We just took an small WW office poll on whether the public art/food awareness plug/PR scheme pictured in this post is dumb or incredibly awesome. Gorge Grown Food Network, the nonprofit behind Hood River’s new farmers market spent $1,800 turning a full city block’s worth of trees into giant carrots.
Awesome won out 4-0.
Seriously, carrots are like the decorated cows of 2008, people. Hey, Portland Farmers Market folk? It’s not enough that you spread gobs of local produce love in four locations around the city each week. I wanna see giant vegetables sprouting in the middle of downtown PDX pronto—squash, yellow corn, something. The Gorge is totally showing you up.
A big thanks to Gorge Grown helper Brian Hennessy for sending us the tip. His email’s got the whole story:
Gorge Grown Food Network serves as a central source to inform and connect local Columbia River Gorge farmers, food producers and consumers. You can read more about them here: www.gorgegrown.org. One of their initiatives is a summer Farmers’ Market. It runs from June 19th through October 2nd.
The week prior to opening, we lined an entire block with gigantic carrots. Of course, being a local farmer’s market, we had a very limited budget, so we built these ourselves in the backyard. Cost: under $1,800. The Farmer’s Market sold out before the market closed on its first day. Next week, the Farmer’s Market is doubling their number vendors to help meet demand. The carrots were created by Owen Jones and Partners as a probono project to help out the local community.
By the way, Hood River is only about an hour east of Portland. Perhaps it’s time for a day trip.
Gorge Grown Farmers Market takes place 4-7 pm Thursdays, June 19 – Oct 2 at Hood River Middle School in Hood River, Oregon. Visit http://www.gorgegrown.org/farmersmarket.cfm for more info.
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