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Must live with it, actually can’t live without it—we need to eat and drink, so how do we do them sustainably? If you’re shopping for home, we’ve got recommendations on loads of local markets like People’s Food Co-op and Alberta Cooperative Grocery with ample, intentionally sourced bulk offerings and produce from local farmers. (That means it didn’t travel the roughly 1,500 “food miles” it takes the average American grocery item to go from farm to plate.) Or, sign up for CSAs directly from the sources, like Black Futures Farm or Good Rain. And if you’d rather go out for a bite, think about visiting Coquine, which helps fund better farming practices through its commitment to Zero Foodprint, or Bamboo Sushi, the world’s first certified sustainable seafood restaurant. Go eat—and savor it. ROBIN BACIOR.
Bamboo Sushi
Various locations, bamboosushi.com.
With locations in the Portland metro area and beyond, Bamboo Sushi, the world’s first certified sustainable seafood restaurant, has been leading the charge in ethically sourced seafood practices since its inception in 2008. Almost two decades later, its continued mission to change the seafood industry is part and parcel to what keeps Bamboo Sushi thriving. It does this partly by maintaining transparency in its sourcing practices to donating 1% of its sales of sushi boards and its popular Green Machine Roll (tempura-fried green bean, green onion, avocado, cilantro sweet chili aioli) to environmental nonprofits focused on restoring fisheries, watersheds and ecosystems.
Oh, and the food is good, too. From miso-glazed black cod to kanpachi aquachile to nigiri, sashimi and signature sushi rolls, there’s a reason Bamboo Sushi’s flavor-forward, environment-focused approach to seafood tastes and feels good. GABRIEL GRANILLO.
Morchella
morchella-pdx.com
It seems very autumn that half of Portland becomes amateur foragers, but no one does it quite like chef Cameron Dunlap, who foregrounds seasonal ingredients found in the wild. Although its Northeast Fremont Street location shuttered earlier this January, this once-and-future pop-up is finding new life in intimate dinners across Portland. Fans of fine dining will find dishes that taste like the Pacific Northwest: Oregon sablefish with radishes, sunchokes and tarragon, or chicory root ice cream with orange wine caramel, wild mint and a fermented green beech pine cone syrup. (If you’ve been wondering what to do with all those green pine cones sitting in the back of your fridge, now you know.) Keep an eye out for upcoming pop-up events. KARLY QUADROS.
Verde Cocina
Verde Cocina en la Perla, 1131 NW Hoyt St., 503–894–9321, verdecocinamarket.com. 11 am–9 pm Monday–Thursday, 11 am–10 pm Friday, 10 am–10 pm Saturday, 10 am–9 pm Sunday.
Verde Cocina has been a fixture in Portland since 2009, incorporating local ingredients in recipes inspired by chef Noé Garnica’s Mexican roots. One of its chief goals is to make healthy food accessible, and it accomplishes this in myriad ways: Its first venture, before opening three restaurant locations (one in Hillsdale, one in the Pearl, and one in Sylvan that’s currently being renovated), was providing prepackaged meals for health programs and Oregon Health & Science University. All offerings have been gluten-free from day one, and Verde’s menus are full of paleo, vegan and vegetarian options—made with farm-to-fork goods, of course. A staple at the Portland Farmers Market, you can snag a massive pile of sautéed seasonal veggies with hand-rolled tortillas and housemade moles while you support other local producers. Katey TRNKA.
Coquine
6849 SE Belmont St., 503-384-2483, coquinepdx.com. 5–10 pm Wednesday–Saturday.
As a member in good standing of Zero Foodprint, a nonprofit collective dedicated to fighting climate change by funding better farming practices, Coquine is literally putting its money where your mouth is. Located in the Mount Tabor neighborhood, the business sources local, seasonal ingredients for its restaurant’s ever-changing menu and offers sustainable wares and other goods at the in-house market. And with every plate of food and item sold, Coquine funnels a percentage of the profits to Zero Foodprint, helping provide grants to farmers engaged in regenerative practices. An amazing way to make sure every dollar you spend there is having the largest impact in the fight to protect our embattled planet. Robert HAM.
Company Wine Bar
916 SE 34th Ave., companybar.co. 4–10 pm Monday–Friday, noon–10 pm Saturday–Sunday.
Natural wine isn’t just a trend (or a way to impress your Tinder date). It’s an approach to winemaking that’s organic and biodynamic. That means no pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, corrective additives, or overtilling that disrupts the natural ecosystem. The goal is farming practices that are regenerative rather than depleting. It’s more sustainable for the soil—and it makes the wine taste better. The wild yeast and other microorganisms that live in the ground in any particular environment are what give natural wines their delicious funk.
Belmont natural wine bar Company brings laid-back vibes and a little education with its weekly wine tasting Wednesdays where customers sample natural wines, many grown and bottled just a few hours away. Former vineyard partners have included Grape Ink, Dacha Wines, and Hope Well Wines. Tastings are $20 for four half-glasses. KARLY QUADROS.
Cunningham Coffee
4411 SE Hawthorne Blvd., cunninghamcoffeeroasters.com.
This family-run roasting company raises the bar, showing the way forward for other coffee purveyors to provide a quality product while lessening their environmental impact both locally and globally. The company uses a fully electric, zero emissions roasting machine for its beans, and when the tasting room is open (check the Instagram for updates), it offers no single-use cups, encouraging customers to bring their own or borrow one from Cunningham’s “library.” The roasting company is thoughtful about where it sources coffee, choosing farms that are ecologically minded and, in the case of the Asociación de Mujeres Productoras de Café La Labor in Honduras, 100% women-owned. And Cunningham gives back, donating a portion of the cost of the green coffee it buys to nonprofits like Cafe Feminino and the Farmer Impact Fund. ROBERT HAM.
Alberta Cooperative Grocery
1500 NE Alberta St., 503-287-4333, alberta.coop. 9 am–10 pm daily.
One of my favorite sections on the website for Alberta Cooperative Grocery, the long-standing co-op on a busy corner of its namesake street, is the “Meet Our Farmers” page. There, the team highlights a handful of local and regional growers, like the Gathering Together Farm in Philomath or Misty Mountain Mushrooms in Yamhill. It’s a perfect representation of the co-op’s dedication to offering some of the freshest local produce for its members. In addition, perusing the aisles of this cozy spot reveals how deeply the co-op considers everything it sells, from the environmental impact of the packaging to the treatment of the workers who produce each item. Robert HAM.
Flying Fish Co.
3004 E Burnside St., 971-806-6747, flyingfishpdx.com. 10 am–8 pm Wednesday–Monday.
Fish are one of Oregon’s most beloved natural resources, from salmon’s marathon mating migration to hardy mussels crusting coastal boulders. Industrial fishing practices are a real threat to sealife, though: Scientists estimate that overfishing has caused large ocean fish numbers to sink to just 10% of their pre-industrial populations.
Flying Fish Co., owned and run by second-generation fishmonger Lyf Gildersleeve, has become a Portland staple for its devotion to sustainable practices. Starting as a food cart in 2010, then a seafood market pop-up in Providore in 2016, it finally opened its inner Southeast brick-and-mortar in 2020. Prepare yourself for seaside classics like bacon-spiked clam chowder and classic fish and chips as well as out-of-left-field choices like the Korean seafood stew jjampong. Home chefs can pick up fresh fillets of wild-caught Oregon sablefish, albacore tuna, and Indigenous-caught sockeye salmon. When it’s not slinging seafood, Flying Fish Co. advocates for greener fishing policies through its nonprofit Sustainable Fishmonger, hosting educational (and fun) field trips and annual beach cleanups. Gildersleeve also serves on the Pacific Fishery Management Council and is a policy adviser to the Marine Fish Conservation Network. KARLY QUADROS.
People’s Food Co-op
3029 SE 21st Ave., 503-674-2642, peoples.coop. 9 am–9 pm daily.
Originally started in the late ’60s by a group of Reed College students looking to buy some whole foods in bulk, the People’s Food Co-op has survived the ups and downs of the retail world to now boast over 10,000 members and the longest-running farmers market in the city. Homegrown produce and bulk products abound, as does an incredibly supportive and friendly crew, many members of which are Hands-On-Owners, a subset of co-op members who volunteer to work at the store in return for a small discount. If nothing else, the cooperative is worth stopping by just to gawk at the amazing architecture that the members helped envision for a 2001 expansion. The soft curves and earthy tones and plentiful greenery make the building look equal parts rustic and futuristic. ROBERT HAM.
Cherry Sprout Produce
722 N Sumner St., 503-445-4959, instagram.com/cherrysprout. 9 am–8 pm Monday–Saturday, 10 am–8 pm Sunday.
If there was any confusion about what is in store for you at Cherry Sprout Produce, the large fake carrot perched atop its home base should tell you everything you need to know. The crew packs an impressive amount of tasty food and thoughtfully produced household items into a humble space—to the point that your first visit may feel overwhelming. But once you get the lay of the land, you’ll quickly feel like an old hand as you pluck from the bounty of locally grown produce, bulk goods and an impressively well-curated selection of wines. Robert HAM.
Roger Konka’s Mushroom Stand
1521 SW Salmon St. 10:30 am Saturdays.
If you’re looking for a reprieve from the chaos of the Portland Farmers Market at Portland State University, try walking a few blocks north to the makeshift mushroom stand on the corner of Southwest 15th Avenue and Salmon Street in Goose Hollow. When the office workers leave for the weekend, Roger Konka sets up his mushroom booth in the vacant parking lot next door to sell his weekly mushroom bounty.
His inventory entirely depends on what he’s cultivating right now at his small regenerative farm on Sauvie Island. Recently, he shared some giant, gray oyster mushrooms, as well as smaller shiitake and maitake varieties, each for $5 for a small brown bag filled to the brim. He also had some miner’s lettuce, an herbaceous, hardy, leafy green, and komi shungiku, an edible Japanese chrysanthemum for $3 a bunch. Other times, he’s had fresh chanterelles, morels and autumn nettle. There were also some houseleek plants for sale, one of them in an old black shoe.
Konka’s growing technique is as regenerative as it is resourceful; he reclaims used mushroom blocks from other farmers and uses them for another growing cycle. After that, he adds in red wiggler worms and turns the spent blocks into a compost-soil mixture that he’ll sell by the bag in the coming weeks. Keep your eyes peeled for a small vendors market Konka hopes to start this spring, either on site at his collective farm on Sauvie, or right there in the parking lot. TIM TRAN.
Black Futures Farm
6745 SE 60th Ave., blackfutures.farm.
Agricultural work holds a uniquely painful history for Black Americans, one that is still felt today. Meanwhile, Black Americans are twice as likely to experience food insecurity compared with white Americans. For Black Futures Farm, urban farming is an act of resistance, a way to build community, and a way to reclaim their connection to the earth. Nestled on over an acre of land in Brentwood-Darlington, Black Futures Farm draws on a long struggle for food justice and self-sufficiency, including the ’60s activism of Fannie Lou Hamer. Volunteers grow food rooted in the diverse culinary traditions of Black Americans, including okra, collard greens, black eyed peas, kale, and turnips that are sold through a small CSA program, open for sign-ups in the summer. When it’s not growing, Black Futures Farm hosts cookouts, workshops and other community events. KARLY QUADROS.
Good Rain Farm
28600 SE Orient Drive, Gresham, 360-904-9081, goodrainfarm.com. 9 am–4 pm Monday–Friday.
CSA, or community supported agriculture, has exploded in the past decade, connecting local farms and produce directly to the kitchens where they’re cooked. In a state as bountiful as Oregon, there’s nearly too many to choose from. Indigenous-led farm Xast Sqit, the Sinixit word for “good rain,” offers weekly subscription boxes of fresh produce, including lettuce, kale, squash, corn, onions, carrot and garlic, and Pacific Northwest First Foods, such as wood sorrel, rose hips, salmon berries, camas root and wapato. If you’re needing a little more meat, caffeine and carbs in your life, it has rabbitry, Takelma Roasting Co. coffee, and Bella’s Italian Bread add-ons as well. Summer shares last from June through October, while shorter spring and fall seasons last from April through June and October through November. KARLY QUADROS.
Smith Brothers Farms(formerly Alpenrose)
26401 79th Ave. S, smithbrothersfarms.com. Delivery support available 9 am–5 pm Monday–Friday.
When Smith Brothers Farm, formerly Alpenrose Dairy, relaunched its delivery service during the pandemic, it helped address a couple of problems: Minimizing the need for single-use bags and trips to the grocery store, the dairy soothed our fears about touching pretty much everything and preserved the benefit of reusable bags that were discouraged as a health precaution. The service didn’t come without a bit of nostalgia, too: The dairy trucks hadn’t been making house calls in the Portland metro area for nearly four decades (admittedly, decades after dairy delivery had ceased in most corners of the country). Some elements of service are the same as they were a century ago (Alpenrose has been around in some form since 1891), with dedicated delivery drivers placing perishables in an insulated box on the porch. To bring the service into the 21st century, the company added a mobile app that allows customers to make changes up until 2 pm the day before a scheduled delivery. Partnerships with several Portland-area companies, including Nossa Familia Coffee and Columbia Gorge Organic, make it easy to shop local for products beyond the usual dairy offerings without leaving your house. And to sweeten the deal even more? As long as your order is more than $15, delivery is free. KATEY TRNKA.
This story is part of Green Living Companion, Willamette Week’s environmentally conscientious magazine. It is free and can be found all over Portland beginning Monday, April 21, 2025. Find your free copy at one of the locations noted here. If you’re usual pick-up spot is out of magazines, head to one of the solid green spots on the map, which will have 200 magazines. You can also grab a copy at our online store!
