In This Issue
Cooking Demonstration: Morgan Jacobson
Dot Survey Download: A Year-Round Market?
Community Booths
This Week at
the Market

Music by Sneakin' Out

Portland Women's Crisis Line

Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East

Vendor Talent Show

Tip of the Week

Freezing Bread

Winter's coming and your favorite crusty bread is nowhere to be found? Try freezing. Bread, and crusty breads in particular, freeze really well. Put the bread in a paper bag, then wrap in a plastic bag and toss it in the freezer. When you want to eat it, let it sit on the counter until thawed and enjoy. For added ease, slice the bread first and pop the frozen slices straight into the toaster, from frozen to delicious in 2 minutes.

--Andy Pfandler, Russell's Breads

Featured Produce
Part of the beauty of farmers' markets is that our produce changes with the seasons. Stay current with weekly produce highlights here!

november veggies
Available at the market this November:
apples, arugula, asian greens, bacon, beef, beets, black truffles, blue cheese, bok choy, bread, broccoli, brussels sprouts, buffalo, burritos, cabbage, canary mushrooms, carrots, cauliflower, cauliflower mushrooms, celery, cheese, chicken, chocolate truffles, cider, coffee, collards, crepes, dried beans, eggs, elk, filberts, garlic, goat, golden chanterelles, goat cheese, gourds, greens, ground cherries, hedgehog mushrooms, herbs, honey, hot peppers, huckleberries, kale, kohlrabi, lamb, lavendar, leeks, matsutakes, milk, mustard greens, onions, parsnips, pastries, pears, pesto, pinto beans, porcinis, pork, potatoes, pumpkins, quince, ricotta, sausage, shallots, spinach, sweet peppers, sweet potatoes, tamales, turkey, turnips, white truffles, winter squash, yak, yogurt, and more!
Join Our Mailing List
The Local Dirt

This Saturday, November 21st, is our final market of the 2009 Season! Join us for great music, free give-aways, and a fabulous season finale.

Just as they opened the market for us back in May, the ever-popular band Sneakin' Out will close the 2009 Season, interspersed with our first ever Vendor Talent Show!

Thanks to the generous folks at OPB, we are giving away free copies of the book The Meaning of Food to the first 100 customers. Make sure to come to the Information Booth on the corner of 44th & Hancock or ask a volunteer in order to get your copy!

Take advantage of late season produce for your Thanksgiving feast and locally made crafts for some early holiday shopping.

Mark your calendars! The Hollywood Farmers' Market returns on Saturday, May 1st, 2010.

See you at the market!

Cooking Demonstration: Morgan Jacobson

Last Saturday at the Hollywood Farmers' Market, Morgan Jacobson demonstrated the preparation of a beautiful and impressively delicious soup, and served it to delighted market-goers. Soup tasters were enchanted enough with the warming blend that the recipes were gone before 11am!  It is included below for those of you who are keen on enjoying it at home. 

Also, check out last week's interview with Morgan for a little background on the chef.

A huge "Thank You" to our vendors for generously donating ingredients for the cooking demonstration: Deep Roots Farm, Freddy Guys Hazelnuts, Gales Meadow Farm, Mt. Hood Organic Farms, Winter Green Farm.


Cinderella Pumpkin Soup
with Hazelnut Sage Garnish

by Morgan Jacobson
 
1 Cinderella pumpkin or Kabocha squash (Winter Green Farm)
5 Jonagold apples (Mt. Hood Organic Farms)
1 can (13.5 fl oz) Coconut Milk
1 onion, sweet or storage (Deep Roots Farm)
1 qt (32 fl oz) container vegetable stock
1 bunch fresh sage (Gales Meadow Farm)
TT cayenne pepper
TT salt
1 cup hazelnuts, roasted and shucked (Freddy Guys Hazelnuts)
extra virgin olive oil, about 3 tablespoons
fresh lemon juice, to taste
brown sugar, to taste
 
For the Soup:
1.  Peel and seed pumpkin. Cut flesh into large, fairly uniform chunks.
2.  Peel and cut apples into uniform chunks.
3.  Dice onion into small chunks.
3.  In large soup pot, cover bottom of pot with a layer of olive oil and put on medium heat. Add onion and sweat until nearly translucent. Do not let onions brown.
4.  Add pumpkin and apple. Cover and stir occasionally.  When pumpkin/apple chunks begin to soften add coconut milk and vegetable stock. Cook until all chunks are soft and falling apart.
5.  Remove from heat. Puree in a food processor or blender. Return to low heat. In small amounts add salt, cayenne pepper, lemon juice and brown sugar to taste. Taste frequently when seasoning!
 
For the Garnish:
1.  Pick sage leaves from stem. Chop finely until sage is soft and fluffy.
2.  Crush hazelnuts to desired size and texture (course to fine).
3.  Mix sage and hazelnuts together with enough olive oil until it has the consistency of pesto.
4.  Season to taste with salt and lemon juice.
5.  Drizzle on top of plated soup.
Dot Survey Download: A Year-Round Market?
by Anne Berblinger, HFM Board Member
 
This is the second article discussing customer comments on the annual dot survey conducted at the Hollywood Farmers' Market. The Hollywood Farmers Market has done a "dot survey" for many years now. We always have structured questions as well as an option for customer comments. Customers who agree with a given comment can use one of their dots to support that comment.

The second most popular subject for this year's comments was the possibility of a year-round market.

 
The HFM Board has extended the season twice since we, at Gales Meadow Farm, have been vendors: once from the last weekend in May to the first; and in 2007 the market added November. Perhaps it is time to think about operating year-round.
 
There are two issues, and both of them have to do with winter weather. We all know we can pretty well count on rain and cold from November through April (actually May too, but I am in denial about that). In the Hollywood neighborhood, we have the east wind and the chance of ice storms. And when the weather is nasty, the customer count and vendor sales plummet.

The customer count for November 7th this year (not so bad for the first hour and a half, then frigid rain, wind, a floodway racing down Hancock - surely you remember!) was only 1242 people, about half the number of the week before. Our sales at Gales Meadow Farm were about 60% of what they were the week before and the week after.

Being at the market, transporting the produce, staffing the booth - all are costly and margins are thin. Vendors need to carefully consider whether a winter market is worthwhile. (We did try the December and January markets at the Hillsdale Farmers Market just one year, and it did not pay. We start at Hillsdale in March each year, and that has been successful.)

 
The other issue is availability of product. This is not as much of an issue for prepared food vendors, or meat, cheese, seafood, and beverage vendors. Produce vendors in our region can have fresh produce available year round, but not the amazing abundance and variety of summer. However, it requires a lot of effort and investment.

If there were enough customers who truly embraced seasonal food, and were willing to buy root vegetables, greens, winter squash from storage and other winter produce at every market, a winter market could work for some of the produce vendors at Hollywood.

 
More ideas from you, the customers, would be helpful. Do you know of a venue which could host the market out of the weather? Would you be there week in and week out as you are in summer and fall?

Please contact the market at info@hollywoodfarmersmarket.org if you have thoughts on this.

 
There are some year-round markets not too far away: Hillsdale (every other Sunday, December - April), Lloyd (every Tuesday) and People's Co-op (every Wednesday). The vendors at these markets would appreciate your support.
 
Dot Survey Comments:
Is there any way the market can be kept open year round?                                                 24

Wish it was open longer                          17
Year round, please! I love the market and all the people!                                                13
Year round                                           12
Wish it could be year round!                     9

Community Booths
Learn more about the organizations tabling at the market each week in our community booth column.

Portland Women's Crisis Line
24 Hour Resources and Support for Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence

Working to fulfill their mission of "ending domestic and sexual violence by providing confidential support services and education to empower our community," the Portland Women's Crisis Line (PWCL) operates a comprehensive 24/7 Crisis Line and Sexual Assault Advocacy Program.  In any language, the Crisis Line can provide needs assessments, peer support, safety planning, crisis intervention and information and referrals to community resources.

PWCL's Shared Vision emphasizes stability and sustainability for the agency regarding funding, staff and board retention, and responsive and evolving programs and services which focus on outreach and collaboration with others. Come visit their booth this weekend!

Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East
Building Homes, Building Lives

As the oldest Habitat for Humanity affiliate on the West Coast, and the largest in Oregon, Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East has served low-income, hardworking families for over 25 years and has served over 160 families. Our homeowners are committed and successful. We have experienced less than a 1% default rate on our mortgages, lower than the national average.  By providing a hand up, not a handout, our program maintains the dignity and pride of our homeowner families.
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