Meet the Manager: Dylan
NFM: Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you? What do you do?
Dylan: My name is Dylan. I am a first-year market manager excited to manage the Phinney Farmers Market this season. I have a long background in the farmers market community, working for a variety of the different vendors here in Seattle over the past five years. I led the Seattle operations for River Run farm based out of Sequim managing five markets per week and overseeing the Community Supported Agriculture Farm box, which is a delivery program in the neighborhoods around Seattle. I've worked with a number of our other vendors as well: pouring beer for Tin Dog Brewing at tasting events, helping inoculating substrates and harvesting mushrooms at SnoValley Mushrooms, serving and bartending at catering events with Brothers and Company. So I know a lot about our vendors and have deep ties to the community. Before coming to the markets, I attended law school at the University of Washington but ended up finding my way into the Farmers Market community through a passion for local food and the great community we have here in the farmers markets.
What excites you the most about your first season managing the Phinney Farmers Market?
Phinney is a great neighborhood. I have spent a lot of time driving around the neighborhood delivering farm shares for River Run so it'll be nice to actually get to slow down and engage with the community—not just quickly dropping off a box but to get to see them face to face and share my excitement about the markets. We have a great lineup for the season. We've got some really exciting new hot food vendors coming in. We've got Vespucci pizza, a wood-fired pizza vendor who some of you might recognize from the Ballard farmers market. Kottu is a Sri Lankan hot food vendor that I'm pretty excited about as well. And of course I'm excited for all the fun spring and summer veggies. We have a strong lineup of returning farmers and a few new faces as well.
What are your goals for a successful first season at Phinney and second season since reopening in 2022?
My goal is to provide a community space. That's how I have engaged with the markets in my personal life and what really drew me to them. Phinney is already such a great neighborhood, and through our partnership with the PNA we're able to really lean in on that and bring some of these community-oriented events and organizations to the forefront and have a place to engage directly face to face with each other.
Can you tell readers a little bit about the relationship between the PNA and the neighborhood farmers markets and how they work together to make the market happen?
The PNA is a great partner for us. Obviously, they donate the physical space in which the market takes place, which is greatly appreciated. It's nice for me, especially as a first-year market manager, not having the market on a public street and not having to deal with a street closure and all of what comes with that. It makes for a really special market because we have a lot more control over the space.
Additionally, PNA does an incredible job scheduling live music and bringing their other programs to the market and so we're able to provide that space for them.
What fruit or veggie are you most excited to see in the market this summer?
I mean, the obvious answer is cherries. Everybody loves cherries here in Washington. They are such a special thing you can't get all over the rest of the country and they're so tasty.
I love our winter veg, don’t get me wrong, but after a long winter of eating cabbage and root veggies I'm excited to see lettuce come back. It makes my life easier throughout the summer to just being able to rip apart some lettuce and throw a salad together makes meal preparation for the rest of the week a lot easier.
What is one thing that you want the Phinney neighborhood to know about your market?
It's a great place to come and participate in your community. You get to see other folks from your neighborhood and hear some live music. We're going to have quite a bit of programming coming back this season. We've got the zucchini races coming back this year, which is a really fun, family-oriented event where you and your kids can make race cars out of the summer’s bounty. We're going to have lots of other smaller programming throughout the year as well with different tastings, potentially cooking demos and food preservation demos as well.
The Phinney Farmers Market opens on June 8, from 3-7 pm at the PNA Community Center.