This Week at
the Market |
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Beets & Beats Music Series
Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center
Oregon Foundation for Reproductive Health
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Tip of the Week
Blossom Drop
Many vegetable plants do not produce fruit from their first flowers. Fruit will only develop if successful pollination has occurred. Successful pollination requires exactly the right conditions: temperature (especially night temperature), humidity, and the presence of the right pollinating insect are some of the conditions. Temperatures that are too high can kill the pollen, which happens with peas from time to time.
If your pepper or tomato drops its blossom after blooming, or if a squash or cucumber fruit fails to develop after the blossom fades, just be patient. When the weather warms up and the insects are more active, a healthy plant can hardly fail to produce fruit.
There are a few plants that need to cross-pollinate with another plant to produce fruit. Tomatillos and blueberries are examples of this. But tomatoes, peppers, beans, and peas self-pollinate within the flower; and squash and cucumber plants produce both male and female flowers, and can fertilize themselves. All of these depend on insects for successful pollination, even if it is just to jiggle the blossom at the right time. So the worst thing that can be done is to indiscriminately use insecticide!
--Anne Berblinger, Gales Meadow Farm
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| Featured Produce
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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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Brooks Cherries
(Baird Family Orchards)
Beautiful Broccoli
(Sweet Leaf Farm)
Fava Beans
(Winter Green Farm)
Rainbow Chard
(Gales Meadow Farm)
Fresh & Lively Shallots
(Deep Roots Farm)
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Last Saturday's Strawberry Festival raised over $400 for seniors in our community! Loaves and Fishes vision states "No senior shall go hungry or experience social isolation". HFM's fundraiser helped to meet that goal by providing 167 meals to seniors. Loaves and Fishes is currently looking for steering committee members. To become more involved, please send an email to Mary Langman, manager of the Hollywood/Fook Lok branch of Loaves and Fishes. We also found the Best Strawberry Blond at the market- 5 year old Arissa Bolster from Deep Roots Farm was the winner!  She received a stainless steel Hollywood Farmers' Market water bottle as a prize.
Thanks so much to all the vendors who helped out by donating to the festival- Big 'B' Farm, DeMartini Family Farms, Deep Roots Farm, Happy Harvest Farm, Jacobs Creamery, Liepold Farms, Nature's Best - Oregon Honey, Sweet Leaf Farm, Unger Farms, and Winter Green Farm.
This Saturday is the first show in the Beets & Beats Music Series!
We will feature Jenny Jenkins from Olympia at 9 am, Tara Jane O'Neil at 10 am, and Mikah Sykes at
11 am. You'll be so glad you woke up to get to the market at 9 am when
you score the freshest of fresh produce and more from local farms while
listening to these super rad artists
Also this Saturday, Hassing Farms and DeNoble both make their first appearance at the Hollywood Farmers' Market this season. Hassing Farms will have fresh produce grown at their family farm in Aurora, and DeNoble will bring a variety of artichokes for your dining pleasure! We are also pleased to announce that Quality Vegan will be at the market for at least the next two weeks, so come say hello and try out their tasty vegan treats!
See you at the market!
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 Strawberry
Milkshake Recipe
from Sasha Kaplan, HFM Board Member and owner of And She Cooks
1 Cup whole milk (Jacobs Creamery)
2 Cups Vanilla Ice Cream
2 T Honey (Nature's Best - Oregon Honey)
4 Tablespoons crushed
Ice
2 Cups of washed and hulled Strawberries
(Big 'B' Farm, DeMartini Family
Farms, Deep Roots Farm, Happy Harvest Farm, Liepold Farms, Sweet Leaf Farm,
Unger Farms, and Winter Green Farm)
Put all ingredients into blender and let it rip.
Makes 4 milkshakes.
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Featured Vendor: Micro Mercantes
by Lianne Bannow, HFM Board Member
If you're looking for the flavor of Mexico close to home, you need look no farther than the Hollywood Farmers' Market.
For
the past three years, HFM shoppers have been tantalized by the chicken,
pork, cheese, and vegetable tamales offered by the women at the Micro
Mercantes booth. For many shoppers, the wonderful homemade
tamales-tasty and authentic-are a weekly treat.
Regular
customers may notice that the women are not the same from week to week.
Nor are the flavors absolutely identical from one week to the next.
Here's
why. The women are residents of Hacienda, a nonprofit community
development corporation that offers social services and affordable
rental housing. Pairs of women-members of the same family, usually a
mother and daughter or two sisters-rotate each Saturday to give more
women a chance to participate in the Micro Mercantes program. They come
from different regions of Mexico, so although the basic tamale recipes
may be the same, the women add their individual touches reflecting
their own culinary traditions.
As their fans can attest, the
tamales are top quality. At least 80 percent of the vegetables come
from farmers markets. The pork is from Gartners Meat Market. Chicken is
from Gartners, New Seasons, or other local grocers.
Besides
the tamales, Micro Mercantes also offers typical Mexican beverages made
of natural fresh ingredients. The women prepare them using traditional
methods-no shortcuts here. The selection of these aguas frescas always
includes jamaica, a tea-like drink made with hibiscus flowers, and
horchata, a milky sweet rice drink. Sometimes there are also pineapple-
and watermelon-based drinks. Depending on what is available, other
fruits can take center stage, too.
Micro Mercantes is now at
nine farmers markets, but the very first one was here at the Hollywood Farmers' Market. Success at our
market helped pave the way for its expansion-and for more low-income
Latinas to participate. The Micro Mercantes program offers
opportunities for them to earn income, since most of the profit from
the tamale sales goes directly to the women's families. In fact, each
tamale vendor's annual income has increased by at least 20 percent due
to participation in the program. (Micro Mercantes has a short documentary on YouTube in which vendors talk about the program).
Beyond
the immediate income gains, Micro Mercantes' vendors gain
entrepreneurial experience that provides a path for upward mobility.
For most HFM shoppers, though, Micro Mercantes is all about the tamales. And for that, there is only one word: delicioso!
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Community Booths
Learn more about the organizations tabling at the market each week in our community booth column.
Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center
The Mission of the Virginia Garcia
Memorial Health Center is to provide high-quality, comprehensive and
culturally appropriate primary healthcare to the communities of
Washington and Yamhill Counties with a special emphasis on migrant and
seasonal farmworkers and others with barriers to receiving health care.
In 1975, the Virginia Garcia Health Center (VG) was established in
memory of Virginia Garcia, a six year old from Texas, whose short life
and death in Oregon changed health care services to Latinos in Oregon
forever. Accompanying her farmworker parents to Oregon to pick
strawberries, Virginia Garcia spent her last days in a migrant labor
camp near the city of North Plains. There she developed blood poisoning
from a simple foot wound, and although attempts were made to treat her,
the unavailability of cultural and language appropriate medical
services ultimately resulted in her death. Stunned by this tragedy,
community leaders of the Hispanic and medical communities joined forces
in an unprecedented effort to insure that such a tragedy would never be
repeated.
Since VG's humble beginning in a three car garage,
the center has continued to provide health care to the medically needy
of Washington County for over 30. It continues to focus on the needs of
migrant farmworkers, both through the health center and outreach
programs in the migrant camps. The center continues to develop and
expand its programs to meet existing and emergent needs. VG serves more
than 30,000 patients each year from 4 health clinics, a mobile health
van, 3 dental clinics and a school-based health center.
Oregon Foundation for Reproductive Health
Oregon Foundation for Reproductive Health,
a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, directs public education campaigns
plus extensive leadership trainings for grassroots activists. The NARAL
Pro-Choice Oregon Foundation oversees the Emergency Birth Control
Access Project, which works to provide seamless access to contraceptive
services and supplies to women all across Oregon.
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The Hollywood Farmers' Market is open Saturdays, May through October from 8am - 1pm and November 7, 14, and 21 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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