Parkrose Farmers’ Market is no more, according to Market Master Ron Glanville. Moving from Parkrose to Gateway two years ago was the final blow for the wobbly farmers market as it ends its eight-year run. Parkrose patrons Clare and Sharon Mershon supported the market weekly since its inception in 2008. STAFF/2013

Parkrose Farmers’ Market is no more, according to Market Master Ron Glanville. Moving from Parkrose to Gateway two years ago was the final blow for the wobbly farmers market as it ends its eight-year run. Parkrose patrons Clare and Sharon Mershon supported the market weekly since its inception in 2008.
STAFF/2013

After being on life support for two years since moving to its new venue at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ in Gateway (“Parkrose Farmers’ Market opens Saturday at new location” MCM blog April 30, 2014), the Parkrose Famers’ Market is no more after an eight-year run.

Open Saturdays from May through October—in later years, September—at Parkrose High School, the market boomed in its heyday, bringing faithful shoppers to buy produce, flowers, salmon, fresh eggs, the hottest barbecue sauce this side of Texas, chips and salsa, hummus, tamales, herbs, chocolates, baked goods, jewelry and other handcrafts, prepped food, a knife sharpener and a few decent acoustic rock bands and solo artists.

When asked what happened, Market Master Ron Glanville, who assumed management of market in 2014 and moved the market from Parkrose High School to the church property at 12505 N.E. Halsey St., where he is a parishioner, said the “market wasn’t doing well. Demographics … people are growing [their own produce], not shopping.” He said Rossi Farms is having similar problems.

When contacted, Joe Rossi confirmed in an email he isn’t selling produce this spring or summer out of the family barn on Northeast 122nd Avenue, which re-opened last season after an eight-year absence, but is opening Oct. 1 to sell winter fruit and vegetables.

The Memo pointed out to Glanville that his very local former market vendor, The Urban Acre Homestead of 2300 N.E. 132nd Avenue, has migrated from PFM to Lents International Farmers’ Market. Glanville responded that Lents International Farmers’ market is operated by Zenger Farms and is “all-volunteer.” PFM was nonprofit, but it still had to pay its staff—him. So funding was also a problem, Glanville admitted.

Glanville suggested that Gateway Discovery Park might be a suitable home for another east Portland farmers’ market. So location is everything, Glanville seems to be saying.

When original market master Steve Voorhees left abruptly just before the 2013 opening, Parkrose School District Board of Education member Mary Lu Baetkey stepped in and, with a few key vendors, helped keep the market going for a year between Voorhees’ and Glanville’s tenures. Baetkey said “the year Steve notified everyone … we decided [whether] to keep it going [or fold it then]. Getting vendors to come to Parkrose isn’t easy.” She pointed out that there are competitive markets in Montavilla and Gresham, and Giusto Farms and Trapold Farms’ The Barn, in addition to Rossi Farms, Grocers’ Outlet and produce kiosks near Costco and elsewhere. This all makes it difficult to compete if you don’t have a bigger selection of produce than two or three vendors and your market becomes less “farmers’” and more “Saturday Market,” as the PFM did even before it left its Parkrose environs.

Baetkey also pointed out that east Portland’s relatively large Ukrainian and Romanian populations are Saturday church-goers, which may be a legitimate cultural demographic strike against PFM receiving enough visitors to attract vendors, at least on Saturdays. All “the to-dos … became daunting,” Baetkey sighed.

Tom Badrick, who is a member of the Halsey/Weidler couplet work group, said a farmers’ market is a lot of work, especially for one person who has other projects going.

In addition to being market master for the last two seasons, Glanville is a writer and editor of the East Portland Neighborhood Association News, as well as the longtime chair of his Russell Neighborhood Association, which entails hours of ancillary meetings and commitments.

Parkrose patrons Clare and Sharon Mershon were PFM regulars since its inception eight years ago (“Farmers Market opens with music, prizes” MCM May 2008). “We thought it was a real asset to the neighborhood,” said Clare Mershon. “I’m sure sorry they’re not going to do it.” Mershon said the move didn’t deter them from going, but when Joe Rossi opened his barn in 2015 after an eight-year hiatus, the Mershons started going there. Rossi Farms is closer to the Argay Terrace residents, after all, and the Mershons know the family and support their endeavors. “Having choices where to buy your produce in the community is a healthy thing and is good.”