Discover how Rocky Butte Farmers Market turns a neighborhood street into a weekly community gathering place …
The banner and tents lining NE Siskiyou Street let visitors know they’ve found the Rocky Butte Farmers Market, situated in the Madison South neighborhood.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Rocky Butte Farmers Market has been transforming a stretch of NE Siskiyou Street into a lively neighborhood marketplace, drawing hundreds of shoppers each Saturday while keeping its focus firmly on small farms, food access, and community.
Market Director Liz Braun explained that the market’s Board of Directors refined its mission this season around “supporting small farms, supporting community, and making sure there’s food access – so people are seeing it and they’re showing up, and more produce vendors are choosing the market because they can see what we value.”
At this session of the Rocky Butte Farmers Market, Andrew Hecox and Oliver Buckaster highlight their “McRoots” booth – a project of the Leodis V. McDaniel High School student agriculture program.
Food hub opens doors for tiny producers
One of the biggest changes this season has been the creation of a “food hub” for micro‑farms and very small businesses that are unable to staff a booth themselves.
These producers “sign up to be a part of our food hub”, drop off their products at a designated location, and let the market team handle the rest.
In the Community Table booth, Lindsay North balances Tanager Farms produce in one hand and a carton of fresh‑this‑morning eggs from her Yarrow Field Farm in the other. Both farms come in from Corbett, Oregon.
Volunteers bring the produce to the market, sell it at the food hub table, and then “pay them out a portion of the proceeds”, making market access possible for growers who otherwise could not afford to be there.
Shoppers and vendors fill the block
On a typical market day, between 20 and 22 vendors set up along the north side of Glenhaven Park, offering a mix of locally-grown produce and specialty products. Vendor counts now feel solid, and customer turnout has kept pace. “We land around 500 each market,” Braun reported, adding that it “definitely feels like that’s our sweet spot”.
Workers stock colorful fresh produce at the Pablo Munoz Farms stand, which brings its harvest to Rocky Butte Farmers Market from Dayton, near McMinnville.
Peter Gunn, of Bagel Theory, shows off his fresh “rolls with a hole” at the market.
Shoppers find “a lot of variety” at the Rocky Butte Farmers Market, Braun observed – from fresh fruits and vegetables to mushrooms and other fungi, along with value‑added products like jams and peanut butter. Stands offer baked goods and sourdough, coffee, and handcrafted items.
Visitors also discover soaps, ceramics, and different rotating vendors as well, giving the market a changing mix of local makers and producers each week.
Speaking of local, Kristin Miller sells her ceramic mugs and bowls after walking them over from her home just a block away in the Roseway neighborhood.
MJ Johnston, of MJ Studios, serenades the crowd with live tunes.
From pop‑up to weekly neighborhood tradition
Rocky Butte’s market roots go back to a single trial run. “The first pop up was in 2019,” Braun recalled – followed by a monthly market in 2021, after organizers skipped the height of the COVID‑19 pandemic.
Weekly operations began in 2022, and the market “has been weekly ever since”, gradually building a base of neighbors and regular vendors.
Helping out at the “Kids Patch” is volunteer Maddie Jolson, with fun activities for young marketgoers.
A major shift in recent seasons came when the market moved from a private parking lot to its current on‑street layout along NE Siskiyou Street, next to Glenhaven Park. Braun described its new location as “central to the neighborhood”. Families bring children for activities at the Kids Patch, and then head over to the adjacent playground, while the park and nearby schools help anchor the market as a walkable gathering place.
“We’re right smack in the middle of a neighborhood,” Braun pointed out – referring to the presence of a park, a high school, and a middle school, all close by – just off NE 82nd Avenue. She credited the move with helping drive up attendance, and remarked that the market has “seen such an increase in people supporting us here”.
Tres Angelitos PDX tempts shoppers with delicious ready‑to‑eat Mexican dishes from Costa Grande, Guerrero.
Rocky Butte Farmers Market
- Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. through October 24
- Along the north side of Glenhaven Park on NE Siskiyou Street between 80th and 82nd Avenues
- More details on the Rocky Butte Farmers Market website: CLICK HERE.
© 2026 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
