Pike Place Market

Living and working in the Market is definitely a unique experience – and one that admittedly, on occasion, I have to remind myself is a privilege.  Sometimes I think it’s rather like what living in The White House might feel like.  Millions of people a year are traipsing through “your house” to get a closer look, and sometimes even pose for photos on your front porch (this happened to me just this past Saturday).

That aside – this is my neighborhood – and also Seattle’s neighborhood at-large much as The White House is the people’s house. And yesterday through the eyes and comments of a tourist family, I regained the sense of what it means to live and shop and eat from here.

My weekend routine is pretty steady – up by six and out for a run. Then back to the little studio condo that is a refuge really – coffee - and by eight or eight thirty at the latest I am down on the cobblestones checking out what each farm tent has to offer, kibitzing with this merchant or that and generally watching the progress as the scene of the market is set for the day. Mornings are the best time to gauge what this place is all about.  You see the produce being wheeled on carts for delivery to the highstalls, farmers unloading vegetables, fruit, honey, and flowers all to heap on their tables and rocky gray oysters in netted bags along with whole clear-eyed salmon stacked in buckets of ice all bound for a fishmonger. People are visiting with each other, talking about everything from lost love to the debauchery of the night before to whatever may be in the news that day. The principals, bit-players and stagehands all are waiting for the audience that will arrive in droves within hours.

Sunday morning I had a purpose. I’d offered to cook dinner for friends who were, that very evening, arriving back in Seattle after a two year stint in Cleveland. 

I was passé as I looked around. I knew I’d roast a chicken because it was simple and I could serve it cold if I wanted to but beyond that, everything on the farm tables seemed so…routine to me. Sure, Alm Hill Garden had beautiful carrots – orange and white and purple and a steal at about a buck fifty a bundle. Full Circle Farm had three different varieties of baby lettuce so fresh they almost carried dew. Sidhu Farms and Hayton Farms had stacks of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. And, Tiny’s Organics had piles of beautiful little dark red nectarines.  The bounty was there, to be sure, but my enthusiasm was not.  Am I jaded?  Maybe I should just get take out, I thought.

Then, a family who were clearly tourists was suddenly behind me. The “Dad” of the foursome said out loud and with such candor and awe...“Just imagine…if you lived around here and were able to plan dinner everyday as you walked along theses farm tables!”

Clearly, at that moment, I snapped back to reality. I bought the carrots from Alm Hill and the lettuce from Full Circle, as well as grabbed berries from both farmers with offerings (gotta spread the wealth). Whoever that wise and prescient man was who toured the Market with his family yesterday, I owe you a measure of thanks.  You brought me back to the truth. I have an abundance of terrific, locally grown and affordable food – good food and in my neighborhood. And so do you. This is my way of reminding you (as well as myself) about what happens out on the cobblestones at Seattle’s shared “at-large” neighborhood. It’s kind of like our community grocery.

For those who care – here’s the menu served up to my friends last night:

• 1 roasted chicken (3.5lbs) via Julia & Jaques Cooking at Home (1999)
  (note: I used Julia’s recipe for roasted chicken – and it’s amazing).  The chicken was purchase at Don & Joe’s Meats in the Main Arcade.
• A garden lettuces salad made with Full Circle Farm lettuce and dressed exceedingly lightly with olive oil, minced spearmint from Marshland Orchards and an almost invisible drizzle of apple cider vinegar.
• A platter of sliced red and yellow tomatoes also from Marshland Orchards.  This was host to a bit of olive oil and sea salt.
• A bowl of blueberries and raspberries from Sidhu Farms and Hayton Farms, respectively and a side of heavy whipping cream – no sugar added.
• A salad of wheatberries, papya, fava beans, scallions and cucumber procured from Michou located in the Stewart House building on Pike Place.
• A plate of nectarines, rinsed and warmed in the sun before being served whole, purchased from Tiny’s Organic.

And, it all came to a total of just under $48.00.  This fed five people. 

-James Haydu