SIFF creative director Carl Spence with Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin at the world premiere of their film, Good Food at the Egyptian last night. Photo courtesy SIFF.

Do you eat?
If so, do you know where your food comes from?
Good Food is a new documentary that spotlights a wide variety of Washington and Oregon’s local farms. Now I’m a locavore. I blog about cooking and eating local regularly [E] and [CL]. If you’ve been following my occasional Meet Your Local Farmers Market Vendors series, you’ve even met a number of the stars of this film! If you shop at the farmers markets, you might even be IN the film!
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Welcome back to Meet your Local Farmers Market Vendors! I know we’ve been a bit sporadic lately, but all of you wonderful local shoppers out there are keeping the market vendors hopping and I certainly can’t ask them to take time away from their customers to talk to me. So I’ve started conducting interviews via e-mail whenever possible. This also allows me to bring you the interview in the vendor’s own words.

This week, we’re talking to Jenny of Pies by Jenny. She sells her beautiful pies at the University District Farmers Market on Saturdays from 9am-2pm.

So, Jenny, tell us a little about Pies by Jenny.
“Pies By Jenny” opened December 8th, 2007 at the U-District farmers’ market. Currently the U-District market is the only location I sell my pies and I hope to expand to other markets in the future.

What’s your favorite part of the market?
My favorite part of selling at the market is being a part of a meaningful community of people I deeply respect and admire. It’s great being Eiko’s neighbor at the market and hearing her laughter, what a joyous person! I enjoy listening to the wisdom of farmer Wade Bennet (Rockridge Orchards). Also, I love and am moved by the loyalty of the “Pies By Jenny” regulars. For example, it’s great to see Teri every Saturday at 8:55 a.m., waiting for her Organic Vegetarian savory pie. Beautiful way to start the market day. It is very fun to meet new customers as well and our “regular” list is growing.

Where do you get your ingredients?
All of my pies feature ingredients from the farmers I am surrounded by at the market.

How do you choose your flavor combinations?
I consult with Chef Tamara Murphy on new pie ideas and her generosity is endless. She provides the Brasa restaurant kitchen space for me to prepare and make the pies, in the mornings, for free and her support has made my dream a reality.

Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?
One dollar from every pie sold is donated to the Good Farmer Fund, a disaster relief fund for local farmers.

We’re back! Yes, that’s right. Meet Your Farmers Market Vendors is back! This week’s interview is Anne from Trevani Truffles.

I’ve been enjoying Anne’s truffles for several months now. She has interesting flavors like Grand Marnier, Pear Ginger, Blackberry, an Espresso Mocha, and of course, rich, decadent chocolate (among others).

I contacted Anne the other day and I’ll let her tell you about her business in her own words.

Here’s my story:  My little Trevani Truffles business began only last summer at the urging of my children.
 For several years the family and close friends were the sole recipients of these chocolates.  But my son, especially, kept bugging me to “DO something with these!”.  The opportunity came when, seeing that my sweet old momie was going to be living with us and needed some serious care, and that I couldn’t take care of her and work outside of the home, too.  I needed to scramble and get SOMETHING going.
I made a phone call to the Renton Farmer’s Market people to get info on how to start at the outdoor markets.  After an initial rejection because I don’t GROW the truffles and the market is an agricultural one, I was informed that 5% of the vendors could be not farmers as long as they were local.  I live in Renton so I was IN!
Now I have two year-round markets, University District on Saturdays and West Seattle on Sundays.  I’m looking to get into the Ballard Market and have Broadway and Renton this summer.

I use Venezuelan chocolate, 58% cocoa mass for the ganache and 73% for the shell.  Only DARK chocolates here!   I like the earthy quality of the Venezuelan chocolate.  It seems more raw.  I use local ingredients when I can.  Like the “CreamyDreamy Pear Ginger”,  the pear is from the Booth Orchards in Twisp. They sell at the Seattle farmer’s markets.  And the hazelnuts, too, are local market vendors. Chili peppers, local. Also organic ingredients when possible.  So ,yes, some of the flavor combinations are seasonal.  Local sweet wines and Whidbey’s Port are ingredients also used. I made a porter beer truffle last week.  And of course coffee!

As for how do I choose and decide what favors?  It  is a constant and  quite unscientific experimentation.  Just think of a thing delicious to you and if it sounds good dipped in chocolate!  Well, there you are.  A new experiment!  And a possible HIT!
My favorite part of the market scene is meeting the people and chatting with them.. Folks have a way of inspiring me to continue with this venture.  When their faces light up from (surprise?) tasting their 1st bite…OH! I want to take their pictures!  And the little kids who favor dark- not- sweet- chocolate!  who knew !?
Right now the outdoor markets are my “store”.  It has been a cold wet winter!  One day soon I’ll find a perfect little shop, like in the movie, CHOCOLAT.    ‘Til then, pray for beautiful cool sunshine!

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Till next time, shop local, cook local, and if you find a new vendor because of this series, please tell them that you read about them on Seattle Metroblogging!

As much as I’d love to be one of those annoying people who finishes their Christmas shopping before Labor Day, it will never happen. I’m forever buying gifts at the last minute, usually on the way back to whatever family function I’m attending (all of which require me to drive a decent distance, thus affording me the opportunity to shop).

This year I have an additional challenge. I’m on a pretty strict budget (stricter than usual as I have a rather important event to pay for in, oh… 21 days - eek!)

I’m looking for the best reasonable local gift ideas that my family will actually like. I’m not talking about the Space Needle magnets or the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack. I want gifts that they’ll use and enjoy.

I’ve listed a few ideas after the jump, but I’m counting on you, dear readers. Help me fill my holiday gift bags and still have the money to pay for my wedding.
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Last Thursday, I attended the first Queen Anne Farmers Market. As part of our cheese series, I spoke to Julie Steil of River Valley Ranch.

Julie and one of her sons from River Valley Ranch

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Estrella Family Creamery’s booth at the local markets is always swamped. They have an amazing setup with a counter and glass enclosure to protect the cheese and let customers see exactly what they’re buying. Because they are so popular, finding time to interview them has been difficult. I was lucky to carve out a few minutes on the phone with Kelli Estrella the other day to bring you this interview.
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I don’t know about you, dear readers, but I’m loving this cheese series. Take one of my favorite foods, and combine it with two of my favorite things: writing, and visiting farmers markets. Today’s entry in our series is Golden Glen Creamery. I found them at the Bellevue Farmer’s Market and had a lovely chat with Judy Jensen, one of the owners and cheesemakers of Golden Glen Creamery.

Golden Glen Creamery at Bellevue Farmer’s Market

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Our cheese series continues with Appel Farms. I’ve been sampling and buying Appel Farms’ cheeses for the past two years at the University District Farmer’s Market. The other day, I spoke to Janet while sampling some of their cheese curds.

Appel Farms at the University District Farmer’s Market

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This week on ‘Meet Your Farmers Market Vendors’, we begin our long awaited cheese series! Ok, so maybe none of you dear readers were awaiting the series, but I was. I can count cheese among my favorite foods, right along side cupcakes, salmon, Theo chocolate, bacon, grass fed beef, and wine. (What?!? Wine is a food.)

I’ll start off this cheese series with a newly discovered vendor at the Bellevue Farmer’s Market: Black Sheep Creamery. I spoke to Meg Gregory, co-owner of Black Sheep Creamery with her husband, Brad.

Black Sheep Creamery

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Note: Thank you for your patience during the 3 week break in this series. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

The sun is shining, it’s time to switch from hot to iced coffee drinks, and the University District Farmer’s Market was hopping this morning at 9 am. The line for Skagit River Ranch’s eggs was 6 people deep, but Woodring Orchards was still relatively quiet. When I asked Dale Nelson of Woodring about this, he revealed that it’s always slow for the first half an hour or so. People tend to grab their meat and veggies and then wander over to check out his wares.

Luckily for me, the brief lull in customers gave me a wonderful opportunity to interview Dale and find out a little about Woodring Orchards.
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