When Olajumoke Elkanah first moved to Salem, she couldn’t find the groceries she needed to cook Nigerian staples. Tired of making the trek to Portland to buy ingredients for jollof rice and egusi soup, Elkanah started Flourish Spices a decade ago, importing African staples like palm oil and fufu flour. During Covid, she expanded her business to make rice mixes, spice blends and other packaged foods that bring West African flavors to life. “I keep buying other people’s things — I should make my own,” she remembered thinking. Flourish Spices is one of 20 small businesses that will be featured Friday at a pop-up market in Salem intended to highlight local food and beverage entrepreneurs. The event runs from 3-6 p.m. at Chemeketa Community College’s Agricultural Complex, on the east side of the Salem campus at 4000 Lancaster Dr. N.E. It’s the second year the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network has put on the event in Salem, partnering with economic development nonprofit SEDCOR. Salem, being nestled in Oregon’s prime farmland, has a high concentration of food entrepreneurs, said Cara Turano, the network’s president and executive director. “Their products are consistently good and there’s just a good food entrepreneurship story that comes out of Salem going back to Kettle potato chips,” she said. Customers browse at the 2022 Oregon Angel Food Marketplace in Portland. (Courtesy/Oregon Entrepreneurs Network) The market of packaged food products has grown since the pandemic, when many food entrepreneurs either found time to launch a venture or had to pivot an existing one. “Many of the food entrepreneurs that we’ve been seeing are also folks that had restaurants or food trucks or some sort of live in-person hospitality venue and had to figure out how to keep going when you could not be in person serving food,” Turano said. The goal of the market is to expose small food businesses like Elkanah’s to potential consumers, as well as buyers for grocery chains and others who might sell their products. It’s open to the public to shop and meet entrepreneurs. Starting around 4 p.m., each entrepreneur will have an opportunity to get up on stage and give a three-minute pitch for their business. There’s no competition or investment money at stake, but Turano said it’s intended to give food entrepreneurs an opportunity they rarely get: standing on stage in front of hundreds of people and talking. “Tech entrepreneurs do it a lot,” she said. Last year’s event included a pitch competition, and it received rave feedback from attendees. “Our entire goal is to educate entrepreneurs and help them expand their skill set,” Turano said. Other participating Salem-area businesses include Don Froylan Creamery, Annie’s Jammies, Max’s Booch and Nathan Lee Bitters. Nathan Rafn started hand-making bitters in 2014 to use in cocktails at Rafn’s, the fine-dining restaurant he and his wife ran. They closed during the pandemic and decided to focus on their product, which had been getting rave reviews from customers. “It just seemed natural that we would take these bitters that we’d been making and commercialize them,” Rafn said. He said the bitters sold well when they participated last year, and the market was a good opportunity to meet other business owners at a similar stage. “We’re getting to a point now where we’re ready to start growing the bitters business and scaling it,” he said. Elkanah’s products are already available in some Oregon upscale grocery stores, including Market of Choice and New Seasons. She sells them from her combination market and hair salon at 1555 Hawthorne Ave. N.E., where she sees a diverse clientele. They include immigrants from a range of African countries, from Ethiopia to Ghana, as well as Pacific Islanders who enjoy fufu, and people who have traveled to Africa and miss the cuisine. “Some people come with recipes, so I help them get what they want,” she said, Some West African staples, like fufu, have gone viral on TikTok in recent years, bringing customers to her door who want to cook it and don’t know where to start. Elkanah said she hopes Friday’s event might expose her to new customers and sellers who’d be willing to carry her products.  Her hope is to expand her business so she can have her own commercial kitchen instead of one she currently rents as needed. Finding space to make her food is a challenge, she said. But she’s not interested in mass-selling her rice mixes or spices. “I don’t want to bring down the quality of the product so I can be everywhere,” she said. Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post Taste the latest from Salem’s food entrepreneurs at Friday market appeared first on Salem Reporter.