Collection of featured articles from the weekly market newsletter, known as the Grapevine. Subscribe today and never miss a thing!
Filtering by Category: Vendor Profiles
There are those who say that living on a farm is like going to school. Then there are those who build their business around that idea. John and Christine Deck, the couple behind Deck Family Farm, have invested two decades into a unique blend of business and education. It’s hard to separate their farm from their intern program, or from their land, from their herd, or from their community. And it was all built to be exactly that way.
Read More“The PNW is a bizarre place for many reasons. One of the peculiarities and the beauty is our strong community.” As head of sales for a small PNW company, it is Trevor Lampert’s job to know. “People have so much support for the small players, the local businesses. We always planned for our farmers markets to be our foundation – we never expected it to be this successful.” Lampert spearheads the team for Good Wolf, a probiotic tonic company.
Read MoreThey say hindsight is 20/20. For Patricia Dabush of Meadowbrook Gardens, her past can feel like highway 20 - and it has always led right to where she is today. “My parents weren’t really farmers. They were like Green Acres – [part of] the ‘back to land’ers movement. [They] were getting older and thinking about selling the property. I wanted to raise my kids like I was raised, play in the creek, and throw rocks – I wanted to live on the land. I was like, ‘Wait! Don’t sell the property!’”
Read More“I kept saying ‘I’m going to start small and see if it has legs.’ And at every sort of step people were like, ‘make more!’” If you’ve tried Zicra Lukin’s babka then you know what those people were talking about. Babkush, Lukin’s pandemic-grown Jewish bakery, has the kind of products that make everyone scream for more.
Read MoreKey ingredients for a Humble Pie: a background in restaurant work, a “yes!” attitude, and a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic.
Read MoreWhat do you get when you combine a popcorn popper, a lavender farm, a man on the move? This isn’t a riddle – it’s the road of twists and turns that lead Alex Newton to success with his business, Radiant Coffee Roasters.
Read MoreFrerich is the woman behind Nouriche Broth. Her line of chicken bone broth products is simple, high quality, and intentionally made. With names like “Feel Better,” “Light My Fire” and “Nightcap,” it is easy for shoppers to imagine how these broths could be incorporated into their kitchen and their life.
Read MoreThis is a love story. It begins, like so many do, with a dinner beside the sea. Imagine, if you will, the waves, the soft light, the couple. Except in this story, our protagonists are not dining together. They’re not in the same room. He’s not actually dining at all.
Read MoreWith Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it feels like the whole world is suddenly thinking about chocolate. We all have our cheap chocolate favorites, but you cannot deny the glorious indulgence that is fine, quality chocolate - chocolate to enjoy with a glass of wine, or a sweet sunset, or a close friend at the end of a long day. Cloudforest’s chocolate is that second kind –the exquisite and nuanced kind.
Read MoreChimichurri is a traditional Argentinian sauce made from cilantro, parsley, garlic, oils, and chiles. The result is a tangy, savory green sauce that is ready for any dish. It can be used as a marinade, a topping, a salad dressing, or a stand-alone dip. Jessica Causey, the woman behind La Porteña describes chimichurri as an everything sauce – and it truly can be.
Read More“There’s a whole invisible world that you’re working with, that you’re trying not to have work against you. A lot of things can go wrong. There’s a lot of what feels like magic involved – things you never really know until you see the results.” This is not the tagline for the next best-selling sci-fi novel. This is daily life for Troy Plemmons, the farmer behind Harvest Moon Mushrooms.
Read MoreDraw your mind back to the summer of 2020, when many pandemic lockdown measures were still in place. Neighbors and friends were slowly starting to gather outside, trying to take advantage of the better weather to break the shell of their isolation. If you were living in Oakland, California at the time, a sunny weekend might include a trip to Lake Merritt with a blanket, a book, or a buddy. Circling that lake you would have found Nathaniel Lown, pushing a small cart, peddling his mothers’ original recipe for homemade vegan oatmeal cookies.
Read MoreMonday – prep. Tuesday – plant. The following Friday – harvest. Welcome to the world of microgreens.
Read MoreDo you know what a scoby is? Or, more specifically, did you know that the word “scoby” is actually an acronym? SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast – and is a major component in the fermentation and production of kombucha.
Read MoreThis weekend you will find a new vendor at our market! Emily Schott Christensen is coming to Hillsdale with four varieties of blueberries, all grown at the Schott Family Farm in Woodburn, OR.
Read MoreIn 2017 honing, crafting, packaging, marketing and selling bone broth was the furthest thing from Julia Baker’s mind. She was in her twenties and suffering from disruptive and painful gut issues. She spoke to her doctor and they ran a series of tests, with everything coming back frustratingly normal. Her doctor told her that she was fine, and Julia remembers thinking, “that is an insane answer. I do not feel fine.”
Read MoreWhen you start a recipe, often one of the first items you’ll reach for is cooking oil. Maybe you prefer olive oil, or maybe you favor the flavor of butter. Have you ever tried cooking with ghee?
Read MoreWhen Kara and Greg Unger took over the family berry business, they knew they were in the middle of a historic worldwide pandemic. The couple had their eyes open, minds set, ready to take on what Covid 19 might throw their way. What no one expected was an unheard of heat dome to come to the Pacific Northwest, and decimate their crop.
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