Pike Place Market

Last year the Pike Place Market got into the neighborhood farmers market game. Conventional wisdom says “but isn’t the Market in the farmers market game already”?

True enough. Pike Place is in fact the first and longest running neighborhood farmers market in all of Seattle.

In 2009 we faced an interesting question. Would it be wise for Pike Place to “expand” by running two satellite farmers markets? Would that deter Seattleites from coming to the Pike Place Market? 

After studying closely the other farmers markets in Seattle (particularly Chris Curtis and her Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance - talk about consulting the Master - in my opinion her model, dedication and stewardship of the farmers market movement is an example), I decided early in the year that we should try and give Pike Place Market farmers an additional venue to sell at,  in order for them to make more money as well as Pike Place providing an additional place for residents to buy good food that is locally grown and sourced in neighborhoods that are close – but not in the immediate vicinity of Pike Place.

So, we launched Pike Place Market Express at City Hall Plaza (downtown at 4th Street between Cherry & James on Tuesdays from 10am-2pm) and the Cascade Farmers Market featuring Pike Place Market Express (in the Cascade neighborhood on Minor Avenue between Thomas and Harrison Streets one block east of Fairview Avenue N.).  The satellite markets were a great success – clearly popular with people who live and work in those particular neighborhoods. But, I still worried. Was I taking customers from Pike Place – from the whole that is the Market? The answer was no.

In mid July, 2009 we did RMA’s (rapid market assessments) at both satellite locations to figure out if people shopping at City Hall Plaza or the Cascade market would skip coming to Pike Place. What people told us was this:  where else but Pike Place Market can they go to buy meat from the butcher they’ve known for years, stop to listen to a busker perform, get fish from Solly at Pure Food Fish (and hear about the shenanigans of some grandchild of his) and grab a piroshky on the way out? People also told us that they would continue to use Pike Place as their farmers market specifically citing farmers like Mech Apiaries and Stewart Meats as destinations. What we learned was that Seattleites use the Market for a lot of reasons – including a hub of social interaction mixed with commerce.    

So, as we sit in the final days of July, 2010 these two satellite markets are in their sixth week of seasonal operation and humming along as they did last summer. Our farmers are doing well and that makes me very, very, very happy.

Tuesday of this week, I wandered around the City Hall market to count customers, talk to them, and find out why someone was buying a flat or two or strawberries (strawberry shortcake for his fiancés birthday I was told), and to spy on which city officials are using the farmers market that is just outside their office door. On that note, this year I am seeing fewer of the political types out shopping…..kudos going to Councilmember’s Burgess and Clark whom I’ve seen on more than one occasion.

As I sidled up to the table under Full Circle Farm’s banner I struck up a conversation with a woman who works for King County. She was buying a couple of fat bundles of bright orange carrots and asking the sales agent what to do with them – other than just tossing them into a salad. 

“Maybe roast them,” the agent said. 

The customer looked deeply disappointed at the less-than inspired answer. 

“Carrot Pudding!” I heard myself say.

For a split-second I wondered where - or rather what - brain cell file I had accessed to pull this nugget out of nowhere. Then in the same second it came to me.

Richard Olney is one of the masters of French cookery. Okay, don’t roll your eyes just yet – as he was not a snooty-snoot Frenchy McFrench type of cook. Olney was American born – in Iowa in 1927 - and through his love of food, his writings and later in life while living in France he hung out with people like Julia Child.  And, people like Alice Waters based a lot of their food education on what Olney said. And what he said was, keep it simple, use the freshest and most local ingredients you can get your hands on that’s the key to great cooking and eating.  So, again, don’t be afraid to consult a master. Even one that is a famous French chef. 

I discovered him about 1999 when I toyed briefly with the notion of culinary school. His Simple French Food is a bible in some circles and on Tuesday when I heard my new friend (Carly) ask what to do with her carrots she’d just bought from Full Circle Farm’s table at City Hall Plaza – the answer came to me. 

The concoction is easy-carrots, butter, lemon juice, ½ & ½, eggs, and black pepper. Run the cooked carrots through a food processor, add other ingredients and bake for about 35 minutes.

I emailed Carly the next day, and she told me the carrot pudding was a hit. Grilled chicken, the pudding and a cold beet salad made her family a happy foursome she reported.

-James Haydu