edible seattle | Spring 2025 15 Longtime Ballard residents may have noticed recent subtle changes to the steadfast Green Market storefront at the top of Sunset Hill. For one, the iconic vintage-style sign above the door now spells out “Salmonberry Green Grocer,” instead of “Sunset Hill Green Market,” but the ethos remains the same. Honoring the legacy of a long-standing community space, while ushering in a new generation of farmers and producers, has guided co-founders David Rothstein and Alex Johnstone since they began planning for a brick and mortar location in early 2024. Rothstein and Johnstone, the co-owners of Salmonberry Goods and now Salmonberry Green Grocer, have been thinking about the role of community and collaboration in the food system long before the storefront. Their strategies and business models have evolved since they started doing business together in 2015, but they have always been driven by a desire to make supporting small, local farms and businesses an easier choice for customers. “We want to build the most direct pipeline from the field to someone’s front door,” Rothstein says. Direct access to farmers sets Salmonberry Goods apart from other bakeries, grocery stores and grocery subscriptions. Their website lists the farmers they work with by first name because this is how they know them—personally. This list includes people like John and Roxanne at Spring Rain Farm (Chimacum); Colin and Genine at Kirsop Farm (Tumwater); Melissa and Josh of Newaukum Valley (Rochester) and more. “Farmers markets have been so woven in the fabric of my life,” Rothstein says. And it’s true. The markets have been part of the Salmonberry story since the beginning. Before there was Salmonberry Goods, before the weekly Salmonberry Farm Boxes (subscription-based, small farm aggregate grocery boxes) and before the storefront, there was Convoy Coffee—a bike-trailer, pour-over coffee shop that high school friends Rothstein and Johnstone dreamt up on a road trip up from Santa Cruz after graduating college 10 years ago. Convoy Coffee was the pair’s first foray into small-business ownership. They biked to various farmers markets and sold coffee from local roasters. They traded coffee for produce from the market vendors and built relationships with farmers. “It was a great food awakening for us,” Johnstone says of their early days. Through conversations with neighboring vendors, Rothstein and Johnstone saw the struggles and triumphs of the farmers, who they began to think of as their community. Rothstein labels the baked goods for sale at the Ballard Farmers Market. Scratch-made cardamom knots (below), bagels and crackers are all on offer at the store and the market.
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