Several weeks ago I had the honor of being in the kitchen with Laura Morgan, who is the driving force behind FarmCart. Laura and her crew are nearing completion of their first season serving up delicious biscuit sandwiches and other tasty delights to the patrons of Montavilla Farmers Market – a market that she chose for its size and sense of community.
Laura graduated from cooking school in Southern California. She came to Portland for family, then decided that she wanted to stay and “be part of the (food) conversation”. She named her business FarmCart, and is looking to a future when she can expand and join the Food Cart community where she is sure to excel at putting food from local farmers into your mouth!
Laura also attended Colorado State University, where she majored in Natural Resource Tourism, and minored in Global Environmental Sustainability. It’s small wonder that she is so passionate about doing her part to reduce waste. Having read about the Durable Dish program on the MFM website, she found that it would be more cost efficient to buy and reuse dishes instead of purchasing disposable products. Some careful shopping resulted in the acquisition of enough secondhand restaurant quality dishes and flatware that she is able to feed at least 120 hungry people each market day. That’s enough dishes to fill three bus bins, and is equal to one hour of washing time while prepping in her commercial kitchen rental space.
I would like to applaud Laura for her innovative way of taking on the Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle lifestyle that I believe we should all strive for. She is truly an inspiration for the rest of us, and I hope that she will bring her enthusiasm, and her biscuits, back next year!