10A • August 24, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
GOING
STRONG
Born of a disaster, Cannon
Beach Farmers Market is
blooming a decade later
By Nancy McCarthy
For Cannon Beach Gazette
E
very Tuesday for the past 10 sum-
mers, the City Hall parking lot in
Cannon Beach turns into a farmers
market.
Instead of cars parked in the spac-
es, there are at least 25 booths filled with
produce from local farms, berries, mush-
rooms, honey, organic meats, wine, peach-
es and lots of other homegrown goodies.
Musicians fill the air with songs as chefs
prepare fish tacos, sausages, Ramen bowls
or Kobe beef burgers.
Cannon Beach locals and tourists visit
regularly — one day the counters at the
market’s entrances clicked off 2,331 visi-
tors. They come from all over the U.S. and
foreign countries; some from Australia and
Scotland stopped by the market’s informa-
tion booth recently.
“It’s a great market,” said Jackie John-
son, of Maple Valley, Washington. John-
son, who visited the market for the first
time last year, called this year to make sure
it was still going.
“You’ve got some good vendors with
good-quality products; that’s what I like
about it,” Johnson said. “You’ve got some
interesting things, some different things.
We have a lot of (farmers) markets, but I
haven’t seen the variety and the quality of
the products.”
Blowing into town
You might say that a hurricane launched
the market.
Kristin Frost Albrecht, the market’s first
manager, recalled how the Great Coast-
al Gale in December 2007 devastated the
North Coast but alerted residents to the ar-
ea’s weaknesses, including the lack of lo-
cally produced food.
“That event brought to light our suscep-
tibility to natural disasters and our region’s
limited food security, should we be cut off
from major distribution routes,” recalled
Frost Albrecht in an email. She now man-
ages a food bank in Hawaii. “In particular,
Cannon Beach residents had limited access
to fresh produce.”
A big deal
But several challenges arose, including
finding local farmers.
“We discovered that, out of Oregon’s 36
counties, Clatsop County was the 35th in
terms of agricultural production,” Frost Al-
brecht wrote. “Of the farmers who were in
the North Coast region, nearly all were age
65 or older, with many considering retire-
ment and leaving farming.”
However, Bob Neroni and his wife, Le-
nore Emery, had a solution for that. As op-
erators of the EVOO Cooking School, they
also had difficulty obtaining local produce.
They asked then-City Manager Rich Mays
— who had never been to a farmers market
before — if a market could be started. They
talked to other chefs about collaborating on
purchases, too.
“Because we were so small, it was really
difficult for farms to come and deliver, say,
a case of tomatoes,” Neroni recalled. “But
with the idea of the market, and at the same
time the chef’s collaborative … one case
turned into 20 cases. That was worth their
while coming.”
There were other challenges, too: find-
ing a location; working around city ordi-
nances prohibiting outdoor merchandising;
dealing with local merchants’ concerns
about competition; and securing financial
support.
After the Cannon Beach City Council
agreed to sponsor the market and to allow
it on the City Hall parking lot, a farmers
market committee got to work.
“There was a lot of effort by the com-
mittee to try to structure what kind of farm-
ers market we wanted and what the rules
were,” said Rainmar Bartl, who, as city
planning director, guided the group through
the web of city ordinances affecting the
market. “That was a big deal.”
NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS AS-
SISTING THE MARKET: 24
The committee had high expectations.
“We wanted this to be a serious food
market with a “gold standard,” with the
vendors as “growers/sellers,” Frost Al-
brecht said. “In vetting our vendors, we
visited every farm, as well as artisan pro-
ducers to make sure they were the ones
growing, harvesting and/or foraging their
products.”
Vendor Anne Berlinger, of Gales Mead-
ow Farms in Forest Grove, appreciates the
policy.
“I like it that Cannon Beach is what you
see is what is grown at the vendor’s farm;
that’s really important,” said Berlinger, who
has been with the market since it started.
The committee decided early on not to
allow crafts to avoid competing with local
merchants who might carry similar items.
The “no competition” rule was so strict
that cut flowers were banned the first year
because some local businesses carried cut
flowers. The “cut flower” controversy heat-
ed up until Daryl “Hank” Johnson resigned
from his membership on the city’s design
review board in protest of the ban. He later
rejoined the board, however.
The “food only” policy sets Cannon
Beach apart, said market manager Philo-
mena Lloyd, who works 19 hours a week
organizing the market.
“It’s one of the things that makes our
market unique in the whole North Coast
area. It’s kind of an identifying thing, and
I think our food vendors appreciate it,”
Lloyd said.
Ten years later, the market is thriving
with 29 vendors from Oregon and southern
Washington.
“The market became Cannon Beach’s
‘living room’ — a place where you were
going to be sure to see your friends, neigh-
bors, family every week — and buy fresh,
local, seasonal food,” Frost Albrecht said.
“While the food was the reason, what be-
came apparent was that the market was all
about community.”
Marty Giguiere
Owner/Broker
c: 503.440.7676
o: 503.436.1777
e: mr007@pacifier.com
NANCY MCCARTHY PHOTO
New to the Cannon Beach Farmers Mar-
ket, Blackberry Bog Farms brings pro-
duce, eggs and free-range chickens to the
market.
NANCY MCCARTHY
Once banned from the Cannon Beach
Farmers Market due to concerns about
competition with local businesses, cut
flowers are among the most popular
items purchased at the market.
Egrane Brown
Susan Tone
Broker
c: 503.440.1648
e: egranebrown@gmail.com
Broker
c: 503.354.4072
e: susantone@nehalemtel.net
Andrea Mace
Hilary Herman
Shelley Parker
Broker
c. 503.440.9280
e: maryanns@remax.net
Broker
c. 503-440-4024
e: Andrea.k.mace@remax.net
Broker
c: 503-791-4718
e: HilaryHerman@hotmail.com
Broker
c: 503-739-1977
e: Shelley.Parker@mail.com
Cheryl Johnson
Abbas Atwi
Broker
c: 503-739-1977
e: Cheryl.Johnson@remax.net
Broker
c: 503-310-8464
e: Abbas.atwi@remax.net
219 N. Hemlock, Cannon Beach 503.436.1777
430 Laneda, Manzanita 503.368.1777
Member of 2 MLS Systems Each office is independently owned & operated
163 E CHENA
All brokers listed are licensed in the State of Oregon
188 FERNWOOD
2675 SUNSET BLVD
LI NE
ST W
IN
G
LI NE
ST W
IN
G
187 W MADISON
CITY-SPONSORED MARKET: The
city of Cannon Beach budgeted
$40,853 for the market this year.
When it started, Lake Oswego was
the only other Oregon city to spon-
sor a farmers market.
Maryann Sinkler
2 LOCATIONS TO SERVE YOU!
1868 PACIFIC
ITEMS FOR SALE: They include
produce, honey, wine, cheese, salad
dressings, baked goods, organic
meats, cured meats, candy, fla-
vored nuts, hummus, mushrooms,
peaches, cranberry goods, coffee,
tea, olive oils, cut flowers
The city’s ‘living room’
#1 in sales 2016 and 2017
/REMAXCoastalAdvantage
WHEN: 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays
through Sept. 27
NUMBER OF VENDORS: 29, plus
community booths
Owner/Principal Broker
c: 503.440.3202
f: 877.812.1126
e: alainagiguiere@mac.com
CoastalAdvantage.com
CANNON BEACH FARMERS MAR-
KET, 10TH ANNIVERSARY
WHERE: City Hall parking lot,
midtown
Alaina Giguiere
Coastal Advantage
If you go
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PENDING
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773 AVE ‘A’
4877 DRUMMOND DR
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164 E DAWES
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G
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