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It's a Sunday in February, and the open-air farmers market is bustling. Shoppers with overflowing canvas bags ponder artfully displayed greens and winter squash. Farmers greet regulars, weigh purchases and pass out hand warmers.
Wait a minute, hand warmers? No, this is not Santa Monica or another year-round market in some sunny locale. It's the Hillsdale Farmers' Market in cool, grey, wet Portland, Ore. While most communities say farewell to farmers markets in the fall, winter markets are catching on. Milwaukee and Madison, Wis., have long-established winter markets. Blustery Chicago has one, as do Toronto and Quebec City. The granddaddy of them all, Seattle's Pike Place Public Market, is more than 100 years old.
 What sets Portland apart is that its winter market is outdoors, come rain or, well, rain. Every other Sunday from December through April (weekly the rest of the year), farmers and food vendors set up rows of stalls on the grounds of a local high school. No permanent structures, no canopies, not even blue tarps offer shoppers shelter from the cold, damp weather.
True, in February the Hillsdale market isn't shoulder-to-shoulder crowded the way it is in sunny July, but the regulars are just that, and neither rain nor snow nor holidays keep them away. "I love the winter market," says farmer Anthony Boutard, who owns Ayers Creek Farm in nearby Gaston. "There are no surprises in the winter. We've been here in four inches of snow, and whoever's going to come, comes. It's rock solid. Predictable."
That's not the case in the summer, Boutard said. Some weekends, the whole city seems to empty out, with everyone gone on vacation. Trouble is, no one knows in advance which weekends those will be. So farmers harvest and box and lug their produce to the market, only to have to pack it up and take it home at the end of the day.
Not on this Sunday. Hillsdale is the largest of just two year-round markets in food-crazy Portland. So shoppers from the metro area's 36 other seasonal markets trek to the southwest Portland neighborhood during the winter.
By noon, two hours after opening, almost everything at the Ayers Creek stall is gone except for a bin of giant rutabagas. (One of the organic farm's biggest specimens weighed in at a hefty 17 pounds.) "I always dig too many rutabagas," says Boutard who has a 22-pounder still in the ground back home.
Ted J. Coonfied: Looking out for Hillsdale Farmers' Market
The Hillsdale market is relatively new on the lively Portland scene. Ted J. Coonfield (pictured at top), a retired management consultant who lives in the neighborhood, helped launch it in 2002. A year later, thanks to his organizing wizardry, the market secured a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to operate through the winter. (It is now self-sustaining, with modest vendor fees covering expenses.)
Like George Clooney's frequent-flying character in "Up in the Air," Coonfield is a member of the coveted million-mile club -- with four different airlines. One of the perks of his globe-traveling business was visiting farmers markets all over the world. He ticks off his favorites: Paris, Crete and a little town in Mexico's Sierra Nevada featuring dozens of moles. When he retired and started spending more time at home, Coonfield was dismayed that Hillsdale didn't have a market. Now it has the biggest year-round open-air market in Oregon.
"Our farmers really appreciate that there's a venue for them year-round," says Leah Rutz, the market's assistant manager. True, some farmers like to take the winter off. But the demand for local food from Portland's burgeoning restaurant scene means more farmers are planting winter crops to keep their chefs supplied year-round. In warmer months, Alan Rousseau, who raises grass-fed bison and yaks at his Pine Mountain Ranch in central Oregon, sells his frozen steaks and roasts at 10 farmers markets statewide. The Hillsdale market is the only one of them that stays open this time of year and is well worth the four-hour drive each way.
 What can you buy in winter? More than you might imagine. Deep Roots Farm, based in Albany, Ore., sells a panoply of greens: arugula, cabbage, collards, dandelion greens, red Russian kale and radicchio. Baby bok choy, Brussels sprouts, carrots, celeriac, chicory, leeks, onions, potatoes, parsnips and turnips fill other stalls. Hazlenuts, or filberts, abound (Oregon supplies 99 percent of the market nationwide). Dried beans come in every color and size, including handsome black-and-white orcas, named for the coastal killer whales. There are crab and oysters, fresh cheeses and eggs -- none of which depend upon summer weather. Market staples round out the offerings: breads, jams, dried fruit. A "brownie farmer" hands out samples of darkest chocolate flavored with Earl Grey tea. Like many markets, it's taster heaven.
Missing, though, are the musicians who give the summer market its festive air. They've learned that shoppers seldom stick around long enough in the winter to listen, says Rutz, the assistant market manager. "Two weeks ago it was pouring all day," she says. "People come and go fast."
Mary Engel is a former editorial writer and health and medical reporter for the Los Angeles Times.
Photos, from top: Ted Coonfield, who helped launch the Hillsdale market eight years ago. Late Traviso chicory at one of the winter market's produce stands. Leeks and potatoes are just two of the market's many winter offerings. All photos by Nolan Hester.
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