Felt good enough to go to the Portland Farmers Market Saturday

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Saturday evening I ate a small, fresh-baked baguette--no kidding, I got it at the Dollar Tree in a package of two which you're instructed to bake on the oven rack for 8-10 minutes until golden brown, imported from Holland, of all places--a sensible amount of Pearl Creamery Artisan Goat Cheese, a sensible amount of Rose City Pepperheads' Mango Madness, a sensible amount of Chop's Farmhouse Country Style Pate, and a sensible amount of Unbound Pickling's Bread & Butter Pickles. Wow. Then for a late lunch today, after a laundry marathon, I ate a sandwich on Pearl Bakery's honey wheat bread--with, once again, sensible amounts of goat cheese, pate, pepper jelly and pickles. I eat sensible amounts of these goodies because I want them to last all week. I cannot get over living in Portland where I am allowed to happily spend my hard-earned cash on products produced with pride by locals. I am blessed. See more details about my purchases below. I'll bet your mouth will water, maybe your stomach will growl. Let me know, OK?


My friend Sarah, a recent graduate of University of Gastronomic Sciences in Bra, Italy, has found a great job with the Portland Creamery. She sweetly posed for this photo holding my purchases. I bought Artisan Goat Cheese, Sweet Fire Artisan Goat Cheese (the addition of marionberry preserves adds the sweet, habanero pepper adds the fire), and Cajeta, Artisan Goat Caramel. Swoon city, y'all. Creamy, flavorful, spreadable yumminess. I am very excited to have these products in my frig, even more happy to have them on my plate!
 

Sarah didn't know that I stopped to take this photo. I love the look of concentration on her face as she listens, ready to answer questions and offer tastes of Portland Creamery's products.
 

I bought Bread & Butter Pickles, pure perfection. From their Web site, every word the truth in my opinion: sweetened with blueberries and pear. Bread and butter pickles, subtracting out large quantities of sugar from the formula while adding fresh Willamette Valley blueberries and pear juice to sweeten the taste equation. Perfect on sandwiches and cheeseburgers or add a flavorful and joyous touch to your tuna or chicken salad.
 

I bought a loaf of totally wonderful, great textured honey wheat bread (see the one still there with the big white label in the low basket to the right) and one satisfyingly sweet little pastry called a rugelah, I think that's how they spelled it. I decided to eat it slowly; it's small enough to be gone in two bites, but that would be plain stupid. I made it last for five bites. Yea for me! It's in the case on the top shelf, right, as you look at the photo. The lady had just helped me and had a smile on her face--I caught her in this photo with what I'm sure was a passing moment of farmers-market-been-there-since-probably-6:30-a.m. fatigue. I took the photo at 1:03 p.m. 
 

I bought my all-time-favorite pepper jelly, Mango Madness. My gosh. That stuff is so good! Sweet and spicy, a nice-to-the-tooth-and-tongue consistency. Spreads like a champ!
 

I bought a couple of pears, green and red anjou, if I remember right. I know they're going to be good because every other single piece of fruit I've bought here over the years has been. I trust fruit from Draper Girls.
 

When I go to the Farmers Market, I have to have enough money with me to get a box of Cherry Country Dried Cherries & Milk and Dark Chocolate. So outta sight good, melting chocolate and chewy cherries. I can eat them one at a time without cheating myself by eating them more quickly. I really can! There are 20 in the eight ounce box. I like to get the mixed chocolate because variety is the spice of life. I also got a jar of Montmorency Tart Cherry Jam. I shall have Pearl Bakery honey wheat toast and Cherry County jam for breakfast this week. I am blessed.
 

I bought Farmhouse Country Style Pate, to which I readily admit I am addicted. You can see tidbits of it there on the edge of the cutting board, right in front of the Chop man. In my haste to get into the package, I tore through the label, rendering it unreadable. To tell you the truth, I'll be buying it again before too long; I'll be more careful so that I can share the ingredients with you--I'll even take a photo of the slab inside the butcher paper.
 

Finally, I bought a bunch of both the yellow irises and the purple irises. I stopped by the Blue Diamond on the way home and left them for the sweetest bartender in town, Janessa. Her birthday is this Wednesday, so those flowers are her birthday happy from me.

Saturday, August 20, out and about with Milton and Kay

My plucky, mass-transit-riding Mississippians. We got on the 12 after we'd been to The Circuit so that they two of them could get the general idea of bouldering by watching Lamont and Leland for a few minutes. Being the doting Mama that I am, I cannot ignore the opportunity to post a few bouldering photos. Concentration seems an appropriate term, don't you agree? Determination fits this one. We three said, "Happy bouldering, boys!" and left The Circuit for the bus stop. Not too many minutes later we got off and walked to the Farmers Market in the South Park Blocks, in the midst of Portland State University. Kay saved us a seat on a bench in the sunshine while Milton and I waited in a not-too-bad line at Pine State Biscuits. Once again, hunger overtook my desire to take any photographs. However, here are two photos that I took on April 8 when I went the the Farmers Market. The menu--see The Reggie? That's what Milton ate. Kay and I got biscuits, butter and strawberry jam. A pan of biscuits. I know how hard these flower vendors work, Saturday after Saturday. It did my heart good to see several of them getting to take a break for a bite to eat. We shopped a bit, stopping at Draper Girls for cherries, Sweet Heart and Rainier to be exact. For me, Raineiers rule! Delphina's Bakery for the my all-time favorite muffin--chocolate cheesecake! Cherry Country for a box of milk chocolate and dark chocolate-covered cherries--scrumptious bits of Royal Ann cherries. You who frequent the blog might be wondering why I wasn't shopping for and buying lots of fresh veggies--Milton and Kay had come to Portland with the goal of my not having to cook at all while they were in town! Isn't that sweet? Come back tomorrow to see some of the Hot Rods and Custom Cars we viewed just a few blocks away, in front of the Portland Art Museum.

Candid #1

D50 photo


June 25 I rode the 12 bus to the Portland State Farmers Market before walking down the South Park Blocks to see the Italian cars. Although I couldn't understand their language, it was easily obvious to me that these two women enjoyed being together, laughing and talking until the one of the right left the bus, I'm sure telling her friend good-bye, have a great day, some sort of good wishes as she pushed open the back door and stepped out onto the sidewalk. I wish I could have taken the photo a few seconds earlier so that you could see the five tiny gray buttons on the ribbed portion of the sweater's sleeve. When I downloaded the photo, I noticed that her olive green pants had matching buttons decorating them, too, four of them visible from the knee down as she sits beside her friend.

I've tried to crop the photo so that you can see the buttons. They spoke to me of days gone by when my Mama decorated dresses she made for me with buttons chosen carefully, buttons that matched the fabric's colors, buttons hand-sewn in just the right place of her choosing.


The sweater's buttons and the pants' buttons.

Friends, Food, Fun--my Saturday!

FRIENDS: Casey, my friend from Mississippi, and Ryan, her friend and now my friend. I ran into them, well, actually, I walked up to them at the Farmers' Market at Portland State located in the tree-lined South Park Blocks early Saturday morning. Here's the back story: Having been alerted by Casey's Facebook post about the availability of Unger Farms Hood strawberries, I got myself downtown to the market early on. After buying two pints of the luscious-looking red ones, I grabbed my phone and called Casey, as promised. As I was leaving her a message along the lines of, "I'm at Unger's. I just bought my strawberries. Are you here yet? Oh, there you are ..." something like that because I cannot remember the exact words, but there, walking together about 10 feet from me, were Casey and Ryan! Later on, I took this photo of them near the main Information Booth for the market. Ryan's holding one of his pints of Hood strawberries! I'm using my strawberries in my milk and soy protein morning drink!


FOOD: Here's the busy Unger Farms booth.


FOOD: Something l love to buy at this particular market is a packet of Farmhouse pate from Chop. Yummy. I usually eat a little bit of it every week day for lunch, along with some chevre, Mango Madness Pepper Jelly, all on Triscuits. This week I'll have my fresh cherries, too! I forgot to take a photo at Baird Family Orchards, where I bought them.


FOOD: I didn't mean to make her mad when I said, "Could you move back? Your shadow's on the plate." But I did make the woman at Spring Hill Farm's market stall mad, and I apologized then and I continue to apologize now. I stopped her from being able to quickly enjoy her plate of food when she had a break from helping customers like me. Shame on me! Gotta love the photo, though!


FUN: This balloon guy's smile peeks through between the little girl and her daddy. See her mother and little sister looking on? The mom's smiling, the little sister appears at least to be very curious. I wonder about her big sister. Do you think there's a smile on her face?


FUN: Yes, she's smiling! Looks like her balloon creation is a monkey with its very own banana.

On my next visit to the PSU Farmers Market, I drove a Zipcar. It was the day I went on the Architectural Heritage Center's Kitchen Revival Tour which I recently posted for you. Hope you enjoyed it.


How about this cute coat and matching boots--so cute!




Tulips. I didn't buy any flowers on this visit, but I certainly enjoyed looking at them.


Never heard of this. Have you? I didn't buy any of it, so I don't know what it tastes like, but I think it is neat to look at.


Have to wonder what the child in the stroller was thinking about the giant chicken standing there, no doubt talking, in front of regular-sized eggs.


Cherry Country makes fabulous chocolate-covered cherries. They are not full of that juicy sort of stuff you get when you bite into Brach's Chocolate Covered Cherries Cordials. No siree. I always buy a box of the mixed, milk and dark chocolate. Inside are dried Royal Ann cherries. Hey, if you're craving these, they've got a shopping cart at their Web site. Like I said about Rose City Pepperheads, go online and shop yourself silly. Next visit I plan to try their various jellies. I'll let you know what I discover.




A wide shot and a close up so that you can get the best possible look at the best Golden Delicious apples ever, from Kiyokawa Family Orchards.




I bought one of those muffins with the chocolate chips, named Chocolate Cheesecake Muffin. Divine. Enough for more than one dessert. I will go back to this booth for Delphina’s Bakery.




It's like walking around in a cornucopia, but actually it is the booth for Groundwork Organics. I bought turnips again. So good.

Bounty from the PSU Farmers Market, No. 2

Fresh spinach and assorted braising greens. So easy to pick up with the tongs and put into the bag, even easier to cook in a saute pan with some olive/canola oil and my tongs, a little sea salt.


More of the greens available at this booth--I didn't buy any this particular day, but I certainly have in the past. Easy to cut into small strips, using my version of the chiffonade technique. It's not pretty, but it works.


Carrots and turnips--yummy, yummy root vegetables. I baked the carrots along with some potatoes, then I ate them with some baked boneless, skinless chicken breast. I diced the turnips and put them in my ground beef, mixed vegetable, sliced okra soup, instead of potatoes. Yummy. I like to cook a couple of things if I have enough ingredients, that way I don't get bored with my left overs.


I didn't buy any leeks or radishes, but they make a great photo!


The other end of the leeks. For me this picture is all about the prodigious effort put in by the people who willingly work so hard hour after hour to produce the bounty we can select from it at will. I celebrate them.


Two Tarts Bakery--if you have never eaten a chocolate chip cookie sprinkled with sea salt, I feel way, way sorry for you. Two Tarts names these delectable cookies "Fleur-de-Sel Chocolate Chip. Their description, found on their Web site, certainly fits: Classic chocolate chip cookies with a sprinkling of the finest sea salt, these are crunchy at the edges and chewy in the middle.But, hey, it gets even better. The woman on the right is from my home state, M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I.


Salmon Creek Farms' tomatoes. I read online at Flickr when I found someone else's photo that they grow their tomatoes hydroponically. No wonder they already had such tasty treats ready for us, even with our cooler than normal weather.


Once I got home, I set everything out on top of the white nemesis, whic--as you know if you follow my blog--is now long gone. You can see that I also bought a small cabbage, a small cauliflower, a jar of Unbound Pickling’s Bread and Butter Pickles and a jar of Mango Madness Pepper Jelly from Rose City Pepperheads. Both delicious. If you want to experience spectacular pepper jelly, go to the link and shop yourself silly.

Bounty from the PSU Farmers Market, No. 1

Arriving 15 minutes before the opening bell--which is actually a bell loud enough to be heard for blocks--on April 8 I stood second in line at Pine State Biscuits. I wanted breakfast. I watched and waited.


The young woman carefully filled these small, lidded plastic cups with butter and honey, the better to serve those who want the delightful duo on their biscuits.


Pine State's menu board, for your perusal.


Biscuits and buttermilk fried chicken.


Out of the oven, ready and waiting. Biscuits.


Honey is on the way. See it there in the plastic bottle at the top center of the photo. This concoction is known as The McIsley.


My order for two biscuits with butter and strawberry jam, plus some refreshing OJ, placed, I stepped back to observe the beginning of a crowd. I waited patiently for my name to be called, then found a place to sit so that I could eat one of my biscuits and its accoutrement. I saved the other one for the next morning.

I stood up, headed for the recycling bins with my trash, and then walked towards the vegetables, fruit, flowers, cheese, candies--you name it. Come back tomorrow to see more my early April visit to the PSU Farmers Market.