Hull-House Museum Going Organic

An organic garden at the University of Illinois at Chicago will expand the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum's food education programming while providing ingredients for the museum's gourmet soup kitchen.

The half-acre Hull-House Urban Farm lies two blocks from the museum, adjacent to UIC's plant research laboratory at the southwest corner of Halsted and Taylor streets, according to a release from the university.

Workshops on gardening techniques, sustainable practices, cooking and preserving will take place at the garden and museum, said Lisa Lee, museum director.

Chef Tara Lane of Blackbird will devise recipes using the organic vegetables harvested there for "Rethinking Soup," the museum's weekly free soup kitchen and forum on sustainable agriculture and nutrition. Lane has taken over for the program's co-founder Sam Kass, now personal chef to the Obamas.

The garden is cultivated by farmer Ryan Beck, project coordinator, with a little help from volunteers.

"We've had group volunteer days for alumni, with maybe 20 people, ages 5 to 75," Beck said. Other volunteers come from the neighborhoods near UIC.

In keeping with organic techniques, Beck built compost bins from rye straw bales. He planted rye seeds a winter cover crop and plowed them in the spring to serve as fertilizer. Rough-hewn logs make up the fencing around the garden. Beck built a collapsible greenhouse to extend the growing season and serve as a shelter, the release said.

For now, the garden is producing garlic and red and purple shallots. Later this season, volunteers will harvest 30 kinds of heirloom tomatoes, eight kinds of heirloom potatoes, radishes, lettuce, spinach, three varieties of beets and four varieties of carrots, Beck said.