14 June 2013

Working for the Weekend, Everyone is…

Growers Alliance is starting their season this week at PSU. As an organization, PFM loves all our growers and vendors equally

Mani from Bhutan tilling in SE Portland.

Mani from Bhutan tilling in SE Portland.

– they’re all awesome, hard working and on a mission to change the way our nation grows food; very commendable. Personally, I get to have favorites and this week it’s Growers Alliance. GA is part of the Grow Portland umbrella, a community-based Small Business working to bridge the gap between agriculture and culture in the metro area. Grow Portland distributes seed packets, rents community garden plots and supports 10 refugee families from Burma and Bhutan in their efforts to grow and sell local, organic foods. This week the Alliance is bringing  broccoli, kale, lettuce, chard and other goodies – Saturday at PSU and Wednesday at Shemanski.

Week two of Kenton Market, it runs Fridays 3-7. Remember Kenton is both a neighborhood and a market. Restaurants, watering holes, and for me, a chance to pick up dog food at Fang & Feather and stop off at the liquor store. To clarify: this isn’t what I live on, I buy other stuff, it’s just nice that I don’t have to run separate errands for the dogs and bar.

Pioneer Courthouse Square launches on Monday. It’s amazing how much a Farmers Market looks like it belongs in the middle of downtown Portland. Fruit, leafy green things and a taste of urban sophistication. The market runs every Monday 10-2 until the end of September.

The opening of PCS means all our Markets are in operation (except the Winter Market.) King on Sundays, Shemanski Wednesday, Buckman and NW on Thursday, Kenton Friday and the mothership of PSU on Saturdays. This week is graduation weekend, way to go Portland Staters, the market is unaffected, come visit. Right now we’re buried in berries, cherries are trickling in, and we have the always seasonally appropriate lettuces. Remember you can; possibly should grill anything.

A big special thank you to PFM’s staff and especially Mona and Trudy who along with Deborah Pleva from Weinstein PR have been working tirelessly for six plus months to launch a campaign to promote all farmers markets in the Willamette Valley. Good work, you can read about their efforts here.

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Camera ready growers of good food, who’ll be at PSU, Shemanksi, King & Kenton