icon next to each of them.
After a wet and chilly spring with difficult growing conditions and week after week of mostly rainy market days, the local farmers market season is finally in full swing, There’s no better time of the year to be a cook in Oregon and for food lovers, nothing beats a shopping trip to a good farmers market.
Following the long-awaited arrival of the sun, the next biggest market news in Portland is the new Monday market at Pioneer Courthouse Square that opened in June. More than 40 vendors—many of them familiar to shoppers at other markets—are setting up stalls on the red bricks of Portland’s public living room every Monday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through October.
In this second in a series of stories about this season’s local farmers markets, we offer a sampling of what’s new and interesting. For details on the more than 30 metro area market locations, hours, vendors, music, events and more, visit the Portland Farmers Market web site for links to individual market sites.
What’s New at Portland Farmers Markets?
Pioneer Courthouse Square Market
Mondays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Portland Farmers Market, parent organization to six farmers markets, previously operated a market in Pioneer Courthouse Square in 1998, but it lasted only one season because of steep fees for the location. This year KINK radio is helping offset the fees.
The new market is beautiful, easily accessible by bus, MAX and streetcar, and brings good energy to the heart of downtown. Go there on foot, by bus or MAX—just don’t eat lunch before you get there!
In July berries of all kinds are here at last. I also came home with fava beans, Swiss chard and fingerling potatoes after tasting them, sautéed with lots of garlic, at the Gathering Together Farm stall. This family farm in Philomath, near Corvallis, is actually 23 years old and sells at a number of Portland markets.
Two-year-old Dee Creek Farm in Woodland, Washington, sells goat milk products, primarily fresh (pasteurized) and aged (raw) goat cheeses, including feta, chevre (plain and flavored) and ricotta. The family business also makes cajeta, a goat milk caramel sauce.
Dee Creek Farm
Grow Portland is an entrepreneurial nonprofit working to expand urban gardening and urban agriculture in the metro area. In partnership with Mercy Corps Northwest’s New American Agriculture Project (NAAP), it’s helping more than 10 families, mostly immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Nepalese refugees originally from Bhutan, grow food at a training site in Damascus and on several small plots in Portland, and then bring it to market. The Grow Portland stall will have tomatoes, potatoes, onions and more.
Simon Sampson is not new to Portland markets, but it’s good to know that his Columbia River Fish Company is at the new market as well as other local farmers markets this year, selling tribal-caught fresh and smoked salmon.
Over in the meals-to-go aisle, everything looks tempting. Freelance chef Kathryn Yeomans has teamed up with Springwater Farm, a longtime market purveyor of wild and cultivated mushrooms to serve a terrific small menu of all-local fare: an egg sandwich on Dave’s Killer Bread topped with sautéed mushrooms and a dollop of garlic-herb chevre; a rich miso-mushroom soup with local tofu; and a mix of sautéed wild greens and wild-foraged mushrooms. Yeomans calls this venture Farmstand of the Future. She’s also resident chef at Montavilla and Hillsdale markets this season.
Grow Portland
For a healthy take on Mexican fare, there’s Verde Cocina, serving up chilaquiles gringas (vegan or with locally raised pork) topped with a mole sauce as well as a non-traditional huevos rancheros and several sandwiches called fitPockets. These folks are also at Beaverton and Lake Oswego markets.
Lovejoy Food has a varied menu that changes weekly and focuses on local, organic and seasonal fare. Early July choices included a buffalo burger with caramelized onions and gorgonzola; a roasted veggie sandwich; arugula salad with goat cheese, hazelnuts and strawberry vinaigrette; and a chicken salad wrap with dried cherries, toasted walnuts and romaine. Loveyjoy is also at the OHSU market.
PSU market veteran and culinary whiz Mark Doxstader of Tastebud is at the new market, too, with his wood-fired oven on wheels, making focaccia bread for a juicy roast porchetta sandwich stuffed with sausage and slathered with a choice of sauces. He’s also serving his signature wheatberry salad and Montreal-style bagels.
For a very special treat or gift, head for Suzanne’s Chocolaterie, which made its first appearance last year at the now-closed Ecotrust market. Suzanne Popick and Roxanne Crumpacker use Valrhona French chocolate and local ingredients such as berries for their work-of-art chocolates.
Suzanne's Chocolaterie
One more reason to go: Even if you don’t work downtown, you can ride MAX free in the fareless zone to shop at the market and pick up a great lunch.
Moreland Farmers Market
Wednesdays, 3:30-7:30 p.m. (September & October, 2-6:30 p.m.)
This is a lovely market in a charming older neighborhood, situated at the edge of the Westmoreland shopping district.
I love the oh-so-Portland concept of one new market entrepreneur. Home brewer Brian VanOrrnum seized opportunity in the rising quantity of spent grains produced in his hobby. His two pugs, Buster and Bella, liked the smell, which led to kitchen experiments and then Pub Grub for Pups, a line of handmade, all-organic dehydrated treats available weekly at the market. Flavors range from fish and chips to peanut butter and one’s even gluten-free!
In the human food realm, Briar Rose Creamery in Dundee is introducing its goat cheeses here and at the Pioneer Courthouse Square Market. Already in local cheese specialty shops, Briar Rose has a half dozen flavored chevres and plans to have a semi-firm goat cheese and a Taleggio-style washed rind cheese later in the season.
Gala Springs Farm has brought organic produce from Boardman in eastern Oregon to Portland area farmers markets for years and this year the farm is at the Moreland market, too. Look for apricots, peaches, nectarines, cantaloupe and potatoes.
Greenville Farms
Greenville Farms cultivates 45 acres in Forest Grove. The family business has berries and hazelnuts and later this season will have five varieties of dried beans as well as its own milled flours.
Full of Life Farm in St. Paul is another market newcomer, selling pork roasts and sausage, ground beef and beef roasts, and pastured chickens. It’s also at Hillsdale, Irvington and Lloyd markets.
Time for a break from shopping? Then visit the chair massage booth, or find a table to enjoy the music and a meal from one of the food vendors: Village Crepery; Barefoot Chicken, specializing in chicken and tofu dishes using locally sourced ingredients; and Canby Asparagus, serving tamales, burritos and more.
Full of Life Farm
More reasons to go: Friendly neighborhood vibe, plus a location that’s ideal for a stroll along the river bluff south to Sellwood Park.
Montavilla Farmers Market
Sundays, 10 am to 2 pm
Kudos to Montavilla Market, at Southeast 76th and Stark Street for its creative green efforts. The Durable Dish program, which began as a pilot in 2009, is expected to keep more than 3,000 throwaway plates, 500 cups and 3,500 forks out of landfills this season. Funded by a grant from the City of Portland and supported by weekly volunteer dish crews and a local restaurant, it was awarded the 2010 Recycler of the Year award by the Association of Oregon Recyclers.
Market Loaner Bags, another new program, begins this month, providing reusable cloth bags to shoppers that they are asked to return the next week. The bags are made from T-shirts and other donated materials, and sewn by market volunteers.
Montavilla Market has a number of returning farm vendors, including Baird Family Orchards, Groundwork Organics, Kiyokawa Family Orchards and Deck Family Farm. A new processed food vendor is The Better Bean, selling refrigerated rather than canned organic refried “skillet” beans, red or black. They’re available at many local groceries. Rogue Creamery, founded in 1935 and known for its award-winning blue cheese, is also a market newcomer.
“What’s for lunch?” has multiple new answers, from homemade crab cakes or fish and chips at Crabby Addies to vegan, gluten-free and raw food options such as tofu and vegetable burritos and raw strawberry pie at Kitchen Dances. Kebab-a-Rama uses locally sourced meats and veggies for kebabs and kebab wraps with names like Marrakesh Express and Yokohama Mama. At Thai Mama, choices include spring rolls, curries and other Thai fare.
Dessert temptations range from bite-size Australian-style cookies from The Tuckerbox, single-serving pies from Pie Spot, and ice cream from Scoop made from locally sourced ingredients in flavors such as salted caramel and Sauvie Island Strawberry.
More reasons to go: Good music, weekly chef demos and a weekly artisan vendor.
New in Northeast: Cully Collective Market
Saturdays, 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Among the smaller markets is the new Cully Collective Market that opened on July 10. The mission of this grassroots effort supported by the Cully Association of Neighbors is to bring healthy, affordable, local food to Cully’s diverse population and create much-needed economic opportunity. Location is the parking lot of Trinity Lutheran Church and School at 5520 Northeast Killingsworth Street.
Vendors at the inaugural market day were few, but were pleased with sales and more vendors have registered to participate. Myo Demayo, who previously ran a CSA, had organic kale, collards, chard and herbs at a community table where people can buy or trade produce, crafts and other items. Amy Bartholomew, who sells produce to restaurants as Blooming Earth Farms, had baskets of lovely lettuces, kale, rhubarb and herbs.
Michael Tevlin
New neighborhood farmer Michael B. Tevlin pointed to his quarter-acre plot from his produce stall, where he had baskets of turnips, beets, carrots and lettuce. Tevlin worked out a deal with the church allowing him to grow food on some of the land behind the church in exchange for donating a percentage of his harvest to Casa Trinidad, a food pantry operated at the church. He farms the plot with a friend; they also sell produce to a few restaurants.
Other tables at the market offered community information, an organic products display by the neighborhood Albertsons store—which is supportive of the market, and a Cully resident’s handmade costume jewelry. There was also a massage practitioner and live music.
Anna Gordon (left), Hacienda CDC After School Coordinator, and two of her students, Fartun (middle) and Angela (right), sell produce they grow as part of an after school program at the Cully Collective.
More reasons to go: Convenient location for many NE residents; opportunity to sell or barter produce and more (see the market web site for information).
A Word About Hunger and Token Match Programs
Oregon is still considered to rank second in the nation for the number of residents experiencing food insecurity. Many local markets have programs to help low-income shoppers purchase high quality fresh food staples. In 2009 shoppers at Portland Farmers Market's five locations purchased $77,000 worth of produce, meat, dairy and bread using Oregon Trail electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards. Cards are swiped at the market’s information table to get tokens for vendor purchases. Other markets, with help from local nonprofits and businesses, offer dollar-to-dollar matches of up to $5 or $10 for SNAP (formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) participants using an Oregon Trail card. Program details are posted on market websites. WIC and Senior FDNP coupons may be accepted as well.
