LocavOregon

I planned my weekend walks around the local farmers markets. I needed to meet up with Kari from our Portland to Coast walking team to get the gear back from her. We met at the Beaverton Farmer’s Market. She lives nearby, but like many people she doesn’t get to it as often as she would like. I love the variety there. I bought red peppers, lettuce, cilantro, basil and beets. We walked for an hour.

On Sunday, my walking buddy Will and I wanted to visit the Hillsdale Farmers Market and to finally ride the OHSU Tram. We parked at the farmers market two hours before opening time. We went through the neighborhood to Terwilliger and encountered the the Oregon Trout City of Portland Triathlon bike leg. As we walked the three miles along Terwilliger, we were passed by a stream of 300 bicyclists. Some were all geared up with fancy bikes with aerobars, disk wheels, and streamlined helmets. That was a happy surprise. As we passed by OHSU, Will preferred that we ride it up from the South Waterfront. We picked our way down to Moody street by a route that was probably not the best (although probably the shortest possible). Once there, however, we discovered the sad truth that the tram doesn’t run until 1 pm on Sunday. The pretty much torpedoes any future plan to combine it with a trip to the Hillsdale Farmers Market. Sigh.

But even more sigh – by this time we had already walked about six miles and would now have to climb back up to Hillsdale on muscle power. We are both familiar with taking Corbett south and steeply up, then crossing I-5 on the Briar Place overpass, then back up Terwilliger to Hillsdale. Along the way, we encountered a fellow volksmarcher who said she had moved to a condo at South Waterfront and was loving it. It will be a very nice area, with the streetcar and tram for easy transport. There are more and more restaurants and shops in the bottom floor of the buildings. But on Sunday of Labor Day weekend, everything was closed and we had to beg forgiveness of a construction crew to use their portajohn.

I enjoyed the huff and puff of the climb up Corbett and noted a couple of new houses since we last trudged up this hill over a year ago. The John’s Landing neighborhood is definitely a nice place to live close-in, especially for those who work at the VA or OHSU. While South Waterfront is all about tower living, John’s Landing has single-family homes and row townhouses. I prefer the latter sort of neighborhood. Both have great access to the Riverfront Trail along the Willamette River, and the nice greenspace of Willamette Park. John’s Landing has plenty of fun restaurants and one full-scale grocery store, plus a Fred Meyers up on Barbur Blvd.

After we reached Barbur Blvd., I joked to Will that we had only 500 more feet to climb. That is only a very slight exaggeration. But the Hillsdale Farmers Market had everything I wanted at the end of this exhausting hike. I bought bacon from Sweet Briar Farms for my BLT sandwiches, local pasta and cilantro pesto. It was a great challenging walk.

Beaverton Farmers Market is huge and getting huger. I stopped by on a Saturday a couple of weeks ago and could barely struggle out with all of my booty. Luckily I had remembered to bring an ice chest along to save my goodies from the summer heat while I went walking. Both Rogue Creamery and Willamette Valley Cheese Company had booths, so I stocked up on Smokey Blue and Farmstead Gouda. There were booths from farms in the Forest Grove and Cornelius area that are owned by cousins of mine (such as Duyck’s Peachy Pig Farm). I bought potatoes, corn, lettuce, carrots, onions and cauliflower. I bought a couple of beef tenderloin steaks from Lonely Lane Farm, which produces naturally raised meat.

Beaverton Farmers Market opens at 8 am on Saturday, and I suggest being there bright and early if you want to park within a few blocks. They also operate on Wednesday late afternoon.

List of Portland-Area Farmers Markets

Compiled from lists found on the web, as of June, 2008.

My walking buddy Lana lives in NE Portland and we decided to meet for a walk from Providence Hospital. Our first destination was the Hollywood Farmers Market at 44th and Hancock. This wasn’t the best logistics for buying any amount of produce, but it was an excellent stop. The market opens at 8 am, and Lana says she often tries to get there even before that to score the best produce. We arrived around 9:30 and the place was hopping. It had an excellent variety of produce vendors, and I discovered the bread vendor who had been missing from the Vancouver market last weekend!

But I was enticed to the Sweet Briar Farms farm fresh pork booth first. The proprietor was very enthused to discuss his pork, even without asking any specific questions, as I gave an interested eye to the packages of sausage. They raise the pork on a small farm near Eugene, Oregon. The hogs have no antibiotics, chemicals or hormones. They mix their own feed.

I love pork loin chops, ham, sausage, bacon. We didn’t get that often when I was growing up, as we had beef from Grandpa as our staple. My husband and I are always searching for German delis that have fresh sausages. I bought a package of four German bratwurst from Sweet Briar Farms and he packaged it with ice for our mile-long trek back to the car. I also received a ticket for a drawing, which encourages a return next week. The winner gets some free product next week at the farmer’s market.

My next stop was the Deck Family Farm booth. They produce grass-fed meat and have a meat CSA. I picked up their literature and I am intrigued enough to join. For $300 you get credit towards your choice of meat, which you can order for delivery in the Eugene area or delivery to the farmers market. Online, you can order meet for UPS delivery as well. They have beef, pork, chicken, lamb, turkey and goats. Their pasturing methods look to be idyllic.

I didn’t arrive home till noon, but the ice kept the sausages chilled. The Sweet Briar Farms guy even provided me cooking instructions. These are not pre-cooked, but he said that they cook fast and are done when the casing splits. I popped them on the grill and they were indeed nicely done in just a few minutes. Now for the taste test. Fantastic! These bratwurst were mild yet tasty. They were meaty and not greasy. The texture was excellent, with no chunks of gristle. I would definitely buy them again and try his other varieties.

I downloaded and compiled a list of all of the local farmers markets and color-coded them by day of the week. There are only a few that are open on Sunday. My walking buddy Will and I were looking for a farmers market to tie into a walk and saw that Kelso was held on Sunday. We visited it two years ago during a Kelso Scottish festival walk. The Kelso year-round walk is a dull route along the top of the dike, weaving under and around I-5. But the nearby Longview year-round walk is a gem, strolling along Lake Sacajawea and through charming neighborhoods. We picked up the instructions and enjoyed the stroll through Longview. We planned to stop at the Kelso farmers market, but in driving around it to park, we didn’t see much to browse. They had perhaps 10 tables of crafts, plants, and it appeared to be one produce vendor. I remembered it being a smaller affair, but I think that perhaps vendors are more attracted to the Longview farmers market on Saturday or the big Vancouver Farmers Market. Sad to say, we decided just to drive by. It still would be a pleasant stop if we were doing a walk or I wasn’t already well-stocked with produce.

The Vancouver Farmers Market is really hopping now. It is open both Saturday and Sunday. We started the Vancouver USA’s volksmarch from Esther Short Park next to the Farmer’s Market. I was fascinated by the clean-up already done from the carnage of the 4th of July celebrants. Volunteers groups and community service servers were out collecting any bit of trash. What a joy to live in a place that takes pride in having fun but leaving no trace! My walking cohorts were a bit behind schedule, so I took the opportunity to buy Rainier cherries and potatoes from an organic farmer from Pasco, Washington. He had a Russian accent and told how his family used to pick the cherries themselves, but found that one Mexican picker could do the job far more efficiently.

After the walk, I first bought a bowl of jambalaya from the Gumbo Goddess booth. I love their spicy jambalaya and it’s now always my first choice.

I browsed all of the booths before buying bright red Vann cherries and a bunch of beets. I was disappointed that none of the usual bread booths were there, as I wanted a loaf of bread for my party in the evening. I was about to exit when I noted the Hmong Farm booth. They also had lovely beets, at the great price of $1 each. I bought five bunches and decided we’d have beet greens with the pork loin at the party.

While I’d been disappointed with the variety of produce booths the past few weeks, I see now that it was just because there wasn’t much produce yet to sell!

On Sunday, I discovered myself heading back from the Livestrong Challenge with lots of morning to spare. I had made up a list of all of the local farmers markets and color coded them by day of the week to keep in the car for just this chance. I was interested in the Hillsdale Farmers Market, held at Wilson High School, as there is a pasture-fed chicken outfit, Kookoolan Farms, that sells at that market. I arrived just before their 10 am opening time, which would appear to be none too early. The market soon filled up with eager shoppers.

I was impressed with the number of produce booths and a couple of cheese booths. I would have bought a lot more but I only had a limited amount of cash. I started at the Kookoolan Farms booth and selected a small broiler hen from the ice chest. They also had medium sized hens and some breast-only portions and neck-only portions good for making chicken stock. I have rarely roasted a whole bird. Mom was raised on a chicken farm and did not enjoy cooking or eating chicken. But she usually would buy a whole fryer chicken and cut it into pieces herself. I was happy enough that the bird was fully prepared and basically ready to roast. I also bought a dozen eggs. Kookoolan Farms raises and hand-processes its own poultry, one of only four farms in Oregon licensed and inspected to do their own processing. In the summer, the poultry feed outside. This was exactly the sort of humanely raised poultry I was interested in. The farm is located in Yamhill, Oregon, just a hop skip and jump from my family’s stomping grounds. I finished my trip with a tamale from Salvador Molly’s booth and headed home to cook the bird.

I started by brining the bird in 2 cups of water and 1 tablespoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of sugar for four hours. My roasting didn’t go as well as I hoped. The grill thermometer doesn’t work well, so I think I was cooking it on an even lower temperature than I wanted to. It took about two hours to cook but finally the meat thermometer said it was at the safe temperature. I also roasted the beets I bought on Saturday and we had a nice salad. Altogether, it was the most completely local meal I’ve ever made. My husband thought the chicken tasted as good as European rotisserie chicken. I thought it was good, but I don’t think my roasting job was as good as it could have been. Mostly, my husband prefers cut-up chicken pieces, preferably boneless. Next time I’ll pay extra for the breast portions and then also get the bag of necks to use for making chicken stock.

The leftovers went into the crockpot to make chicken stock. This will be perfect as I plan to make spaetzle this weekend, which I boil in chicken broth.

Laura Dolson explains the difference between cage-free, free-range, and pasture-fed chicken. My grandfather’s chicken barn was cage-free. The chickens had roosts for egg laying, but they mostly milled around in a large barn. We grandkids didn’t go into the main part of the barn as the flying and pecking chickens were pretty intimidating.

On Saturday, I visited the Oregon City Farmers Market. I had first enjoyed the year-round volkssport walk from Willamette Falls Hospital with my walking buddy Nona and her four adorable dogs. We left the pooches at her house and went in search of local food. I found plenty of strawberries (local) and cherries (from Central Washington). For my purposes, Yakima Valley fruit was local enough and I bought a pint of Rainier cherries. At another booth, I bought local carrots and garlic stems. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the garlic stems, they seem best suited for adding to stir fry or soup. I think I might end up freezing them for future use. I also bought beets and a couple nice heads of hydroponic lettuce. Altogether, a very good shopping stop. As the season is gearing up, there is more produce selection.

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I’ve been visiting the Vancouver Farmer’s Market and wanted to see what other markets offered nearby. Battle Ground Farmer’s Market is located about 10 miles north of me, so it’s about four miles further than the Vancouver one. But my CSA farm, Rosemattel, has a booth there, so I thought I would see if there was more variety of produce. Alas, this is still early in the season, so I won’t judge it by what they had this weekend. The Battle Ground Farmer’s Market has moved to Battle Ground Village Courtyard, part of a complex still under construction. There seemed to be plenty of parking. I stopped by the booths selling plants and flowers and said hi to my CSA farmer. But the only produce vendors were her and a booth selling fresh local strawberries. These were part of my quest, so I happily bought 2 pints for $2 each.

I also noticed a prominent table for WIC and Senior farmers market checks. I had just learned that many farmers markets accept these support coupons.

My journey was not a disappointment. As I said, I think they are likely to have more produce by mid-July. Even better, along the way I passed u-pick fields for strawberries and a plant nursery. I stopped at the nursery and bought a hot pepper plant and seed for non-bolting spinach.