We are really looking for some more volunteers to help us make 2010 a returning event. Excited vendors want to return. But we still need some help in the grant writing and planning stages. Sure seems silly to work this far ahead, but it’s not. Grants due mid January and beyond. We also learned last year that before we knew it the summer was here and the market was a reality.

If you are interested in helping, please let us know. We need your help. This bilingual market is one of a kind in Seattle.

Just because the market is over for the year 2009, doesn’t mean we will not keep telling you all the things happening behind the scenes to make this next years market even better. So make sure you check in every once in a while and see what we are up to.

Right now we are gathering an advisory board which is meeting often to write grants and make suggestions and gather feedback. Then we start moving forward because to make a market successful, it has to be year-round at least in the planning stages. So off we go running for the 2010 season with plans to try and make this event weekly, have cake walks, more music, more produce, more of what you want, and even perhaps hours that will help folks who work on Saturday.

And as always, bi-lingual, multi-cultural and local resident vendors are the focus.

And a huge thank you to everyone that helped make the market a success, to the City of Seattle for our grant and faith in us, to our fiscal sponsor, to our neighborhood association who gave us insurance,  C2C for helping with our co-op, our vendors who continued to show up even though maybe our numbers were small, and to you, who spent your hard earned cash supporting a true grassroots organization.

Why not do both?

South Park is the place to be this Saturday. Come to the market at 10am, shop, eat, etc., and grab one of the best spots in town for the parade. When the dancing horse guys are done and the leftovers are picked up off the road, you can wander down to the festival at the community center on 8th. It runs until 5pm so there is plenty of time to celebrate at both locations. The market is over at 3pm.

Or come, go down to the festival and then come back. Just remember the main streets are all closed for the parade from 9am to noon. Which means, unless you know the back roads across the south park bridge, you are gonna end up parking and walking. If you want to come to the market but want to drive all the way and have parking, then be sure to come after 12:30 or 1pm. There will still be lots of good stuff, art, fresh veggies and good food to eat. Live music from 11 to 1pm.

See you Saturday morning or afternoon.

Join us for our final market of the 2009 season. It’s that simple. 10am – 3pm.

A parade in town and a festival down the street. South Park is the place to be this Saturday, September 19th. Corner of 14th and Cloverdale in the Napoli’s Pizza parking lot. Parking available on the streets. But if you can walk or ride your bike, all the better.

A big sent off with encouragement for the next year’s season is what we are hoping to see at this month’s Market on Wheels.

Here are all great questions to ask yourself:

Do you like having a farmers market in South Park?

Do you like having the majority of the produce sold at the market
come from an organic farm just blocks away?

Do you like that the vendors are residents and business owners in South Park?

Do you like eating amazing roasted corn and fresh handmade tamales, fresh made tortillas?

Do you like a smaller less crowded market?

Do you like reasonable priced quality produce?

Do you like seeing artists and other local folks making products to sell in their neighborhood?

Do you like the bilingual (Spanish & English) market?

Do you love fresh beautiful bouquets of flowers?

If you answered yes to one or all of these questions, then you owe it to yourself and the vendors to come on Saturday, September 19th for a great final market of the year. And you get  two great events this month to enjoy. Make a day of it. Come to the market. Shop and enjoy, sit down on the curb and watch the parade and then even follow it to the community center for more fun within the community. Enjoy the market and Fiestas Patrias.

The market starts at 10am and goes through 3pm. Fiestas Patrias runs through 5pm. Parade goes right past the market and is one of the best places to watch the parade. Park on the side streets and walk on over. Because of the parade, 14th will be closed south of Cloverdale and then Cloverdale will be closed from 14th down to 8th Ave. And 8th Ave will be closed up to the community center.

Good food and good booths at both places. Hope to see you there.

The South Park Market on Wheels is going to be a great weekly bilingual market that is sustainable. We had our first meeting last night with a new group of excited folks who are coming together to start planning next years market now (an advisory board).

We haven’t even had our last market this year, but hats off is what we heard. When Luis Amado (a vendor and an advisory board member) polled folks about the market and it’s image and overall community impact, all votes came in with positive responses and very positive impact responses. The community is really coming together. It’s starting small but growing, and perhaps that is a good way to be sustainable.

One of the big comments have always been that we need more publicity. My budget has only been so much with grant money, so I am asking you one favor as a reader. Please if you will just make sure you tell at least one person about the market. Let’s spread the word in a grassroots fashion much like the entire market has been organized. And if you wanted to tell more than one, well, I sure wouldn’t be upset by that.

Suggestions we heard in the meeting last night were:

• Weekly in 2010
• Longer hours so folks who work on Saturdays can also shop
• more produce stands
• a monthly art market
• a cake walk and other community involved activities
• more music
• a flea market in a lot next door

We decided to also make sure that even if everyone in the room at the meeting can speak English, that we will continue to translate each meeting in both languages so that anyone who wishes to participate can feel comfortable. It makes our meetings a little longer but really speaks to what we are trying to accomplish in South Park.

Since our last market we have been asked by other markets how to get their diverse community involved in their own markets. Word on the street is that we are doing something right. The Market on Wheels meetings are the only real neighborhood meetings in South Park that are truly bilingual meetings that I know of. Hopefully that shows our community how dedicated we are to our entire community. And somewhere maybe in the mix some of us start learning a new language.

All in all a great new group of folks coming out to help facilitate that this market survives.

Our third market was a success for us. If you were the Columbia City market or the University District market you would have thought we had the worse day in history. But still, South Park is not Columbia City, or the U District. We are not even West Seattle. What we are is a tiny neighborhood sandwiched in between industry and a river. We are a misunderstood neighborhood. South Park has a lot of heart. The neighbors know each other and pull together to make things happen. We are political, hard working and diverse.

Our market will show you that as well. Our market reaches the community and our diversity and embraces it. Cultural barriers being broken down and coming together to give the community something to be proud of. Our market is a grassroots group struggling to make it in a time when everyone is feeling the affects of a tight economic downturn. People are coming together to bring food to a community that lacks it.

We missed the ice cream yesterday because the ice cream bike never showed. But we did give away lots of free reusable shopping bags from the city as well as twist green light bulbs. No one walked away empty handed. The flowers were amazing and beautiful. The art is fun and sometimes whimsical. The produce some of the freshest you’d find at any market. And the vendors are the warmest and most genuine. No one has been hired to come sell a product for someone else. These folks have come up with their own idea of what to sell and are selling it direct.

So on August 15th, I had some delicious corn in a cup with mayo, parm cheese and chili sauce. I also bought raw corn to take home and cook. I bought a handmade card for a friend of mine who just had a baby, some apricots, cilantro, beans and tomatillos. I don’t make a lot of money so it’s hard for me to spend much, but when I come to this market, I always wish I had more to spend because there is so much wonderful things and people to buy from.

Our next and final market for the 2009 season will be on Saturday, September 19th. This is your last chance to show this group of folks that you support what they are trying to do. South Park will be the place to be. Come to the Market on Wheels and then stay and enjoy the parade and festivites of Fiestas Patrias as well.

Remember Jose, and his local veggie garden at Marra Farm?
When I asked him what he should have available this Saturday at the
Market on Wheels to buy he said,”I should have some green tomatillos this weekend”.

Also he thinks he’ll be picking and selling:

• zucchini / calabacín
• cucumbers / pepinos
• kale / col rizada
• chard / cardo
• and even kelieta (see below)

(now mind you the reception on the phone was bad and I do not speak a lick of Spanish, and I can’t even figure out how to find it in google). He knew I was struggling on this one so he told me you steam it and it’s good. So I’m up for checking out a new veggie.

SIDE NOTE: This just in. Thank you to Nancy Swigger for sharing her knowledge with me to pass along. “It is spelled quelites and it is like a mild spinach and does grow wild, but you have to cook it longer than spinach and it is far more nutritious.  Super with beans.”

In addition to Jose, you’ll find Dao Lee Garden’s selling Asian herbs, veggies and flowers.
Bill & Honey will be selling organic and non-organic produce at their stand.
And Betty Jean might have some things from her pesticide-free home garden.
Last time I bought some organic catnip for my 3 fur balls.

And what could you make with tomatillos? You could try making homemade Salsa Verde or check out this recipe for a Spicy Chicken and Tomatillo Soup

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Soup/SpicyChickenTomatilloSoup.htm

So rain or shine, I hope to see you this Saturday at the 3rd South Park Market on Wheels. Located in the Napoli’s parking lot on the corner of 14th & Cloverdale. Market officially opens at 10 am and closes at 3pm.

AFTER THOUGHT: Here’s a link about the great wild spinach veggie (quelites) I mentioned above. One of the reasons I am having so much fun volunteering for this market is that I am learning a lot.

http://www.culinate.com/columns/deborah/quelites_love

The City of Seattle is giving our market 492 free shopping bags to hand out to customers at the market this Saturday, August 15th. They are nice sized and perfect for groceries.
Stop by, get your free grocery bag and then wander around and fill it with Market goodies. Good while supplies last.

Join us at the market this month, August 15th from 10 am to 3 pm. We’ll have good food, good art, cool other stuff, amazing vendors who are your neighbors, the freshes veggies, you, ice cream and a fun band called “Trio Lucero del Norte“.

The trio performs roots music, regional Mexican/folk music. They will be performing from 11am to 1pm. So make sure you stop by, buy some amazing veggies, eat your lunch and enjoy some music. Not to mention enjoying your neighbors in a great way.

Make it a day.