Fun, Food & Fitness

Perhaps you’ll have more time in retirement for food-related outings or skills. Local orchards, farms, wineries, pumpkin patches and farmer’s markets offer a variety of ways to enjoy fresh foods. You name it — apples, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, strawberries, pumpkins, and more — you can probably pick it yourself in northern Illinois. See a list of local and nationwide pick-your-own farms and orchards at http://www.pickyourown.org

Support local farms and enjoy the freshest local produce possible from the area farmer’s markets. Locate the one closest to you at the Farmer's Markets page of the Northern Illinois Tourism Development Office, http://www.visitnorthernillinois.com/agriFarmers.html

At the Learn Great Foods website — http://www.learngreatfoods.com — you can explore culinary farm tours, cooking classes and organic culinary retreats in Illinois. One possibility is the Mount Carroll culinary tours which, according to the website, are based at Campbell Center, “an historic college campus, with Georgian Revival architecture, stone basements, brick walls, and beautiful lawns.”  Culinary classes and dinners are also hosted at other sustainable locations throughout northwest Illinois/Wisconsin/Iowa. Each culinary tour includes two food stops and a hands-on cooking class, with delicious organic gourmet dinner! Tours include cheese-makers, buffalo and beef and chicken farms, tree farms and vineyard/wineries, herb gardens, and a grist mill.”

Cooking Classes are a great way to enhance life, learn a skill and meet people. Elgin Community College is an excellent local resource for culinary classes. Go to the Cooking categories at http://elgin.edu/noncreditclasses for details.