New Farmers Market at Pioneer Square

Downtown gets a taste of the country at the new Pioneer Square farmers market.

Talk about convenience food:  there will be a lovely farmers market at Pioneer Square every Monday; the first one was yesterday. Since that’s just blocks from Watershed’s offices, Monday lunch options are looking good.

The market seems to offer a bit of everything (there are 48 vendors)  — beautiful fresh produce (with tons of cherries and berries as the star at the moment), Rogue Creamery and a couple of other cheese stands, cured meat from Olympic Provisions, breads from Pearl Bakery, excellent cookies from Two Tarts, and several prepared food stands so downtown office workers can pick up some ready-made lunch.

Hood strawberries, so sweet

I like assembling a picnic from the fresh food. Yesterday it was a pint of Hood strawberries from Unger Farms, super-voluptuous Brooks and Rainier cherries from Baird Family Orchards, a loaf of walnut levain from Pearl Bakery, and some lemon-dill goat cheese from a new vendor called Briar Rose.

And a market on Monday means an easy answer to the “what’s for dinner” dilemma — just fill your (reusable) tote with fresh goodies and then enjoy a seasonal supper. The spinach and orach (red spinach) from Gathering Together Farm is awesome — so sweet and tender. I sear-roasted a chicken breast from Dayton Meat’s chicken (not from the market, unfortunately — I got it at Pastaworks, and it’s so good), fried some red potatoes from Gathering Together in the chicken fat that came from the bird, and swirled the spinach through the pan so it was just wilted, then piled it all on our plates. So full of flavor and life!

Hours 10:00 – 2:00, through October 25