Portland Farmer's Market, May 2011 - 15

Portland Farmer's Market, May 2011 - 15

Image by Ed Yourdon
(more details later, as time permits)

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When I learned that we would be going to the Farmer's Market on a recent weekend visit to Portland, OR I naively assumed that there was only one such location. Silly me: it turns out that there are actually six such markets, located throughout the Portland metro area. One of them is in Pioneer Courthouse Square, which I photographed during Thanksgiving weekend in 2009 (and which you can see in this Flickr set); but their farmer's market only operates on Mondays, so I've never seen it. And chances are that I won't see the market in Shemanski Park, or on King, Buckman, or NW 23rd Street.

The market that I did see is located at Portland State University, and it operates every Saturday from mid-March through mid-December. Dozens of food stalls are located along the sidewalks on both sides of a long, grassy mall stretching from SW Salmon Street down to SW Jackson Street; and I was intrigued to see a whole assortment of fruits and veggies that I've never seen at East Coast farmer's markets: Japanese turnips, daikons, parsnips, garlic leeks, chard, kale, and Kohlrabi all looked quite interesting, but I must admit that I wasn't brave enough to try any of them. There were also morel mushrooms, home-made pies and cakes and cookies, organic eggs, fresh wild salmon, whey-fed pork, snow peas, sugar snap peas, shallots, strawberries, zucchini, cucumbers, fresh cheeses, tomatoes, pears, carrots, asparagus, radishes, hazelnuts, rhubarb empanadas, cherries (alone, ground, and combined with chocolate, depending on your preferences), fresh-baked bread, and apples. And honey, too -- sweet, delicious-looking honey made from poison oak(!), tiglio (whatever that is), clover, wild mountain flowers, maple, orange blossom, raspberry, and wild blackberry. The only thing that was really surprising, to me, is that I didn't try any of the food ... but that was probably because I would then have been tempted to try it all!

Along with the food, there were also lots of interesting people. Portland people might perhaps talk differently, or behave differently, than New York people ... but I don't think you would notice any difference just by looking at them. They were young and old, male and female, mostly happy, occasionally sad or grumpy. But generally photogenic, which is all that mattered to me.

As usual, I took hundreds of photographs ... and was tempted to upload them all. But I managed to winnow the collection down to 75 reasonably interesting pictures, which I've uploaded here to Flickr for your enjoyment.

Portland Farmer's Market, May 2011 - 26

Image by Ed Yourdon
(more details later, as time permits)

**************************

When I learned that we would be going to the Farmer's Market on a recent weekend visit to Portland, OR I naively assumed that there was only one such location. Silly me: it turns out that there are actually six such markets, located throughout the Portland metro area. One of them is in Pioneer Courthouse Square, which I photographed during Thanksgiving weekend in 2009 (and which you can see in this Flickr set); but their farmer's market only operates on Mondays, so I've never seen it. And chances are that I won't see the market in Shemanski Park, or on King, Buckman, or NW 23rd Street.

The market that I did see is located at Portland State University, and it operates every Saturday from mid-March through mid-December. Dozens of food stalls are located along the sidewalks on both sides of a long, grassy mall stretching from SW Salmon Street down to SW Jackson Street; and I was intrigued to see a whole assortment of fruits and veggies that I've never seen at East Coast farmer's markets: Japanese turnips, daikons, parsnips, garlic leeks, chard, kale, and Kohlrabi all looked quite interesting, but I must admit that I wasn't brave enough to try any of them. There were also morel mushrooms, home-made pies and cakes and cookies, organic eggs, fresh wild salmon, whey-fed pork, snow peas, sugar snap peas, shallots, strawberries, zucchini, cucumbers, fresh cheeses, tomatoes, pears, carrots, asparagus, radishes, hazelnuts, rhubarb empanadas, cherries (alone, ground, and combined with chocolate, depending on your preferences), fresh-baked bread, and apples. And honey, too -- sweet, delicious-looking honey made from poison oak(!), tiglio (whatever that is), clover, wild mountain flowers, maple, orange blossom, raspberry, and wild blackberry. The only thing that was really surprising, to me, is that I didn't try any of the food ... but that was probably because I would then have been tempted to try it all!

Along with the food, there were also lots of interesting people. Portland people might perhaps talk differently, or behave differently, than New York people ... but I don't think you would notice any difference just by looking at them. They were young and old, male and female, mostly happy, occasionally sad or grumpy. But generally photogenic, which is all that mattered to me.

As usual, I took hundreds of photographs ... and was tempted to upload them all. But I managed to winnow the collection down to 75 reasonably interesting pictures, which I've uploaded here to Flickr for your enjoyment.

back patio

Image by scazza_
Felecia's house has a series of french doors that connect the front patio with a tv room off the kitchen, then to the kitchen, to this back room from where I took this picture, and finally to the back terrace and yard. Perfect for the flow of about 40 people that attended this Thanksgiving. There was always somewhere to sit, somewhere to go, as well as plenty of drinks and food to go around.

I got to spend such a wonderful holiday in a welcoming, comfortable place, and see family that I haven't seen in years and years. But like with Phil and Cindy, I didn't take many pictures of my tons of relatives!

Portland Farmer's Market, May 2011 - 32

Image by Ed Yourdon
Note: I chose this photo, among the 15 that I uploaded to Flickr on the evening of May 29, 2011, as my "photo of the day." I was intrigued by the simple tableau of a family relaxing and snacking on some goodies they had bought at the farmer's market. Both mother and father seem to be looking directly at the camera, but also with a slightly quizzical look on their face, as if they're not really sure whether I was actually taking their picture (since I would have been looking down at the ground, in the direction of my swivel/reticulating lens monitor)

**************************

When I learned that we would be going to the Farmer's Market on a recent weekend visit to Portland, OR I naively assumed that there was only one such location. Silly me: it turns out that there are actually six such markets, located throughout the Portland metro area. One of them is in Pioneer Courthouse Square, which I photographed during Thanksgiving weekend in 2009 (and which you can see in this Flickr set); but their farmer's market only operates on Mondays, so I've never seen it. And chances are that I won't see the market in Shemanski Park, or on King, Buckman, or NW 23rd Street.

The market that I did see is located at Portland State University, and it operates every Saturday from mid-March through mid-December. Dozens of food stalls are located along the sidewalks on both sides of a long, grassy mall stretching from SW Salmon Street down to SW Jackson Street; and I was intrigued to see a whole assortment of fruits and veggies that I've never seen at East Coast farmer's markets: Japanese turnips, daikons, parsnips, garlic leeks, chard, kale, and Kohlrabi all looked quite interesting, but I must admit that I wasn't brave enough to try any of them. There were also morel mushrooms, home-made pies and cakes and cookies, organic eggs, fresh wild salmon, whey-fed pork, snow peas, sugar snap peas, shallots, strawberries, zucchini, cucumbers, fresh cheeses, tomatoes, pears, carrots, asparagus, radishes, hazelnuts, rhubarb empanadas, cherries (alone, ground, and combined with chocolate, depending on your preferences), fresh-baked bread, and apples. And honey, too -- sweet, delicious-looking honey made from poison oak(!), tiglio (whatever that is), clover, wild mountain flowers, maple, orange blossom, raspberry, and wild blackberry. The only thing that was really surprising, to me, is that I didn't try any of the food ... but that was probably because I would then have been tempted to try it all!

Along with the food, there were also lots of interesting people. Portland people might perhaps talk differently, or behave differently, than New York people ... but I don't think you would notice any difference just by looking at them. They were young and old, male and female, mostly happy, occasionally sad or grumpy. But generally photogenic, which is all that mattered to me.

As usual, I took hundreds of photographs ... and was tempted to upload them all. But I managed to winnow the collection down to 75 reasonably interesting pictures, which I've uploaded here to Flickr for your enjoyment.