Farm Bio
Purple Leaf
Farms is a farming project owned and operated by Jessica Rinks and as of May 2015
will be located in Chicago, IL. We will
be joining a new urban agriculture development in the City's South Shore
neighborhood. We hope that this new
urban farm will be our forever farm home!
Purple Leaf
is not certified organic, but we do not use ANY synthetic chemicals at the
farm. We weed by hand. We fertilize with compost and other natural
inputs. We add to soil fertility using
cover crop and green mulching techniques.
Currently
Purple Leaf Farms focuses on annual vegetable, herb and flower crops. With our new location as of 2015, we look
forward to expanding our production by adding hoop houses, worm composting,
mushroom production and micro green production.
We are
happy to continue to serve our customers in the Chicago area. We attend multiple summertime farmer's
markets. We also offer an affordable CSA
program (box of produce each week during the summer). We sell our flowers to people planning
parties or events. We also sell our
produce directly to restaurants looking to bring fresh and local food to their
customers.
History
2013-2014
Elgin, IL- For two years, Purple Leaf
Farms operated out of a two acre parcel located in Elgin, Illinois. It wasn't your typical farm site, flanked on
all sides by suburbia. We loved the
opportunity to push boundaries of what people expect to see in the
suburbs. Farms can operate anywhere.
In 2012
Purple Leaf moved to a small approximately quarter-acre lot owned by the
Village of Forest Park in the near west suburbs of Chicago.
Purple Leaf
Farms began as an urban agriculture project started by Jessica Rinks in
2010. It all started as a restaurant
garden project, with all produce being grown in raised garden beds built in a
parking lot along Randolph Street in Chicago’s Restaurant Row.
Jessica
Rinks grew up a southern gal in Tennessee and moved to Chicago in 2004 to
attend graduate school for urban planning, but by 2007 her passion for growing
food became clear. She is a University
of Illinois Master Gardener. She is the co-founder
of the Forest Park Community Garden. She
is the owner and one and only farmer at Purple Leaf Farms. Jessica finally left her urban planning
career in 2012 to pursue local urban farming full-time. She has also served as the Farmers Market
Manager for the Oak Park Farmers Market since 2012.