Farmers market plans east Vancouver expansion

• What: Vancouver Farmers Market eastside satellite at Columbia Tech Center

• Where: Southeast 177th Avenue off Mill Plain Boulevard, in the center’s community square area

• When: 3 to 7 p.m. Thursdays, July 16 through Sept. 24 (may change due to construction)

• Inaugural movie: A family-friendly movie will be screened in the neighboring park on opening night at 9 p.m. More Thursday night movies will likely follow, according to the city of Vancouver

• Concerts, too: The city of Vancouver will host a free concert series at Columbia Tech Center Park at 1 p.m. July 26 and Aug. 2 and 9

• Web: vancouverfarmersmarket.com; cityofvancouver.us/parksrec/page/2015-summer-concert-series

Market at Vancouver Mall, open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Sept. 27 in the parking area south of Macy’s, 8700 N.E. Vancouver Mall Drive.

Vancouver Farmers Market, open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 1. Sixth and Esther streets.

Battle Ground Village Outdoor Market, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays through Sept. 26 at the Center Park in Battle Ground Village

Ridgefield Farmers Market, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays through Oct. 3 at Overlook Park, Pioneer Street and Main Avenue.

Camas Farmer’s Market, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Sept. 30 on Northeast Fourth Avenue between Northeast Everett and Franklin streets.

Salmon Creek Farmers’ Markets, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Sept. 29, at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center, 2211 N.E. 139th St.; 3 to 7 p.m. Thursdays, July 9 through Sept. 3, behind Wayside Market, 1309 N.E. 134th St., Vancouver.

The Vancouver Farmers Market plans to launch a satellite market on Thursday afternoons and evenings at Columbia Tech Center, mid-July through late September.

Executive director Jordan Boldt described the spot as the center of a fast-growing area that boasts higher incomes and a hunger for new cultural and recreational opportunities. That means hunger for top-quality grocery shopping, too, Boldt said, and that’s what the new Thursday market will offer: local produce and just a few prepared foods. It won’t be the weekend lunch-and-snack mecca that the downtown market has become, he said — at least, not yet.

“Trying to replicate what we have downtown would be a fool’s errand,” Boldt said. “But there is a lot of growth, a lot of money coming into that area. People are looking for more culture — shops, breweries, pubs. You don’t see that happening in a big way out there. It’s mostly big-box stores and chains.”

Last year, Boldt said, the market was approached by the corporate owners of the Columbia Tech Center development — that’s a master-planned, mixed-use, 410-acre office, retail, medical and residential campus on Mill Plain, between 164th and 192nd avenues — to consider opening a satellite out there. Boldt said the market had once tried a satellite Saturday location, a few years back, but it didn’t really pencil out.

But this time, he said, the growth of east Vancouver and the arrival of a number of major employers and high-end stores there — he mentioned the Banfield Pet Hospital, Chuck’s Produce, Whole Foods, a Marriot Extended Stay hotel and a Clark College satellite campus — means that the time is ripe to accept the invitation and give it another try.

“They were like, is this even possible? We think it’s possible,” Boldt said. “There’s a reason why all those (stores and corporations) elected to be over there.”

Starting small

Starting out, Boldt said, the satellite market will feature 12 to 18 vendors and emphasize the core of what farmers markets are really all about: quality fresh produce that people can take home to cook.

The young professionals who live in new apartments and condominiums and who work in the new offices in the area “are the kind of people who have really bought into the farmers market idea,” Boldt said. “We’re going to be going after a lot of people who are leaving work for the day. We hope they’ll swing by to get their essentials, maybe a few baked goods — and we’ll have beer and wine by the bottle.”

OK, if they’re hungry for something right away, there’ll be just a couple of food trucks offering hot prepared foods, too, Boldt said.

“There’s lots of parking,” Boldt said. “But it’ll be small. We hope it grows organically. As the market demands, we’ll add to it.”

The market’s home will be a community square area that’s being developed at Columbia Tech Center and it will front some upscale residential buildings alongside a private park. Columbia Tech Center may establish its own food cart pod there, too, Boldt said.

Beyond downtown

Boldt said he knows that farmers markets have “a countywide constituency but frankly we spend a lot or our time in the downtown core. We know there’s a bunch of great stuff happening on the east side and we’re excited to reach out.”

The city was immediately interested when Boldt mentioned the Columbia Tech Center invitation, according to Stacy Donovan, the city’s special events planner.

“That area really is growing with a lot of businesses and residential — and they have a nice little park,” Donovan said. Donovan met with Columbia Tech Center officials, who offered to put up the sponsorship for special events if the city would do the programming.

So the city has scheduled a Sunday afternoon concert series — that’ll be 1 to 3 p.m. July 26, Aug. 2 and Aug. 9 — at Columbia Tech Center Park, as well as an opening-night movie to help draw attention to the new satellite market, she said. (But the movie won’t get started until around 9 p.m. July 16, she added, so you’ll have to “stick around after the market.” The city will provide some kid activities to fill the gap, she said.)

All of these activities — the Thursday night movies, the Sunday concerts — will be free, she added.

“It’s just another reason for people to come out and stay out,” she said.

We’re no. 11!

The Vancouver Farmers Market has placed high on a new list of the best farmers markets in America, as compiled by The Daily Meal, a culinary website. We didn’t quite make the top 10 out of 101 — but we’re next in line, at no. 11.

Vancouver’s farmer’s market gets a shout-out for featuring genuinely local produce, organic ingredients and one-of-a-kind crafts. It’s “sweeter than a cake made out of pie,” according to one local fan who gets quoted. But, typical of our fate — the Daily Meal’s featured photograph is a farmers market somewhere in Vancouver, B.C. Take a look at www.thedailymeal.com/cook/101-best-farmers-markets-america-2015-slideshow.

For its second biennial list, The Daily Meal tweaked its criteria to emphasize markets’ reliance on truly local produce. It also gave points for “street cred,” awards and Internet reviews. Seattle’s celebrated Pike Place Market, which topped the first list, didn’t even qualify for the second — because its large size and permanent infrastructure means it’s not really a farmers market at all, The Daily Meal said.