Once May rolls around, the Clark Fork River Market and the Farmers Market become Missoula’s unofficial weekend religion. Sure, you can attend yoga or church, but have you ever received unsolicited rhubarb wisdom at 8 a.m. from a third-wave barista moonlighting as a radish farmer?
Enlightenment achieved.
Last Saturday, under the Beartracks Bridge, the Clark Fork River Market unfurled like a vibrant quilt stitched together with iced coffees, bok choy, baby strollers, flowers, ferments, lavender oils and breakfast waffles with savory fillings like eggs and bacon and sweet fillings like berries and nutella. The Pack Strings provided the Americana soundtrack, playing spirited originals and covers with undercurrents of manic melancholy and tender turmoil. River surfers with their boards under arm wandered the trail along the Clark Fork’s bank in dripping wet suits. Separate from the market, but nearby, an outdoor church offered baptisms and prayers. And on the streets above the market, cyclists and pedestrians rolled along Higgins Avenue, catching sun whenever the clouds parted. All in all, a classic oddball Missoula patchwork of people, goods and activities.
I like heading down there to meet with friends and family, eat good food, buy produce, and people watch — just like everyone else. As colorful as it is, it’s a predictable scene, which is kind of the comfort of it. But this year, ever since the markets started up less than a month ago, I’ve been working a little harder to try new things and discover more favorite dishes and ingredients — things that I might overlook if I was just absentmindedly breezing past all the vendor tables/trucks.
I lean toward the classic American-style breakfast that features some combination of eggs, bacon or chorizo and hashbrowns. And sometimes I like a croissant. But lately, at the market I’ve been getting chicken peanut curry topped with fresh green onion and cilantro from the Wok-ee Mountain food truck, and it turns out a savory curry — or some kind of fish broth or noodle dish — is a great breakfast food (as pretty much every Asian country has known for centuries). Along the same lines, I am a bottomless pit for the steamed pork rolls I found at yet another food truck whose name I can’t recall or find on the internet, but that you can easily find if you just wander through the market. The ground pork is mixed with fresh spices and wrapped in thin rice paper, and they are served with a delicious but spicy dipping sauce.
I asked some other Missoulians about what their fave market treats are and here are some of the answers I got:
A food stand called Pelz serves up bite-sized dumplings called pelmeni, which is a Russian cuisine. They have a meat option (beef + pork) and a veggie option (potato + mushroom + leek), and both are served with “Alaskan-style” toppings, which features butter, sour cream, sriracha and cilantro. It sounds unusual! But I can attest that they are delicious.
Microgreens. There is lots of great produce to be had at the market, but microgreens are special because they are so bright, fresh and sometimes spicy. They’re the dramatic overachievers of the veggie world. They seem so tiny, but their presence in a dish can define a whole dinner’s narrative arc. The tasty ones I had were pea microgreens from County Rail Farms.
Another friend told me: “I don’t know the name, but there is an Eastern European bakery that sells poppy seed rolls just like I got at the bakery near my grandmother’s house in Detroit.”
Carrots. Farmers market veggies generally taste fresh compared to the supermarket, but carrots are on a whole other level. They’re so sweet and crisp, and children I know basically consider them candy. One person suggested Johnson’s Homegrown in particular for their carrots, which I’ve yet to try.
Aiko’s food truck karaage, which is Japanese fried chicken.
Jung-a’s Montana-made kimchi.
Boba tea. There are a few different places to get Boba tea at the market including Thirst Tea Boab, Pearl Boba and some others, which is smart because all the tweens I know are obsessed with it. I like mine with a sweetness rating of 1 (the lowest) while they will order it on the highest sweet level when left to their own devices.
The coffee lines are long during the busiest hours of the market, and sometimes it’s worth the wait. But what’s really worth the wait is fresh-squeezed lemonade, which you can get from a couple of vendors.
The Clark Fork Market is the busiest, but if you go a few blocks north, near the XXXXs, you’ll find a quieter scene at the original Missoula Farmers Market. This is the elder statesman of the local food scene, established in 1972. It’s also one of the oldest farmer-run markets in the state — Montana’s homegrown answer to Brooklyn’s Greenmarket scene, minus the designer clothes (for the most part) but with twice the huckleberries.
Got a market favorite? Spill it — unless it’s top secret. I respect that.
