#Cafe olli portland skin#

…Most of the farms that I work with don't spray any kind of pesticide, so what they need to do is come up with their own inputs, whether it be compost tea, or any kind of natural inoculation-it’s a very expensive process. If you don't have water rights, it can be very expensive. …And not only that, but trying to source water. “The cost of land is so extraordinary here. And I think people aren't really aware of the true costs of what it takes to grow food here in the Northwest,” says Alsberg. “There's a very small margin in local farming, unfortunately. For specialty cucumbers, expect to pay between $3.99 and $5.99 per pound. And prices for all local cucumbers have risen accordingly. Typically, Providore would be able to stock cucamelons from several farms at this point in the season, but at this point, they’re hoping to get a batch from one farm in a couple weeks. Take the cucamelon, an adorable 2-inch-tall cucumber-melon hybrid that looks like a miniature watermelon and tastes like a hybrid between a cucumber and a melon. That means cucumber season was delayed by about three weeks this year-it typically starts in late June-and many farms weren’t able to offer their usual variety of specialty crops. Of course, this year was a tough one for farmers, with snow in April and an extended rainy season followed by intense heat waves.

#Cafe olli portland skin#

It’s got thin, bright white skin and a sweet, delicate flavor, with less bitterness than you’d find in your average grocery store variety. There’s also a silver slicer, which sounds more like a Marvel superhero than a cucurbit.

Aside from the usual year-round suspects of English and Persian cucumbers, you might find lemon cucumbers, which are small, round, and yellow, ideal for slicing into salads like a panzanella or a melon-cucumber-mint salad. …So it's going to have a lot more flavor, the nutrient content is going to be a lot higher, and it's just going to have a brighter taste.”Īt Rubinette, you might find six or seven varieties of cucumbers at any given time. “The one thing that's so important about buying local is that you are getting it right when it's harvested, usually not more than a day or two. “Now is a really great time to go down to the farmers market or come to a specialty grocery store like ours,” says Josh Alsberg, owner of Rubinette Produce within Providore Fine Foods (2340 NE Sandy Blvd). While you can grab plastic-wrapped English cucumbers year-round, there are plenty of locally-grown cucumber varieties that are peaking right now-and they’ll only be available for the next three weeks or so. Luckily, the rise of the cucumber on TikTok coincides with peak cucumber season, and this is a trend you can easily incorporate into your own home cooking.