Every fall as soon as the temperature cools, I start dreaming of escaping Chicago to go apple picking.

We took a trip this week to the Chicago suburb of Homer Glen in search of some farm fresh produce. This year has been really hard on apple and fruit tree growers. The weather has not been on their side, with late freezes this spring and strong winds earlier this month. So we choose Garden Patch Farms and Orchard since they offer all kinds of vegetables, in hopes the other crops were doing better.

We got our pails, walked out into the perfect fall weather, and instantly felt so relaxed.

The apples were truly doing poorly, we could only find one good apple in the entire orchard! Instead, we loaded up on kale, swiss chard, tomatoes, and apple butter and honey from their store.

Once we got back to Chicago, we launch into an evening of cooking with a recipe for kale chips. Kinda like potato chips, they were salty and crunchy, and also gone very quick.

I love the amazing variety of living in Chicago, but sometimes what we need is a change of pace and some quiet farm fields.

Heading into our office yesterday, I ran into another way of bringing green space into the city.

A few parking spaces were covered with trees, grass, and picnic tables of people chatting over coffee. I see this every year along Milwaukee Ave. Its part of Park(ing) Day, where people are encouraged to turn parking spaces into mini parks for one day. I pass this spot all the time, and its always a fun surprise to see it transformed each year.

What’s your fall craving? What do you do to shake up a routine?