Summer is around the corner, and as the weather warms and to-do lists full of school assignments clear, there’s no better way to spend a summer day than at one of the many farmers markets across Portland! From the soft hum of live music, to the scrumptious aroma of local cuisine, to the laughter and chatter of your community surrounding you, a day at one of these markets can be soul-filling and stomach-filling. While farmers markets were initially designed to give shoppers more direct access to local businesses, they simultaneously provide a place for neighborhood members to truly enjoy themselves.
Among Portland’s local farmers markets, is the Hollywood Farmers Market in Northeast Portland. Open every Saturday — from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. during the summer — the Hollywood Farmers Market provides an abundance of locally grown produce and whole assortments of yummy food, from chocolate to coffee to pizza. Kyrsten Wiliams, the executive director of the Hollywood Farmers Market, describes how the space truly is one of community as much as it is one of business and shopping. Williams describes this neighborhood engagement taking form, stating, “[The Hollywood Farmers Market] sees the same shoppers coming every single week, with busy summer markets hosting over 5,000 shoppers — a lot for a neighborhood market!”
It is in this special way that community involvement makes farmers markets so different from any other shopping experience. Aleya Love, a local vendor at the Hollywood Farmers Market, describes why she comes to farmers markets with her company, Wild Rose Ghee. Love explains, “Philosophically, it just feels like an awesome way to support the local food economy, and it’s a nice pause on capitalism. We just come here and set up our little stores to [be able to] sell directly to the public.” Holding a conversation directly between the consumer and retailer is an entirely different experience than buying some apples from the local Target. Instead, as Love finds, “[Farmers markets] feel really wholesome and like a lost art. It’s an awesome way to support [businesses] directly instead of through bigger corporations and organizations.”
Farmers markets create a special shopping dynamic, but you can do so much more at these markets than just buying groceries. Want some fresh air? Take a walk around the perimeter of your local farmers market. Want a cheap place to hang out with friends? Explore all the cool local businesses — who sometimes even give out free samples — without breaking the bank. Feeling uninspired? Depending on the location, come listen to a local band perform. Feeling bored by the relationships in your life? Come chat with a local vendor or friendly volunteer.
No matter where you turn, farmers markets offer cool and exciting opportunities. If going to the Hollywood Farmers Market feels a little far away, the good news is that there are many more markets to choose from!
The Montavilla Farmers Market is located right here in Southeast Portland. The Montavilla community is tied closely to this farmers market that is open year-round on Sundays with hours from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m during the summer months. Sarah DeYoreo, the operations manager for the Montavilla Farmers Market, explains how the Montavilla community is at the center of the market: “Farmers markets are as much about building relationships, a sense of community and community support, and connection to food and place, as they are about selling radishes.”
The Montavilla Farmers Market works to create these relationships not only by offering extremely yummy food and an amazing variety of local produce, but also by working to make the opportunities provided at farmers markets available for both local businesses and local community members. DeYoreo describes how this is done for shoppers by “offering a $20 match for [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)] shoppers — meaning that people can use their SNAP benefits at the market and get up to an extra $20 in Double Up Food Bucks to spend on fresh produce.”
Montavilla doesn’t stop there, however, as DeYoreo expands on how they also work to make the market a more accessible place for local vendors. They do this by being able “to offer a reduced stall fee option for beginning farms and beginning [Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC)]-owned food businesses.” This has significantly changed the demographic of the Montavilla Farmers Market by allowing it to be “a really wonderful incubator space for lots of new farmers and BIPOC business owners.”
DeYoreo hopes that the Montavilla Farmers Market “can help make fresh, local, sustainably grown food available and accessible to the wider public, especially people and communities with less access to financial resources — both historically and currently — and that it can function as a vibrant, diverse, and generative community gathering place.”
The opportunities at farmers markets are endless, and they are all around. In some ways, the early bird catches the worm: If they want fresh, local goods before markets close or sell out, some teens may have to work on their summer sleeping habits and get up before mid-afternoon. The sacrifice of getting up at a normal time is sure to be worth it, however — whether someone is in high school or has long since graduated — as farmers markets are a space to not only shop but to also experience what it feels like to be a member of a community.
So whether you’re drawn to the Montavilla or the Hollywood Farmers Markets, or want to explore some of the other summer farmers markets found across the Portland area — ranging from Woodstock to Lake Oswego, or even the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Farmers Market — there is something for everyone to experience, explore, and enjoy!
