Saturday morning we went to “The Farmer’s Market”. I need to be specific about which one, since there are over thirty farmer’s markets held each week in Portland (http://www.portlandfarmersmarket.org/).Before I get to the praise towards this market, it’s worth noting that, unlike LA, they do not run year round – which is just about their only deficiency, the only thing that keeps them from absolute perfection.
So...we drive over and find a place to park, six blocks away from the address we've got. We don’t give the distance much thought; it’s a crowded neighborhood and we assume that’s why parking is scarce.
We put money into the parking meter – only have enough change for 1 hour + 12 minutes. Seems fine, in fact, seems like plenty of time…
Wrong! This is bigger than any market we’d found in Paris in 2006! Really. Around 150 vendor stands. We’ve never seen anything like it. And, it’s not just produce from the farms, but also artisanal food products that people make in small batches to sell. Real fruit sodas (with bits of fruit in them). Three different booths that sell only honey. Four or five bakeries. At least that many who sell cheese. A truffle guy (apparently Oregon is the largest US truffle producer). Two different apple sellers – each with 10+ different types of apples for sale. A stand that does bicycle repairs, in case you biked over… If I’m not taking your breath away with the scope of this thing, I’m sure I haven’t described enough of what we saw. Not a problem though. There will be another blog entry on this one next week! Plans include going to the farmer’s market for our neighborhood Thursday (roughly 50 vendor stands, we’re told), and, back to this one next Saturday.
P.S. Most of these pictures are overview ones. Maxine’s made me promise to have more product pictures next time.
So...we drive over and find a place to park, six blocks away from the address we've got. We don’t give the distance much thought; it’s a crowded neighborhood and we assume that’s why parking is scarce.
We put money into the parking meter – only have enough change for 1 hour + 12 minutes. Seems fine, in fact, seems like plenty of time…
Wrong! This is bigger than any market we’d found in Paris in 2006! Really. Around 150 vendor stands. We’ve never seen anything like it. And, it’s not just produce from the farms, but also artisanal food products that people make in small batches to sell. Real fruit sodas (with bits of fruit in them). Three different booths that sell only honey. Four or five bakeries. At least that many who sell cheese. A truffle guy (apparently Oregon is the largest US truffle producer). Two different apple sellers – each with 10+ different types of apples for sale. A stand that does bicycle repairs, in case you biked over… If I’m not taking your breath away with the scope of this thing, I’m sure I haven’t described enough of what we saw. Not a problem though. There will be another blog entry on this one next week! Plans include going to the farmer’s market for our neighborhood Thursday (roughly 50 vendor stands, we’re told), and, back to this one next Saturday.
P.S. Most of these pictures are overview ones. Maxine’s made me promise to have more product pictures next time.
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