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Bonnie and Clyde
Chard and Cilantro are unlikely partners in crime. Both have very unique flavors, which combine for a party in your mouth. They work well together in soups, frittatas, and sautes.
- Seth Belber, Persephone Farm
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Featured Produce
Part of the beauty of farmers' markets is that our produce changes with the seasons. Stay current with weekly produce highlights here!
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Brandywine Tomatoes (Sweet Leaf Farm)
Rainier Cherries (Baird Family Orchards)
Tomcot Apricots (Maryhill Orchards)
Violetto Italian Artichokes (DeNoble)
Windsor Fava Beans (Winter Green Farm)
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KHITS 106.7 will be at our market this Saturday, from 8 to 10 AM. Be sure to get here early for your chance to win one of many fabulous prizes, including a "Party Pack" from Linda Brand Crab and a large 'Black Rose' Aeonium from Think Unique Gardens!
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Native Bees on the Farm
Part Two of Two
 By Mace Vaughan and Lisa Schonberg, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
Continued from last week...
Establishing a healthy population of native bees on your land
Native
bees (pictured, photo courtesy of Mace Vaughan) need three resources: nesting sites, a variety of flowering plants, and a
refuge from insecticides. All of these resources can occur in small patches or
in marginal areas, such as around ponds, fence-rows, or field margins; crops
close to wild habitat may already be visited by significant populations of
native bees.
Hollywood Farmers' Market vendor Persephone Farm
has been an innovator in creating habitat for native pollinators and other
beneficial insects on their farm. They
have put in habitat such as insectaries and hedgerows of native plants to
support native pollinators, and have seen the benefits of increased pollination
of their crops.
Ensuring
adequate nest sites is easy; try to protect already existing sites on your
property where native bees can nest. Ground nesting bees (different from yellow
jacket wasps) like untilled, well-drained, and somewhat bare soils. Other bees nest in old snags or the center of
pithy twigs. You can make artificial nest sites for native bees by boring holes
in lumber or creating patches of bare soil with sparse vegetation.
Providing
forage areas may be as simple as leaving weedy borders or allowing cover crops
to bloom. Growing patches of native flowers also helps to attract valuable
pollinators. Ideally, a farm should always have something in bloom, from early
in the spring until the fall. If nothing
else, forage patches should include flowers that bloom before and after the
crop for which you most need pollination. Many of our native bees are active as
adults longer than the typical bloom period of most crops, so they will only
reproduce successfully and be there to pollinate your crop if they can find
flowers before and after that crop is in bloom.
Finally,
if pesticides - even those approved for organic operations - must be used,
growers can still reduce their impacts on pollinators in simple ways. For
example, apply pesticides just after dark when bees are no longer visiting the
field (pest insects often remain on the crop during the night) and never apply
insecticides to plants in bloom, even weeds that grow around field margins.
Switch to pesticides that are less toxic to bees and adopt appropriate
integrated pest management practices for selected crops.
A
more productive and sustainable future
With
a small effort on the part of growers, our native bees may improve pollination
for a variety of crops. Farmers can provide a haven for native bees that will
result in greater crop yields and lower costs for renting pollinators, and will
provide pollination when honey bees are scarce. Native bee habitat can also
support honey bees and other beneficial insects, shade irrigation ditches and
streams, conserve water, reduce erosion, buffer winds and beautify your farm.
For information on reducing bee poisoning click here. For more information on pollinators and other invertebrates, check out www.xerces.org. Help bees by participating in The Great Sunflower Project. |
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Community Booth Spotlight
 Learn more about the organizations tabling at the market each week in our community booth column.
MetroPaint
MetroPaint is a high quality, affordable, 100 percent recycled latex
paint produced in Portland, Oregon, since 1992. Metro sells recycled
latex paint in 5-gallon pails and 1-gallon cans.
Beaumont-Wilshire NET
The Beaumont-Wilshire
Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) is a group of citizens trained by the Portland Office of Emergency Management and Portland Fire & Rescue to provide emergency disaster assistance within their own neighborhood.
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Featured Vendor: Riley and Sons Blueberries
Marie Riley, of Riley and Sons Blueberries, has been
fielding questions for weeks about when blueberries will be ready. Typically, Fourth
of July weekend marks the first big harvest, but the cold spring has pushed
that back to mid-July.
Marie grew up in the Hollywood District in Portland. She moved to Aurora with her family in 1965 to try her
hand at blueberry farming and to keep her two boys out of trouble. They have
now been farming for three generations, and their booth at the Hollywood
Farmers' Market is proof. Marie's twelve-year old grandson, Andrew, has been at
the market for three years and nine-year old Eric started rising at 5:30am
this season.
Riley and Sons Blueberries has been at the Hollywood
Farmers' Market since its second year. They started with just blueberries and
have since added other berries to extend their season. While you anxiously
await the arrival of Early Blue, Blue Crop, Blue Ray and Berkeley blueberries, you will find
strawberries and raspberries from neighboring farmer Doug Albeke at their
booth.
When asked why the blueberry crop is so late this season,
Marie tells a story about bees. Each year, at the end of April or beginning of
May, bee keepers place four to five hives at one end of their blueberry fields.
This takes place when the plants show their first blossoms, and the timing has
to be just right or the bees take interest in other flowers, neglecting the
blueberry crop. This spring, the temperature rarely rose above 50 degrees and
the honey bees didn't leave the hives to pollinate. Wild bumble bees are more
apt to work in cold weather, however there weren't many bumble bees flying over
their fields this season.
Each year brings unique challenges and the return of many
loyal customers. Marie is especially proud of the relationship they have
cultivated with their u-pickers over the years. Third generation customers are
no strangers at their farm. "We have watched their families grow up and they
have watched ours," says Marie Riley. They have even stayed connected with families
that have moved away from Oregon.
One family living in Boise plans their vacation
to Oregon
around the blueberry harvest. Another in Salt
Lake City makes their return every two years and picks
300-400 pounds of blueberries to take back with them!
Those interested in u-pick options should call ahead to
check availability at 503-678-5761. Riley and Sons Blueberries is located in
nearby Aurora,
less than a mile off the freeway. From Portland,
take I-5 south to exit 282B. Turn right, then go 7/10 mile to the farm on your
left.
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The Hollywood Farmers' Market is open Saturdays, May through October from 8am - 1pm and November 1, 8, 15 & 22 from 9am - 1pm. We are located on NE Hancock Street between 44th and 45th Avenues (one block South of Sandy Blvd).
For more information, check us out online at www.hollywoodfarmersmarket.org.
See you Saturday!
Hollywood Farmers' Market
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