Montavilla Farmers Market Anniversary: 20 Years in Portland

This is a big year for the Montavilla Farmers Market: They are entering their 20th year of operating one of the most beloved farmers markets on the east side of Portland. I sat down with Lisa Hebert one morning at Bipartisan Cafe to chat about the market and get a feel for the success of these past 20 years.

Montavilla Farmers Market Founders

I was curious to know more about the people who started the Montavilla Farmers Market. Turns out it was a group of volunteers who worked with the Montavilla East Tabor Business Association (METBA) to found the market. Their website describes them as “a grassroots collection of neighbors who were inspired by visions of a fresh, local, food market in a shared community space within the growing SE Stark Street business district.”

Their first market was Sunday, July 22, 2007. “The first year it was run just by volunteers,” Lisa confirmed. “And then the next year they were able to pay their market manager a small stipend.”

It made me think of the Rocky Butte Farmers Market, which also was founded by volunteers and has progressed to a place where the market manager has been designated a paid position.

Lisa Hebert, Executive Director of the Montavilla Farmers Market

Lisa is the market’s executive director, where she tackles much of the behind-the-scenes work—things like budgeting, financials, strategy, overseeing a handful of paid staff, marketing, and fundraising. She also works with their board—Montavilla Farmers Market is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit.

She has lived in Montavilla since 2020, and worked for the Portland Farmers Market starting in 2016 before she moved to the neighborhood. But growing up she had a very conventional relationship with food. Then, she went to college.

Lisa’s Early Experience With Farmers Markets

“When I went to college, I went to UC Santa Cruz,” she said. “And I got involved with the sustainability center—I actually taught a gardening class on campus. And then I started working at the seed library, and with the food system working group to actually create a pop-up farmers market on campus.”

She added, “It was so far away from the actual town of Santa Cruz. So we’d go to the farmer’s market, buy things, and bring it to campus and sell it, just at price for folks.”

She ended up interning at the farmer’s market in Santa Cruz during her senior year. And then that summer, they needed a market manager, so they hired her for that just for the summer, and she loved it.

“And then I moved to Portland and I started working at a preschool and I was a cook there, ” she continued. “So I cooked for preschool for a little bit, and then the Portland Farmer’s Market was hiring and they hired me as a market manager there.”

Why a Market in Montavilla? Food Access.

So why was it important to have a farmers market in Montavilla? “From looking at [the market’s] documents and records, I think it was really important for having that food access in the neighborhood,” explained Lisa.

She continued, “A lot of focus early on in the market’s career was on sustainability and trying to create as sustainable a market as possible—and, again, an accessible market in the way of food access. The market has pretty much always accepted EBT benefits and in 2010, I believe, the market would fundraise to match the EBT benefits on their own. Currently, we are able to match EBT benefits through Farmers Market Fund, which is an Oregon-wide organization, giving markets money for that.”

She added, “But the original founders of the market worked really hard to do that on their before that money was available.”

The Current Location of the Montavilla Farmers Market

The current location of the Montavilla Farmers Market has been their home since the start. On that property there used to be another building belonging to Beets Auto Body (you may remember us mentioning them in our piece on Montavilla Brew Works 10th anniversary last year). That building was razed in 2020 after the property was sold in 2019.

Lisa also said that one point, it was an artist co-op; the Montavilla News article linked above also referenced the artists—and food carts. But 2020 was the start of COVID and having that extra space in the lot was helpful for pandemic social distancing needs.

“We were able to expand during 2020, which was great timing because that’s when we had to have all the social distancing,” she explained. “We all needed to limit the amount of people that came into the market for a long time based off of ourselves. So if we were still in the smaller area, it would have been much more challenging.”

A Potential Move?

There has been discussion online about the potential need for the Montavilla Farmers Market to move. Please note: They are not moving right now, and nobody has asked them to move. But honestly, nobody knows what the future holds right now.

But they did put out a survey on this topic (location) for people to take and they are currently reviewing the responses and gauging the community’s cafe for and interest in the market.

The OG Vendors

I was curious to know if there are still vendors today that were there from the beginning. “Yes! C. Chang Family Farm, which grows fresh flowers,” Lisa said. “They’ve been there since the very first market. I believe that Baird Family Farm has been there since 2007. Kiykawa Family Orchard has also been there since the beginning. 

She added, “Oh, and then Leopold Farms!”

2026 Montavilla Farmers Market Vendors

These are new vendors this year:

• Alleamin African Kitchen (Somali food).
• Crooked Carrot Farm (vegetable farm).
• Floraboros (wholesale native nursery).
• Gompers Distillery (small-batch distillery).
• Mariquita Medicinals (herb and flower farm and community-focused apothecary).
• Merrow (chili crisp).
• Money Bowl (Southwestern Chinese food).
• Moonflower Bakery (gluten-free baked goods).
• Rhythm Seed Farm (grows locally adapted seeds).
• Snack Wine (low-ABV wine spritzers).
• Three Goats Farm (fermented hot sauces and pickles).
• Tortuga Gordo (fermented hot sauces).
• Vorfreude Dairy Beef (premium beef cuts and high-quality tallow products).
• Wafeltje Stroopwafels (Dutch stroopwafels).
• Wild Roots Spirits (real fruit-infused vodka and gin).

This Market Fills a Need

There are a lot of farmers markets in Portland—and that is one thing that makes Portland a great city. But what is it that makes the Montavilla Farmers Market special among them? “I think Montavilla is special for a couple of reasons,” explained Lisa. “One of my favorite reasons is that I believe a lot of the participants at our market tend to be smaller farms and we tend to get the owner of the farm at the market.”

“I think that’s special, being able to actually be face-to-face with the person who’s hands are in the dirt growing the food.”

“I also think that we’re not a tourist market,” Lisa continued. “We don’t have a lot of tourism at our market, specifically.” This is in comparison to the PSU Farmer’s market, which I would call a destination market. Hollywood is, too, to some extent, attracting people who are visiting out of town. Both of these destination markets are amazing, no cap.

“Also, I think it’s kind of special that we see the same people every week,” added Lisa. She also said that they’ve done surveys where they ask where folks are coming from to the market. Additionally, a recent survey revealed that 53% of people walked to the market.

They also aim to have a set of vendors that offer much of what a person might need for their weekly grocery shopping. “It’s a medium large market, so ideally, someone can go and do most of their grocery shopping there,” said Lisa. “We try to curate the market to have a lot of staples for people. Obviously, we’ll never be a fully one-stop shop because we only have local products. But the idea is for someone to come and be able to do a majority of their grocery shopping at the market and pick up staples there.”

A Significant Market for Vendors

Although Lisa has only been at the market for the last six years, she has enjoyed looking back at the market’s documents and history. “It’s been really exciting to watch the market grow!” she exclaimed.

She continued, “The amount of vendors that we have has gone from 17 on the opening day to now, throughout the year, we have almost 100. And on a typical summer market, we have 60 at any given time, which is just a huge leap.”

“The fact that the neighborhood is able to support all of those vendors is really amazing. And we hear from vendors that say Montavilla is where they’re able to sustain their business—it’s a really important market for them. For some of them, it’s their best market that they’re able to make their most amount of profit from.”

“This market is incredibly important—not only for the community, but those vendors who really rely on the support from our shoppers and from our organization.”

Yearly Anticipation

I wondered if Lisa looked forward to anything in particular at the market each time spring comes along. “I try to shop around to a lot of different vendors, especially farmers,” she explained. “I try to buy a lot of vegetables at the market … because then I eat a lot of vegetables. And I like to connect with the farms that sell products that no one else does.”

I told Lisa that my favorite thing in the spring at farmers markets is strawberries. So what is hers?

“Snap peas to me is a big—like, spring is here! Food is coming!”

She continued, “We’re past the hunger-gap era, where all of the root vegetables are purchased, and then all of the other vegetables with green and greens are this big. And so snap peas to me is like, ‘OK, we’ve made it. We’re now going to see like the abundance of spring that will that come.”

“And garlic scapes are delicious. this kind of year, too,” she added.

The Next 20 Years for the Montavilla Farmers Market

Lisa believes the demand and the interest is here for farmers market in the long term. “I think farmers markets are hugely important to local agriculture and farmers,” she said. “I’ve had a farmer tell me who does wholesale, ‘We would not be here if it wasn’t for the money that we’re able to get at farmers markets because it’s that direct-to-consumer purchase.'”

Direct-to-consumer means no middleman. “I think the farmers need farmers markets, and people crave that seasonal food. And yes, I think we’ll be here because I think farmers markets just make sense.”

20th Anniversary Events

So what is the market and its staff looking forward to as far as celebrating and commemorating this 20 years? They have some activities planned for Sunday, May 3.

“We got a grant from the Portland Events and Film office to do a couple of activities. We are having a ‘Montavilla Through the Seasons’ timeline display. We’re going to have different photos and documents of the market throughout the years for people to look back on.” 

They will also have a DIY button-making station, and they have a special t-shirt for the 20th season, which features the original logo of the Montavilla Farmers Market (it’s painted on the side of the barn). Market shoppers also have a chance to win one of 100 of these t-shirts on a spin-the-wheel configuration (no kids sizes).

“We will also be having a chef recipe demonstration booth,” explained Lisa. “Laura Bennett’s going to come and cook up a seasonal dish for people to taste.” Laura has a business called The Vegucation Station. She is also a longtime farmer in the Corvallis and Eugene area. She’s done a couple of chef demonstrations for them in the past.. 

Final Thoughts

“This neighborhood has been very supportive of the market through the years,” said Lisa. “It has been really amazing and has taken ownership of the market, which I think is really special. You can tell through the survey results that people really care about the market, really love the market, really want to see like the best for it.

“I was a little nervous that we’d get maybe some negative comments, but it was so positive! And so many people were saying, ‘Thank you for the work with this..’ There’s a lot of support. And in the past when we’ve done fundraising, we’ve always had a lot of support from the community. I think that’s really special.

“And as someone who also lives in their community, it really feels like Montavilla is kind of its own bubble a little bit. We’re almost at our own town. We have these amazing businesses—you don’t have to leave if you don’t want to!”

Many thanks to Lisa for chatting about the Montavilla Farmers Market. Every good wish to her, the market, and the Montavilla neighborhood for getting to 20 years! I hope you will have a chance to stop in soon.

Montavilla Farmers Market 20th Anniversary season
Sunday, May 3, 2026
10am to 2pm
7700 SE Stark Street, Portland
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