggies, and herbs.

Hands-on adult gardening workshops are also held at the Gardens each month. Led by Jeanne Nolan and members of The Organic Gardener Ltd., these workshops are season-specific and focus on methods of growing food locally and organically. Check out Green City Market’s calendar to RSVP for an upcoming free workshop.

The Edible Gardens are open to all from April through mid-November, weather permitting:

April: Wednesdays & Saturdays, 10am - 1pm
May through October: Wednesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays, 10am - 1pm
November: Wednesdays & Saturdays, 10am - 1pm

Green City Market is Chicago’s largest and most sustainable year-round all-local farmers market. The market operates outdoors at two locations from spring through fall, and indoors during the off-season:

Lincoln Park Outdoor Market - May through October
Wednesdays & Saturdays, 7am - 1pm
1750 Clark Street, Chicago IL 60614

Fulton Outdoor Market - June through October
Saturdays, 8am - 1pm
799 W Fulton Street, Chicago IL 60607

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum Indoor Market - November through April
Scheduled Saturdays only, see Green City Market’s online calendar for exact dates
2430 N Cannon Drive, Chicago IL 60614