Chef Shack: delicious, local, ethical AND eco-conscious!

We checked out the Kingfield Farmers Market today (I last went there about two years ago), and it's really improved and is a wonderful place to shop and eat now.

Chef Shack sets up shop there (and also at the Mill City Farmers Market, Northeast Farmers Market, Uptown Farmers Market and was at last year's Holidazzle Parade), and I wanted to point out what a great company they are. Not only is their food totally scrumptious and creative, but their ingredients come from family farms and co-ops in Minnesota and Wisconsin. They cook up Thousand Hills Cattle Company hot dogs, bison burgers from Buffalo Gal, Fischer Farm's pork and grass-fed beef tongue. AND they only use compostable containers, dishes and serviceware.

So when Kingfield starts composting organics, Chef Shack'll already be compost-compatible. Thanks, Chef Shack! You guys are awesome.

The "trash" can at Kingfield. I'll bet 98 percent of this is compostable. It took all of my willpower to not drag this whole bag home.

Meanwhile at the Uptown Farmers Market...
there were a lot fewer vendors and the scene was much quieter, BUT they have organics collection already set up! They need more signage or someone monitoring, though, because there was just as much food and paper waste in the trash can as there was in the organics cart.

trash cart on the left, organics on the right

This guy gets it:




A volunteer told me the city of Minneapolis offered the organics collection service for free to the market, which is excellent.

the black cart on the left is for recyclables (there's a round hole cut into the lid)

Selling veggies is tiring work when you have to get up early to harvest!

One last item of note: organic and environmentally friendly lip balm, soaps, lotions, bath seltzers and pet products from Prairie Apothecary.

And look at this! Refillable lip balm!!

From their website: Our product packaging philosophy is, "Less is more." We use as little as possible, with several packaging options. From having the ingredients on the front of the package, we try to recreate packaging similar to that found in the 1800's and early 1900's. We try to limit our color selection to those that could could be derived naturally. We want our labels and packaging to break down in the environment at the end of their life. We will now introduce more 'Bulk' packaging in 6, 10, 12, and 24 packs, and therefore savings for the customer. We want you to buy our product for the product, not for the packaging! Our packaging also does not contain any Pthalates, and is approved for the contents we place inside of them.