The weather outside right now is cloudy and 60 degrees! It’s Springtime in the Rockies. And with Spring, comes the Boise Far,ers Market. Here is the latest news from them.
Even though it’s winter, there is a lot going on in the world of local food and local sustainable farming!
The Babies are Growing Up at True Roots Organics!
Kaimana, the youngest farmer at True Roots Organics, and his side-kick Nala are checking the seedlings to make sure all is well.

These were planted in early January and are already sprouted, but we couldn’t pass up on this darling pic!

With biodynamic innovation and some large black barrels that absorb the heat of the sun, the inside temperature in the green house is 60 degrees plus. Perfect for spring seedlings.

We can hardly wait to enjoy the fresh produce from the True Roots Organics booth come April!
The Seed of the Week
Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled Cress!
Brought to you by our friends at the Snake River Seed Cooperative.
They sell heirloom, non-gmo, open-pollinated seeds grown by 29 small, family farmers around the Intermountain West.

This variety is not easy to harvest commercially due to its small size, so it is perfect to grow for your home garden! In addition to offering a unique, lovely floral-spice flavor for salads and dishes, it can also be grown as an ornamental plant in your garden! The seed stalks are a beautiful filler in bouquets and can be dried for fall and winter wreaths.

This cress comes from well known plant breeder Frank Morton, located in Philomath, Oregon. Frank Morton has bred many varieties of delicious greens in the Willamette Valley of Western Oregon. We enjoy trialing these greens to see which grow well in our high altitude desert climate. Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled Cress is one of those varieties that have been a success!

tHe FuNkY tAco!
Another BFM Vendor Gets a Storefront!
The Funky Taco is going brick-and-mortar! We’re sure you’ve seen the construction on the corner of 8th & Bannock. That’s Funky Taco’s new location!

 

Below is a short interview we did with co-owner, Sheri Archambo.

How long has the Funky Taco food truck been around?
We started in April of 2013 in step with the Boise Farmers Market.

What made you decide to create it?
We decided to create the food truck for a number of reasons. One of those being our passion to create interesting and delicious food that is sourced as locally as possible. We thought the food truck would be a great platform for us to develop our concept and provide us with valuable feedback that would allow us to establish a brick and mortar location in the future. Being part of the Boise Farmers market allowed us to develop relationships with local farmers who has provided us with education and product that you can’t get anywhere else.

What was the tipping point that drove you to establish a brick and mortar business?
Owning our own restaurant is a dream for us, we have taken the time to during this process to assure long term success. There have been numerous tipping points. We’ve had many repeat customers who have encouraged us to build a restaurant so they could enjoy our food more than just Saturday mornings at the Boise Farmers Market or special events around the valley. There have been several locations that were considered for the brick and mortar but nothing felt “right” until 8th and Bannock presented itself. We knew deep in our hearts this was the right decision.

Has the Boise Farmers Market had any role in your success?
Yes, of course! The Boise Farmers Market has allowed us to grow in may different areas of our business. We have developed personal and working relationships with our farmers and other speciality food vendors at the market. We’ve learned a lot from the vendors about farming, food, and our overall business. They’ve been valuable in shaping our concept and our mission as restauranteurs.
In addition, we have also developed a loyal repeat customer base who come back each week bringing their friends and family to share in “the food” and “the experience”. We will continue to develop our existing relationships with the Boise Farmer Market producers and wish to also forge new relationships as well. These relationships have been a big part of our success and we will count on them being a big part of our success in the future.

When will you be open for business?
We are hoping that the restaurant will be open at the end of February. We are thinking our hours will be from 11 – 9 Monday to Wednesday, 11am – 11pm Thursday Saturday, although that’s not final just yet.

What “insider” info can you give us?
The restaurant is going to be an exciting and comfortable place to enjoy creative and nutritious food. We have an elevated stage where we will have live music with a state of the art PA system. With such a great location in downtown we’ve made the space something that we know our customers and the Boise Farmers Market will be proud of.

tHe FuNkY tAco will be opening late February at 801 West Bannock in Downtown Boise. Locally sourced healthy taco-licious grub. We can hardly wait!