Sammamish Farmers Market vendors serve up desserts with unique stories
For residents who want to satisfy their sweet tooth, the Sammamish Farmers Market offers several enticing choices. Two of the market’s dessert booths mix a little culture into their confections.
Vendors Kapeliela Shave Ice and PNW Cheesecake have both brought their heritage through their sweets, allowing customers to experience desserts with unique backstories.
Kapeliela Shave Ice, an eight-year veteran to the Sammamish Farmers Market, incorporates Hawaiian culture with their shave ice. They sell a variety of flavors, including native Hawaiian flavors like Li Hing Mui, which is based from a salty and dried Chinese plum.
The business began 15 years ago when Solomon Kapeliela moved from Hawaii to Sammamish, and noticed that the classic American snow cone did not properly represent the shave ice he grew up eating.
The snow cone most commonly available in the U.S. was created by Japanese sugar workers in 1868. However, while an American snow cone is characterized by its crushed ice, shave ice is softer and more flavorful. This contrast stems from the difference in how these two frozen treats are prepared.
“The shave ice is traditionally made with a machine that is similar to a machete, while a snow cone uses a simple blender,” Kapeliela, 56, said.
In Hawaii, shave ice has long held cultural significance.
“Shave ice was a way for the workers to beat the heat during the hot summers, and that is what we are trying to do here,” Kapeliela said.
In contrast, PNW Cheesecake brings a sense of localness with their specialty. Matthew Cornwall, 42, and Kimberly Pollreise, 39, sell over 100 flavors of homemade Seattle-style cheesecake. The family business began after Cornwall introduced his family’s cheesecake recipe to his wife, Pollreise, during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was skeptical at first but was converted after her first tasting.
“So moral of the story is even though she thought she would hate it, she ended up loving it. That’s when we knew we had something special,” Cornwall said.
PNW Cheesecake debuted at the Sammamish Farmers Market this year, introducing their unique twist on traditional cheesecakes to Sammamish residents. The Seattle-style, a family recipe by Cornwall’s mother, is a combination of a pie and cheesecake.
“This cheesecake pie is made in a tin-pan form rather than a springer pan form, “Cornwall said. “When we thought on what to call this dessert, we landed on the name Seattle-style cheesecake.”
This family recipe is offered in over 100 flavors. When brainstorming new flavors, Cornwall and Pollreise keep customers’ favorites, such as strawberry shortcake cheesecake, and also add cheesecake flavors that hold personal significance.
“Our Caramel Apple Crumble is a combination of my mom’s family cheesecake recipe and my dad’s grandma’s sour cream apple pie recipe,” Cornwall said.
Additional flavors are added each week, so Cornwall and Pollreise encourage their customers to return to their booth frequently to try something new.
“We are always adding new flavors to keep things interesting for both us and our customers, “Matthew said. “We are thinking about adding a root beer float cheesecake and key lime pie cheesecake in the future.”
The Sammamish Farmers Market will be at the Sammamish Commons, 801 228th Avenue SE, every Wednesday from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. through mid-September.
