We applaud the shoppers who, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, have stormed the Portland Farmers Market every Saturday since it opened March
8. For the rest of us, farmers market season starts in May, when dozens of markets around the city pop up like so many tiny sprouts in our backyard gardens. The party starts this Saturday in the Hollywood District, continues Sunday in the King neighborhood of Northeast Portland, heads downtown to Southwest Salmon and Main on Wednesday, bounces to Buckman on Thursday and out to Beaverton on May 8.
Soon enough — certainly by June — you’ll find farmers markets in every nook and cranny of the metro area, possibly in an empty parking lot near you.
Here are a few things to look for this year, in addition to all your old favorite vendors, locally grown vegetables, meat, bread, cheeses and fruit.
Portland grows up and out
The flagship market on Saturdays at Portland State expanded its footprint, stretching south by one block and moving vendors previously packed into the inner ring out to the university plaza’s perimeter. Shoppers now have more room to browse the stalls of the 140-and-counting vendors. Among them are some new faces, including Upright Brewing Co., a local craft brewer making French- and Belgian-style ales, and Sassafras Catering, with chutneys, relishes and preserves from vintage Southern recipes.
Market Executive Director Ann Forsthoefel also recommends shoppers keep an eye out for 15 Miles Farm (15milesfarm.com), a new grower from Sauvie Island, bringing heirloom vegetables such as conical red crapaudine beets, sweet Schweizer Riesen (translation: Swiss giant) snow peas, and five different heirloom cabbages to its Saturday market stand.
Another new standout is Petunia’s Pies & Pastries, the only bakery granted a market spot among 1,600 vendor applications. Owner Lisa Clark’s exquisite desserts are made from local ingredients, many are friendly to restrictive diets, and they wowed the board members who tasted them. “Whenever I see ‘vegan’ with ‘pastry,’ I kind of go, ‘really?’ Her high-end pastries were amazing,” Forsthoefel says.
Three cheers for the little guys
A handful of small, relatively new neighborhood farmers markets, a few that opened quietly last year, will return. These hidden gems, with fewer crowds and a laid-back pace, deserve at least a look if not a regular spot on your calendar. Among them: Irvington Farmers Market, on Northeast 16th Avenue at Broadway; Montavilla, on the east side of Mount Tabor; and markets in St. Johns, Parkrose, Westmoreland, Lloyd Center and Lents.
Leslie Cole: 503-294-4069; lesliecole@news.oregonian.com
