While the Lane County Farmers Market and many others have closed shop for the winter months, the farmers market outside Hideaway Bakery off East Amazon Drive has been offering the local produce missed by many.
Every Saturday morning, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Eugene residents who show up soak up everything green, local and organic.
Annette Pershern of River Bend Farm and Pleasant Hill Orchard said the market’s year-round aspect gives farmers some much-needed income.
“With farming, you don’t make a lot of money,” she said, “so I go from closing my farm’s store at the Lane County Fair Grounds market to here, and I keep it going as long as I can.”
The market sits quaintly in a small, open area featuring eight to 10 booths for farmers.
Hideaway Bakery offers everything for pastry lovers from baguettes to croissants. Some are even baked in their wood-burning oven, which offers this local culinary experience.
Hideaway Bakery and Mazzi’s owner Frank Ernandes also takes produce from his own Hideaway Hills Farm to the market.
The produce brought to the market in some of the winter months can be sparse at times, but as the spring and early summer months approach, asparagus, artichoke, kale, onions and spinach, among many others, become readily available.
Lynn Schutte from Northern Lights Christmas Tree Farm brings her grass-fed beef cuts to the market every Saturday and stands as a testament to the local foods movement. She contends that loving cows, produce or whatever you feed yourself is part of promoting good growth and ultimately a healthy plant or animal.
“With grass-fed beef, the cows are allowed to continue eating what they were born to eat,” Schutte said. “Once you introduce a grain to a cow, that’s not what they normally eat.”
Feeding grain to cattle instead of allowing them to graze on pastures disrupts normal digestion, weakening their immune systems and necessitating antibiotics.
The Schuttes, on the other hand, know their cows personally. What may seem like a dysfunctional relationship as Bessie is led to the slaughter seems like second-nature and responsible farming to the Schuttes.
“They’re my cows. They’re my babies,” Schutte said. “I can tell you personality traits
about them.”
Jeannette Applauso, of Applauso Extra Virgin Olive Oil, has been attending the market since November and brings her freshly pressed olive oil as well as different varieties of Greek and Sicilian Olives ranging from black, arbequina and kalamata.
Like unfiltered beer, clouds of sediment rest on the bottom of the bottles indicating the freshness of the bottle and the unfiltered process used to extract the oil. Her olives come from just outside Orland in Northern California and are pressed within 90 hours of their picking.
“Growing olives in the Willamette Valley doesn’t work out that well,” she said.
Cold Oregon winters don’t allow younger trees breathing room to develop into more mature ones, which could probably withstand the harsh season, she said. In the meantime, the oil that Applauso sells has a wonderful buttery apple flavor and is a great addition to any table.
Hideaway Hills also has a community supported agriculture (CSA) program that Eugene residents can take advantage of. The program works as an investment link between community and farmer.
Beginning late May, customers can purchase either a full or small share in the farm’s seasonal bounty and receive weekly boxes of fresh, organic vegetables and berries.
Hideaway Farmers Market, although smaller in size than the Lane County Farmers Market or others around the area, provides an intimate setting to converse with people devoted to maintaining sustainable relationships between humanity and nature.
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