Oregon Public Broadcasting

Summer is high season for fresh cooking  ingredients in Oregon. This weekend, people will flock to farmers' markets all around the state. Most markets also feature a few homemade foods for you to try. 

April Baer checked in with an operation that’s helping some mother-daughter chefs take their business to a wider audience.

When Lourdes Hernandez makes tamales, the main ingredient is tradition.

Lourdes Hernandez: “I learned from my grandma and my mom, and they still sell tamales in Mexico. What make the best of my tamales is that I put a lot of my heart, my knowledge, my expertise, and it also it has the flavor of my country or origin.”

That’s Hernandez, getting a little translation help from Pietro Ferrari.   Hernandez is part of Micro Mercantes, a small business that makes and sells food at farmers’ markets.

The program was formed by Ferrari’s agency, Hacienda CDC. It’s a non-profit housing and economic development group based in Portland, that offers microloans to help  Latinos get their businesses off the ground.

Hacienda recently opened this brightly-painted restaurant-grade kitchen to about ten mother-daughter teams to use for their food prep. We’re hearing the crowd that packed in for the opening celebration – and the live guitarist.

Every week, Lourdes and her teen-aged daughter, Estefania crank out hundreds of tamales here -- some special orders, but mostly vegetable, chicken, or pork. Estefania says it’s possible to buy all the ingredients prepared, but she and her mom make everything from scratch, whipping up the masa dough, cooking the fillings, rolling each tamale by hand, and steaming them just right.

That’s one of the trickier parts.

Estefania Hernandez: “If they’re too soft that they fall apart way to easily, they’re not exactly cooked yet. They have to be hard enough not to fall apart, soft enough that they’re not too hard.”

Estefania says she learned to experiment as their business has grown. While she thinks the traditional way of making tamales really works, the same can’t be said for all the traditional ingredients.

Estefania Hernandez:  “The best tamales I’ve tasted, they should not have too much -- lard. If they don’t have lard, it’s better, they taste a lot better. Doesn’t hit you as much in the stomach, you know? My mom, when we were younger, she used to cook with lard, then she started cooking with vegetable lard and stuff, and they tasted so much better, they were a lot healthier. ”

The co-operative atmosphere of the MicroMercantes kitchen has led to some helpful collaborations. Lourdes explains, with Estefania translating, that she now has help finding the best quality ingredients.

Lourdes Hernandez  (speaking in Spanish) Estefania Hernandez, translating:  “Like if one lady goes to the store, and let’s say they find good husks for tamales, pretty good in price and everything too, they all call each other, and tell each other where the place is at.”

Usually one of the vendors will also call the store, and try to make arrangements for a bulk purchase.

Estefania Hernandez: “That’s what’s also made it easier, because when they used to do it by themselves, it was hard to find the best things.”

Several times a week, the vendors fan out among about ten markets around the metro area.

Estefania Hernandez  “Would you like any salsa on your tamale?”

Customer:  “Yeah, what are the options?"

Estefania Hernandez:   "We have green salsa, tomatillo, which is hot, and the red sauce—tomato.”The final product is a moist, firm tamale with a strong corn flavor, and a seasoned filling that’s not just filler. Estefania Hernandez says the first few weeks of market season were the biggest.

Estefania Hernandez:  “The first day the we came, the market was full, and we sold out around half day. We sold around 250 tamales, and we could have easily sold 300.”

Customer: “Can I get a chicken tamale, and a veggie tamale?”

Estefania Hernandez: “In the same container? Would you like any salsa?”

Customer:  “Just some red, please.”

Since then, business has leveled out. Thanks to the microloan help from Hacienda, the Hernandez’s  are moving about 150 tamales per market day. If you don’t make it before the tamales sell out, you can still get some of their homemade lemonade to take the edge off the heat.

Online:

Micro Mercantes Farmers Market Schedule