I love interacting with the vendors at the farmer’s markets in Salem because it gives me a good idea about which way the trends are trending. All I need is to stand there for a few moments and listen to the conversations and I get a good idea what is drawing people to more authentic, locally-produced, extraordinary products.
For me, farmer’s markets are all about connecting my pride of place with my raw Lebenslust. I can’t help but feel closer to the Willamette Valley by drinking it in.
Glub glub glub.
But it is easy to see that farmer’s markets are also places where people in the know live out their food trends and consumer fashions in a ridiculously public way.
So yesterday I finally made it to the Wednesday farmer’s market that takes place downtown on Chemeketa Street. My companion and I were sharing a mind-blowing vegetable quesadilla from Canby Asparagus Farm. I ran back to ask the cook for an extra tenedor and swung by a stand I haven’t seen at the Saturday Market – Hot Lips soda. As I stood there, it became very clear what is so hot about hot lips.
Family-owned company + carbonation +pulpy local and regional fruits + Portland marketing aesthetic =
Seven different flavors of awesome!
I tasted the raspberry which is sweet but not cloyingly so. For someone who just might move 2,000 miles away to reap the fruits of a berry-growing region, a real berry soda is like my own kind of happy pill. Also, most of the sugar content in the soda comes from the actual berries, making this a pretty healthy sody pop.
Suck it, Orangina, I’m buying Oregonian.
Alice Waters serves these sodas at Chez Panisse Restaurant and Café in Berkeley, ground zero for the local food movement. Hot Lips is hot stuff indeed.
That was you at the wed. market. Sorry, I should have said hello.
I didn’t see you…. I was meeting someone there and had my eyes peeled for a redheaded woman.
It’s hard not to sing the praises of Hot Lips!
They pour Honest Pints! (Which died in committee today, btw) And have very nice taps.
They deliver pizza by bike or electric car.
They source from an amazing group of local farmers.
They make their own ham, sausage, and chorizo – and until they discontinued it, the housemade pepperoni was amazing!
From top to bottom they are making a real charge at sustainability.
And the pizza’s not bad…
Honestly… har har… I’m not sure how to feel about the bill dying. Relief? Since now I don’t have to write the story?
[...] But I know it works on me — just look at how I responded to Sweet Lips berry sodas. [...]