Who knew that one of the biproducts of clowning around could be the inception of a small business? Well, back in 2016, after his roommate returned from a “Clowns Without Borders” trip to Haiti, Kylee Wegner was gifted a deliciously unique jar of Haitian peanut butter. After the first bite, Kylee immediately wanted to replicate the product.
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“At the time, I knew nothing about the art of making peanut butter, but I had cut my teeth slinging burgers, pastas, and other eclectic foods in my culinary career,” recalled Kylee.
Coming to learn that peanuts are actually legumes (I bet you didn’t know that!), Kylee decided to take a private lesson with a coffee roaster he had been working with at the time to learn the art of roasting . And wouldn’t you know it — coffee beans and peanuts behave quite similarly! From there, Portland Spicy Peanut Butter was born!

Although the inception of Portland Spicy Peanut Butter came about with the help of clowns, the ability to legally distribute nut butter was no joking matter! Kylee had to embark on a four-year journey to achieve his goals, and thankfully his perseverance cultivated the ability to distribute his spicy products at the Rocky Butte Farmers Market! Kylee says his focus is and always will be, “making delicious hand roasted peanut butter,” and to, “continue to inspire others to explore artisan nut roasting.”

While creating phenomenal nut butter is the priority, Portland Spicy Peanut Butter also strives to support the community through local art projects. One of the ways Kylee has been committed to this cause is through commissioning custom t-shirt designs by local artists “that really showcase the artist’s style while still paying homage to Portland Spicy Peanut Butter. I wanted to create a program to give visual artists residuals for the work that they have created,” he said.

Kylee’s unique and steadfast engagement with the community is what makes Portland Spicy Peanut Butter such an outstanding vendor to have at the Rocky Butte Farmers Market. According to Kylee, “connection to the community, art, and tackling the challenges of making the ethical choice over the profitable one” is always at the forefront of Portland Spicy Peanut Butter’s decisions.

When asked what he enjoys about the Rocky Butte Farmers Market, Kylee said that it’s, “a small neighborhood market with a terrific and knowledgeable staff that truly loves being a part of such a terrific community.” Kylee also noted that the market’s new location has injected new life into the weekly event.

Portland Spicy Peanut Butter works tirelessly to serve as an anchor in the community. Kylee simply wants to continue creating, distributing, and expanding the reaches of his nut butter while simultaneously uplifting local artists and supporting other members of the market. So, let’s lend him as much support as possible and stop by his booth on Saturdays from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at the corner of NE 80th Avenue and NE Siskiyou Street. You can watch him clown around while checking out some of his locally designed t-shirts or sampling some of that spicy peanut butter! Currently, Portland Spicy Peanut Butter offers the “original” and “reaper” nut butter flavors which are a great accompaniment for toast, apples, an Asian-inspired noodle dish, and much more!

Written by Dan Jackson

Sometimes when we least expect it, new doors crack open for us, revealing serendipitous opportunities that perhaps only existed beforehand as a dream. Though COVID-19 came with its extreme challenges and uncertainty, for some, it served as a catalyst for change. In the case of Nicky, Dude, and Aurora Edwards, this newly opened door revealed the moment they’d been envisioning. Owning and operating their own farm, Night Owl Garden!
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“Dude has been interested in regenerative farming for many years. When the pandemic shifted my job to be full time remote, we realized we had the opportunity to look for property and start making the dream a reality,” recalled Nicky. So, in September of 2022, this family of farmers moved onto their own farm in North Plains, OR and began their first garlic crop in the fall.

With the decision to charge ahead toward their long-desired dream, it was important to have a vision for their new business. Nicky explained that their, “ultimate goal is to stop the degradation of the soils and wildlife in our area through better farming practices.” Night Owl Garden aims to allow the natural areas of their property to remain wild. Though it is important to manage the land for fire safety, their goals are to refrain from too much interference with the innate processes of nature! Night Owl Garden now has “two large market gardens in different areas of the property and an integrated solar irrigation system.” Looking toward the future, their long-term goals are to marry the concepts of water conservation and land use in a way that is complementary to their organic gardening practices.

Of the numerous products that Night Owl Garden has to offer, their primary crop is garlic. However, they also grow a wide range of produce including spring greens and lettuces, summer tomatoes, peppers, corn, and cut flowers! As fruit lovers, Nicky explained that they also have “an old fruit tree orchard on the farm and we have planted more than 100 new fruit trees, so we will be able to offer many varieties of fruit including apricots, cherries, nectarines, peaches, plums, pears, and apples in the future.” So, sit tight and hold on for those delicious fruits that are sure to make their way to the Rocky Butte Farmers Market!

As first-time family farmers only in their second year of operation, Night Owl Garden has found that one of their biggest challenges is simply, “capacity.” With operating a farming business, while one partner fulfills the duties of a full-time job, keeping up with the many projects that arise from owning and operating a farm has proven to be difficult, to say the least. But Nicky and Dude understand that these types of obstacles come with the territory.

Though it can be tough, Nicky and Dude are able to remain grateful for the opportunity to be living their farming dreams in the first place. What keeps them motivated through difficult times are the near constant projects that allow them both to exercise their creativity. “Dude has enjoyed creating things his whole life and there is no better opportunity than a farm to create something truly beautiful and endlessly rewarding,” says Nicky. Not to mention, the ability to generate access to healthy foods for family, friends, and the Rocky Butte community gives Night Owl Garden immense satisfaction, further serving as a driving force to continue pursuing their dreams.

Choosing the right market to be involved in was an extremely important decision for Night Owl Garden to make as a new business. When asked about the Rocky Butte Farmers Market, Nicky recalled that they, “appreciated that Rocky Butte was a younger market and prioritized emergent farmers.” And that’s one of the greatest aspects of this market community. Supporting new and unique vendors in the market space to generate more synergy and access between community members and local products.

​Night Owl Garden has enjoyed seeing the same customers return to their booth each Saturday for a resupply on their produce. Making new and grateful friends has been extremely rewarding for this team so be sure to stop by on Saturdays from 9AM – 1PM at the corner of NE 80th Avenue and NE Siskiyou street to make new farmer friends with the folks at Night Owl Garden!

​What do you do when the company that sells your wife’s favorite bath bombs suddenly decides to stop making them? Throw in the towel? Tell yourself, “No more bath bombs for us?” Well, if you’re Kip Hammett from Whisper of Essence, you don’t let that get you down. You take matters into your own hands and start making your own! 

After discovering that their favorite bath bomb products had unfortunately been discontinued, Kip and his wife journeyed to their local library and returned with a mountain of books. They’d decided that they were going to solve their problem by making bath bombs on their own. Like any new venture, there was a learning curve, but through perseverance, determination, and experimentation, Kip began to yield bath bombs of the highest quality. And though the intention of these products was to be used solely by Kip and his wife, their bath bombs drew the attention of friends who soon began asking for some themselves! Realizing that these creative bath time concoctions were in demand, Kip’s vision began to shift away from solely bath bombs and onto a new product. So, back to the library he ventured. This time in order to learn how to make soaps! 

And here we have the origin story of Whisper of Essence! Through Kip's curiosity and creativity, his efforts dedicated to making soaps have snowballed into a passion-fueled business. Back in 2005, when his commercial venture began, Kip was still working a full-time job while attempting to get this new business off the ground. When asked about these early days of Whisper of Essence, Kip said, “the balance of having a ‘real job’ and making the soap was taxing on me.” But once Kip made the decision to commit more of his energy to Whisper of Essence, a venture he was coming to realize he was far more impassioned by, things began to improve for him. Kip described the benefit of this priority shift by simply stating, “This has taught me to become mellower.”  

Staying mellow is a great trait to have as a business owner, especially when challenges arise. Kip discussed how vital it was in those early days to learn how to, “break the ice with the customers.” When asked to expand on this Kip explained that, “The scent of the soap needs to pull people in. If they can’t smell it, that’s not good.” Through patience and continued iterations in the soap making process, Whisper of Essence now offers more than 40 different kinds of “ice breaking” soaps, all constructed using the finest goat’s milk recipes, which are sure to grab your nose and yank you towards the booth whenever you walk by! 

Kip reflected upon his journey as a business owner and found that 2019 was quite a triumphant year for his business. During 2019, Whisper of Essence participated in 40 different markets and sold 1900 bars of fragrant soaps, exposing the quality and variety of these products to a vast audience. Kip and Whisper of Essence were also one of the first businesses to participate in the Rocky Butte Farmers Market pop-ups. Ever since then, he has desired to be continually involved in this exceptional community. Kip loves that the market is “clean and tidy, and among all else, professional!” Kip wants to continue his involvement with RBFM, growing his customer base and increasing the number of soaps making their way into people’s homes! 
 
Having such a determined and enthusiastic vendor such as Whisper of Essence is what helps expose this community to unique products and keeps our market fresh and exciting! Come see Kip Hammett of Whisper of Essence on Saturdays from 9AM – 1PM at the corner of NE 80th Avenue and NE Siskiyou street and put your nose to the test! We dare you to try to walk by Whisper of Essence without being pulled in to take a whiff of their delightfully aromatic soaps!  

Written by Dan Jackson

​They just don’t know how to make salsa here like they do in Mexico. Fortunately for the Rocky 
Butte community, they can always depend on the delicious, savory, and genuine salsas from La 
Comelona Foods! 

Five years ago, after struggling to find authentically flavored salsas like the ones she grew up 
eating in Mexico, Patricia Cabrera decided to take matters into her own hands by launching La 
Comelona Foods.  Her goal in venturing into the world of small business ownership was to 
simply promote the rich, flavorful, and piquant cuisine of Mexico through her unique salsas! 

Utilizing all natural ingredients and an array of flavors, La Comelona salsas, “can be used in 
many different ways. Cooked with, used as a dressing, or as a marinate which makes them 
different than many other salsas on the market”, says Patricia. 

La Comelona Foods currently offers three  different products: Salsa de Chile Arbol, Salsa de Habanera (pictured right),  and Salsa de Chile Negro. Patricia shared  that her favorite salsa is, “the habanero  salsa because it’s spicy but has a great bal-ance of flavor to go with the spice.” Though the Salsa de Habanera stands out as Patri-cia’s favorite, all of La Comelona’s salsas  generate an explosion of zestful tastiness  with each bite! 

Patricia takes immense pride in the authenticity of her salsas and feels that the business’s greatest triumph has been the ability to sell their products at Market of Choice’s eight separate locat-ions throughout the state of Oregon.  Having been a seller at these supermarkets for three  years, Patricia has been given the opportunity to obtain a grander reach to more customers  with her salsas. However, in the Portland area, one of La Comelona’s biggest challenges, “has  been getting into more local markets. My goals are to position myself in more markets and give
people a chance to try our products”, says Patricia. 

Having such a passion for reaching local communities, La Comelona Foods makes for the 
perfect vendor at the Rocky Butte Farmers Market. Right from the start, Patricia says she was“interested when Rocky Butte Farmers Market began because we saw the opportunity for both of us to grow together and show our support to a community that has welcomed us with open arms”. Through the trials and tribulations of running La Comelona Foods, Patricia  and her team have learned just how much work it takes to run a small business. But most imp-ortantly, they’ve also learned how rewarding it is to connect with the community and to meet  new customers who enjoy their salsas! 

Facilitating such a mutually beneficial relationship between vendors and the community is 
exactly what the Rocky Butte Farmers Market strives to achieve.  Come on down and dip your 
chips into La Comelona Foods salsas at the Rocky Butte Farmers Market, taking place on 
Saturdays, 9AM – 1PM at NE 80th Avenue and NE Siskiyou Street!