Episode 21: Matt Ryan-The Talking Farm
In this episode, we sit down with Matt Ryan, the farm manager at the Talking Farm in Skokie. The Talking Farm is a non-profit farm on Howard Street in Skokie. They grow fresh, hyper-local food using innovative and sustainable practices while educating the community about the environment, agriculture, biodiversity, permaculture, horticulture, gardening, and social justice and health issues.
Through a land-use agreement with the Skokie Park District, the Howard Street Farm was created by developing 2.5 acres of uncontaminated, overgrown land (formerly a horse pasture) into vegetable, herb, and flower production integrated with a variety of fruit trees and bushes, nut trees, and other perennial species. In 2014, after being granted Skokie’s first zoning designation for urban agriculture, they began operating the Howard Street Farm as a full-production urban farm, which means that we are able to distribute and sell hyper-fresh, locally-grown produce to the community. The farm is located at 3669 Howard Street, in Skokie, Illinois, west of the intersection of Howard Street and McCormick Boulevard.
Matt Ryan has been involved in urban agriculture and community gardening for over 7 years. In 2012 he graduated from the Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest Sustainable Urban Agricultural Certificate Program. In 2012 Matt was hired as the Assistant Farm Manager at The Talking Farm along with managing the ETHS school garden the “Edible Acre”. In 2015 he became the Talking Farms Operations Manager and has since been working to further develop both the educational and production capacities of the organization.
The produce from the farm is sold at several restaurants in the area such as Blind Faith Cafe, Hewn, Farmhouse and Backlot Coffee. They also sell the produce at the local Skokie and Evanston Farmers markets. More information about the talking farm can be found at https://www.thetalkingfarm.org/ and on social media.
I’d like to thank several people for help with today’s show. This includes my real estate brokerage, Dreamtown Realty in Evanston for helping me with my graphics for the show. I’d like to thank Industrious in Evanston for use of their space to record follow them on Instagram at @industriousevanston. And if listening to this podcast gave you the bug to buy or sell real estate, give me a call or go to my real estate website at http://www.aaronmasliansky.com And don’t forget to subscribe! Thank you.
