Searching for Sour Cream on the South End

My crew loves sour cream. We keep a big tub of it at the kitchen and we use it to fill a smaller tub to bring to the markets to eat with our own tamales and quesadillas. But yesterday we were out of sour cream at the kitchen so we couldn't bring any to Columbia City.

The first two hours of Columbia City tend to be slow and I usually bring a book and sit in the park and read, waiting for the dinner rush. Yesterday I told the crew I'd go find them some sour cream. It's the kind of errand I enjoy: exploring a neighborhood on foot with an atypical agenda as a way to see a place in a new way. I also like doing little things for my staff that can make a big difference to their morale.

I knew there was a Safeway about 8 blocks north of the market, but I figured I'd be able to find closer sour cream at one of the many convenience stores just south of the market. First I visited the Shola Ethiopian grocery on S. Edmunds. It's the closest food store to the market and I've gone in there over the years when I've forgotten to bring cooking oil. They had fresh injera bread (the spongy stuff that you use to scoop up those tasty Ethiopian dishes.) They had raw coffee beans, whole cinnamon sticks and cardamom pods, and even ghee in their refrigerated section. But no sour cream.

Next I visited the Busy Bee grocery, which had mainly processed convenience foods. I also found another 3 or 4 Halal groceries rich with traditional Middle Eastern, Indian and North African products, but I did not find sour cream.

After walking 6 blocks, I turned back empty handed. I finally did find some sour cream ("crema") at a Mexican grocery that I had passed over on my way south because it looked like it just had mercantile products.

I thought about the term "food desert", often used to describe inner city areas whose main sources of food are overpriced convenience stores that carry very few healthy options. These stores had virtually no fresh vegetables (and no sour cream). But they did carry plenty of grains and legumes, which are relatively healthy, affordable, unprocessed foods that tend to get short shrift in discussions of food security such as Joel Berg's All You Can Eat, and Mark Winne's Closing the Food Gap.

It would have been nice to see some fresh vegetables (and some sour cream.) But I walked away from the experience feeling, again, like nothing is as simple as it seems.

Columbia City's New Location

This month the Columbia City Market moved from the parking lot where it's been held for the past 12 years onto the street adjacent to that lot.

The move has been a long time coming. Market administrators have known for years that the lot was slated for construction, and have had their eyes open for a new location. Fortunately, the city dramatically dropped fees for street closures last year.

It's tricky to move a farmers' market. Most of the moves I've experienced have been well thought out and successful, but there are always risks to breaking routines that take time to establish. Columbia City, in particular, always felt like it would be a problematic move. The two or three blocks right near the market have a lot of vitality, but if you go three blocks north or three blocks south, the area has a different feel.

By moving just half a block, the Columbia City market has been able to easily redirect customers: even if they're headed for the old parking lot, they can't possibly miss the market. Some complain about the parking situation because they've lost all the street parking, but I think it's a small price to pay.

I love seeing city streets closed for farmers' markets. The events project a confidence that they don't have when they're tucked away in parking lots. It's as if they're puffing out their chests and saying, "This matters enough to reroute traffic."