GENTLE READERS:
Now, Miss Dish is a city girl at heart, in case you didn't
know. She loves nothing more than prancing down crowded
streets filled with beautiful morons smiling in that wonderful
way city morons seem to smile when they're walking down
the streets filled with many other smiling morons.
But she also enjoys a nice zip out to the country once
in a while, too. So Miss Dish responded to a recent invitation
to visit Don Kruger's farm out on Sauvie Island to
celebrate the beginning of strawberry season with a resounding
yes!
If the name Kruger sounds familiar, it's because he's the
gent who owns the City Market and Irvington Market,
both known for their intense infatuation with produce of
the best kind. For years Kruger eyed the Sauvie Island
Market and attached growing fields; when the owners
decided to retire recently, the Green Grocer pounced and
bought the farm. The retooled operation opened in May. He's
changed the name of his markets to Kruger's Farm Markets
and now sells the produce he harvests in his stores.
And if Miss Dish may declare, this little slice of country
on Sauvie's is just a small notch down from Walton's Mountain.
There are picnic areas and farm walks open to the public,
u-pick berries and veggies, as well as a store where you
can bag some recent catches. Miss Dish enjoyed some sweet-a-licious
strawberries and fingered some housemade sauces and dressings
on the shelf. The store packs tons of info about canning
and a slew of garden books and cookbooks. In a joint venture
with a fella named Bruce James, a garden called Wild
Birds Nursery now also sprouts up on the grounds; here
you can find perennials, annuals and trees, as well as some
exotic options. For those who wish to escape the march of
morons, Miss Dish says get thee to this 65-acre farm and
get lost. Just go over the Sauvie Island bridge and you'll
find it 1.5 miles later, on the right--the farms await you
daily from 9 am to 6 pm.
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