LRBC Little Known Fact #213

Strata.

We first began making strata four years ago, when we owned and operated a farmer's market booth under the name "Green & Green Salad Company." At the time, the Green & Green menu focused on salad recipes and wrapped sandwiches, but after spending too many early mornings twiddling our thumbs and standing put while our neighbors booth's accrued lines of customers which wrapped around our own booth (cough...Pinestate), we finally decided that enough was enough. It was time to start serving up some breakfast fare to entice the early morning market goers.

Seemed simple enough, however at the time, the Portland Farmers Market was very strict in regard to exactly what type of food people were allowed to serve. In order to ensure that there was not too much crossover between vendors, the market employed a jury process in which vendors had to submit any new food items they hoped to serve at the market to an official review process. Our initial attempts were shot down one after the other. Egg sandwiches: no. Crepes: no. Biscuits and gravy: no. After a few weeks of deliberation, we suggested the possibility of "strata" on a whim, partly hoping they would allow us to serve it based on an assumed lack of familiarity with the cuisine. Wouldn't you know, they finally said yes. The rest, as they say, is history.

Strata became our signature breakfast item at the farmers market, and since then has become a favorite amongst many of our LRBC patrons. The beauty of this stuff, is that there are limitless possibilities in terms of what one can do with it. We enjoy using our strata to highlight seasonal ingredients as they reach the peak of freshness.