Photo courtesy of Paul Kluvers
The annual Harvest Dinner is fast approaching and we could not be more excited. On Saturday September 17th, the market’s gravel lot will transform into a setting for an elegant summer evening filled with gastronomic delights, music, and the company of good friends. We are honored to have an award-winning line-up of local culinary talent creating a six-course meal, including:
- Adam Sappington – owner, the Country Cat and 2011 Portland Iron Chef (three consecutive years)
- Piper Dixon – owner, Kitchen Dances and 2011 Vegan Iron Chef
- Steve Jones – owner, Cheese Bar – winner of the 2011 Cheesemonger Invitational
Chef Sappington will prepare market inspired meals for the omnivores, while Chef Dixon lends his vegan prowess for the vegetable-set by offering parallel vegan courses. This year, we are adding a sixth course to the dinner: a cheese course (along with another wine pairing) prepared by Steve Jones of Cheese Bar. The Harvest Dinner menu will also feature savories, sweets, and libations from Montavilla favorites, The Observatory, Pastrygirl, and The Bipartisan Café, plus Bar Avignon.
In keeping with the mission of the market, the menu will showcase seasonal, local and farm-direct producers. Each course will be accompanied by a wine or cocktail pairing, all of which is included in the $65 price of the ticket. Music for the evening will be provided by Halcyon Strings, featuring members of the Oregon Symphony and Oregon Ballet Theatre orchestra.
A silent auction will complete the events of the evening with a portion of the proceeds going to support the local business association, the Montavilla/East Tabor Business Association. The Harvest Dinner is the only fundraising event held by the market. The proceeds will partially fund the market’s Everybody Eats program, helping to make the market more accessible to families experiencing food insecurity. The proceeds also support the ongoing operating expenses of the market.
Tickets go on sale this Sunday, July 31st. You can purchase yours at our Info Booth or online. We can’t wait to share this evening with you.
We love seeing your faces at the market each Sunday, but since Sunday must only come once a week there are lots of ways for you to bask in your market experience all week long. Our website is ripe with information about what to expect in the coming week, including updates on the vendor lineup, chef bios for our Lunch and Learn chef demonstrations, profiles on our wonderful vendors, and musings on the market in our Seasonal Abundance blog. If you love us enough to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, we’ll give you scoops on what our vendors will have at the market each week and keep you in the loop about upcoming events and ways to get involved.
We’ve added a fun feature to our website where you can upload photos from your day at the market to our Flickr pool. Make everyone drool over the ripe basket of berries you swiped up! And if you love our little market as much as we know you do, be sure to share your thoughts on Yelp. Then, when you’ve been online a bit too long, unplug yourself and come back to see us next Sunday!
The Montavilla Farmers Market is proud to sponsor the Vegan Iron Chef competition coming up on July 10. Back for a second year, the event celebrates creative culinary achievements and brings awareness to the vegan lifestyle. One of the contestants this year is none other than Piper Dixon of Kitchen Dances, who served up delicious eats each Sunday at the market last season and prepared the amazing vegan dishes for our Harvest Dinner. He’ll square off against Morgan Grundstein-Helvey (Dovetail Bakery) and Jeff Ridabock (Homegrown Smoker) in the ultimate vegan showdown. Many Montavilla Farmers Market vendors will be donating fresh produce for use in the competition. Tickets sold out quickly, but the cook-off will be streamed live so you can still witness the fun. And be sure to check out Splendid Table’s coverage of the event – we’ll keep you posted on when it will air!
Special thanks to participating Montavilla Farmers Market vendors who donated goods to the Vegan Iron Chef pantry:
Fiddlehead Farm
Groundwork Organics
Simplicity gardens
De Noble’s
Frog Meadow Farm
Maryhill Orchards
Zenger Farm
Draper Girls’ Country Farm
Little Gnome Farm
Lunch time at the Montavilla Farmers Market is the place to be. Not only can you find fabulous things to eat, you can watch a professional chef in action. Each market day at noon we have a “Lunch and Learn” chef demonstration with a lineup of fantastic chefs including Paul Losch from DOC, Laura Widener from Pastry Girl, and Jeremy Eckel from Bar Avignon. The chefs are inspired by the seasonal produce available from our vendors, and their dishes may just inspire you to pick up something new at the market. The demonstrations are bound to introduce you to some new ingredients or cooking technique to liven up your kitchen. This week Chef Eric Purugganan from Gruner will instruct on how to make seasonal fruit compotes. Be sure to check out our Chef Demo blog to see who will be sharing their tricks with us each week.
Would you like an even more hands on experience? Shadow the chef for the day! Our chefs could use an extra hand during the demonstrations, so if you would like to volunteer as a sous chef, then contact our Volunteer Coordinator.
2011 Lunch and Learn Schedule
- June 5: Junior Iron Chef Competition
- June 12: Dax Erickson – Chef at the MAC Club
- June 19: Jason McCammon – Culinary Arts Teacher, Sabin-Schellenberger Center
- June 26: Sophie Rahman – Masala NW Indian Cooking
- July 3: Eric Purugganan – Chef at Gruner
- July 10: Paul Losch – Chef at DOC
- July 17: Aaron Adams – Chef/owner Portobello Vegan Trattoria, Cusina Cascadia.
- July 31: Laura Widener – Chef and Owner of Pastry Girl
- August 7: Julie Hasson – Native Bowl Food cart and Cookbook Author
- August 14: Mike Eells – The Country Cat
- August 21: Joel Stocks – Chef at Bent Brick
- August 28: Daniel Miller – Duckspoon
- September 4: Piper Dixon – Kitchen Dances – Vegan Food Cart
- September 11: Laura Widener – Pastry Girl
- September 18: Jeremy Eckel – Chef at Bar Avignon
- September 25: Christopher Carriker – Chef at Gilt Club
- October 2: Sophie Rahman – Masala – Soups
- October 9: Piper Dixon – Kitchen Dances – Vegan Food Cart
- October 16: Tim Daly – Chef at The Cheese Bar
- October 23: TBD
- October 30: Jason McCammon – Culinary Arts Teacher – Extreme Pumpkin Carving
Reduce and reuse are key words around the Montavilla Farmers Market. Last year, we launched our Market Loaner Bag program to reduce the number of disposable plastic bags used to carry home the wonderful produce and goods purchased at the market. Our loaner bags are crafted out of discarded t-shirts, and are available at our Info Booth for shoppers to borrow – for free! The bags have been a big success – our visitors are more than happy to forgo a single-use 
bag in favor of a repurposed t-shirt bag. More demand requires more supply, and we could use your help to keep these fabulous bags available to our shoppers. The bags are simple to make and we’ve got some easy instructions on our website, so fire up your sewing machines! Stop by the Info Booth this Sunday for more information and to pick up t-shirts for construction.
We are also in need of a key volunteer to stencil each bag with our “loaner bag” label. If you have a bit of time to stop by the Info Booth each week and pick up any newly sown bags to stencil, come by and talk with us or email our Volunteer Coordinator.
To further our efforts to reduce the use of single-use bags, we are also selling reusable mesh produce bags for $1 at the Info Booth. Pick some up on Sunday to carry home your Market bounty.
The Montavilla Farmers Market is looking for a few folks who live near high-traffic intersections and would like to adopt our A-frame signs for the season. Volunteers would set out signs at the beginning of the day on Sunday and take them down in the afternoon. If you are interested in helping us spread the word about our market, please send an email to our Volunteer Coordinator.
