THE FIREHOUSE
SHOP: fresh local produce and sustainably crafted goods
SWAP: your books, puzzles, plants, & seeds
DROP: your food scraps, used batteries, & packaging materials
EXPANDING OUR REACH
Building on our history of adaptive and creative reuse, we’re turning this firehouse into a center for circular economy programming. The Firehouse features shared use indoor growing space for plants and fungi, indoor and outdoor classrooms, a teaching kitchen, community composting, and meeting/event space. It also serve as a hyper local center to collect materials that don’t get recaptured in Chicago.
FIREHOUSE MARKET
ONSITE ELECTRICAL VEHICLE CHARGING
Our retail space at the firehouse offers a variety of different products, from food and beverages to home and garden goods, all made locally and/or with circular economy practices! We also have swap opportunities for plants, puzzles and books!
We "Link match" all food items including honey, bread, produce, spices, seeds and more every Friday and Saturday! If you are still in need but do not qualify for Link, we have sliding scale options for our Local Food Boxes.
Plant Chicago offers community accessible EV charging through EVMatch!
FIREHOUSE MARKET HOURS
CURRENTLY ACCEPTING
Friday 11am – 5pm
Saturday 11am – 5pm
PUBLIC WORKSHOPS + CLASSES
Plant Chicago hosts and facilitates a wide range of educational programs for the general public, such as aquaponics, fermentation, seed starting, foraging, container gardening, vegan baking, renewable energy, composting, DIY projects, and more
We also host a variety of events to cultivate local circular systems, from farmers markets to swap events!
Our Firehouse is one of the few places on the Southwest side of the City where you can recycle hard to dispose of items, or bring donations for a chance to swap, not just shop!
Home kitchen scraps
Bring your kitchen scraps to the marketplace during our open hours and we’ll send them off to a local composting facility to be turned into nutrient-dense compost for local farms. See this guide from our composting partner for details on what types of household organic materials you can drop off.
Household batteries
Don't throw out those AAs! Bring them to us and we will send them to a recycling facility.
Packaging materials
Rather than send your broken-down cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, & whatnot to the landfill, bring it to the firehouse! We are collecting used packing materials in decent condition for use by small businesses in our Circular Economy Leaders Network.
Houseplant cuttings & Seeds
Bring a houseplant cutting or two to swap it for a new houseplant friend. Don't have a cutting to spare? We're accepting pay-what-you-can donations for all houseplant cuttings.
Puzzles
Drop off the one you just finished and swap for another.
Books
Our Little Free Library accepts free books all of the time! Leave a book and take a book!
