Eatery Helps Chicago Greening Efforts

Enlarge Image Image Gallery The multi-colored awning reflects the multitude of flavors you’ll find inside Earth Mothers restaurant.

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Recipes:

• Spiced Water 
  
• Fennel Cole Slaw with Pecan Dressing 
• Pecan Dressing
  

Chicago—Windy City, Hog Butcher of the World, Second City. And now a new identity is emerging for this bustling, durable city in the heartland. Mayor Richard M. Daley provided the impetus, and Chicago residents have enthusiastically embraced the goal of making Chicago the Greenest City in America. From rooftop gardens to sustainable development, the dream is on its way to becoming a reality.

This dedication to green beckoned Chicagoan Patti Garland to return to the city from her transplanted home in Los Angeles. She and husband Chris Garland moved back to Chicago last year, just in time for winter. They wanted to create a restaurant based on sustainable ideals and join the burgeoning Green Chicago movement.

“Creating community is part of the whole philosophy of organic, sustainable development,” Patti says. “Everything I saw and heard was happening here. It was what I was craving, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

In the fall of 2003, the Garlands opened Earth Mothers — a small storefront eatery. The space is pleasantly simple and offers a homestyle cuisine.

Steeped in Tradition

The driving force behind Earth Mothers is healthy living through organic-based food.

“We want to serve healthy, fresh food made every day from a holistic standpoint,” Patti says. “I don’t view food as entertainment. I view it as an energy source.”

The menu is partially based on Ayurvedic traditions and uses many common and not-so-common herbs and spices. Ayurveda is a centuries-old life science that hails from India. Fundamental to the philosophy is the belief that each person has a primary constitutional profile, or dosha. There are three doshas: vata (ruled by air), pitta (ruled by fire) and kapha (ruled by earth). While everyone has a combination of the three, each person is born with one dominant dosha. According to the philosophy, your dosha becomes unbalanced due to life stresses, lack of exercise and poor nutrition. Hence, proper nutritional choices help rebalance your dosha and your life. Some of these nutritional principles make their way onto Earth Mothers’ menu.

Food for health may be a guiding light at Earth Mothers, but you certainly don’t need a spoonful of sugar to help this medicine go down. The dishes are delicious and amazingly affordable, given the high-quality ingredients. One example is Patti’s coleslaw with ginger, pecans, olive oil, cilantro and fresh fennel. It’s refreshing, flavorful and, in case you need some rebalancing, both the fennel and ginger are considered tridosha (good for all three constitutional types.)

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