New "Urban" market opens at Hawthorne!

I am beyond excited to check out the new market in my favorite Portland district! As soon as I get the chance, I will be there reporting the find. Awesome tidbit is that the market will accept bartering as payment!

Here is the press release I found:

The Hawthorne Urban Farmers' Market Announces a Grand Opening for 5 July

The Hawthorne Urban Farmers' Market (HUFM) will be celebrating its Grand Opening on Sunday, 5 July 2009, from 1-6pm and, operating every subsequent Sunday until Thanksgiving. This unique market is the only one in the Portland Metro Area that will primarily feature Ultra-local produce grown within the city limits, using the innovative distributed-network method. It is also the only Farmers' Market inOregon that officially accepts barter as payment (wow, I'm great at this).

Most farmers' markets in Portland and Greater Oregon are much larger and bring in folks from all over town for produce grown up to 75 or 100 miles away. The Hawthorne Urban Farmers' Market is small, but it also has an effective range of 15 miles. Some of the vendors perform their farmwork and come to market by bicycle. Through an arrangement of goodwill and mutual benefit, nearby businesses on the upper blocks of Hawthorne Boulevard allow their facilities to be used by market-goers. Just as the the Distributed-network Urban Farming Movement in Southeast Portland has grown up due to necessity on the part of a handful of intrepid, young farmers, the Hawthorne Urban Farmers' Market arose to supplement several unique and innovative styles of produce production and marketing. “Though it will seem like any Market from the outside, everything about this market is pragmatically cool and very South-east,” said Marie Richie of the Sellwood Garden Club, one of the more than half-a-dozen produce vendors expected to be present on any given week. “It's the way Portland will feed itself in the future,” added Farmer K of Sunroot Gardens. The Hawthorne Urban Farmers' Market is an experiment in self-organization that allows each vendor ultimate freedom to conduct business as he or she chooses. The market is also not affiliated with the Oregon Farmers' Market Association. It operates without fees from vendors but instead, relies upon a gift economy. For instance, vendors pitch in to give the entertainment and lot owners a bag of produce or give goods between each other to exchange what one might call the capital of goodwill.