Life by Bike

Posted on May 25, 2010 by Dave Feucht

During the Farmers Market season, we make it a weekend tradition to ride over to our local farmers market in Irvington neighborhood every Sunday, and get some breakfast along the way. This year we’ve also discovered the market in the Hollywood neighborhood, which is almost as close to us, is on Saturday, and has a notably different selection of vendors, so we’ve decided to start frequenting both. Farmers market weekends! Fresh, delicious food, supporting local community and economy, and often there’s good pre-made food to be eaten at the markets as well.

This weekend was the first week for the Irvington Farmers Market, so we hooked up with a couple of friends to head over, and we stopped at Grand Central Bakery nearby for some breakfast.

Grand Central

Trina and I had a Monkey Muffin (the gooey one with nuts) and a rhubarb hand pie.

Breakfast Pastries

There was a really cute little dog “parked” outside, who was posing for us as we came out the door. It was great, we all came out the door and just stopped in our tracks, as it was obvious the dog was totally putting on his best look for us :)

Doggy Poo

We headed over to the farmers market and ended up with some beautiful carrots, beets, rhubarb, spinach and pork chops. All being said and done, we headed back to the bikes, loaded up, and headed back to our place.

Farmers Market Group

Last night we pan-seared the pork chops and made some rhubarb compote to go with them. We trimmed some of the fat from the pork chops to cook the beet greens in with chopped shallots, and there you have it.

Pan-seared pork chops with rhubarb compote and sauteed beet greens

Pan-seared pork chops with rhubarb compote and sauteed beet greens

Pan-seared pork chops with rhubarb compote and sauteed beet greens

Pan-seared pork chops with rhubarb compote and sauteed beet greens

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  • Anne

    Best use of rhubarb I think I've ever seen.

    Where is the Irvington farmer's market? I didn't know we had one!

  • portlandize.com

    Anne: The compote was delicious – would also be a great topping for ice cream, and really easy to make :)

    The Irvington Farmers Market is on NE 16th between Broadway and Weidler, Sundays from 11am-3pm.

  • MamaVee

    mmmmm. our market doesn't start til July. It's during the week which is good inthe summer as we are gone most weekends. but…. a breakfast then market morning would be lovely on a sat or sunday. I'm not missing the nyc union square farmer's market that ran Mon, weds, Fri and Sat year long. I used to walk up on sat and buy veggies and meander back home.

  • portlandize.com

    It's great in Portland, as just about every major neighborhood has a farmers market – I think there are about 15 weekly markets in Portland proper (maybe more that I couldn't find by quick search), plus some in the suburbs. Generally they start up around the beginning to end of May, and go through November or sometimes December.

    The profusion of really available really good food in Portland is one of my favorite things about the city.

  • MamaVee

    mm that was supposed to be I AM missing the NYC market….

  • portlandize.com

    :) I was wondering about that…

  • adam

    woah!

    scared me for a sec when I saw the fat trimmed….as if you were going to discard that lovely lushiousness! I was worried.
    My wife and I are lucky living in central Kentucky, in the heart of some of the most fertile land in the world and a thriving farmers market. We also buy a CSA share into an organic farm. Very nice to directly support the farmers. I would love to see more posts about markets in Portland. I think you can divine the essence of a place by watching what the outdoor markets sell.

    I am gonna have to cook pork for dinner now. Oh, noble beast!

  • Herzog

    Great photos too! Markets — I wish "the hub of the universe" at least had some nice ones.

    Are you missing the rear reflector on one of your Raleighs?

    BTW, it rained here last night! You know what that means! :)

  • Herzog

    And also, where did you get the black panniers you have on your Raleigh?

  • portlandize.com

    @adam: I don't know if I'll do more posts here or not, but my wife and I do also have a cooking blog at http://givetothewheat.blogspot.com, and I'll most likely post more about our market trips, as well as, of course, what we cook with the stuff we get :)

    The pork fat was great in the greens, it got a little bit crispy, and added such nice flavor. Mmmm…

  • portlandize.com

    @Herzog: The Raleigh with no rear reflector originally had a rear light, actually, and the wiring is still there, so we're going to add it back eventually.

    Hooray for nicely weathered brass bell!

    The panniers I have on my Raleigh are Linus brand, and came from Clever Cycles here in town. Doesn't look like they have them on their website, but they might be able to complete an order via phone and ship them, not sure.

  • adam

    I very much like your food blog, and browse from time-to-time. You have a robust and diverse palette-what I imagine Portland is like shows up in your cooking. Cheers!

    I think that you should continue to do those posts about recipes, restaurant reviews, etc. using that particular website. However, if and when the urban consciousness of food dovetails into the urban consciousness of everyday cycling, I think it is pertinent enough to post here. Perhaps I am speaking the obvious, but,I think diversity of topic helps to continue to emancipate everyday cycling from nerdiness, cliques and uber-sportiness.
    As much as I love commingling with like minds and am certainly addicted to the momentum of a fledgling movement, sometimes I yearn for the day I can forget about the purpose of riding my bike….

    ….and continue to ride.

    Keep up the good work.

  • What Would a Nerd Wear

    ohh i love biking to the farmers market in the summer!

  • portlandize.com

    @adam: yeah, Portland does have a very diverse food scene – and so much of it is so good!

    I will certainly post here for all kinds of things, because bicycles are just a part of our life, and they get used by us to go to the market, go to coffee, go grocery shopping, go on dates, go to acupuncture, etc. Just about everything we do on a regular basis gets done at least some of the time on a bicycle.

    It's entirely possible that you'll see more posts about going to the market, I just didn't want to promise anything :)

    @What Would a Nerd Wear: Indeed, it's one of our favorite weekend routines :)

  • Dottie

    Life by bike is the best way to live :) Thanks for sharing your beautiful day with us. And that adorable dog – I want!