Salmon Creek Farmers’ Market takes root

A new farmers market will sprout in Salmon Creek in three weeks.

Organizers have found a home for their start-up market — for this summer, anyway — near Three Creeks Community Library, on Northeast 139th Street, just west of the Salmon Creek Fred Meyer store.

The Salmon Creek Farmers’ Market will make its debut at 3:30 p.m. July 15. There will be a dozen Thursday market days from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. through Sept. 30.

There will be two meetings Thursday for people interested in volunteering with the Salmon Creek Farmers’ Market, both at Three Creeks Community Library, 800-C N.E. Tenney Road. Sessions are at 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.; people can also get information about the market.

SalmonCreekFarmersMarket.com

A nearby business offered a parcel of unused property for market space, said Ann Foster, one of the market’s organizers. The Gaynor’s Automotive business at 14001 N.E. Third Court is owned by Tom and Holly Gaynor. When Tom Gaynor said the market could use the undeveloped acreage near the shop, and Clark County signed off on a permit to use a barricaded dead-end section of 139th Street, things fell into place.

“We have about three acres of vacant land we aren’t using,” Tom Gaynor said. “We had talked about using it as a community garden. When the farmers market came along, we were happy to let them use it.”

The project has been in the works for a while, with organizers originally looking for a market site on the east side of Interstate 5. But the site on 139th Street is just off a busy thoroughfare and near several populous neighborhoods.

“Visibility is a big plus” at this site as well, Foster said.

“There will be about 22 vendors,” Foster said, with an emphasis on locally grown food and farm products.

The market will combine some of the area’s larger growers of fresh produce with some smaller, newer agriculture businesses. “It’s a pleasure to see smaller farms in Clark County joining us as vendors,” Foster said.

Range of products

“Most of the tomatoes and garlic and carrots will be coming from Southwest Washington,” she said. “We do have a farmer from the Yakima area who can provide products like peaches, cherries and apples — if there aren’t any available here — and Hermiston (Ore.) melons.

“It’s also tough locally to get flowers in large quantities, so they will come from Multnomah County,” Foster said. “We all have flowers in our garden, but not in commercial quantities.”

It won’t all be produce.

“We’re thrilled we have a naturally fed beef vendor, selling frozen cuts. There will be goat cheese from Woodland,” Foster said. “A farmer might be able to bring in naturally grown poultry: Order it this week and pick it up the next week.”

Another vendor will sell artisan bread.

The customers will get a sense of where their food comes from. Vendors will have photographs and information about their farms and their products.

Other attractions include a kids booth sponsored by CrossWay Church in Salmon Creek, and live music from 5 to 7 p.m.

“These are all local musicians who enjoy this kind of venue — meeting new people and hopefully selling some CDs,” Foster said.

While Foster is excited to have a 2010 schedule, the future still is uncertain.

“It’s for this year only,” she said. That site is slated to become part of a freeway interchange project.

“Next year we’ll be looking for another site,” Foster said. “That’s one reason to be successful. The leverage will be better to find a site if we’re successful this year.”