Šťastný Táborský*

Happy Campers Gluten Free Bread was conceived in business school, born at a farmers market.

Inside Camper’s GF HQ

Now that’s an origin story.

Jan Taborsky, (that’s Yahn; not the diminutive for Janet) found his way to Oregon from the Czech Republic and eventually to Willamette University’s Atkinson School of Management. There he began research on what would become Happy Campers during his second year of Grad School. Along with his team, the nascent Happy Campers project would win the PACE New Venture Competition, judged in part by, Mercy Corps and the Portland Business Journal. In October 2009, they sold their first loaves at Salem Farmers Market, by the time graduation rolled around in May ’10, Jan and his partner-partner (co-entrepreneur and spouse,) Lacy Gilham became full-time bakers.

After moving to Portland and working in borrowed kitchen space, the Happy Campers (Taborsky means camper in Jan’s native Czech) are now ensconced in their own gluten free baking facility in Tigard, Oregon. From there they turn out bread that offers taste and nutrition for those with gluten allergies and even baking for those with a baguette-bias. Jan challenges the baguette lovers to go, “Shorter and chubbier.  Our bread brings amazing variety to anyone’s diet; it’s made with grass seed flours that are amazingly nutritious, super tasty and you get an array of nutrients that you don’t usually get like millet, buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa and teff.”

Teff is one of those alt-grains that have come to prominence in the last few years for it’s healthful properties and lack of gluten. About the size of a sesame seed, it’s an item our friends at Bob’s Red Mill promote it with their ‘Grains of Discovery’ label and offer it both whole and ground into flour, but adventurous eaters may be familiar with teff as the foundation of the spongy and rightly exalted Ethiopian flatbread, injera.

Since joining PFM last year, the Happy Campers have been able to connect with their audience first hand. Jan, who was manning the booth at Sunday’s King Market says, “We’re excited and grateful to be a part of both our community and local food system and we do our best to make both a little better.”  His inner MBA also understands the value of direct sales, “…farmers markets also provide the best avenue for our market research.  We get first-hand feedback on our recipes, flavors, speech and overall messaging.  We can experiment, tweak things and immediately see if people like them better. We love talking to people and finding out (besides other things) about what they like to eat and why, which allows us to come up with better products for them.”

Paleo Toast

You can visit the Happy Campers at both PSU and King Markets this year. Ask about healthy eating, gluten free breads and where Jan and Lacy like to camp and hike.

*Thanks to Deborah Pleva of Weinstein PR for Czech translation services.

Be Ruby Jeweled

From Leora Stein & Ruby Jewel

Some delicious news for you! Ruby Jewel will be debuting four new handcrafted ice cream sandwiches featuring ingredients sourced from local farms and food producers on May 11 at the Portland State University Portland Farmers Market. Though you can find Ruby Jewel ice cream sandwiches in grocery stores from Alaska to Los Angeles, these new flavors will be available exclusively at the PSU Market in celebration of our 8th year as a vendor, where Ruby Jewel sold its first treats in 2005. Each ice cream sandwich is handcrafted daily in Ruby Jewel’s North Portland production kitchen using milk and cream from Lochmead Dairy in Junction City, Oregon and freshly baked cookies by pastry chef Leila Ellis of Marushka Chocolates.

Here’s what you can look forward to!

- Crunchy, molasses-y graham crackers and earthy candied multicolored carrot ice cream using carrots from Prairie Creek Farm in Joseph, Oregon.

-  Our cows milk ice cream base with a swirl of Portland Creamery Chevre and strawberry rhubarb jam (local strawberries from Viridian Farms and rhubarb from Sun Gold Farm) between two chewy brown sugar cookies.

- Toasted banana and Northwest honey ice cream with nutty butterscotch pecan cookies.

- Rich malted chocolate cookies and milk chocolate ice cream sprinkled with chunks of Bees & Beans milk chocolate malt candy bar.

A Thing I Do on Vacation

Ferry Building Market

So when I’m out of town, alone, I’ll hook up with other Farmers Markets.

It’s so not cheating, it’s exploring.

The first farmers market I ever went to in my life was the ring-around-the-state-capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin. I was spoiled from my first market trip: A growers market that sets up in the snow and miserable midwestern springs; a midwestern market with more than corn, soy and cheese.

Since then I always make an effort to visit all growers markets, both domestic and foreign when I’m away from home. I’ve become a little obsessive to the point of nagging friends to take pictures when they travel and pester them with questions when they are dumb/kind enough to oblige me.

Most of the time, I think, “Nice market, keep working on it.” I know, I’m rude.  NYC’s Green Markets are pretty cool, rising from the subway to an oasis of produce, but have you ever tried to tell a New Yorker what they have isn’t the best? PSU is like nothing else, visiting other markets reminds me of how good we have it.

There have been markets of note in my travels: The Davis (CA) Farmers Market is pretty awesome in the same way King and Shemanski rock; small footprint, yet everything one wants. The abundance found in Santa Monica’s market is undeniable.  I love the market in Oaxaca, while not a growers market, it’s still awesome plus fried crickets (chapulines) and a menudo stand that will counteract any unwise tequila related decisions made the night before.

Also giving credit where credit is due, the Ferry Market Building’s Saturday Market is one of the better markets I’ve ever shopped at. This is of course due a climate that can grow everything from citrus to kale. And in an area where land is prohibitively expensive, small growers have developed, environmentally-friendly techniques that produce high yields. Direct sales opportunities, like the one afforded by the Ferry Building community, helps keep farming a viable career and life for people who have neither the capital nor the inclination to become a megacrop producer.

The Ferry Building itself is a temple to the foodist cult. Well, cult is a loaded term, besides I like to think of it as a family, my family. Here is a link to the history of the building, today the building is home to food and food practitioners (I’ll use the word cult, but artisan gives me pause.)  The picture of cheese was taken because the overwhelming scent of cheese caused me to stop in my tracks. Since we enjoy/employ refrigeration to such an extent, the only other place I’ve ever experienced this enticing of a smell was a beautiful 400 foot cheese shop in Dublin, which does have electricity and refrigeration, they just don’t use it on cheese.

I love kale! I’m generally inclined towards fresh, local, seasonal ideal advocated by the Ferry Building’s east bay kindred spirit, Alice Waters. But I also love almonds, olives, citrus and other non-cascadia crops.

Also, if Oregon’s autumns linger, our springs are fickle creatures indeed, sauntering in on its own pace. California’s monotony of non-stop summer develops crops to market about six to eight weeks before we get them up here. Cherries and tomatoes are ready now. Cherries my favorite fruit ever, unless there is a perfectly ripe peach in front of me, so I’ll admit this hurt a little; plus pomegranate juice, come on California your killing me. Tomatoes aren’t quite the touchstone of summer days that cherries are, well that and occasionally raw tomatoes cause me to break out in hives, so I wasn’t as spectacularly overwhelmed with emotion, but I know people can get weepy about tomatoes, so here.

Even with my love of all things local, I have it pretty bad for Vietnamese food. Really all Asian foods, and it rotates, Pho displayed Thai curries, which caused me to forsake Indian curries. Dim Sum day is exciting. Kimchi is a recent addition to my diet – Thanks Chois – but the Ferry Building Market represented all my favorite foods and reflected the diversity of the bay area.

Including, one of the rarest of all populations, this despite what Chef Boyardee tells you;

a Franco-American. This is exceptional yogurt: Saint Benoît. Winner of best in category and best in show.

Just like our market, prepared foods are there to feed hungry masses. This isn’t a great picture, because of the combination of tiny lens and big line, but this is the Roti truck. This tricked out van that has about 10 rotisseries but what makes this contraption more awesome than the food it serves, Chickens and porchetta, both awesome . Plus the whole contraption is on wheels! Imagine getting married on a sunny vineyard and having this truck roll in to serve your guests. Ah, the dream of California.

Making the Best of Pesto

Photos and Words from Elizabeth Miller of the awesome Savory Salty Sweet Blog.

Not all children eschew the majority of foods placed before them, and not all children devour every single item of food placed before them. My son, aged 6.75, seems to fall somewhere in between the two poles of satisfaction/dissatisfaction, in that he will eat a rather random selection of vegetables, but only if they are prepared a certain way, and he will eat a small scattering of ethnic foods, but only if they conform to his mysterious list of acceptable attributes. Also, the list of foods he will eat seems to be shrinking, since while he once loved hummus, baba ganoush, fresh peas, green beans, and all variety of squash, now those foods all fall under the banner of “don’t like it.”

Strangely, the one food my son will always, without fail, say yes to is pasta with pesto. Because the dish is bright green and includes raw garlic, one would not automatically assume that children would be drawn to it, but I have yet to meet a child who will say no to pesto. The trouble is, I want to say no to pesto. At the risk of sounding too much like my picky child, I’ve just had it with the boring predictability of pesto. Alas, what’s a parent to do when faced with such a dilemma?

Again, much like a child is prone to do, I turn to deception when presented with a mild challenge. Technically speaking, when I present something I call “pesto” these days, I am not being entirely duplicitous, since the sauce I am making is still a combination of basic ingredients crushed (or, in this case, blended) together with garlic, olive oil, and nuts. It’s the rest of pesto’s identity that gets thrown for a loop, however, when I swap in hearty greens in lieu basil, a solid dose of lemon zest for a bit of a kick, and a handful of fresh mint and nutty Pecorino Romano cheese for a twist on the familiar. The greens I use depend largely on what I happen to have on hand—sometimes I use spinach and arugula, sometimes I use collard greens—but, interestingly, they all happen to be leafy greens that my son rejects when presented in non-pesto form. I am telling you, you can hide anything in here. A friend recently sent me a wonderful looking recipe for carrot top pesto that I am dying to try out. Until I can give it a whirl, I’ll stick with my basic recipe for non-basic pesto, a sauce I make in one large batch that can dress two separate batches of pasta, because when your kid likes something this much, you’re going to want a lot of it around.

Greens Pesto

4 cups lightly packed greens (you can use spinach, arugula, collard greens, turnip greens, or, yes, even plain old basil)

1 cup lightly packed Italian parsley leaves

½ cup lightly packed fresh mint leaves

2 large cloves of garlic

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

finely grated zest of 1 lemon

1/3 cup lightly toasted almond slices or slivers

½ cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

In a blender or food processor, combine leafy greens, parsley, mint, garlic, and olive oil. Process for a few seconds, until leaves are chopped and mixture starts to whirl together. Add lemon zest, almonds, cheese, and process until ingredients are uniformly combined. Add salt and pepper, pulse to combine, and taste to see if you’d like more of either.

Makes enough for two 1-pound batches of pasta.

Best Week Ever

Welcome to May. PFM has ordered up some good weather, opened markets at Shemanski and Buckman  - On Sunday, we roll out our 2013 King Market at 10am.

And, of course, PSU is running still running every Saturday. The word of the week: asparagus. Maryhill, Viridian Farms, Outback Farms, Winters and a few more. Everything goes well with asparagus. Eggs. Steak. Chicken (Fresh, never frozen from Natural Valley Poultry). Quinoa (Gee Creek). Butter. Bread. Tortillas (3 Sisters). Morels, oh yeah, morels (Temptress Truffles). It will be an asparagus and morel omelette with Pearl bakery toast.

Premiering this week at PSU.

Also this week at PSU, Nut-Tritious Foods, has a new flavor, Pistachio. Ken Condliff, proprietor and flavormaster at Nut-Tritious tells me pistachio is the most requested flavor and his new product is also his most nutritious.  It’s a blend including sunflower seeds and organic flax seed meal plus organic quinoa, hemp seed meal and chia seed meal. Stop by for a taste and talk to Ken about how he blends nutrition and flavor.

In the SW corner of the PSU Market, Nossa Familia Coffee and Via Chicago sit near each other, both have recently opened bricks and mortar establishments. Please read and visit.

Warning! Sunday – Couples, Gals Be Careful: King Market may be the single most fertile place on earth. Last year on King’s opening day, I had never ever seen so many pregnant women in the same place at the same time. Now, a year later, I’m predicting that I will never have seen so many one (and under) year olds in the same place at the same time. Fittingly, I will be at King to buy ingredients for a Strawberry-Rhubarb pie for my very, very pregnant friend. And even if the whole child-gestation thing is a bit of a mystery to me, I know you don’t say no to pregnant women, especially about pie. Also fittingly, King has an adjacent playground, wide stroller friendly lanes and a bunch of new parents to meet and befriend.

King is welcoming Tierra del Sol this weekend. Micro Mercantes, Micro Mercantes a social enterprise incubator is shepherding Tierra’s launch. Proprietress, Amalia Vasquez was featured on the Micro Mercantes website here.

Gardening, starts! Sun Gold has everything to transform your little patch of land into a wee eden by sundown Sunday. They even have plants that thrive in

containers. Sun Gold is at both PSU & King.

Our Current Market Lineup:

PSU, Saturday, 8:30-2 on the Park Blocks at Portland State.

King, Sunday, 10-2 NE 7th & Wygant.

Wednesday, Shemaski, 10-2 SW Park & Salmon.

Thursday, Buckman, SE 20th & Salmon.

Our Coffee

Pour Some Nossa

We are happy to welcome Nossa Familia to the Portland Farmers Market family this year.  You can find them each Saturday at the PSU Market, french-pressing and pouring over their family grown, locally roasted coffee.  Read on to learn more about their freshly brewed first retail location in the Pearl.

Nossa Familia Coffee, a local roaster in Northwest Portland, is opening their its first retail location, the Nossa Familia Espresso Bar.  Their coffee is sourced from the owner’s family’s farms in Brazil, hence the name Nossa Familia (Portuguese for “our family”).  This is the first coffee bar in the region (or country) where the coffee stays in the family from seed to cup, with no middlemen in between. The owner, Augusto Carneiro, grew up in Brazil where his family has been growing coffee since the 1890’s.  In 2005, Augusto founded Nossa Familia Coffee, which imports, roasts and now brews his family’s coffee.

“This is where the magic happens,” says Augusto, “my family has been growing coffee for more than a century in Brazil and I am so proud to showcase the fruits of their labor.  At our Espresso Bar our customers will experience what we do from seed to cup.”

Nossa Familia will also feature some uniquely Brazilian items such as traditional Brazilian small cheese rolls (known in Brazil as ‘pão de queijo’), a gluten-free savory pastry that pairs deliciously with espresso drinks.

The Nossa Familia Espresso Bar located at 811 NW 13th Avenue, Portland, Oregon, sharing space with the company’s roasting facility.

Hours of operation: Monday – Friday, 7:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. ,  Saturday, 8;00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. and closed on Sunday.

PFM Unveils its New Market Bike, the Produce Pedaler

From Amy Hunter of Weinstein PR

Introducing the Produce Pedaler

Portland Farmers Market is rolling out the Produce Pedaler, a beautiful, old-fashioned Dutch “bakfietsen” cargo bike outfitted to stock and sell peak-of-the-season fruits, vegetables, flowers and other market goodies from its farmers and food artisans. In addition to providing another sales outlet for vendors, the Market hopes the bike will enhance its visibility in the downtown area and at public events.

“Having a mobile market bike has been a longtime dream,” said Jaret Foster, Operations Director of Portland Farmers Market. “The Produce Pedaler not only creates another sales opportunity for our vendors, it’s also the perfect way to bring together Portland’s celebrated bike culture and regional bounty in a fun and memorable way.”

The bike will set up its mini, mobile farmers market downtown on Pioneer Square at SW Broadway and Yamhill on Mondays and Wednesdays in June and July to attract and direct customers to its Monday Pioneer Courthouse Square Market and Wednesday Shemanski Park Market. The cargo bike will also pop up at events like the Kenton Street Fair on Sunday, May 19, opening day of the Northwest Market on Thursday, June 6, and at the city’s Sunday Parkways rides throughout the spring and summer.

Pedaling Peddler? Peddling Pedaler?

Plugged-in Portlanders who see the bike around town are encouraged to take a photo of the Produce Pedaler and post it to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram with the #PDXProducePedaler tag. From May to September, Portland Farmers Market will choose a winning photo from the tagged entries at the end of every month. The winner will receive a Portland Farmers Market t-shirt and shopping bag.

Added Foster, “We hope this beautiful three-wheeled vehicle becomes a Portland icon that allows us to connect directly with a wider audience and builds awareness about our markets and vendors. Look for the Produce Pedaler around town this spring and summer!”