Neighborhood Newsletter Archives - Page 10 of 64 - Sunnyside Neighborhood Association

Farmhouse Carts Offer Diverse Culinary Options in a Neighborhood-Friendly Space

For Reed Dow, the Farmhouse Carts site is more than just another cart pod: It is a “complement to the neighborhood” and provides a welcoming space for the community to enjoy good food from around the world.

Dow is the property owner of the Farmhouse Carts located at SE 35th Pl. and SE Division St., and has a long history with the space. In the early 1960s, Dow worked at Dow Columbia, his father’s rug and furniture-cleaning business, located at 3525 SE Division St. It later expanded into house cleaning, environmental restoration and art and antique restoration.

The business was sold in 2007 and Dow remodeled the building in 2011, turning it into a retail space. He saw the parking lot, tucked behind the building on SE 35th Pl., as an underused space that could become a vibrant neighborhood hub for people walking and biking in the area.
Dow said he chose the food vendors based on tasting food at a variety of carts in the city. “The cart business is a close-knit group; when I found someone I liked, they recommended another cart. It was good to get referrals,” he said.

The food vendors come “from all over the world and they represent different cultures and have different ways of running a business. This has been a learning experience for me,” Dow added.

Visitors to the cart pod will notice the handmade wooden tables and wooden decorative carvings hanging at the site—all made by Dow. Making them was “a labor of love,” he said, adding that his favorite part of going to the pod is “interacting with the tenants” and the community aspect of meeting customers.

Three months ago, Cody Galloway came on board to help with marketing for Farmhouse Carts and to increase visibility of the pod. Calling it a “hidden gem for food adventurers,” Galloway said the carts provide “a unique opportunity for residents; it is kid-friendly and dog-friendly and is a place people can come and hang out,” he said.

The food carts have an “international flair,” Galloway said noting that, at present, the carts include Mama Chow’s (Chinese), Sunrise Co. (breakfast sandwiches, coffee), Shera Indian Food, Narmpouh Thai, Gyro World (Middle Eastern), Papa’s Frita (Nicaraguan), The Bulgarian Job, Smash and Grab (sandwiches, burgers) and Migration Brewing.

Sunrise Co. serves breakfast sandwiches and is the only cart that opens at 8 am; it is closed on Tuesdays. All the other carts open at various times and some are closed several days a week; diners should check the website for availability.

For Galloway, Farmhouse Carts is a symbol of “reactivating” Portland. “When you see pockets like this, with local people bringing Portland back with their positive efforts, people feel good,” he said.

With that in mind, the cart pod hosts craft-beer tasting with Migration Brewing 5-7 pm every Thursday; local musicians entertain diners once a month; and a mini-festival is planned for July 27.
“We will have face painting and balloon artistry, possibly a chalk artist, music and additional activities 5-7 pm,” Galloway noted. He added that a TV has recently been installed so that diners can watch sporting events and travel shows.

The space also hosts groups for parties and meet-ups, he said, adding that there is no charge for the space, but groups need to sign up on the online form on the website.

Why should people visit Farmhouse Carts? “For the excellent food with flavors you don’t get elsewhere, and the welcoming vibe,” Galloway said.

Farmhouse Carts, 2415 SE 35th Place.
www.farmhousecarts.com

This article was originally published in July issue of the The Southeast Examiner.

Getting to Know Your Neighbors

Q&A with Nathan Broden

One of the most iconic and lovely places in Sunnyside is the garden-filled grounds at the Sunnyside school. During school hours, the gardens are packed with students of all ages—digging, seeding, pulling weeds and harvesting all through the year. The garden was installed at the school’s inception in 1994, and is an integral part of Sunnyside’s curricular focus on environmental and place-based education. Nathan Broden has been the garden coordinator since 2022. His daughters, Iris and Jada, are both Sunnyside students. One of Farmer Nathan’s favorite things about the neighborhood are all the community connections—how neighbors can also be students, and how local businesses connect to one another and to the school community.

What do you love most about your job and the garden?

The kids! I’ve owned three farms myself and I always wanted to have an educational farm, which is basically what our garden is. This is where it all starts. I want every kid to grow up feeling like they know where food comes from, what the food system is (like, food doesn’t just magically appear at the grocery store), as well as how hard and valuable growing food is. I want them to have the confidence that they can feed themselves and their neighbors if they want to. Having your hands in the soil with all those microbes counteracts some of what we have been seeing with kids and screen time, rising rates of depression and all that. Even if some kids don’t really participate and just dig up worms or daydream in the garden—that is actually great. You don’t have to be pulling weeds to experience the value of being in a garden.

For years we hoped to cook some of the harvest in our school kitchen, but we’ve never succeeded—the kids literally eat everything as soon as it’s ripe! In fact, that’s my favorite part. I just had a kindergartner come up to me who became obsessed with radishes after he tasted the ones we are growing, and now makes his mom buy them at New Seasons every week. This week I asked if he wanted to try kale, and he was like, “I hate kale from the grocery store, but WOW I love kale if it’s only two seconds old!”

How does the garden get incorporated into school curricula?

Every student in Sunnyside gets pulled out of class once a week and gets a half an hour in the garden, year-round, every year—kindergarten through eighth grade. The kids learn about our food system and how food is grown, participating in mulching, composting, seeding, and harvesting.

Tell us a bit about the garden—what is growing there?

We just built a “bean cave,” which is a fort made out of scarlet runner beans. They aren’t the best for eating but they’re really cool for making jewelry out of, so that will be a winter art project. We have a big strawberry patch, plus raspberries, salad greens, turnips, onions, green beans, sweet corn, potatoes, kale, collards, sprouting cauliflower, broccolini, blueberries, tons of cucumbers, zucchini, thornless blackberries, as well as three pumpkin patches, a beneficial insect garden, a native plant garden, a huge potato patch. We also have lots of fruit trees – a cherry tree, an apple tree, a plum tree, a kumquat tree, a pomegranate tree and five fig trees.

There are also some lovely historical parts of the garden. There is a giant pine tree in the front yard that the school’s original principal planted in 1994 – on the school’s first Earth Day. Now it’s the biggest tree ever! Our rose garden by the front entrance is a memorial garden honoring community members we have lost over the years.

What happened to the chickens?!

Yeah, the kids were devastated about the chickens being removed. PPS has been after our livestock projects for a long time—they have a rule that no livestock is allowed on public school property. We eventually lost that battle. But we actually used to have other animals too! About 10 years ago we had a pig and turkeys.

What future plans are you excited about?

I am working on a proposal to get a de-paving project approved by the district. The goal is to remove a section of the blacktop in the back of the school where we currently have a lot of drainage issues; it’s also a bit of a heat dome. We want to put in a miniature learning forest based on a Japanese design. It would have different canopy levels and an understory. It would be an awesome addition to the garden and would especially be used by middle schoolers during their “Year of the Forest” curriculum.

What happens to the garden in the summer when school isn’t in session?

Obviously, a lot of the harvest comes when kids aren’t there. I’m super excited because we are planning to open a produce stand in the Belmont Market (at the corner of 34th and Belmont), hopefully this summer when their renovations are finished, but next summer if they’re not. The owner, Nick, has been super supportive. The goal is that we can harvest and put some of the produce up for sale all summer long. The income would go back into the garden program.* We might also propagate and sell houseplants. Once the produce stand opens, we would be so excited to have neighbors support the garden by buying some of the food the kids got started during the school year.

Can neighbors help out during the summer months?

We absolutely want neighbors to be involved, even if you don’t have kids at the school. You can find me in the garden two hours a day, three days a week during the summer. We have middle school students come help out and earn service hours. It’s also an opportunity for the community to come and be a part of the garden! Neighbors can sign up to help with watering, weeding, harvesting, etc.

Anyone who is interested can email me: [email protected]. We will have a booth at the Belmont Street Fair in September so people can stop by to meet me and some kids and find out how to get involved.

* Sunnyside’s garden program relies on parent and community fundraising; it is not funded by PPS. To make a donation, go to sesptsa.square.site/product/sesgarden/51

News from the President

Hi Sunnyside! The SNA held its annual meeting in May to review what we worked on this year and to elect new Board members for 2024-25.

This past year saw a lot of action on pressing issues for the neighborhood and the city. We had a number of meetings focusing on environmental issues and voted to sign on to many letters regarding efforts to fight diesel emissions and the dangers of the CEI fuel storage facility on the banks of the Willamette. We learned about the upcoming rebuild of the Belmont Library. We also learned about a proposal to allow for increased density within the neighborhood. We continued to serve the less fortunate members of the community through the ongoing Sunnyside Shower Project and our annual Winter Gear Drive. We focused on public safety through re-engagement with our local police precincts and renewed advocacy for improved traffic safety on Cesar Chavez, following the tragic death of librarian Jeannie Diaz last summer. We had a couple of small victories on SE César Chávez, with PBOT installing a new diverter to prevent left hand turns at SE Taylor and changes to the pedestrian cross signals at Taylor and Main to allow increased time for pedestrians to cross. These were small improvements that will hopefully lead to bigger changes as the city embarks on a new initiative to improve safety on our high-crash corridors.

The main business of the annual meeting was our Board elections. I’m excited to welcome three new Board members to the team. Thank you Crystal, Tim and Dresden for stepping up to serve your community! There are so many ways to help the SNA and Sunnyside, whether on the Board, volunteering at an event, or participating in our committees and General meetings. Come on out and join us however you can!

We will be back in September for our next General meeting, but the Board will continue to work through the summer, including keeping our eyes on the revisions to the city’s Housing Production Master Plan, which is set to be released for public comment soon. In the fall, we look forward to the first elections under the new charter. It’s going to be a big change for everyone and the SNA will be here to help educate everyone not only on the issues, but also on how the process will work.

Until then, we will see you around the neighborhood. Have a great summer!