the Yogurt Pedaler

Hi OP fans! Annie here, Open Produce manager and yogurt-maker on the side. I’ve been hard at work on a project called the Yogurt Pedaler that is launching this weekend, at the 61st Street Farmers Market.

The project has been in the works for over a year, and was inspired in part by the connections to food production and distribution and the community that I’ve come to know since working at Open Produce. As the Yogurt Pedaler, I’m biking from my home in Hyde Park, Chicago, to Ohio, making yogurt from milk from local dairy farms and teaching people along the way how to make their own. It’s about encouraging people to take an active role in making their own food and knowing their local community, and about inspiring street life and a more active lifestyle.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks, but ready or not, I’ll be inaugurating the Yogurt Pedaler at the 61st Street Farmers Market tomorrow, Saturday, August 14, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The market is fantastic – it’s on the street by Experimental Station, at E 61st and S Dorchester, and it’s well worth a visit at any time. But it’s especially worth a visit tomorrow, when I’ll be out there teaching yogurt-making, so if you find yourself on the South Side, stop by and say hi! I’m hitting the road on Sunday, so this is your last chance to see the Yogurt Pedaler in action in Chicago until September…at which point I may be so tired of yogurt that I’ll refuse to make it ever again.

While I’m gone, keep up with my adventures on my website at yogurtpedaler.com, where you can already find all of my worrisome yogurt-making experiments in excruciating detail.