The Salmon Creek Farmers Market is held in front of the Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital, with a portion of the market just inside.
Ann Foster wasn’t too fond of how many Oregon vendors and junk food options were at Vancouver’s farmers market, so eight years ago she started her own in Salmon Creek.
“Socially, we don’t need that anymore,” she said of starchy kettle corn and other junk foods frequently found at street markets and fairs.
Instead, the Salmon Creek Farmers Market focuses on healthy, Southwest Washington grown ingredients and plants and offers a more limited selection of craft-like items.
Many of the vendors are based out of North County, including Red Truck Farm out of Ridgefield and Battle Ground’s Silagy Sauce, which continues to gain momentum behind its two sauces “Smokin Hot Habanero” and “Cilantro Lime Serrano.”
If, however, even the healthy array of foods causes an allergic reaction or sickness, the market is ideally located to access a hospital, given that it’s held at the front and inside of the doorway of Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital.
Hospital administration approached Foster during the first few years of the market hoping to find a way for medical staff from the various campus facilities to visit the market. Given that they were often busy with saving lives and such, their ability to leave campus during the day was limited.
Foster estimates that 50 percent of the market’s visitors are medical staff stopping in on their breaks.
Along with accommodating employee needs, Legacy Salmon Creek is also adamant about supporting healthy lifestyles in the community, and hosting the market fits that mold.
“Legacy has been pretty vocal about the health and wellbeing of the community,” Foster said, adding that the hospital hosting it for the last five summers has been a strong statement of its stance.
Foster continued to hold the off-campus market until this year. Instead, she plans to head farther north for their next market, hoping to open one in Battle Ground soon.
