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VENDOR PROFILES: FOOD!
22greens & Brandywine Kitchen There are many tasty ready-to-eat food choices at the Bellingham Farmers Market -- here are two that focus on local food.
22greens
Owner: Jesse Straight
 | | A beautiful 22greens salad. |
What makes your food unique, unusual, or special? I source everything possible within 22 miles of Bellingham. I look for what is harvested during the week and make a special salad or soup using those ingredients. By using the highest quality ingredients, the food at 22greens makes you feel as good as it tastes.
What is the one thing that people would be surprised to know about you or your business? The Bitchen Salad originated in South Philly -- we lived there in 2005 and I worked as the manager of a local foods stand at the Redding Terminal Market. We had a great group of friends and had tons of dinner parties. After the first few, I was always asked to bring the salad. My friend Paul started calling them "bitchen" - and the name was born.
What's the best thing about being a food processor? It's great to prepare ready to eat food that comes from a lot of the same farmers that people see at the market.
What's the worst? It's tough to go camping and get out in the wilderness when I work Saturdays and my husband works during the week.
What do you like best about selling at the Bellingham Farmers Market? I love the atmosphere and community. Even though it's only my second year, I already feel camaraderie with the other vendors and with my customers. I have a great time working with my friends at the 22greens stand.
 | | Bren Phillips, Erin Merenda, and Jesse Straight. |
Please give us a brief bio.
I grew up in Kirkland, and played a lot of soccer and ran track. After high school I had the opportunity to travel with a family that I nannied for and ended up in Paris.
I decided to start college there, and then after a year,
I transferred to Columbia University. I spent half a year studying and exploring Cameroon during those college years. I moved back home after graduating and again had the opportunity to travel with a family, this time exploring the Middle East and Europe. After spending half a year traveling in Spain, it was home again.
Not long after that, I met my husband in the alley of a nightclub during Mardi Gras. We spent a lot of time camping and hiking the amazing Washington wilderness. Needing a change, we spent a winter season in big sky Montana, then moved to Philadelphia. When we found out we were pregnant with our son, we were both homeless and jobless and on our way back to the beautiful NW. It's all worked out well and we LOVE Bellingham!
When you were a kid, is this what you thought you'd be doing as a grown-up? When I was in Cameroon at age 20 (does that count as a kid?) I fell in love with the vibrant markets there. I would tell my Cameroonian friends that I just wanted to be a market woman.
What is your favorite memory? That is very tough to narrow down. The second date with my husband was pretty great -- we rented a cabin on the coast and hiked the Hoh Rainforest on mushrooms. AND, all five years of my son's life.
What are your hobbies and how did you get started with them? Hobbies? I guess yoga counts. I started practicing in 2000 and it really helped me out of a serious slump. I love 3 Oms yoga here in Bellingham. It really is a community of lovely people taking good care of themselves. I also started gardening when we moved here. It is so satisfying to watch the garden grow and then harvest and eat our own food. Also, we try to snowboard as much as we can in the winter!
What word best describes you? word.
Do you have a guilty pleasure? Many!
Brandywine Kitchen
Owners: Azizi Tookas (respondent) and Chris Sunde
Website: www.brandywinekitchen.com
What makes your product(s) unique, unusual, or special? Our product is special becaus
 | | Azizi Tookas and Chris Sunde |
e we grow many of the ingredients that we cook with and make everything from scratch, including our sandwich bread.
What is one thing that people would be surprised to know about you or your business? We're opening our own restaurant next month, serving lunch and dinner until 11pm. We'll be at 1317 Commercial Street, next to UisceIrish Pub.
What's the best thing about being a food processor? Other vendors love to trade product at the end of the day.
What's the worst? Smelling like food.
What do you like best about selling at the Bellingham Farmers Market?
I like being part of a community of vendors and customers that continually give their support to each other. That kind of local support is invaluable, especially in these economic times. it is this support that has allowed us the opportunity to open our own restaurant
When you were a kid, is this what you thought you'd be doing as a grown-up? I actually wanted to be an ambassador to the UN.
 | | Some of Brandywine Kitchen's food offerings. |
Please give us a brief bio.
In 2005 Chris Sunde and I had the idea to incorporate cuisine and local farming into one and formed Brandywine Gardens. We first began growing and selling more than ten varieties of heirloom tomatoes at the Bellingham Farmers Market and to local chefs. In 2008, Brandywine Gardens expanded into the prepared food business under the name Brandywine Kitchen. The result of this process is that much of the food that Brandywine Kitchen currently offers is locally sourced, fresh, and affordable.
What are your hobbies and how did you get started with them? Growing food. I first became interested in growing food at Fairhaven College, where students are required to take a course in sustainable living.
What word best describes you? Innovative.
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