NEWS HOME

Market News

The Cedar Mill Annual Peach Festival is happening on Saturday, September 6! The peaches are in the peak of their season and they beckon to be eaten, so bring your loved ones to the Market for a taste of summer before it slips away. The Peach Festival boasts local produce and art vendors, live music and peachy games for the kids. Do not miss out on this sunny community celebration of locally grown bounty!

September is a also a great month for homemade salsa.  The tomatoes, the onions, the peppers, the cilantro -- mmmm, one just can't go wrong! It's the perfect time for a Salsa Contest, right? Mark your calendars for the Cedar Mill Farmers Market's Salsa Saturday on September 20. Maybe you'll want to stock up on ingredients at the market on September 13 so you can put together your best salsa effort for the contest!

Here's how Salsa Saturday's salsa contest works: bring a pint (or more) of your own 100% homemade salsa creation, along with your recipe, to the market's INFO BOOTH by 11 am for a chance to win a prize! It's a blind taste test, so the judges don't know who has entered what, but just for fun, we let Green Card Salsa, our local salsa vendor, as well as Bandito Taco enter their homemade salsas—though if one of theirs is chosen as the best, they don't get to collect a prize. The prize (maybe a big batch of salsa ingredients or some market tokens) will go only to the best market guest entry. Bring your recipe along with your entry and be sure to leave your name and number with one of the volunteers in the INFO BOOTH when you drop off your salsa creation. To volunteer to judge the salsas (if you have not entered the contest), just come by the Info Booth to taste the entries and give your feedback.

There's always something exciting happening at the market, with new local farmers, fishermen, cooks, and artisans joining us as the season progresses. Market vendors new in the past few weeks include Tanglewood Farms with their friendly farm-raised, all-natural organic eggs and meats including chicken, turkey, lamb, and pork. Edison Brothers Fish Company is based in Banks, Oregon and specializes in bringing the freshest and highest-quality Oregon Coast seafood products to its customers. Edison Bros. works with boats and a small processing company in order to control quality and value. Weekly product offerings are subject to what the boats are catching, but recently featured Chinook Salmon, Albacore Tuna, Oregon bay shrimp, Ling cod, and lots more. Their product is brought to the market flash-frozen, caught within the past day or two so it couldn't get much fresher. 

September is a month chock full of goodness -- running the gamut from Baird's incredible peaches to fabulous salsas, amazing bicolor sweet corn, increasing quantities of both summer and winter squash, the beautiful watermelons for sale at the Martinez Family Farm booth, and dozens of other wonderful fruits, veggies, local meats & fish in between. Entertainment in the next month or so includes marvelous music by Eric John Kaiser, Chris & Leo, Lauren Sheehan, and others. Foods available for breakfast, lunch, and take-home include fabulous baked goods, authentic Bavarian pretzels, tamales, empanadas, jams, jellies, locally roasted coffee beans and more. You'll want to be at the market every Saturday this month!

Deposit-return bottle & can drive every Saturday

Bring your deposit-return cans and bottles to the market from 8 am to 1 pm during the Farmers Market season, to help support the Life Skills Home Economics Program for the Academic Learning Center of Five Oaks Middle School. Collecting bins/cans are next to the Bandito Taco patio.

The program completely relies on donations of recyclable (deposit) materials to continue the culinary, service, and homemaking education of the ALC students. Save yourself the time and trouble of returning your deposit cans and bottles; just drop them off for this good cause!  Thanks for your assistance in keeping the Five Oaks ALC Life Skills Home Ec Program strong!   

Rafael Dongon coordinates the weekly drive. He actually collects deposit cans and bottles year-round, so keep that in mind after market season is over. Contact our hard-working friend, Raf, anytime at canmanraf@gmail.com if you have any questions. THANKS!

New Market Director

Meet Danny Rodriguez, our new market organizer! Danny, a familiar face around town known for his local paper marbling art workshops, started out his relationship with the Cedar Mill Farmers Market back in 2008 as an art vendor, but more importantly, he has been an enthusiastic buyer of our local produce for many years. He is now in the process of learning the "ins and outs" of market administration from Market Director, Dina Gross, so that he can make a smooth transition into filling her shoes.

"I am excited to have found a new way of supporting the Cedar Mill Farmers Market. I think farmer's markets are an important staple of any healthy and conscious community, and so I will dedicate my efforts to keeping the market a must-visit Saturday destination for our neighborhood," he says.

Please come say hi to Danny, who will be positioned at the Info Booth during market hours as duties gradually migrate from Dina to him. He looks forward to meeting you, answering your questions and hearing your ideas. 

The Cedar Mill Farmers Market was begun in 1999. It is now sponsored by Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District with a generous grant from New Seasons Market. It takes place every Saturday from early-May through the end of October. Find us just west of Murray on NW Cornell, across from Sunset Park. Questions? Call anytime! 503-915-2855.

Previous article

NEWS HOME