Yesterday was the first pizza night of the year at Heritage Prairie Farm and it was a great beginning for my summer in Chicago. All winter long I have been talking about Pizza Farms to the residents of Chicagoland, finding creative ways to
build it into conversations, and posting about it on social media. I have taken it upon myself to be a Pizza Farm Resource (and I even made my own business card) and last night, through these efforts, I was able to introduce several Chicago residents to their first Pizza Farm as well as guide a team of writers from Country Woman and Farm & Ranch Living magazines to Heritage Prairie Farm Pizza Night.
I selected the date of my first trip several weeks ago and began my mission of finding people interested in joining me and available to leave the city by 3pm or 4pm on a Wednesday. I found two people interested in the event from my Facebook postings and I also managed to rally most of my family into coming. Being closer to family is the main reason I moved to Chicago, so having them there was special and fitting. And a lot of fun!
My car left first, heading out of Humboldt Park around 2:15pm on my way to pick up my two new Pizza Farm companions. Being at a Pizza Night can be one of the most relaxing and calming experiences of the summer, but the lead up to it, especially as a Pizza Farm Resource, can be a little bit anxiety producing. There’s traffic to fight, pick-ups and carpools to coordinate, and timing at Heritage Prairie is key, because arriving late can mean you don’t get a pizza! Our car arrived right on time. Nate, the operations manager that gave me the wonderful tour last year when I came, was out front directing cars to parking. He had a friendly greeting for me and commented on how the weather for today was much nicer than my last time to the farm, when severe thunderstorm warnings caused Pizza Night to be canceled.
There was a small group of early arrivals and at the suggestion of a staff member, we jumped in line as soon as it formed. I could see the importance of arriving early, as most of the groups were families and many of them were ordering ahead for other group members that would be arriving later. Our group ordered 7 pizzas, one of each variety, 
and the people behind us ordered 9. With only 200 pizzas available, it became clear that a small line of people could be deceiving if everyone was ordering large amounts. I would have liked to be somewhere more in the middle of the line for timing purposes, but for my anxiety’s sake, being second in line worked just fine. The grounds were still empty, reminiscent of my last visit and some of the pictures I took that day, but I was looking forward to seeing the place fill up with pizza farm visitors.
After getting in our order, we found a nice picnic table, ordered some beer from the bar, and opened up the chips. I had come prepared, grabbing a few bags of chips that I keep stashed in my house for occasions such as this. Our pizzas were up shortly after 5:15pm. Since the rest of our party had yet to arrive, we struggled to carry the 7 pies back to our table, but we managed! After they were set up on the table in all their glory and photographed from multiple angles, we broke out the Pizza Plates I had received as a going away gift from Brittany Wagner and got to work with the task of eating too much pizza.
My parents arrived next, bringing some of their signature contributions to any event; a fold out table, Papa Naro cookies, 
their easy way of making conversation with new friends, and their enthusiasm for just about everything.
Meanwhile, my brother and his co-worker were taking advantage of the Metra train that runs out to Elburn. It can bring you straight from Ogilvie Transportation Center to within several miles of the Pizza Farm. Unfortunately it isn’t really walkable from there, but my sister-in-law coming from a different direction was able to pick them up. There was plenty of pizza left for them when they arrived and even enough left to send people home with leftovers.
We had a gorgeous evening at Heritage Prairie. The weather was perfectly pleasant, the music was enjoyable and not overwhelming, the beer was tasty with Founders and Solemn Oath on tap, and the pizza tasted great. The beet pesto pizza was high among the list of favorites, as was the BBQ. Considering we had 8 people and 8 opinions, it was hard to give a favorite. A new one this summer, the summer squash and corn, was also very popular and all the staff expressed excitement about having it on the menu. Typical for me, I enjoyed every bite. I am glad we had such a big group and we didn’t need to choose which kinds we wanted. We could try them all! Just how I like it.
Photo credits to Zarna Patel and Robert Wargolet III
Aw man!!! That sounds PERFECT! Bring on Pizza Farm season!!
We had the perfect experience!