Florists of PSU Farmers Market

Amazing floral arrangements make enthralling photographs

Saturday's first light filters through the blinds. It’s a warmish (50F/10C) gray day in Portland.

Linda Naylor

and I planned and completed the majority of our grocery shopping for our guests for Thanksgiving dinner. All we needed was some mushrooms for one of our side dishes. Where would we forage for mushrooms? At the Portland State University (PSU) Farmer's Market!

Our challenge was to combine green beans and mushrooms with Madera wine and butter into a scrumptiously elegant side dish for our Thanksgiving feast. We've had a grim mushroom season this year and picking have been thin. Many foragers could not bring much to market so we wanted to what was available and if we'd have to put a mortgage on Tigre (my cat) in order to afford what suddenly became a luxury item.

Up and dressed. Tickle the coffee app and ordered morning go-juice and a hit of protein to go with. On the road again by 8:30 am, coffee warming the palate, munchies filling the tummies. Scott Simon's voice purring on NPR for the drive. All is well on Saturday morning.

We arrive at PSU and engage Linda's Parking Karma^TM. The Universe delivers us a perfect parking spot yet again. I read off the Parking Kitty code that Linda enters into the app. Grab a reusable shopping bag from the trunk and take off on the short hike to the market. We  need only one bag due to the our need for three items: mushrooms, green beans, and flowers for our table centerpiece.

Our feet squish as we trod on fallen leaves and evade puddles after yesterdays rain. We enter the market on the south side in search of the main mushroom vendor, Miatake. There they are, on the left! We zip over to their stand and are presented with an array of fresh fungi. Looking the prices only induced mild panic: no need to mortgage the cat, just flog, batter, and abuse the debit card instead. $25 per pound for Chanterelles and $20 for 1.5 ounces of dried morels more than we needed for our menu. Unfortunately, we discover the morels were not on site. We'd have to wait about an hour for them to be delivered. OK, we can wait and shop for green beans and flowers.

Alas, no green beans were to be found at PSU today.

Flowers were readily available at the premier florist stand Hav Paj. According to their web site:

Hav Paj Garden is a second generation Hmong family operating business focusing in both floristry and floriculture here in the Pacific Northwest. All fresh cut items are locally grown seasonally and harvested to be sold as fresh cut items, or arranged into seasonal bouquets at local farmers market. Our plants range widely in all categories of annual, biannual and perennials. Plants range from herbaceous flowering shrubs, ornamental foliage, blossoming and fruiting trees. Come find us at the Portland State University Farmers Market.

Here are the Hav Paj Garden flower arrangements and staff today.