This Week at
the Market |
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The Country Dutchmen
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| Tip of the Week |
Pesto Salad Dressing
- 1 Tablespoon pesto
- Olive oil to desired consistency
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- Oregano and Parmesan cheese to taste
Blend or rapidly whisk the pesto, olive oil and balsamic vinegar together, drizzle over your green
salad, then sprinkle freshly dried oregano and Parmesan cheese on top.
Simply delicious!
-- Barry Peven, Dante's Garden Pesto
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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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Marathon Broccoli(Happy Harvest Farm) Table Ace Acorn Squash(Big B Farm)
Borlotto Piemontese Shelling Beans
(Gales Meadow Farm)
Pink Pearl Apples
(Kiyokawa Family Orchards)
Plumotts
(Liepold Farms)
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Thank you to everyone who participated in our Annual Customer Dot Survey last Saturday. Your responses will help guide our discussions as the Board plans for the future.
Summer has officially turned to fall, and the abundance of the market is as full as ever. Don't miss out on the amazing variety of apples, peaches, nectarines, plumotts, and other delicious fruit as we head into the colder months.
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Oktoberfest! Beer! Sauerkraut! 
This Saturday, join the throngs of Hollywood Farmers' Market customers as we celebrate Oktoberfest, Hollywood style.
Our neighbors from the Laurelwood Brewery will join us at the market this Saturday. Stop by from 10am to close to sample their Oktoberfest beer, the Laurelfest Lager. A medium bodied Vienna beer, this lager features a rich amber color and malty aroma with a noble hop balance. This year's Laurelfest was brewed with fresh Tettnanger hops picked in nearby Mt. Angel.
Popular sauerkraut authority Alfred Novacek will return again this year to demonstrate preparing this popular cabbage dish. Recipes will be available on Saturday and in next week's edition of The Local Dirt.
The Country Dutchmen, a well-known and liked local polka band, will kick off the festivities and get us all in the spirit of Oktoberfest.
Don't miss an exciting Saturday at the Hollywood Farmers' Market!
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Community Booth Spotlight
 Learn more about the organizations tabling at the market each week in our community booth column.
SMART
BACK TO SCHOOL BACK TO
SMART!
SMART (Start Making A
Reader Today) is an early childhood literacy program that supplies books and
volunteers to kindergarten through third grade children in public elementary
schools throughout Oregon. Volunteers read one-on-one for the same hour
once a week to two children for thirty minutes each from mid-October through
mid-May. Children who have volunteers to read with get to take home at
least one new book a month to keep and share with their families. There
are several elementary schools surrounding the Hollywood Farmers' Market that
have SMART programs and that need volunteers. It's easy to apply to
become a SMART volunteer. Simply go to SMART's website and click on
"Volunteer". The directions there will lead you to the on-line
application and a list of schools that host the SMART program in Multnomah County. If you're not sure
which might be the best school for you, simply call SMART's office at
503.230.2944 and speak with Barbara Rozell at ext. 22. Look for the
SMART display at the Hollywood Farmers' Market this Saturday!
NW Veg
The Northwest Vegetarian
Education & Empowerment Group is an all-volunteer non-profit
group in the Portland-Vancouver area. NW Veg was founded in 2003, and is
dedicated to bringing awareness to the power of a vegetarian lifestyle and helping
support people in their transition toward making healthier, more sustainable and compassionate food choices. We welcome everyone, vegetarian or not,
and encourage you to explore veg issues at your own pace.
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Featured Vendor: Oregon Gourmet Cheeses
Brian Richter, of Oregon Gourmet Cheeses knows it would be silly to say his favorite food is something other than cheese, but still there's a silent pause on the phone when asked. "That's a really difficult question," he says. Okay, how about your favorite cheese? "That's not fair! It all depends - each batch varies slightly with the milk and season, it's hard to pick a favorite." It's clear he's talking about his own cheeses. The attention to detail and artistry that goes into Brian's cheesemaking can be tasted in each batch.
Brian got his start years ago when his aunt, who is married to an Australian, was in southeast Australia and sampled a cheese she had never experienced before. "Why can't the U.S. have cheese like this?!" she wondered. She soon told her nephew about it and Brian became interested. With his aunt's support and encouragement, he took a short course in cheesemaking at Washington State University. Upon completion, he knew cheesemaking was his destiny. Over the next couple of months, Brian and his family packed their bags, locked up the house, and moved to Australia so he could study under a master cheesemaker for a very intense 4 months. They returned to the United States, and Oregon Gourmet Cheeses was born.
Located in Albany, Oregon Gourmet Cheeses specializes in a French-style washed rind cheese called sublimity. The recipe for his sublimity was derived from an old French cheese recipe that has been modified and become uniquely its own. Washed rind cheeses are washed for a series of weeks or months until the cheese develops a natural shell (the rind), protecting the inside. The dairy farm that Oregon Gourmet Cheeses sources their milk from is located in Aurora, Oregon and Brian feels lucky to have partnered up with a local family that not only has the milk, but the desire to see Oregon Gourmet Cheeses succeed.
There are six flavors of the washed rind- plain, peppercorn, smoked, Cajun, cumin, and (perhaps Brian's favorite) herb de provence. In addition to these cheeses, Oregon Gourmet Cheeses makes a creamy and delicious camembert and a fromage blanc in four different flavors including the seasonal cranberry, which will be available in mid-late October.
All of Oregon Gourmet Cheeses products can be found each week at the Hollywood Farmers' Market where Brian has been selling cheese for four years. He says he loves Hollywood because "even though it's a smaller market than Portland or Beaverton, it's a really awesome crowd of people. We've been through some rough times and Hollywood's market community has always been behind us, supporting us and encouraging us on every step of the way."
Over the years, Oregon Gourmet Cheeses has had some challenges. Keeping production up to meet demand and surviving the winters were the two biggest challenges that they have overcome. Brian's proudest accomplishment is that they're "still here with a very strong presence." Oregon Gourmet Cheeses can also be found at New Seasons Markets, who has been a fantastic supporter of Brian's efforts. The cheese company also has a distributor in the Portland area, so it's possible to find their cheeses at area specialty stores as well.
Oregon Gourmet Cheeses has some new products in the works that Brian wasn't willing to even hint about. But new cheeses are on the way and for this we all have something to look forward to. Stop by the Oregon Gourmet Cheeses booth at the Hollywood Farmers' Market this Saturday and see for yourself why Brian couldn't pick a favorite. | |
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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