Legacy employees get a taste of Thursday market … on Tuesdays

“We can tailor to people’s tastes,” said chef and vendor Sebastian Carosi, with Coyote Ridge Ranch in La Center.

The Tuesday event spun off the Thursday farmers market, which is off Northeast 134th Street, just west of the Interstate 5 exit.

“Legacy invited us five years ago,” said Ann Foster, one of the Salmon Creek Farmers Market organizers.

While the idea of fresh food and healthy eating is in line with the mission of the medical center, “many employees were challenged to make it to the Thursday market,” Foster said.

Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center is one of the county’s biggest employers, by the way, so that is a substantial number of people.

“We are all about helping promote and foster good health, which can translate into good food,” said Kelly Love, medical center spokeswoman. “We have space, and we want to provide our employees — and people visiting their loved ones here — access to good food.”

And, Love noted: “I get more excited about buying vegetables when I just met the farmer. It adds a personal touch.”

The Legacy market has become more than a convenience for time-crunched health-care workers.

“The benefit to the community has been significant,” Love said.

Farmers market organizers have done a good job of promoting the Tuesday event in the Salmon Creek area. When you match that with “a strong demand for locally grown food and produce and bakery items, it’s become a weekly fixture for our community members who live in the area,” Love said.

That includes people who are looking for some fresh fruit, not a weekend festival.

“They might not want to go to downtown Vancouver for a Saturday farmers market,” Love said. “This is a simpler, easier way.”

The Salmon Creek Farmers Market actually does simplify things a bit for its Legacy clientele.

There is no entertainment; there are no activities for kids, Foster said. And given the healthy food focus, “no snow cones.”