In addition to Women's History Month and Irish American Heritage Month, March is also National Nutrition Month. This is a very busy month!
When you think of good nutrition, fresh healthy fruits and vegetables come to mind. It might be surprising that not that long ago, the Ridge area was full of farms growing and selling produce locally.
For 55 years, the Van Laten farm stand was a fixture at 101st and Western Avenue.
The Van Latens came from the Netherlands in the late 1800s. They settled in Chicago and started a poultry farm. They eventually rented many acres of land in the area, including around 115th and Western, the area now built up as Merrionette Park, and the strip mall at 115th and Kedzie. That was farmland up until the 1950s.
The Van Latens were part of the "last working farm in Chicago" that was on the grounds now housing the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences.
Other farmers on the land included the Martens, Aggens and Langlands. This is a very interesting story – the founding and building of that high school in the 1970s-1980s – and we will cover it another day.
Author Therese Ragen remembered walking up to Van Laten's stand, where they would pick out "fresh tomatoes and lettuce and corn on the cob, and carrots and peaches and plums. Mrs. Van Laten would take her pencil out from behind her ear, adding up the prices in a column on a paper bag." They would pay for the goods and leave their address and the Van Latens would later deliver the produce to their home.
This picture from the Ridge Historical Society archives is of the Van Laten farm stand on Western Ave.