COVID-19 squashed the farmers market gala. Here’s how you can help and fill your bellies

Unable to host its annual dinner in the street, Tacoma Farmers Market, which turned 30 this year, invites local food supporters to buy a family meal to-go, complete with Crowlers of beer and bushels of flowers.

Grit City To Go! replaces the “urban street feast” that provided a massive chunk of the market’s fundraising the previous two years, but it does so by offering a chance to experience two one-off dining experiences.

“Now more than ever, the fundraiser is so important to the market,” said executive director Anika Moran. “We’ve seen reduced shopper numbers, which hurts not just market vendors but the organization as a whole.”

The to-go “gala” is both a clever solution to the restrictions of COVID-19 and a bargain. Tickets to the 2018 and 2019 dinners cost $100 per person; the 2020 takeaway meals cost $25 to $50 a head.

The process is simple: Order ahead, pay online, pick up your pizza or meal kit, enjoy at home.

Tacoma Pie & The Table

For pickup Sunday, Aug. 30, Tacoma Pie, a new pizzeria operating out of The Gourmet Niche commissary kitchen on Sixth Avenue, will conjure one of its Detroit-style pizzas with market ingredients. That means plentiful mounds of King’s Mozzarella and foraged fungi from Adam’s Mushrooms, both mainstays at Puget Sound markets.

Dean Shivers, a former bartender at Crown Bar, started Tacoma Pie in March after being laid off from his job as the beverage manager at Cedar Brook Lodge in Seattle. He spent the better part of Washington’s lockdown perfecting his dough recipe, a three-day fermentation — two spent in the fridge and one at room temperature.

He then par-bakes the dough before making the square pizza to order.

“The key to making it exquisite is the crispy crust,” he said.

To crisp it up at home, pop the pie in a 400-degree oven for about five minutes, preferably on an oiled sheet tray.

As of July, you can order these pizzas Thursday, Friday and Saturday for pickup from the same location, but the farmers market pie will differ in its hyperlocal ingredients. (Shivers’ partner Rebecca Harrison is on the board of Tacoma Farmers Market.)

Zestful Gardens, a produce farm in Waller, will supply the salad, and Black Fleet Brewing, which recently started selling its ales and lagers at the farmers markets, the beer.

Each $100 order — classic or vegetarian — includes all of the above to serve four people. To serve eight, opt for the $200 meal and for a dozen the $300 option.

Then on Sept. 26, The Table — a restaurant already well-connected to local farms and ingredients — will curate a takeaway meal kit, cocktails included. The kits start at $200 to serve four people, $400 for eight or $600 for 12.

Chef Derek Bray will share instructions guiding home cooks through each dish of this hyperlocal feast: corn bread, smoked corn and squash salad, roasted beets and greens, mushrooms and potatoes, butternut squash burrata. For the mains, you’ll have sausage with braised greens and a berry Dijon and Chinook salmon with a risotto cake and chili de arbol crema.

All proceeds will benefit the market and in turn the farmers and small food businesses that rely on the Tacoma Farmers Market to make a living.

Farmers market goes mobile

Washington is fortunate in that the governor deemed farmers markets an essential business as the COVID-19 pandemic unraveled, but restrictions on capacity and spacing forced them to limit the number of vendors. Compounding that reality, markets like the Thursday one on Broadway have seen fewer customers as the office lunch crowd has all but disappeared.

Last year, Tacoma Farmers Market saw record sales through more than 100 vendors, by far its best year in three decades. Due to the coronavirus, about 70 vendors are participating this year across all four markets, including Tuesdays on the Eastside, Sundays at Point Ruston and Fridays near Wright Park.

“We’ve spent thousands of dollars on COVID-19 related supplies: everything from hand sanitizer to masks, caution tape,” said Moran, adding that CARES Act funding distributed by Pierce County will cover only about half those costs.

“It’s worth noting that we’re still running our markets, and we started a new mobile market program … and we’re still looking at tens of thousands of budget shortfall going into 2021. It’s hard to say what the future is gonna hold for farmers markets across the country,” she said.

The mobile market introduced this summer thanks in part to a financial boost through the CARES Act: Low-income residents can retrieve a bag of fresh, local produce at no cost.

The refrigerated truck travels throughout the county, dropping off goods at food banks and parking at several locations in Tacoma and from the Key Peninsula to the foothills of Mount Rainier. Food banks also benefit from shipments.

“This is a chance for food banks to get food that was literally picked that morning,” said Moran. “It’s the freshest, it’s local, in many cases it’s certified organic. It’s a different sort of eating experience.”

Farmers are paid for their contributions, a much-appreciated deal as some Seattle markets have remained closed this year and restaurant channels have shriveled.

That truck will also make an appearance at the pickup location for Sunday’s pizza fundraiser, to keep the beer cold and the salad fresh.

GRIT CITY GALA TO GO!

▪ Details: pre-order meals to support Tacoma Farmers Market, tacomafarmersmarket.com/grit-city-to-go

▪ Aug. 30: Tacoma Pie at The Gourmet Niche, 7104 6th Ave., Tacoma, order ahead for pickup 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

▪ Sept. 26: The Table, 2715 6th Ave., Tacoma, order ahead for pickup 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 5:00 AM.