Before we jump into this story – a quick note. The “we” you’ll be hearing from are the four of us: Elena Hadjimichael, Teddy Kent, Dexter O’Connell and Ann Wood. We’re all University of Chicago students (though some of us just graduated) and as part of a class we took called “Buildings as Evidence,” we came up with questions for Curious City and found our own answers (with an assist from WBEZ’s Jennifer Brandel). Here’s the one we tackled from classmate Teddy Kent:
How does all of Chicago’s produce come into the city? What’s the history of Chicago’s wholesale produce markets?
Teddy said he was interested in this question “Because where our food comes from is something I totally take for granted. I can only imagine that Chicago has a very complicated system of storage and transportation for foodstuff from across America and the world, but what that looks like on the ground is a mystery to me.”
It was a mystery to all of us, and we’re guessing to many Chicagoans, too. So allow us to peel back the history and take you to some corners of the city rarely seen.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: WBEZ
