Admiring the innovation

From Occassional Musings from the Lentil Rental by corn pow

May 16, 2009

Knowing that is was going to be a hot and sunny weekend, we decided to ride our bikes to Hollywood Farmers’ Market or HFM early this morning. We knew going in that there would be no Trifecta for me today because the Village Crepery is off for two weeks but Trista had a hankering for fruit. I know. It is only the third week of HFM and we needed to hunt and gather fruit?

When we first arrived—and after talking with a neighbor we ran into—we were pleasantly surprised with a new booth: everdaycake. A vegan bakery that focuses on local and organic ingredients, we jumped at the chance to try the Pumpkin Velvet cake and the Lemon Poppy Seed cake. Very tasty and they passed for a muffin so what’s the big deal about eating cake at 8:15am?

But the hunt was for fruit and waiting in the line for the strawberries surely was not going to satisfy the particular hunger. For my part, I was just looking forward to the scrumptious breakfast burrito when we happened upon yet another new vendor: Sol Pops.

Like an archeologist discovering a wooly mammoth perfectly ensconced in the side of a glacier, the vegan-ish hunter discovered berries delicately and accurately captured from August’s harvest frozen on the end of a popsicle stick. Delicious and satisfying!

Noah, the friendly and inspired peddler of Sol Pops, told us about taking a series of classes at the Food Innovation Center in downtown Portland designed for people with recipes that they want to take to market. They now peddle their pops (bike and all) at various farmers’ markets around the area bringing sunshine and delight, and they even reuse the popsicle sticks for a soapbox derby later this summer.

Trista gleefully enjoyed a triple berry popsicle as if she was six years old again. The smile on her face told everyone around that these Sol Pops were not to be missed. For me, I had to indulge in the foundational breakfast burrito before I tried the strawberry lemonade pop, which did not disappoint. Tangy and refreshing—just what I needed to get the day off on a good start. We didn’t try the cucumber, lime, jalapeño pop, but we hope they’ll be back for many more opportunities.

HFM’s third week provided plenty of ingredients—fresh lettuce, purple potatoes, dandelion greens, rhubarb—us for us to create our own innovations throughout the week but the lasting memory is frozen on a stick.