Here’s a list of my favorite farmers market vendors and small businesses in Portland, Oregon, organized by country or region.
HAITI
Creole Me Up: A PSU, Beaverton, and Montavilla Farmers Market vendor and business dedicated to helping individuals overcome health challenges by offering flavorful, organic, and allergen-free plant-based products that honor founder Elsy Dinvil’s Haitian roots. Click here to learn more about Elsy and her business.
Better-Than-Hummus Creole Beet Spread.
HAWAII
Koa Roots: A wonderful company crafting delicious and sustainable Hawaii-meets-Pacific Northwest fruit and smoked brown butters. Check out this post to learn more about the amazing creators, Robert and Kristi, and the inspiring story behind Koa Roots.
Peachy Mama, Guava, Strawberry Guava Passionfruit, and Passionfruit Fruit Butters.
ITALY/MEXICO
Chio: A Latina-owned business offering better-for-you premium pistachio spreads. Click here to learn more about Mexican-Sicilian founder Anaia Castaneda and the story behind Chio.
Mio’s Delectables: A beloved PSU Farmers Market vendor offering an extensive menu that blends the refined simplicity of Japanese desserts with traditional French pastry techniques, all while highlighting Portland’s local produce. Although the selection by creator Mio Asaka varies week to week, you’ll always find a wide array of tarts, tartlets, cookies, cakes, and seasonal spins on classics like Mont Blanc and tiramisu. Click here to discover more of Mio’s exquisite creations.
From left to right: Oregon Chestnut Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake with Pistachio White Chocolate Ganache Cream, Candied Chestnut, and Cranberry Confiture; Chestnut Chocolate Mille Crêpe Cake with Chestnut Crème Diplomate and Candied Chestnut; and Chestnut Crumble Tart with Candied Chestnut, Pinot Noir Confiture, and Frangipane.
JORDAN
Moony’s Sweets: A Portland Saturday Market vendor and family business offering beautiful American, European, and Arabic sweets and treats. Check out this interview from Bold Journey Magazine to learn more about Muna Mohammad, the mother of four and baker behind the business.
Rose Cheesecake (front left) and Pistachio Berry Honey Cake (back right).
MEXICO
Three Sisters Nixtamal: Three Sisters Nixtamal: A PSU Farmers Market vendor offering gluten-free, GMO-free organic masa (dough) and tortillas made with fresh nixtamal—the product of a traditional cooking method that involves heating whole dry corn kernels in water with calcium hydroxide. Click here to learn more about the founders: Mexico City native Adriana Azcárate-Ferbel, her husband Pedro, and their friend Wendy Downing.
Sopes made with fresh masa.
TIBET
Amza Superfoods: A Portland-based business dedicated to promoting Tibet’s healthy eating traditions and empowering underserved Tibetan women. Click here to read my blog post about Jolma, the wonderful UX design consultant turned entrepreneur behind the business.
From left to right, in clockwise order: Tsampa (roasted barley flour) Truffles with Dark Chocolate, Flaxseed Spread with Chili & Turmeric, Tibetan Tsampa Balls with Oregon Hazelnuts, and Flaxseed Butter with Dates.
BONUS BIPOC BUSINESS PICK
Black Girl Veggies: A Black-owned, plant-based hot food vendor and caterer serving up delightful dishes like vegan fried chicken made with oyster mushrooms at the King, Shemanski Park, and PSU Farmers Markets. Click here to learn more about creator Shonnett O’Neal and her story.
Soul Bowl with collard greens, black-eyed peas, mac and ‘cheese,’ sweet potatoes, purple potatoes, and vegan & gluten-free fried chicken.
Jolma, founder of Amza Superfoods, at the PSU Farmers Market in Portland, Oregon
Growing up, I always thought that flaxseed was something to be sprinkled on top of oatmeal or mixed into baked goods for an added boost of Omega-3 fatty acids. Thanks to Jolma, the creator of Amza Superfoods, I now know that with the addition of a few simple ingredients, flaxseed can be transformed into sweet and savory spreads that are delicious on their own or incorporated into other recipes.
One such recipe is barley bread swirled with ground flaxseed paste, something Jolma would eat on a daily basis in Redgong, a cultural hub in Tibet’s Amdo region, where she was born and raised. Another staple of Jolma’s childhood diet was Tsamba (AKA Tsampa), a nutrient-dense and culturally significant roasted barley flour that has sustained Tibetans for centuries (fun fact: the Dalai Lama has it every day for breakfast!).
Jolma learned to make Tsamba and other Tibetan foods from her late grandmother Sonam, whom she described as “indigenous, a nomad, a fabulous cook [who] couldn’t write.” Despite belonging to “a severely disadvantaged group,” Sonam understood the importance of education and inspired Jolma to embark on the journey that would lead her to become the first-ever girl from her village to earn a college degree: “I went to England to study English for a little bit, learning the ABCs at age 30, and then I came [to the United States] to continue my education. I needed to recharge myself. I originally had a degree in Tibetan literature and the Chinese language. I couldn’t do much here [with my degree], so I studied design, graphic design, web design.”
This career change eventually brought her to Portland, where she would become an entrepreneur after 17 years in the tech industry: “I came here for a job as a UX User Experience Design Consultant. I led a design team, and then that company decided to close its office in Portland, and then I got another job here. At the end of 2022, I decided to [launch Amza Superfoods], and then I quit [the] consulting job and I’ve been full-time for [Amza] since. We launched last year in April. It’s been a good journey, a tough one, but the one that I prefer.”
Amza Superfoods products showcased at the My Peoples’ Market in Portland, Oregon
One of the major impetuses for starting Amza (which is the phonetic spelling of “Amdo food”) was Sonam’s passing in 2012: “I went home to say goodbye to her a decade ago, and on the way back, in the air, [in] the sky in the plane, I promised I would write this cookbook that my grandmother couldn’t. So that took many years because I was working full-time and [had] my son, and then that grew into a seed: I just took a few recipes and made [them] into products.”
Handcrafted weekly in Portland in small batches, Amza’s versatile and health-conscious products feature brown flaxseed and heirloom wholegrain purple karma barley, ingredients Jolma’s family grew in Tibet and that she now sources locally. The purple barley she uses, for example, comes from Sun Gold Farm in Forest Grove, Oregon, and was brought to the U.S. from Tibet: “It’s a Tibetan barley. It originated in Tibet for sure. In 1924, an American traveled to Tibet and brought back some seeds; the seeds lasted in a USDA seed bank in Idaho for nearly a century, and then, in recent years, they were revived [by the Oregon State Barley Project] and they’re now grown here.”
More Amza products on display at the My Peoples’ Market
Drawing on her extensive knowledge and experience, Jolma decided to fill a significant gap in the American market by creating the first-ever U.S. exclusive collection of authentic Tibetan Breakfast Mixes, Tsamba snacks, and Flaxseed Spreads. While I have yet to try the No-Cook Tibetan Tsamba Breakfast Mix with Nuts & Dates, I can attest to the excellent quality and taste of all the other products, which I purchased as part of Amza’s beautifully wrapped Mid-Tier Marvel Gift Pack.
I loved how the Tsamba Balls embrace Jolma’s Tibetan heritage and her newfound Oregon home (case in point: the balls consist of an Oregon hazelnut enveloped in Tsamba!) and that they have the perfect level of sweetness, thanks to the dates she gets from a regenerative farm in California.
TSAMBA TRUFFLES WITH DARK CHOCOLATE
Tsamba Truffles with Dark Chocolate
The Tsamba Truffles, which Jolma describes as “modern Tsamba balls,” offer a divine, vegan-friendly alternative to a treat that is often high in calories, sugar, and fat. The addition of cacao nibs gives the truffles an extra satisfying crunch that perfectly complements the bittersweet taste.
FLAXSEED BUTTER WITH DATES
Flaxseed Butter with Dates
The Flaxseed Butter with Dates has a nutty, earthy flavor that pairs beautifully with yogurt, oatmeal, smoothies, and more. I even enjoyed eating the spread on its own straight from the jar!
FLAXSEED SPREAD WITH CHILI & TURMERIC
Flaxseed Spread with Chili & Turmeric
My personal favorite, the Flaxseed Spread with Chili & Turmeric, has a lovely kick, thanks to yerma, AKA Sichuan pepper. I used the spread in grain bowls and salad dressings, though the possibilities are truly endless!
Jolma at the My Peoples’ Market
As I nibbled on samples of the balls, truffles, and spreads at the My Peoples’ Market back in November, Jolma explained, “This food sadly comes from an underrepresented culture. I’m doing something authentic, something new, always healthy, always quality, always good for you and good for the environment.” Speaking of the glass jars used for the flaxseed spreads, she noted, “Even though these are expensive, [I use them] because they are more eco-friendly than plastic ones.” She also mentioned that “we are in the process of transitioning to more eco-friendly bags” for the Tsamba balls and truffles.
When I asked Jolma about her long-term dreams, she told me: “I’d like us to be known as a healthy, food-sharing business that does good for people and the environment. I’d like for us and Tibetan food to be known beyond the [local] community. And as [the] first-ever girl from my village to earn a college degree, I want to sponsor women and girls for education and help them start small businesses.”
The vibrant orange Amza Superfoods tent at the PSU Farmers Market
Though she didn’t mention it in our conversation, I should add that Jolma’s commitment to sharing Tibetan culture and empowering underserved Tibetan women long predates her business ventures. Years before launching Amza, she wrote on Beyond Her Kitchen, a blog where she shared photos and stories about Tibet, “I hope sharing my stories will eventually help encourage a Tibetan mother to send her daughter to school, or inspire a girl to move beyond her own kitchen and become a global citizen.” The name is an ode to something her grandmother once told her: “To discover the world, one must move beyond her own kitchen.” While she now uses the blog on Amza’s website as her primary writing outlet, I highly recommend checking out Beyond Her Kitchen if you’re interested in learning more about Jolma and Tibet.
I’ll conclude this post with a piece of wisdom from Jolma that I found particularly touching: “If you support small businesses, if you support something, you stand for something, you will get support from them.”
Visit Jolma’s website and blog to learn more and be part of her inspiring journey.
Market Hauls and Local Noms 