Chicagoing: Daily Farmer's Markets and Peach Mojitos

While most people who live in Chicago don't have the space to grow their own gardens, we are lucky enough to have a Farmer's Markets every day spread throughout several Chicago neighborhoods. Since Miss M loves crowds and meeting new people, I loaded her up with Mr. B's Ruff Wear Palisades backpack to help carry the groceries. Not only does the backpack help me carry stuff, but it gave Miss M a job. This means she's more directed making it easier for her to ignore other dogs, food, and the chaos in the crowds. She took her job very seriously:

This particular market stretches nearly a half-mile with a huge array of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and fresh cheeses.

One of my main motivations is to get flowers for our house. I found that of all the markets, Bades Farm which is at the Lincoln Square, Hyde Park, and Clark/Division markets has the best flowers.

The farmer still remembers Miss M from when I first adopted her. Miss M made sure to lay nicely at each booth waiting for me to make purchases and load her backpack. This market actually had a ton of smaller dogs on retractable leashes that people let just wander under booths and go up to people. Several people remarked how patient and well-behaved Miss M was:

Miss M was able to haul peaches, apples, tomatoes, arugula,string cheese, and fresh mozzarella in her backpack while I carried the flowers. We keep our fruit and vegetable in bowls that double as decor, and reminders to eat well:

We chose an assortment of flowers:

To brighten up Mr. B's laying area:

E used the peaches to make fresh peach mojitos with mint from our garden. It's getting a bit cool, but they were still perfect to sip out on our porch:

While I made a salad with the arugula, tomatoes, and mozzarella and basil from our herb garden. Everything was delicious; though we kept having this little face popping up to see how everything was: