The Local Dirt: Your Garden Awaits You in Hollywood

May 19, 2016

Vol 11, Issue 14

Market Updates

Vendor News

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Spring is in full swing at the farmers market and that means an abundance of strawberries from Unger Farms, Happy Harvest and Deep Roots. Fava beans, spring onions, lettuces and bunched greens are all the rage at Winter Green Farm, Stoneboat Farm, and Naked Acres. Fresh herbs are also back to brighten up any meal of the day, so pick up a bunch of basil, cilantro, scallions, or garlic scapes from Sweet Leaf Farm, a loaf of fresh baked Tabor Bread, and a jar of goat cheese from Fraga Farmstead Creamery and you have a HFM trifecta of deliciousness.

This may be the final week for Mark and Old House Dahlias, so be sure stop by and find your perfect tuber to plant now in time for a beautiful fall bloom. While you've got planting on the mind, i t's not too late to plant for summer. THINK Unique Gardens, Gales Meadow Farm and Sun Gold Farm will be stocked with tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant (see planting tips from Anne below), and r eturning to market this week under a new name is Evan with Portland Seedhouse (previously Boondockers) hosting an impressive array of unique and rare heirloom Italian varieties of plant starts and seeds.

New vendor Sacred Summit Elixirs & Chocolates joins us once again, so be sure to stop by and say hello to Dario and sample his Jun beverages and single origin chocolates. House Spirits Distillery and Portland Bitters Project are also back this week with options and ideas for creating the prefect PNW crafted cocktail.

Kids activities at the market

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We hope everyone enjoyed the seed planting activity on Saturday with Joanna from Turnip the Heat Cooking School. About 100 kids planted seeds to take home! Thanks to Portland Nursery for their donation of materials. Our kids activities will continue on June 11th, with a farmers market scavenger hunt. If you planted a seed, stop by then and let Joanna know how your seedling is doing!

Vote for us!

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Please show your support by voting for us in Willamette Week's Best of Portland , in the "Best Farmers Market" category! Last year we came in second place - this feels like our year to take the gold!

New farmers market billboard sign

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Last week we were able to hang our newly redesigned sign in the Grocery Outlet parking lot, showing off our brand new logo! Thanks to our rockstar volunteers Steve and Aaron for spending several hours up on ladders in 90-degree heat!

Help us paint a mural on Hancock Street!

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The Hollywood Street Painting Project has a final design! See below. Mark your calendars for Sunday July 10th, when we will paint this beautiful 80-foot-long mural on our beloved block of Hancock Street. You can sign up for project updates by emailing Sarah at [email protected], or join our Facebook event here.

See you Saturday at the market!

Tomato Planting Tips

From Anne Berblinger at Gales Meadow Farm

Here are a few tips for planting tomatoes:

Select a place with full sun or at least eight hours a day. Dig a hole a few inched deeper than the height of the pot. Put about half a cup of a complete organic fertilizer in the hole. Here is the formula we use:

4 parts feather meal for nitrogen
1 part calcium carbonate to make the soil less acid then our soils tend to be around here
1/2 part bone meal for phosphorous
1 part kelp meal for potassium

This formula adds micro-nutrients as well. All the ingredients are available at Naomi's Organic Farm Supply, Concentrates or Portland Nursery. A pre-mixed organic fertilized also works well, as long as it contains "N-P-K."

Mix the fertilizer with the dirt at the bottom of the planting hole, then add back about an inch of soil. That way, the tomato plant will settle in and recover from transplanting before it finds the fertilizer. Remove some of the bottom leave and plant the tomato deeper than it was in the pot.

For full size tomatoes, pinch out the suckers - the new growth in the "armpits" of the tomatoes. You are aiming to have one main stem. That rarely happens. Two or three main stems are fine. This pruning is not as important for cherry tomatoes, bua little pruning is good for them as well.

Water the tomato consistently in the first month. Le the ground get a little dry between waterings. When the first tomato is showing a little color you can stop watering.

Harvest as they ripen and enjoy!

Entertainment & Events

Music

Darlin' Blackbirds

Community Booths

Slow Food Portland

Friends of Seasonal and Service Workers

Upcoming Events

Kids Activity with Joanna Sooper

Activity: Market Scavenger Hunt!

Saturday, June 11th, 9am to 12 noon

Vendors at Market this Saturday