Connecting the dots between the field and my plate.
In the Pacific Northwest, early summer and late spring can feel like fraternal twins. So much alike and yet, at the same time, so different. Just as you're ready to toss your hoodies and jeans into the bottom drawer of the dresser until you reluctantly dig them out again in the fall, a cool maritime front blows in from the coast causing the mercury to plummet 20 degrees. In cases like that—and I'm…
Early summer whets my appetite for what's to come in the Pacific Northwest: First to trickle in from our fields both cultivated and wild are the earliest greens—nettles, fiddleheads and fava tops among them—then comes asparagus, green garlic, early strawberries and the softest young lettuces, soon followed by the briefest appearance of our native, and much anticipated, Hood strawberries, along…
Once again, it's confession time. I love fava bean season so much that, at the first sign of the bundles of young green shoots on farmers' market tables in the spring, I get a little giddy thinking of them stir-fried with garlic and tossed with pasta and preserved lemon, or slathered with oil and roasted, served alongside a beautiful grilled, pasture-raised chicken thigh. Then there's the…
This article was written by Portland author Peggy Acott to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Growing Gardens. Beginning in 1996 with a staff so small you could count them on one hand and still have fingers left over, Growing Gardens is today a robust group of nearly fifty, with program volunteers numbering more than a hundred. They are passionate and persistent in their goal to create a…
There are certain vegetables that I am embarrassed to admit I have had almost no experience with. I could blame my upbringing in small town Oregon in the middle of the last century where iceberg lettuce was the only fresh green in Piggly Wiggly's produce aisle. Or my father and brothers who considered any vegetable outside of frozen peas and creamed corn to be potentially poisonous, so much so…
Like Paris, Portland is a city of neighborhoods, each having its signature cafés, restaurants, bars and bakeries, where residents gather to nod a hello, remark on how big children have grown and share the latest gossip. Lisa Belt's Flour Market was that kind of place from the moment it opened on Northeast 30th and Killingsworth , and quickly achieved "let's meet there" status among lovers of good…
The Elk has returned! The base of the famous landmark Thompson Elk Fountain was damaged by Portland protestors during a wave of nationwide protests over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May of 2020. While the nine-foot-tall elk statue itself was undamaged, the 3,000-pound bronze elk was discovered to be held in place by a single bolt and the base was deemed unstable. ( Read more…
A sure sign of spring in the Northwest is the unpredictability of the weather from one minute to the next. R egardless of the prediction of the weather app on my phone, I now head out on every walk wearing a raincoat and hat over my hooded sweatshirt, the better to strip down or layer up when needs must . Plus, butting up against the stereotype of Northwesterners, I've also taken to carrying an…
I adore quiche, especially the version known as Quiche Lorraine with bacon and cheese, the one that Julia Child trilled about on her cooking show, "The French Chef." I watched it in reruns on our first color TV in the 1960s, along with "The Galloping Gourmet"—aka Graham Kerr—as he swozzled his way through recipes swirling bottomless glasses of red wine. The rage for French cuisine that Ms. Child…
Do you feel overwhelmed when you go to the farmers' market? Does the abundance of produce on market tables and the brightly colored flowers, not to mention the noise of shoppers crowing about their finds, make your head spin? In the latest Beaverton Farmers' Market newsletter, Market Master Ginger Rapport has some sage advice for planning your next trip. As we are approaching the final stretch of…
All I clearly remember about the 1994 novel "Snow Falling on Cedars" by David Guterson is its description of the dripping, thickly moss-covered trees and rocks, and the multilayered lushness of ferns growing from fallen logs, all dimly illuminated by the light filtering through the misty air. Though the novel takes place in the San Juan Islands of Washington's northern Puget Sound, it could just…
In a confusing development, the version of the so-called Farm Store bill ( HB 4153 ) that was discussed in a final public hearing just before the legislature adjourned last week was not the version that passed the legislature on Friday (3/6). ( Get background on this controversial bill here. ) An amendment was adopted after the public hearing that reinstated the language in the existing statute…
The 2026 Session of the Oregon Legislature, scheduled to end on Sunday, has concluded with mixed results for Oregon's small family farmers. Land Grab in Hillsboro ( SB 1586 ). Good news from the Oregon Legislature came yesterday in an announcement from Friends of Smart Growth that 1,700 acres of prime farm land adjacent to Hillsboro is safe from development for the time being. Thanks to citizen…
Recently I found my kitchen counter awash in shallots. They'd been slowly collecting there, nestled amongst the onions and garlic, sitting innocuously on the counter in a brightly colored bowl I brought back from Mexico many decades ago. Our CSA subscription with Stoneboat Farm yielded many shallots this past winter, but, honestly, I'm just not used to incorporating them into our everyday recipes…
With the short session of the Oregon State Legislature heading into the home stretch—it's scheduled to conclude on Monday, March 9—legislation is being pushed through committees and lobbied with abandon, but there's still time use your voice to speak up for Oregon's agricultural lands. Hillsboro Supersiting of Industrial Land ( SB 1586 ): This bill is a bald-faced land grab of nearly 1,800 acres…
Remember when Mark Bittman, the author of the "Minimalist" column in the New York Times from 1997 to 2011, went through his pimenton phase? He was infusing everything from soups and meats to fish and vegetables—mostly to good effect—with the Spanish smoked paprika, making it a ubiquitous staple in pantries across the country (including mine). An hour to marinate, then flash-frying for two minutes…
"Eating is a political act." - Michael Pollan I have known Mark Doxtader for decades, since he first towed his mobile pizza oven to the Portland Farmers Market and started slinging slices to the crowds queued up for some of his woodfired pies heaped with the vegetables he grew on his farm. A big guy with an impish grin, he's been at the forefront of our regional food scene for over a quarter…
Convening on Groundhog Day could be taken as an ominous portent to the beginning of the short 2026 session of the Oregon Legislature. Legislators have just 35 days to figure out how to close a $297 million gap in the Oregon Department of Transportation Budget brought on by the Trump administration's devastating 2025 budget bill that reduced revenues—especially to Democrat-controlled states—and…
The following essay is by Angel Medina, an "award-winning writer, filmmaker, and restaurateur; lover of coffee and mezcal; founder of TODOS Media ; co-owner of República & Co. " according to his bio on Substack. His recent newsletter, Between Courses , dropped in my in-box and I was in tears reading it. I immediately wrote to ask if I could share it with my readers. He generously agreed. When…
Growing up, root vegetables were not in my mother's dinner repertoire. Well, carrots were available, but certainly not the ubiquitous so-called "baby carrots" of today—which are actually chopped, shaved down, shaped chunks of bigger carrots that weren't pretty enough to sell whole, and which are often rinsed in a weak bleach solution before bagging. (Ew.) Back then, parsnips, rutabagas, beets,…
My latest CSA update from Aaron Nichols of Stoneboat Farm in Hillsboro on what to expect in our share included this note: "As a lot of you know, I spend some of my extra time working to protect farmland around my farm that is consistently under threat of development from data centers and other industrial uses. Unfortunately, it appears that another very big threat to 1,800 acres of Oregon's very…
People who deny the facts of evolution completely puzzle me. Even putting aside the fossil record, DNA evidence and untold hours of programming on public television, do these people ever look around them? Stuff is changing all the time, for heaven's sake. And I'm not even talking about the legendary example of the beaks of Darwin's finches on the Galapagos Islands, where "an immigrant first…
Dungeness crab season started on December 16th this year, much to the relief of cooks, diners and Oregon's crab fleet of 424 small family-owned vessels that ply the waters up and down our 362-mile coast. This year's opener, while delayed by a week or so from original predictions, was still weeks earlier than in recent years when it was delayed due to concerns over the presence of domoic acid, a…
I don't know about you, but my family doesn't need more stuff cluttering up our lives (or needing to be dusted). Several years ago my parents sat the whole family down before the holidays and suggested giving gifts of "meaning"—that is, gifts to charities or causes that the recipient would want to support. For instance, my mother appreciated gifts to Heifer International , an organization that has…
There are many good reasons to criticize social media—giant corporations like Meta/Facebook, "X" (formerly Twitter), and Tiktok among them, owned by right-wing, anti-democratic billionaires. On the other hand, and one reason I still have accounts with at least a few of them , is that they can amplify voices seldom heard from in the mainstream media. The past few years I've started following…