Woodstock Farmers Market - Who Says You Can't Go Home

The Market

At last, the Woodstock Farmers Market made it's much heralded and very well advertised debut on the Portland Farmers Market Scene. This was a huge event for the neighborhood and they all turned out to support opening day. There was even a sighting of the Mayor. No, not the Mayor of Woodstock. Portland's Mayor Sam himself paid a visit. Nice to see him step into SE once in a while. Full disclosure. I grew up in the Woodstock neighborhood as I like to say, "before it was cool". I hold a warm place in my heart for the current neighborhood's successes and revitalized spirit. The Market had it's opening day jitters though. Many vendors were beginning to run out of product at 10:00 am when we were walking the market. Well it was a great day, a great turnout, and probably the best vibe we've felt since Hollywood Farmers Market. However the market itself is young and will take some time for the newness to wear off and some slow cloudy days to show it's true identity. We wish it the very best and will be back.

Using our growing market savvy, we ferreted out some fresh Fava beans and an old standby, fresh Hood Strawberries to accent our dinner table. I am such a Hood Strawberry fan. We have already made freezer jam, the first Strawberry Tart of the season, and safely frozen whole, a bunch of the king of Oregon Strawberries for later use. Still, I will covet them every time I see them still available fresh during the next few weeks and will lament their passing only to unsuccessfully sooth my pain with Raspberries and Marrionberries as they come into season. Eat them now!

The Table

Dinner was Grilled Pork Tenderloin, Fava Bean dip with freshly baked baguette, and grilled zucchini and crookneck squash. Dessert was a favorite and easy combo of fresh cut strawberries over roughly broken up cinnamon graham crackers, topped with freshly whipped cream.

The grilled pork is really easy. Marinade the whole tenderloin in 2 parts to 1 part balsamic vinegar and olive oil (2 and 1 tablespoons for us). Add 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, 1 tsp each of thyme and oregano. Salt and pepper to taste. Sear on high and move up to the higher rack until 160 degrees with a meat thermometer.

Fava been dip. 1 lb Fava beans (2 people) Shell the favas to reveal the inner beans, cook in boiling water 5 minutes and cool in an ice water bath to stop the cooking. Peel the beans. Put the beans in a food processor with 2 cloves of chopped and lightly sauteed (no browning) garlic, a pinch of lemon zest and ~ 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp + olive oil. Process until smooth, adding water to get the consistency you like. We added 4-5 oz of goat cheese, cause we love goat cheese. I recommend customizing to your taste at this point. Then, salt and pepper to taste. Serve with warm baguette.

John's hint of the day: Ask the bakery person at Fred Meyer to pre-slice a par-baked version of the Baguette. Cook the par-baked sliced pieces just as you would a whole loaf in foil and avoid crushing or otherwise pulverizing the freshly baked loaf trying to slice it while warm.

Squash was easy on the grill with a grilling pan. Slice, Olive oil, salt, pepper. Quick so they don't get too soft. Eat...mmmm. Note the 2009 7 Friends Pinot Noir. One of ours and coming along nicely. Should be much better in another year. One of the benefits of making your own wine is tasting them as they mature.

Moreland Farmers Market

The Market

The Moreland Farmers Market is in the heart of the Sellwood/Moreland neighborhood located on the corner of SE Bybee and SE 14th. This is one of our favorite neighborhoods. I have the pleasure of riding my bike through the south end of the neighborhood on my way to and from work in downtown Portland. It is another great, walk to, neighborhood with a number of restaurants, parks, as well as the well known antique shops. Even more cool for us, this is our first evening market of the season. Logistics are a little crazy in getting home and getting out to the market before it closes. But, I have got to tell you, tasting wine at 6:00 pm is way better than 11:30 am or even 1:00 pm. So we did, and we really enjoyed ourselves. Another variant for us is we decided to eat at the market rather than take things home to cook ourselves. This still fits our definition of eating locally. The weather was typical Portland June weather, just nice enough for us all to not get wet and still a little cool. But the market was bustling none the less. And the crowd was having fun.

The Table

Lori enjoyed a great crepe made with smoked salmon, spinach and goat cheese. I believe there was a little creme fraiche in the mix also. I had a carnitas burrito stuffed with grilled vegetables. After working our way through a (shared) flight of wines from Arcane Cellars, we also took home a bottle of their Cab. I should note that it was only $3 for the two of us to share a taste of 7 wines. Pretty cool if you are really just looking to taste some wine. We bought an ice cream sandwich on the way out. Salted Carmel cookie with vanilla ice cream. That puppy never made it anywhere near the car. The food, the music, the company. A wonderful way to spend an evening at the Moreland Farmers Market.

Lents International Farmers Market

The Market

The Lents International Farmers Market's name is fitting because it is very much international and accurately describes the neighborhood and the feel of the market. The market is a modest market that reflects the proud, diverse, and hardworking heritage of its residents. The vendors supporting this market were, in some cases familiar, and in other cases completely new and inspiring. The location at 92nd and Foster has long been a neglected part of Southeast Portland. However, the renovated Crossroads Plaza provides the community an opportune setting and meeting area to bring the neighborhood closer together and offer alternative options of locally produced foods and goods. Lori best described this market as close to what a farmers market may have looked like 100 years ago or in a small hamlet buried deep in Europe's countryside. Most of these vender's were local and cared very much about the area, their products, and making us happy customers. 

So what did we buy this week. We bought some apricot jam from Sturm's Berry Farm. The lady we talked to used to run the berry picking machine on the farm until she decided to start up the jam side of the business and "moved into the Kitchen" as she described it. They expect fresh strawberry's to be available next week with fresh raspberry's soon to follow. Our plan for the apricot jam is to serve it with freshly baked Baguette and Brie. We also bought fresh spinach for a spinach salad and some fresh cut flowers.

As we were leaving we spied a Russian bakery down the street. We decided to look around because I have been looking for a special bread, which it turned out they did not have. As we were leaving the woman who was helping us, opened a dessert showcase and took out a couple of desserts and handed them to us for us to sample. I asked her how much and she said "free". That doesn't happen at Fred Meyer unless they cut the product into tiny bits and hand you a coupon with your sample. These are really nice and friendly people.

The Table

As I said, we started with Brie and warm baguette topped with the apricot Jam. Dinner was grilled tenderloin and the spinach salad, and more warm Baguette. Dessert was an eclair and something I didn't recognise but it was made of dark cake, a hard chocolate shell and whipped cream.

Warm Baguette, Brie, and Apricot jam



The salad was very simple: Spinach leaves torn to size, tangerine slices, candied walnuts, cransins dressed with a Mustard vinaigrette.

This was a simple and very Delicious dinner. The Russian bakery desserts were heavenly.









Oregon City Farmers Market

The Market

Wow. Finally a really nice day to visit a market. The Oregon City farmers market is a little different. It is staged in a parking lot for the Clackamas County Offices on Kaen Road in Oregon City. The plus is that there is a lot of parking. The initial take away is, it is a parking lot and though there is a very friendly atmosphere, it is a parking lot. There is very little neighborhood feel to the market. We did like the no nonsense rules though. Note: No Smoking Dogs Allowed. Must come with the use of county land. In any case, the market was nicely rounded with vendors, good food and a lively attendance enjoying the great weather. So we went about our shopping hoping to add to our core dinner plans of grilling Mediterranean split chicken. We were happy to find a hummus booth and bought artichoke hummus and pita chips.

We wondered upon a booth selling pasta that that had an interesting flavor. Chocolate pasta. Hmmm. After a discussion with the owner about how it was made and how she recommended preparing it, Lori decided that chocolate pasta would be the fun purchase of the day and become the challenge of our dinner menu. Purchases in hand we headed back for home.

The Table

Some of you have asked that I elaborate on the cooking a little more. So. I will try to do so in this edition. First the chicken:

Grilled Mediterranean Split Chicken 

1 chicken cut in half along the breast bone and back bone

1 cup olive oil

2-5 crushed garlic cloves

3-5 fresh rosemary sprigs loosely chopped

1 teaspoon each dried oregano and thyme

zest of 1 lemon and juice of 1/2 half of the lemon

Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Mix all  except the chicken in a small bowl. Put the chicken halves in a plastic bag and add the marinade from the bowl for 2 hours up to over night in the fridge. Grill the chicken over low/medium heat until the thighs and breasts register 160 degrees on a meat thermometer. Served with the artichoke hummus and a marinaded olive, white bean and mushroom mix from the local grocers olive bar.

Dessert using Chocolate Pasta as a Base

I chose to make a raspberry Sauce. There are many easy recipes online. I usually use: 1 cup of Raspberries, 1/2 cup cold water with a tablespoon of cornstarch, 2 tablespoons sugar, heat to a boil, simmer 4-5 minutes and strain to remove the seeds. Let cool

We made the pasta per instructions on the package. I put the warm past on a dish and sprinkled it with cinnamon, then added a scoop of vanilla ice cream, added a few whole raspberries, and decorated with both the raspberry sauce and some chocolate sauce. The chocolate pasta was not extremely sweet so you may want to add sugar to taste with the cinnamon.

  

Talia enjoys dinner on the patio too.