Market Report – Grill baby, Grill Edition

That's B-E-E-T-S; Not B-E-A-T-S

4th of July weekend is all about the fire. Fireworks and just plain, primal fire – The latter taking the form of grilling as thousands of people will take to the coals and propanes this weekend to enjoy a little sunshine and sizzle. And PFM has all sorts of ways to keep the cookout local.

At Sunday’s King Market you can leave the grilling to us: Foodshare Fund Northeast (FFNE) is building better communities by building a better burger. $5 gets you a burger made from local raised beef; this is a better deal than you are going to find anywhere. And it is for a good cause: FFNE matches up to $10 to market goers who purchase tokens with their SNAP benefits. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program helps put food on the table for families working through a tough economic situation. The demand on this innovative program is 3x higher than a year ago. Healthy food, strong farm economies and a $5 burger. Plus 100% of the proceeds will be donated to FFNE’s matching token program. You can read more about the sponsors, program and event here.

Also Grill-worthy: At Thursday’s Buckman Market, Reister Farms has a 4th of July special – $10.25# for rack of lamb – either 4-8 rib sizes. Reister is also home to the beloved lamb feta sausage. If you are more of the salad type Buckman’s Taste of the Place Market is featuring Strawberry Spinach Salad with Two Seed Dressing. Across the river at the NW 23rd there are all the great Thursday options but if are thinking ahead to your weekend Potluck/BBQ/Picnic here are a couple ideas:

• Pesto Potato Salad – It is light, flavorful and safer than Mayonnaise that has been in the sun for 3 hours. Cooper Crown Fine Foods can hook you up with some fine pesto.

• White Bean & Salami Salad – So Easy. Mix Cannellini or other white beans, olive oil, garlic and salami. Olympic Provisions has killer salami. It takes so little time; Rachel Ray would have 20 minutes to kill if she made this.

PSU Saturday – Meats, cheeses, breads, buns, pickles, cider, beer, wine or Kombucha. Highland Oak has Angus Beef, Carman Ranch Grass fed beef, Persephone Farms has produce. Columbia River Fish Company offers grillable salmon. Berries, produce galore and other stuff. Oh and cherries…

There were lots of good ideas on what to do with cherries this week on Facebook and Twitter. Melanie Bowman Clark’s idea to freeze them and eat them on a hot day won her a pound of certified organic cherries from Gala Springs. I am still partial to Clafoutis but if you have a different idea for using cherries, Gala Springs, Baird Family Orchards and Packer Orchards will all have cherries at our Markets this week – the season is short, enjoy them while they are here.

Monday’s Pioneer Courthouse Square Market is off to a great start – Last week, The Spring Hill Gang sold me up with some lettuces for dinner. Verde Cocina has real mole that is real good and there are dozens of other vendors who make this the best excuse to get out of the office for an hour.