Slow Food Yamhill County

Winter Film Series

2012-01-06T14:46:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone!

Well, it is officially 2012, and we are starting to gear up for another year of Slow Food activities. We wanted to let you know about our first one for the year!

We are very proud to be partnering with the Yamhill Soil & Water Conservation District this winter for the Stan Christensen Conservation Movie Series! This film series includes three films and is spread over three months. Each film showing will be held at Third Street Pizza in downtown McMinnville, the third Thursday of the month. Showings will start at 6:30pm (please come a little early to order some tasty food and great local beer!). Each month will feature a new film with unique themes related to conservation efforts and/or slow food efforts. We hope you can join us for this FREE and informative event! Details below.

First Film
Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time
January 19th, 6:30 pm
Green Fire explores the conservation goals of the visionary conservationist Aldo Leopold. Recognizing that land has inherent value and the way that we interact with land affects that value, Leopold developed a unique conservation ideal that was way ahead of his time. Please join us in contemplating our relationship with our land community.

Second Film
Good Food
February 16th, 6:30 pm
Good Food is an uplifting film that celebrates the visionary farmers of the Pacific Northwest who are challenging the traditions of big Ag by focusing on growing food for our region rather than the international market. Visit Farmer's Markets, farmers, distributors, stores, and restaurants that are on the forefront of the fight for food quality & security as well as environmental sustainability.

Third Film
Salmon Forest
March 15th, 6:30 pm
We live mere miles from the largest tract of intact temperate rainforest in the world. This film celebrates this fantastically diverse resource and examines its impact on watershed, salmon, and beyond. Come learn about the richness of the Salmon Forest!

See you soon!

October Festivities!

2011-10-04T18:31:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Wanted to do a little post about some upcoming Slow Food festivities! Sorry to not be around much for the last month!

First and foremost, we want to invite you to our annual Apple Press! This is a great event--bring apples and containers for cider, and an apple inspired potluck dish to share. We provide the venue and the cider press! Details are below.

What: Slow Food Yamhill County's 4th Annual Apple Cider Pressing and Competition Potluck

When: Sunday, October 16, 2011, 3:00 p.m. till dark

Where: Danny Browne's house at 845 SE Morgan Lane in McMinnville

We will have apple presses and grinders. The apples will be washed, mixed, ground and pressed to be shared and enjoyed by all.

Please bring: Apples to press and containers for your cider, A potluck dish to share. Personal cup, plate, cutlery and a beverage.

Competition Potluck: Bring an apple based potluck dish for any/all of the categories: Appetizer, Main Dish and Dessert.
Prizes will be awarded in each category.

Send questions to Judi at valleycreekfarm@gmail.com.

Second, I wanted to give you a heads up about an upcoming book release and event! Have you long lamented the lack of a local-ingredients-focused cookbook specifically for our region? Look no more... Dishing Up Oregon, a title soon to be released by Storey Publishing features local farms, foods, restaurants, and products in a collection of mouthwatering recipes! Our very own Third Street Books will be hosting author Ashley Gartland for a book reading and signing this month! Details below.

What: Dishing Up Oregon book reading and signing
When: Thursday, October 20, 2011, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Third Street Books, downtown McMinnville

Event is free and open to the public. Copies of the book will be available for sale.

Direct Questions to Third Street Books at 503.472.7786.

We hope to see you there.
Happy fall!

SFYC at Food Meet Today!

2011-09-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Just sending a little note out into cyberspace letting you know that Slow Food will be at this year's Food Meet summit up in Newberg this afternoon! Food Meet is an awesome event featuring all kinds of local food folk, several presentations on food issues, and a screening of the uplifting food film Ingredients, which features NW farmers. Perhaps we'll see you there!

100 Mile Diet: Installment 7

2011-09-16T12:09:00.000-07:00

A Little Update.

Hello everyone. Sorry for the long break! It's the end of summer and I'm struggling to catch up with there being tomatoes and melons at market, and the fact that our very short summer feels like it's on the way out already. Too bad.

I thought I'd give you all a little update on how the 100 Mile Diet is going these days. In truth, it's on and off. We were very disciplined for the first few weeks of this experiment... disciplined to the point of going hungry instead of grabbing something to eat. And it was great! We learned how to do this thing--how to plan meals and go to farmer's market and cook amazing 100 mile meals. And while we still do that, lately we've been making more exceptions.
For example, one of Erik's cousins was randomly in Portland the other night... and we went to Voodoo Doughnuts. It was her first time really spending time in Portland! We couldn't deny her that experience. Also, we've grabbed a pitcher of beer and caught up with a friend (the beer was 20 Mile [at Golden Valley-check it out!], the nachos with guacamole were not). And I've started drinking coffee again. I'll admit that I missed my hot morning drinks and long hours hanging out in coffee shops. The major motivation behind these infractions has been social--and while we love cooking with our friends too, sometimes going out for a beer or a coffee is just what you need.

That said, Erik and I have decided to continue with the 100 Mile Diet beyond our initial month-long commitment. Partly that is to make up for leaving town for a long weekend. The other part of that is that we really have enjoyed doing this. We go to farmer's market every week and come home with tons of delicious produce. We get to splurge on items like local line-caught salmon or Oregon-grown lentils because our grocery bills have in fact gone down. Not buying those easy processed foods/junk foods we secretly love has in fact saved us a lot of money! We also feel a lot healthier. It's all that fiber! And we also love knowing where our food comes from. For us, the 100 Mile Diet has become more about giving our money directly to farmers than anything else. It feels very different than handing your money to a big chain grocery store.

So that's a little tiny update. I promise that I will write more soon!

Beth

100 Mile Diet: Installment 6

2011-08-29T14:56:00.000-07:00

The Two-Weeks-In/Halfway-Through Meal Report

Hello everyone!

I hope your Monday is going well.

Today I wanted to give everyone a little update on how our 100 Mile Diet is going. At our events, many of you seemed to be interested in exactly what Erik and I were going to be eating, so I thought today I'd give you an account of our meals. You'll probably notice that they increase in complexity and overall ability-to-fill-you-stomach-ness. We're getting better...

You might also notice that I don't record lunches. For lunch, usually Erik will take leftovers (I'll take them too if there's enough), and I bring an assemblage of things to make a lunch (typically a piece of bread, some sticks of cheddar, fruit, sometimes a salad). I'm not going to write all of those out since it would take a while and be rather boring. I have had some amazing fruit salads for lunch, though, featuring peaches, plums, figs, and blackberries (all from within 30 miles).

Also, you'll notice breakfasts get repetitive. I've never been one to branch out a lot with my breakfast, so this is normal. Erik doesn't really eat breakfast. The only notable exceptions will be if we make a big brunch, which is really more lunch, and always delicious.

Okay, enough prelude. Sources are in parentheses!

Week One

...was a little rough. We ate a lot of yogurt and toast and eggs.

Monday August 15
B: yogurt (Nancy's) with berries (u-pick), honey (Heavenly Honey), and hazelnuts (Bernard's Farm)
D: lamb sausage (Yamhill), with sauteed greens and fried eggs (friends, friends, butter from Rose Valley)

Tuesday August 16
B: yogurt
D: fried eggs with green bean & basil salad (beans-Dayton, basil-Red Ridge [perk of working there], olive oil-Oregon Olive Mill, wine-Dundee, salt)

Wednesday August 17
B: yogurt, toast (bread-Nature Bake Oregon Grains)
D: green salad with homemade ranch dressing (greens-Dayton, turnips-Mac, yogurt, chives-my balcony, basil-Red Ridge), grilled cheese sandwich with tomato (bread, cheddar-Tillamook, tomatoes-Yamhill)

Thursday August 18
B: fried eggs on toast
D: big green salad with vinaigrette (greens, olive oil, wine [I've been using a dash of wine instead of vinegar in my salad dressings--works well!], salt), antipasti plate (salami-Olympia [not 100 mile, but close-ish and amazing], cheddar, tomatoes-Yamhill)

Friday August 19
B: yogurt with berries and hazelnuts
L*: smashed potatoes (spuds-our garden, butter-Mac), scrambled eggs, sauteed greens
D**: at work

*Erik came home for lunch that day
**I worked a wedding that night and ate not-100-mile food

Saturday August 20
B: yogurt and honey
D***: cowboy beans (beans-Mac, smoked hamhock-Carlton, tomatoes-Yamhill, honey, salt), green salad, mixed berry cobbler (berries-u-pick, flour-Willamette Seed & Grain, butter, salt)

***the start of our yet-to-end cobbler phase

Sunday August 21
B: yogurt with leftover cobbler
D: green salad, lamb sausage & mushrooms with red wine and butter sauce (sausage & mushrooms-Yamhill, wine-Dundee Hills, butter-Mac), cobbler

Week Two

During this week we started being more intentional about making meals. Our routine now is once we're both home from work, we take a little break, and then from 6 to 8 or so, we're in the kitchen cooking and eating. It's a nice routine, and we've made some really delicious meals!

Monday August 22
B: yogurt with honey and berries, eggs
D: chicken breasts and thighs stuffed with white cheddar and basil (chicken-friend, cheddar-Willamette Cheese Co, basil-Red Ridge), green salad with yogurt dressing

Tuesday August 23
B: yogurt with honey
D: oven-roasted drumsticks and wings with garlic-thyme-sage croutons (chicken-friend, garlic-yamhill, olive oil, butter, bread-Nature Bake, herbs-my balcony), roasted green beans (Dayton)

Wednesday August 24
B: yogurt and berries
D: 7-bone beef roast with onions, home fries, roasted filet beans (beef-Scholls, all produce-Scholls), blueberry bars (not 100 mile but tasty!)--Thanks Mom!

Thursday August 25:
B: yogurt with berries, toast
D: Celebration Dinner at Community Plate-- Gaining Ground Farm Mixed Greens with olive oil, ver jus, and hazelnuts. Worden Hill Farm Pork Loin with braised greens, Oregon grits, and cherry sauce. Wine Poached Munoz Farms Peaches with honey roasted hazelnuts and chevre. YUM!

Friday, August 26:
B: yogurt and berries with honey
D: potato latkes (potatoes-our garden, egg, onion-Yamhill, salt, flour), fried eggs, and roasted green beans (friend), 100 mile bread! (I did use dry yeast and salt in it)

Saturday August 27:
B: yogurt and berries with honey
D: tuna steaks! (Newport, cooked in olive oil with salt), fresh corn fritters (corn-Dayton, flour, salt, cheddar, egg), green salad

Sunday August 28:
B: yogurt and berries
D: lentil stew thing with onions, tomatoes and peppers (lentils-Parkdale, produce-all Yamhill, olive oil, wine) & oven-roasted honey-rosemary chicken legs (chicken-Oregon City, honey, salt, butter, and rosemary-friend), cobbler

One interesting development so far in our diet is how we have started eating a lot more meat. It helps to fill you up in a way that all-vegetable meals can't, and it's so readily available! I have both friends and family who raise chicken and beef, and lamb and chicken are also available from local sources at Roth's (and beef, pork, and fresh fish at the Farmer's Market as well). It has added a lot of dimension to our meals, and is helping fill the gap left by convenient carbs.

Another thing we've noticed is how fast things have gotten easier. We've moved beyond the initial "oh god, what am I going to eat?" phase, and instead are taking time to come up with and execute real meals. We've also gotten better at packing away leftovers the night we cook so our lunches are ready for us in the morning. And we've started making dessert, which just makes everybody happier!

So, that's our halfway update! We're going to be leaving town this weekend to visit friends in Boise, and no, we're not going to be doing the 100 mile diet while we're there. We'll keep you posted on how we're doing once we return!
Feel free to leave us questions or comments here on the blog! We'd love to hear from you!

-Beth

THANK YOU

2011-08-26T14:58:00.000-07:00

Happy friday all!

I just wanted to write a quick thank you post, now that Slow Food has finished its series of events for the 100 Mile Diet Challenge. Last night's dinner was a great success, and everyone left full and excited about future Slow Food events!
Now, a thank you to those key folks who helped it all happen:

Thank you, Jenny Berg and the McMinnville Public Library for organizing and hosting the first two events in the series. It was awesome partnering with you guys and getting to reach out to folks who didn't necessarily know about Slow Food.

Thank you, Community Plate Restaurant, and especially Scott, Jesse, and Casey. You fed us amazing food and inspired us with your commitment to local food sourcing and preparation. You rock!

Thank you, Slow Food board members for all of your brainstorming, flier-distributing, article-writing, snack-bringing, and other random helping. You're amazing and this would never have happened without you!

And lastly, I want to send out a huge THANK YOU to all of the community members who came to these events and shared their interest and excitement about local eating with us all! We've been overwhelmed by the turn out at these events and the depth of participation. You are all amazing, and it was so inspiring to chat with you and hear your opinions. This would not have been as cool if you hadn't come!

We hope you'll keep coming back here in the coming months and reading about Beth and Erik's continuing 100 Mile Diet, as well as new Slow Food events for the fall!

We'll see you soon!

Celebration!

2011-08-25T08:18:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,

The dinner is on! It is TONIGHT AT 7PM. Hopefully you made your reservations and I'll see you there!

CELEBRATION DINNER IN JEOPARDY

2011-08-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I was originally planning today to write a big, long, fatty post about Erik and my 100 Mile Diet full of anecdotes and confessions. Instead, I received bad news about our last 100 Mile Diet event... needless to say, that has taken precedence. I'll be back soon with a post about how we're doing. For now, please read on:

I wanted to let you know that the final 100 Mile Diet Challenge event, our Celebration Dinner, is currently in jeopardy. We have not yet met the minimum number of reservations for this event! Without reaching that minimum number, this event will not happen.

Here's a reminder of what you're missing:

A 3 course, gourmet meal prepared by Community Plate Restaurant featuring 100 Mile ingredients at a great price: just $25 per person.

Friendly conversation about eating locally and reflection from individuals who have tried eating a 100 Mile Diet here in McMinnville.

A chance to meet and chat with community members who are as interested in local food and eating as you are!

Reservations are required for this event. You cannot show up at the door and get in. If you've been putting off making your reservations, please don't delay any longer! We really want to share this amazing meal with you.

To make your reservation, call Community Plate Restaurant at 503.687.1902.

Please spread the word to your friends and coworkers and bring someone along!

See you this Thursday!

Celebration Dinner Details!

2011-08-15T09:37:00.001-07:00

Hello all!

We're so close! Hopefully you are all in the midst of or starting your two weeks of 100 Mile eating! We can't wait to hear about your experiences. Feel free to post comments here on the blog or email us and share!

As we are also getting uncomfortably close to the end of August, I realized that I had not yet posted information on how to make reservations for our Celebration Dinner event at Community Plate! So here's the deal:

To make your reservation, call Community Plate at 503.687.1902. Tell them you're reserving your spot for the 100 Mile Dinner with Slow Food Yamhill County. Then you're on the list!

Charges for this event will be collected at Community Plate the night of August 25th. It is $25 per plate, drinks are extra.

There are only 50 seats so make your reservation today!

100 Mile Diet: Installment 5

2011-08-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

Day One

So I'm back from vacation, recovering from a crazy weekend of work, and guess what? Today is day one of our 100 mile challenge. Guess what else? There is nothing to eat in our house. Okay, that's not totally true. There are potatoes and beets and honey and bread. Therefore, first 100 mile breakfast is toast (I just wasn't up to beets before 9 am). I did want to impress you all with my 100 mile cooking prowess, but this is the reality of it: I'll probably be eating a lot of toast. (The bread is awesome by the way: Nature Bake Oregon Grains Bread, using grains from the Willamette Valley Seed and Grain Project. I got it at Harvest Fresh!)

Erik and I had once last pint and burger last night, and now we've arrived: one month on 100 mile food. Really, as we discussed over dinner last night, we already do pretty well on this front. The only food in our kitchen that is really illegal for this challenge is our fall-back food: dried pasta, beans of unknown origin, and those meals out when we're too lazy to cook. Mostly we do pretty well. Because of that, I'm not freaking out about this month any more: I'm really pretty excited. I am intrigued to see how I'll do with baking when I only have eggs and sourdough as leavening. I'm curious as to how many salad-and-egg meals we'll have. And how many potatoes we'll eat.

For those of you who have read Plenty, you might remember J.B. and Alisa talking about being hungry for the first few weeks of their 100 mile diet (and about how many potatoes they ate). After all, when you're used to carbo-loading with huge bowls of pasta on a regular basis, salad and other vegetable-based meals will leave you with some pangs. Erik and I are resigned to this fact. The real challenge will be resisting the last remnants of easy food that are in our kitchen or on our fridge shelves. Since we're only doing this for a month, we thought it would be best not to let ourselves have that "anything still in the kitchen is fair game" clause. Especially since I tend to stock up on staples, that would mean this month would be far from a challenge: we'd just coast through and clean out the pantry in the process. Instead, I (the cook), and Erik (the meal police), will do our utmost to remain honest and not sneak mustard or ketchup or secretly boil that last bag of pasta shells because we got home late from work.

Today we're going grocery shopping, and to our sadly neglected garden row, to restock our kitchen for the week. We'll let you know how we do.

Beth

100 Mile Diet: Installment 4

2011-08-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

Let's Be Reasonable

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the month of the 100 Mile Diet challenge! Somehow it is already August, the kick off event has already happened (thank you to everyone who came!), and it's time to get down to business.

Initially Erik and I had planned to do our 100 Mile Diet for the month of August--the first through the thirty first. Then life got a little wacky, and suddenly there were two family trips taking up the first two weeks of the month. Not that we're complaining--it's time away in the summer, after all--but our 100 Mile Diet plans seemed a little out of touch. Because of that, we've decided to start our 100 Mile Diet in a couple of weeks, after all of the traveling is done. Check back in with us as we start officially on August 14th.

This little scheduling episode is a perfect example of what I have come to call the "let's be reasonable" phenomenon. Packing all 100 Mile backpacking food? Probably not reasonable. Not eating local cheese because the cultures used to make it aren't local? Probably not reasonable. Driving to the Pacific Ocean to lug seawater home and evaporate your own salt? Probably not reasonable.

This 100 Mile thing can get out of hand really quick! I really admire Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon (authors of Plenty), because although they were very strict with their 100 Mile Diet, they managed to avoid being absurd or unreasonable. They used the salt they had in their cupboards. They ate out on occasion. They happily ate out of season, processed, or otherwise off-limits foods when they were prepared by friends and family. They were reasonable. They weren't rude. They didn't preach to other people about their personal eating choices. And this is a hard thing to do when you are passionate about an issue.

Angelina Williamson, who spoke for us at the kick-off event, also touched on this issue of being reasonable in her presentation. Her son, for example, is an extremely picky eater. As she said, "letting my kid starve was not an option." Also, going without coffee was not an option (not worth the migraines). At the opening of her talk she put up a slide with a list of items she allowed herself that did not fit the 100 mile criteria. Among them were: baking soda, salt, spices, coffee, and vinegar. Oh, right. Basic things: leavening, flavor, preservative qualities, sanity-offering qualities. She also mentioned that these are all items that have been traded for a really, really long time now. At some point the argument that these few luxury items, ones that are consumed in relatively small quantity, are destroying our food systems and our planet rings a little hollow. Even folks living in the frontier west would get oranges once a year. (Did you read the Little House on the Prairie series? I did.) They bought salt and probably a few spices. These were things available long before apples were flown in from New Zealand or the Amazon rainforest began to be razed to plant soybeans. Seems reasonable to allow a few of them to squeak through the kitchen hazing process.

At what point does the "let's be reasonable" argument kick in for you? Would you be willing to deny yourself salt or spices in the name of eating a 100% 100 mile diet? Or would you be content to work harder to source staples from within that 100 miles--grains, beans, meat, produce, milk--and to cook more of your food yourself rather than reaching for a box, and let a few favorite spices stay in the cupboard? Would you prep and dry 100 mile backpacking meals to feed five people for four days, or would you go to Winco and buy your once or twice a year packets of Ramen noodles? Let me know what you think in the comments, and share with us what you think is reasonable to do as you plan for or start your 100 Mile Diet.

Talk to you all soon,
Beth

TONIGHT! 100 Mile Diet Kick Off!

2011-07-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

We hope to see you there!!

What?
100 Mile Diet Kick Off Event

Where?
McMinnville Public Library, Carnegie Room

When?
7pm

Local woman Angelina Williamson will be sharing her experience eating a 100 Mile Diet for a year. There will be a question and answer session following. Local wine and nibbles are provided!

100 Mile Diet: Installment 3

2011-07-22T18:41:00.000-07:00

So, What Inspires You?

Hello all!

Well, I don't know about you, but this weather makes me curiously more optimistic about this whole 100 Mile Diet thing. It seems more possible that there really will be peppers and peaches and maybe (gasp) melons! Hooray for summer.

This week we finally, after arduous work and coordination, got the 100 Mile Diet publicity out in McMinnville. You might have seen it... I hope you've seen it... if you haven't seen it then I'll get more out there so you can see it... And now that the whole thing feels much more real, I'm excited to start some conversations with you all about why we are doing this thing.

Inspiration is important with things like this experiment--things that are challenging and force you to think and to examine ingrained habits and all that self-help-ish sounding good stuff. I've been thinking a lot about why I want to do this, and came up with a little list (man, I love a good list). Have you come up with your inspiration for participating? If so, share it! If not... maybe go write it down, stick it to your fridge, and then share with us too!

Beth's List of Inspiration:

1. Turning sentiment into action.
If you're anything like me, you've probably thought, read, watched, etc a lot about food issues. You've been horrified and amazed and perhaps brought to tears by what you've learned (ok, maybe that's just me), and always wondered what you could do with that knowledge. Well, here it is. I've been learning about local food for a long time. Finally all that passion is channeled to a very specific, time-lined purpose. Action.
2. Farmers!
We are so blessed to live in this county with all of its fantastic, hard-working, trail-blazing, passionate, and talented farmers. Their hard work and dedication to producing true, honest food is super inspiring. I've always supported them, but this project feels makes that support seem more concrete somehow.
3. Freshly picked peaches.
Have you ever bitten into a fresh, sun-warmed Veteran peach at the peak of ripeness? Um, ya.
4. I love to eat.
Obvious? Perhaps. Still, I love food: growing it, buying it, cooking it, sharing it. And there's nothing better than assembling a meal and knowing precisely where everything came from, down to the farmer's hand who you laid your dollars in. So good.

Talk to you all soon,
Beth

PS> If you haven't seen the poster (!!!), here's a glimpse:

The 100 Mile Diet: Installment 2

2011-07-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

The First 100 Mile Meal

Hello everyone!

A shameful but packed two weeks or more have passed since I've written anything. Sorry! Luckily, I'm coming back to you all after (mostly) finishing publicity for the real 100 Mile event! Hooray! It should be up around town soon.

I wanted to just write a quick post about my first 100 mile meal. Call it a test run/learning experience/a way to use a lot of fava beans... any way it was delicious.

So yes, fava beans. I picked up a huge bag of them at market last week, and needed to use them up. I wasn't quite sure how... in search of inspiration I ended up walking carefully around Roth's reading labels and picking up produce from within that 100 mile radius. I did pretty good: a couple bunches of delicious spinach from Brownsville, green onions from Milwaukee, mushrooms from Yamhill, cherries from Dayton, a half gallon of apple cider from Hood River, and amazing chive havarti from Salem. The plan? Some kind of a salad. Maybe minus the cherries.

In the end, I sauteed the onions, favas (painstakingly removed from their fuzzy pods--so worth it!), and mushrooms in slightly ridiculous amounts of creamy local butter. I chopped the spinach roughly, tossed it in a big bowl, and added the hot beans, shrooms, and onions to the mix. Stir, stir, and viola! Wilted spinach salad. I cubed some havarti and tossed it in as well. Um, yum! The mushrooms and spinach were earthy, the beans sweet and green, the cheese sharp and bracing. Minor success!

Though I was able to catch myself before putting olive oil in the pan and before grinding some pepper over the finished product (kitchen habits lie deep), I did sin in one major way: salt. Salt is going to be a sticky spot for this experiment I think. I've been researching, and so far the closest source I can find is in Northern California. Does anyone know of a source for Oregon-harvested salt? If you do, you will be a hero to many a community member quite soon. Post it in the comments!

Hopefully everyone is getting excited about this event! For more information, check out the events page here, or a community billboard near you in the near future.

Cheers,
Beth

Fruit of the Month: June

2011-06-23T08:39:00.000-07:00

The Delectable, Delicate Strawberry.

A true sign of how strange the weather has been this spring is the late arrival of strawberries. They only really started showing their luscious red faces at market a couple of weeks ago… so technically, this very tardy post is right in the middle-ish/end of the season. Forgive me: I’ve been to busy eating them to write about them.

I think we all have some sort of special memory associated with strawberries. Whether it was your grandma’s strawberry shortbread, waiting impatiently for the first Oregon berries of the season (something not crunchy and white inside from *cough* California), Tess of the D’Ubervilles naughtily nibbling the delicate fruit in your high school English class, or perhaps the dreamy lyrics of “Strawberry Fields Forever,” the strawberry tends to have a mythic persona. The first fresh fruit of the season (if you don’t count rhubarb, which is technically a vegetable anyhow), it oozes sweetness and promises of warmer weather and the start of a succession of delicious berries that will carry you all the way to fall. Lovely.

My most prominent memories of strawberries are the mornings that my mom got us kids up really early (okay, it wasn’t that early, but it was the start of summer break—whatever happened to sleeping in?) to go pick berries at Jaquith’s Farm. It’s always awkward, picking strawberries. When you’re little you have to crouch down in between the rows and untangle the berries from their lush foliage. Later, when your legs are longer, you learn the method of straddling the row—greatly increasing your yields and the soreness of your back the day after you pick. I also remember the slightly icky feeling of too many berries before breakfast. Funny how that was immediately erased by a bowl of fresh berries and cream when we got home…

So strawberries are a nostalgic fruit, and also one full of promise. They are also fleeting, so get out there and pick (or buy) to your hearts content! Lay by a little early summer ambrosia for some day in December when it is truly dreary outside, and I guarantee you won’t remember how sore your back was.

The particulars:

Strawberry season—This varies greatly depending on variety and, of course, weather. Historically, I think the last week of May or first week of June was a good time to start looking. These days, we have to be more patient, with them arriving in the middle or even toward the end of the month. Also keep an eye out for ever-bearing berries! They can be found clear into the fall!

Delectable varieties—Did you know that varieties of strawberry vary significantly by region? Here in Oregon, varieties of historical significance include Hoods and Bentons. New ones are arriving all the time. My favorite this season has been Honeye.

Where to find them—At the farmer’s market! I’ve also spotted ones from local farms at Roths and Harvest Fresh in McMinnville. Also, u-pick and picked flats for sale are available at Bernards Farm, Farmer Johns, and Sweet Oregon Berry. Have a favorite u-pick place? If you’re willing to sacrifice secrecy, share it in the comments!

Recipes!—Check out the Recipes page (click on the tab above) for a couple of my favorite strawberry recipes. Feel free to share yours in the comments!

Come Check Out the Chickens!

2011-06-15T14:26:00.000-07:00

The 3rd Annual Garden and Coop Tour is happening this Saturday!
Six different coops are participating this year, which is sure to give you tons of garden and chicken housing ideas! Slow Food will be out and about at one of the stops sharing our favorite egg recipes with you all. Specifics for the event are below and on the Events Calendar page.

We hope to see you there!

The Details:

What: Chicken Coop and Garden Tour, Free self-guided tour of coops and gardens.

When: Saturday, June 18, between 11:00 and 4:00

Where: McMinnville and surrounding countryside

Registration and tour details available at OSU Extension office, 2050 Lafayette Avenue, 503. 434.7515. Sponsored by OSU Extension 4-H programs, Stacey Lynn's Farm, Slow Food Yamhill County and local coops and gardens.

For questions contact Judi at valleycreekfarm@gmail.com.

Reminder!

2011-06-09T18:24:00.000-07:00

The Slow Food Beer Brewing Event is this Saturday!

We'll be starting at 1pm at Heater Allen Brewery in McMinnville. A group of us will be meeting at the Saturday Public Market (there's an entrance on 5th St) at 12:45 to walk to the brewery. We hope you can join us to learn about brewing and taste some beer! Further details can be found on the Events Calendar--just click on the tab above.

If you have any questions, feel free to email Beth at beth.satt@gmail.com.

See you there!

The 100 Mile Diet Experiment: Installment 1

2011-06-07T11:00:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!

Sorry about the long break... I had to take advantage of the great weather last week! And now it is Monday, and I'm sitting down in front of the computer on a rather gray morning to write my first post about Erik and my (and eventually your) 100 Mile Diet experiment.

First, a little background information:

The 100 Mile Diet started out as a pet project of a couple living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Back in 2005, and before the major food-mania hit, they decided to eat only local food for a whole year. Their inspiration? The awe-inspiring (read: horrifying) fact that almost every meal eaten in North America has traveled an average of 1500 miles from soil to plate. This statistic, calculated by the Leopold Center at Iowa State University, drove home for them how wacky our food system has become. Their response? Get local. For them, this involved packing away their chocolate, spices, rice, and olive oil... and embarking on a year-long learning process about the amazingly rich foodshed in which they lived. Along the way they learned a lot about the history of food in the Pacific Northwest, about the industrial agriculture and food systems, and about how real food tastes. They chronicled their experiment in the memoir Plenty, being cruelly honest about the hardships and joys of a truly local diet. For more information, check out their very informative website here.

Bringing the 100 Mile Diet to Yamhill County:

A couple months ago, while brainstorming possible projects for Slow Food, the little thought crossed my head... "why not do a 100 Mile Diet here?" Thus, the 100 Mile Diet Experiment has been born.
Erik and I are signing up to be your guinea pigs: eating on the 100 mile diet, and doing a lot of research about local food sources in advance of the bigger experiment. Slow Food will be announcing within a couple of weeks the dates for the official 100 Mile Diet Experiment. If you want to participate, please contact us! Until then, I'll be writing regularly here on the blog about our experience, so definitely check back here as well!

Below I've added a few of my thoughts on the eve of starting this experiment. Do you guys drink coffee? What would you be willing to give up in the name of experimentation? I'd love to have your input as I start planning!

Talk with you all soon.

6.5.11

Anxious before the start.

So I’m sitting down to write my first post about the 100 Mile Diet while finishing an iced Americano. Yes, I am aware of the irony in that. Does it count that I’m also snacking on delicious goat cheese from Dundee? Probably not. Especially since I’m pairing garlic-herb chevre with espresso. Don’t judge me.

Is it silly that I’m a little anxious about starting a 100 Mile Diet? I mean, I’ve got two whole months to plan and scout out delicious local foods… but I still feel a little nervous. My first impulse when Erik and I decided to do it was to run out right now and stock up on ingredients. Erik then kindly reminded me that we do have a lot of time to figure this out. But my favorite (and most frequently consumed) food items tend to be wheat products, and wheat might be hard to find inside our 100 mile radius. I don’t know this for sure, but I’m thinking that I’m going to spend a month without pasta… and that makes me feel hungry just sitting here. Like a squirrel before winter, I want my pantry stocked up with things that might fill that gap.

On the flip side, I am also really excited to do this. I’ve been thinking about, reading about, researching, and exploring local foods for a while now. It seems like the logical next step to do it all the way: to draw that circle on the map, and figure out how to live within those means. The first thoughts in my head (before my pasta freak-out) were, “oh, I should call my friend and double my order of eggs each month.” The second thought was “I get to go on field trips!” Yep, I fully intend to visit the Willamette Valley Cheese factory. I also plan on scouring Bob’s Red Mill for grains or legumes that come from this side of the Cascades. I'll also be doing a lot of cold calls to farms in the area to see what they have to offer. Sounds like an adventure! I’m also going to be able to come home from the farmer’s market with bags and bags of delicious produce, and know that not one bit of it will wilt in the back of the fridge. And go u-picking! Mmm mm: blueberries and blackberries and peaches! You see, this might just be fun!

And truly I think it will. I am excited to be in the kitchen more. I won’t have the excuse of canned sauce and dried pasta in the cupboard… I’m actually going to have to cook (or at least assemble) every night. I’ll also have to make my own snack foods. And I need a lot of snacks, so homemade crackers here I come. (Hmm, there’s the wheat issue again.) I’m also going to use this month as an excuse to (hopefully!) get off of my coffee habit. After being a barista and long-time coffee shop groupie, that could be interesting. Wish me luck!

-Beth

Slow Beer

2011-05-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

I wanted to announce that the Slow Food Beer Event is official! On Saturday June 11th, we'll be joining Brian Gilbert, Linfield professor and brewmaster, for an informative presentation about the art and science of brewing. Following the presentation, we'll be getting a tour of Heater Allen Brewery here in Mac with Rick Allen, and he'll be tasting Heater Allen beers afterward! Are you excited yet??

All the specifics are posted on the events calendar page... just click on the tab above! Please spread the word!

And to wet your appetite, check out this article in the latest edition of MIX magazine. If you haven't run into MIX before, it's a really great resource for those who imbibe, and would like to do so locally. Every month there are features about local beer, wine, spirits, and food that will give you great ideas for your next outing, or, in the case of this article, home (brewing) projects! Nate Query, bassist for the Portland based band the Decemberists, gives us the 101 of homebrewing, and makes it look easy and fun (which it is!).

If you have questions or want to RSVP for the SFYC Beer Event, contact Beth at beth.satt@gmail.com.

Hope to see you there!

Plans for Your Thursday Night?

2011-05-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Summer is poking its head out of the clouds today, and gosh does it feel good. Hopefully you all have a chance to enjoy the sunshine!

I wanted to remind you all about a great event happening right in downtown Mac this week. Katherine Cole, author of Voodoo Vinters, will be visiting Third Street Books tomorrow night along with five area wine makers. The discussion will center on biodynamic winegrowing in Oregon. I wrote about Cole’s book a couple of weeks ago now. You can find the original post and event details here.
This is sure to be a fun and informative event. So, if you don’t have plans tomorrow night, mosey on down to the bookstore! Event starts at 7 pm.

--

On a different note, I wanted to apologize for not writing a lot lately. Honestly, I have used up my stores of foodie book reading and (hopefully) clever commentary… so I’m spending a little time refueling. Here are a few things for you to look forward to on the blog in the coming weeks:

More book reviews!
Currently on my reading shelf:

The Resilient Gardener, by Carol Deppe
The River Cottage Cookbook, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Get Cooking, by Mollie Katzen
Plenty, by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon
and more!

Upcoming events!

The Art and Science of Brewing with SFYC
featuring Heater Allen Brewing, from right here in Mac!

The Coop Tour!

A July farm tour

SFYC’s 100 Mile Diet Experiment

Ongoing Blog Projects

“Fruit of the Month”
It’s getting close to fruit season in Oregon! Each month we’ll feature a fruit, offering recipes and sourcing ideas to help you take advantage of summertime bounty.

Beth and Erik’s 100 Mile Diet
Yep, Erik and I will be guinea pigs for you all! Our plan is to eat a 100 Mile Diet for the entire month of August. I’ll be blogging about it regularly, as we plan for, cook, and (hopefully) enjoy living on foods produced in a 100 Mile radius of McMinnville.

As always, I welcome your commentary and feedback. Leave a comment on a post and contribute to the conversation! Follow our blog on your Google account! Send the link to friends! And as always, let me know what you want to hear! I’m always looking for new blog topics and materials. If you find something or have an idea, feel free to leave it in the comments or send me an email: beth.satt@gmail.com.

Thanks! I hope you stay tuned!

Bring Your Boots! Come Out to the Farm!

2011-05-13T12:57:00.001-07:00

Hi! So I thought I had posted this back on Wednesday... but apparently it didn't stick up here. Sorry for the late notice!!

Despite the fact that the spring weather can't seem to make up its mind, Slow Food is super excited about our first farm visit of the year! We'll be out at North Valley Farm in Yamhill, learning all about grassfed lamb and fiber.

The tour will get underway at 11:15 or so, followed by a potluck out in the field! Our lovely hosts are providing a delicious lamb dish to share, and we would love to see you out there! Bring your boots, perhaps your rain gear, a dish to share, and a smile!

Further details, directions, and contact information can all be found on our Events Calendar Page--just click on the tab above.

Cheers!

Next Weekend

2011-05-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

Slow Food is hosting it's first farm tour of the season next weekend! We will be visiting North Valley Farm out in Yamhill. North Valley Farm specializes in heritage breed grassfed lamb as well as fleeces and yarn. You can read more about their farm at their website! Details of the event can be found on our events page (click on the tab above).

We're really excited to have the chance to learn about North Valley's unique enterprises! Please join us!

Have a good weekend, all.

A Cramp in My (Planting) Style

2011-05-04T14:01:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Well, the sun is here! (At least for a while.) My planting bug is definitely in high gear, and I thought I'd talk this week about some of the challenges I've faced with learning how to garden in town--in pots, on balconies, and in other places that kind of cramp my style.

I was lucky enough to grow up in the country, and we almost always had a large garden right out the kitchen door. Now I’m hitting a pretty steep learning curve trying to grow in small and less-than-ideal spaces. Currently I live in an apartment with an indoor cat that loves nothing more than to destroy every other living thing that enters our door. I do have a balcony, but it gets pretty limited light while simultaneously getting baking hot on summer afternoons. And (this is the hardest part for me) any time I do want to plant it takes an awful lot of planning: I have to buy potting soil and compost, which seems absurd somehow; I have to figure out what to plant things in; I have to adjust to harvesting just a few leaves of lettuce at a time, not baskets. I also have to think carefully if I plant anything that isn’t hardy, as it will have to live in my bedroom all winter, with almost zero light and constant threat of feline meddling. Blurg. So not ideal for someone who wants to grow things, and who tends to plant with spontaneity rather than forethought (I’m working on that).

Thankfully, there is a community garden in McMinnville. For a minimal input of money and monthly volunteer hours, I have access to a little less than 100 square feet of growing space. The soil is a bit tired and clumpy, and until very recently was quite swampy. Still, I grew a lot of food in that row last summer, all while working two jobs and leaving the plants mostly to their own devices. This year I’m hoping to do better—starting some of my own plants and hoping to extend my harvest with some succession plantings. I’m also itching to do some winter gardening (I really do love kale an awful lot).

In reality, and despite my wining, I have a pretty great situation for someone living in town that wants to grow food (a community row and a balcony?). Not to mention that we have a great farmer’s market all summer, so I don’t need to worry about growing gobs of stuff—I’m mostly growing because it’s fun and rewarding. Still, I’m struggling to learn how to do all of this. I thought today I’d share a few things I’ve been learning about gardening when you have limited time and space. I’m sure I’m not the only one out there, and if you have any advice for me (and others like me), I’d love to hear it!

Here’s what I’ve been working on:

The first thing I’ve done is to start an herb garden. Herbs are sturdy plants, fairly straightforward to grow, are less susceptible to pests and disease, and pack a major culinary punch. It only takes a couple of branches of fresh oregano to make a pasta sauce stand up and take notice, and a single sprig of fresh rosemary will perfume a bean soup. They also do very well in pots, and most are hardy enough that I won’t have to cart all of them inside come November. Currently I have rosemary, lemon thyme (delicious!), mint, oregano, and chives. I’m already planning on adding sage, as well as Moroccan mint, anise hyssop, chamomile, and lemon balm (for teas), and maybe lavender and nasturtiums. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep them all going, and even harvest extra to dry for the winter pantry!

Second, I’ve started some greens. Greens have shallow root systems, grow quickly, and don’t mind being in containers. Plus, there are an amazing number of varieties grow! Right now I have baby arugula, and I’m planning on adding small-headed romaine and some loose-leaf lettuces to the mix (my cat destroyed my first flat, so I’m starting over again). I might also add some beets and radishes for their leaves: they make great spicy additions to salads.

Third, I’m planning on rounding up some large pots to grow cucumbers and summer squash out on my balcony. These guys sprawl a lot, taking up space in my community row that I’d rather give to tomatoes, potatoes, and stuff for the winter garden. Luckily, I have learned that they don’t mind containers, and can be trained vertically so they don’t take up too much space. I’m excited to also add nasturtiums to the mix: edible and colorful and easy to grow. That’s pretty much the mantra for small space gardening, I think.

There is a lot to learn about small-space gardening. Luckily, thanks to the local food and DIY movements, there is also a lot of information out there. Almost all gardening magazines address issues of limited time and space; there are a number of blogs that are written by folks living in cities who are gardening on windowsills, balconies, and in their bathrooms; and, of course, there are a bunch of great books out on the subject. Below is a list of resources that I’ve been utilizing.

If you have any other resources (or hints or tips for us small-spacers), feel free to post them in the comments!
Happy growing!

Apartment Gardening, by Amy Pennington
(This author lives in Seattle, and is familiar with both our rainy climate and the challenges of urban spaces.)

Sugar Snaps and Strawberries, by Andrea Bellamy
(Good advice for the vegetarian and vegan crowd in addition to the aspiring small space gardener.)

The Edible Front Yard, by Ivette Soler
(For those of you who have yards, this is the guide to making that space produce for you!)

Grow Great Grub, by Gayla Trail
(Another good starter guide to gardening in containers.)

The Heavy Petal Blog
(Great advice for urban gardeners of all types, including those who want to grow food and ornamentals.)

Organic Gardening Magazine
(At times fluffy and unfocused, but this standby has shifted focus to address an urban audience.)

Urban Farm Magazine
(A new publication out on food production in urban areas.)

Yes, Another Book That You Need to Read

2011-04-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

So I realized this morning as I was putting together blog material for the week that I have spent a lot of time reviewing books. Hopefully that's okay with you! If you ever want to hear something different, just let me know. There are just so many cool books to read...

This week I want to talk about a newly released book out from OSU Press. It's called Voodoo Vinters, and the author Katherine Cole, writer for MIX magazine and the Oregonian, has put together for us a fabulous introduction into biodynamic farming and winegrowing.

If you aren't familiar with it, biodynamic farming is a agricultural system that was developed in the early 20th Century by the visionary philosopher and spiritual leader, Rudolf Steiner. Sometimes labeled "uber-organic," biodynamics take an intensive, homeopathic, radically local approach to farming. Off-farm inputs are strongly discouraged, and are replaced by applications of carefully prepared compost and specially "brewed" preparations. Herbicides and fungicides are replaced by homeopathic teas made from nettles, horsetail, and yarrow. Planting and harvesting are timed with lunar cycles. ...And then there's the more "woo-woo" stuff, like capturing cosmic rays to improve plant growth, monitoring the changing auras around your plants to determine their needs, and so on. Because of some of its more new-agey and unscientific elements, biodynamics is often dismissed as witchcraft or, as the book's title suggests, voodoo.

Cole does an admirable job in her book of balancing a tongue-in-cheek assessment of some of biodynamic's more "far out" practices with a historical and on the ground analysis of the school of thought as a whole. She comes to the conclusion that biodynamics is simply a very intensive approach to farming that focuses on promoting health rather than doing no harm (as the organic approach does), and in promoting health it drives farmers to pay very, very close attention to every aspect of their operation. As a consequence, these farmers have a heightened appreciation for the importance of biodiversity on their land, for feeding and nurturing the soil using preparations and tillage, and for watching their plants for signs of stress and then healing them. Overall it is a fascinating and compelling approach to farming that has its own unique merit.

Wound into the book's exploration of biodynamic farming more generally is an exploration of the growing influence of biodynamics in Oregon winegrowing. Cole profiles numerous well-known local vineyards and wineries who are employing biodynamic practices with stupendous results. Maysara, Brick House, Montinore, Cooper Mountain, and many other well-known names are discussed in this book. Each vinter has their own unique reasoning behind going biodynamic (or not, as is the case with the highly respected Sokol Blosser Winery), unique approach to applying biodynamic practices on their land, and unique viewpoint on the importance of biodynamics to the industry as a whole. Cole comes away from her experiences on these vineyards and from drinking their wines with two main conclusions: (1.) biodynamic winegrowing creates some fantastic wines, and (2.) that there does seem to be something special going on among the biodynamically grown vines that grace many south-facing slopes in the Willamette Valley. You'll have to read it and see what you think!

Another reason that I wanted to feature this book is that the author will be in town soon! On May 19th Katherine Cole, and guests from five of the vineyards she talked about in her book, will be at Third Street Books downtown for a book reading and discussion about biodynamic winegrowing in Oregon. It is sure to be a fascinating event! See the specifics listed at the bottom if you want to attend!

Take care.

EVENT DETAILS

Where: Third Street Books, 334 NE Third Street, McMinnville
When: 7pm
Featuring: Katherine Cole (author of Voodoo Vinters), Patrick Reuter (of Dominio IV), Josh Bergstrom (or Bergstrom Wines), Kelley Fox (of Kelley Fox Wines), Brian O'Donnelle (of Belle Pente), and Doug Tunnell (of Brick House Vineyards).

Preregistration is encouraged. Call at 503.472.7786.

Learn About Honeybees: "Queen of the Sun"

2011-04-22T11:53:00.001-07:00

Hi all!

Thought I'd pass on to you a cool event happening in honor of Earth Day!

Queen of the Sun is a new documentary that tries to answer the question "what are the bees telling us?" If you live in the area, you've probably heard that local hives have been struggling with a malady known as colony collapse disorder: essentially, the hives disappear without a trace. This occurrence remains largely unexplained, and is having a serious effect on local industries--from honey to fruit and nut trees. Honey bees are man's pollinator of choice, and with hives proving unsustainable, scientists and farmers alike are trying to figure out what to do to save the bees.

Queen of the Sun is produced by the same folks who made The Real Dirt on Farmer John, an entertaining and insightful film about what happened when one Mid-West farmer went organic in the heart of America's modern industrial agriculture. All bodes well for this newest effort. Check out their website for more information and to watch a trailer:

http://www.queenofthesun.com/

The film itself is showing in several Oregon locations starting today. If you have a free moment, check it out!

in Portland at the Hollywood Theatre
in Salem at Salem Cinema
in Eugene at Bijou Arts Cinemas

Enjoy the sun!

Learning from a Northwest Garden Guru

2011-04-20T12:28:00.000-07:00

Good day!

So now that it feels a little more like spring out there, I have been delving into my gardening books. I'm learning so much! Sounds silly to say so, but I think that sometimes you aren't ready to absorb a particular book. Then you come back to it, and you're thinking "wow!" all the way through.

Of late, my "wow" feeling has been focused on Steve Solomon's classic book, Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades. I have known about this book for years, thanks to my mom who is an avid gardener. It was usually laying somewhere around our living room, peppered with sticky note markers. I recently bought my own copy, and have been reading it religiously with my morning coffee. There's so much to learn! I have read other gardening books, equally inspiring, but Solomon points out that most gardening books are written based on gardening practices that work back east or in the mid-west, or in California. It makes a lot of sense: those regions have long histories of vegetable cultivation on all kinds of scale. As useful as these texts are (you can't say that Eliot Coleman's genius isn't inspiring), they don't address the unique challenges faced by gardeners who live in the Pacific Northwest and particularly west of the Cascades.

Here, vegetable growers face a myriad of problems: heavy clay soils, generally poor soil quality (low in trace minerals and overly high in potassium), winters-long leaching of nutrients thanks to the never-ending rains, a lack of widely-available high quality compost, difficulty in making good, nutrient dense compost at home. The list goes on and on. Solomon addresses all of these issues in turn, drawing on decades of experience growing vegetables in this unique region. He explains why mainstream gardening techniques fail here, and provides the reader with working alternatives.

Solomon also writes with a healthy dose of humor and honesty--joking about his failures, making fun of the reader while acknowledging the difficulties we face, and being totally honest about the back-breaking nature of some of the extra work we "west-of-the-cascaders" have ahead of us. He also unapologetically changes his mind: the book, now in its 6th edition, is a constant work in progress. It contains years and years of gardening wisdom. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Another great gardening resource that I lean on heavily is The Maritime Northwest Garden Guide, published by Seattle Tilth. This is a great little magazine-size guide to planting schedules, trouble-shooting, and more. It is also specific to our rainy, cold soil situation. Check it out!

Both of these resources are available from your local bookstore, Third Street Books. Walk downtown, save the drive, and support a local business! Happy reading!

Enjoy your week.

La Casa Verde and Permaculture 101

2011-04-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

Slow Food Yamhill County is very excited to be participating in La Casa Verde this weekend! La Casa Verde is an annual green building celebration that offers all kinds of workshops and information booths about green architecture, landscape, and living. It is happening all weekend in the granary district here in McMinnville.

This year, SFYC is presenting a talk on Permaculture. Permaculture is a design model and agricultural system that is intended to be permanent and self sustaining. It focuses on using available resources, minimizing waste, and creating rich, diverse environments in which to grow food and live a whole lifestyle. Below is a graphic that captures a few of the central ideas of permaculture systems.

If you're interested in learning more, come to the SFYC Permaculture presentation! It will be happening from noon to 1pm, and the presenters will be at Slow Food's information table afterward to answer questions.

Also stop by the Slow Food table to enter to win an awesome gift basket featuring local veggies, wine, and olive oil! Tickets are $1. You do not need to be present to win.

We hope to see you there!

Farm Fest!

2011-04-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

It might even be sunny for this fun farm event! We're not officially affiliated, but a plowing contest sounds like good fun for all.

Check it out here!

The Basics:

Farm Fest

Put on by: Yamhill County Historical Society
Where: The Yamhill County Heritage Center (head out 18 toward the coast, it's just outside town on your left)
When: THIS SATURDAY (a.k.a. tomorrow) from 10am-3pm
Entry: $3

Also, it has been brought to my attention that commenting on our blog isn't working too well. I'll do my best to figure out why that is and let you know the steps to commenting soon! Keep in mind that we are somewhat limited by the server... so you may need to create a shell Google account to comment. I'll let you know the details ASAP!

Fridge Sins

2011-04-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

Hi all. Hope the nutty spring weather is keeping you entertained!

Today I thought I’d write about a funny realization I had recently while debating whether or not I wanted to tackle cleaning out my fridge. The weather was too spotty to really make me want to do anything outside, so I was working on being productive around the house. Per usual, this meant I wandered around for a half-hour or so before deciding I’d rather try out a new recipe for no-knead bread than clean anything (why do the dishes if you’re just going to make more, right?).

In the course of my wanderings, I also stood with my fridge door open for an unacceptably long time. The contents in one word: messy. There was the normal bit of sour milk and dubious leftovers in Tupperware. A head of wilted lettuce that made me search the door for salad dressing. And what did I find there? A bottle of balsamic vinaigrette with approximately one half-teaspoon left at the bottom (useful). An older, emptier bottle of raspberry vinaigrette that I’m pretty sure I inherited when I moved out of my old apartment. An equally empty ketchup bottle, a few random mustards I scarcely remembered buying. Tabasco sauce. Soy sauce. More sauces. Kraft Mayo in a squeezable plastic jug.

Hmm. This is getting embarrassing.

But we all have our fridge sins, right? It might be that sour cream growing Technicolor mold at the back of the bottom shelf. Or the spilled something that makes everything around it sticky, but you studiously ignore. Maybe a half-eaten can of Taco Bell brand “refried beans.” I think for me, in addition to a couple of the above, I realized that I have an awful lot of condiments in there that I spent money on but rarely use. Most of which are likely easy to make. Most of which contain various unpronounceable ingredients, ingredients of dubious origin, ingredients that generally don’t jive with my attempts to eat locally, seasonally, and sustainably…

Thus, I have made a resolution. No more bottled salad dressing for me. This seemed the easiest point of departure, given that I have no access to tomatoes to make my own ketchup right now and making my own mustard sounds ambitious. And I have no idea how to approach soy sauce except doing some research. But salad dressing is pretty easy: I’ve whipped up vinaigrettes before after all. No problemo. Plus, this is a good reason to collect bottles of olive oil and walnut oil and various delectable sounding vinegars that I admire regularly but have yet to invest in. New food horizons, hooray!

What are your fridge sins? What items do you buy because they’re convenient, even when your little slow-foodie conscience scolds you for it? (You don’t need to admit to mold or sticky messes though… I know you’re more virtuous than that.)

Check out the recipes page for a couple of salad dressings that I am very much looking forward to making!

Stay dry out there.

It's Hot Out There

2011-03-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

Okay, not really. Well, it is kind of warm. I have been overheating in my favorite winter garb lately, which is an encouraging sign: we have spring temperatures even if the sunshine hasn't arrived.
But when I say "hot," I'm talking in a grander sense... yep, I'm going to talk about that oft-divisive subject: climate change. Mostly, I want to give you a heads up about a really great book that recently came out on the topic.

Mark Hertsgaard is a well-respected environmental journalist with more than a decade of experience reporting on climate change and its numerous effects across our planet. His most recent book, Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth, is a superbly written treatise on the current climate situation, and the ways we can and are approaching the threat it poses to our present way of life. It covers everything from water, to soil, to air, to human beings struggling both in America and across the world to come to terms with the changes we are seeing in our environment.

The chapter in this book on food, aptly titled "How Will We Feed Ourselves?" maneuvers and explains the complicated annals of modern agriculture, traveling from the African Sahel to Central California and beyond. It also explores the resiliency of modern food systems in the face of climate pressures. The news, honestly, isn't great: soils are wearing out and blowing away, water tables are over-tapped, pollution is rampant, GMO crops aren't living up to their promises, biodiversity is threatened, and hunger remains widespread. Depressing much?

This is where Hertsgaard's book sets itself apart though: he finds reasons to hope! In his travels in Africa, he meets rural farmers who are reclaiming their lands from the desert by employing simple techniques that fall under the imposing title "farmer-managed natural regeneration." Basically, they dig small depressions around the bases of their plants, which helps the soil at the base of the plant retain water. Adding manure to these depressions further increases production, and as a bi-product, reintroduces native tree species to their land. When they allow these trees to grow, water retention increases even more, again increasing their crop yields. By allowing native tree species to co-habitate with their crops, these farmers are recharging their water table, tying down precious topsoil, increasing biodiversity, and achieving a degree of food security that they have never known. A beautifully simple solution, an effective grassroots movement, and it has reclaimed 1000s of acres of land that previously was wasteland. Amazing.

In Northern China, where almost 80% of that nation's grains are grown, it is expected that the groundwater will be totally depleted by 2030. In less than 20 years, if nothing changes, they will be out of water. Terrifying, right? Well, a few brave scientists in that region are teaming up with students on university-run farms to test centuries-old inter-cropping and fertilization techniques, hoping (and proving) that those techniques yield just as much food as modern, industrial farming techniques, and will also help replenish the water table, rebuild soils, absorb atmospheric carbon, etc. Could this be the start of an agricultural revolution in China, the world's most populous nation? Perhaps.

By now you're probably wondering what this all has to do with our food systems. The answer is, it has everything to do with them. It is expected that by 2050, the Mid West will experience scorching summers 3 years out of 4, putting immense pressure on what is the United States' and the world's bread basket. California's central valley, which produces something like 40% of America's vegetables with experience unprecedented and increasing drought. Increasing temperatures will make life easier for pests and weeds, threatening crops everywhere. The threat is very real, and conventional agriculture systems are not up to the task. They are too rigid, too reliant on fossil fuel inputs, too draining on already scarce water resources, to last.

The good new is, as Herstgaard so kindly delivers to us, that we already know what to do to control a lot of these problems. The knowledge and technology already exists to remake food systems across the world to be more resilient and sensitive to natural resources and rhythms. What stands in the way is our modern, dominant, and monolithic agro-economic paradigm.

What can we do? Grow our own food. Shop in our foodshed. Support sustainable agriculture practices. And put pressure on the companies and policies that are doing so much damage to our present and future food sources. Start locally. As Hertsgaard writes, "[a]griculture is one of the few tricks humanity still has up its sleeve in the race to avoid the unmanageable and manage the unavoidable of climate change."

Slow Food and you can both help in this fight to save our food systems.

Join us!

And if you want to learn more, I highly recommend you read and realize that it's Hot out there.

Fragile

2011-03-22T13:47:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

I hope that this week is treating you well so far. I am personally feeling a little heavy of heart given recent world events. The conflict in Libya, civilians being killed in Yemen, continuing radiation leaks in Japan... it's all a little hard to process, though I have been doing my best to keep abreast of these events. They feel so crucial.

Yesterday I heard on the radio that officials have found radiation in tap water, dairy products, and vegetables in Japan. The many damaged plants still seem far from being repaired or the situation contained. But honestly, reading that radiation is being found in food sources was the most terrifying bit of news I have heard yet. This impact is something that will truly affect everyone in Japan. With food in short supply since the disaster, everyone is sharing what is available. This means every individual could potentially be harmed by their food: the very thing that is meant to nourish them and steel them to spend their days working to repair their country. Just a reminder that our food systems are fragile.

If you want to learn more, this article by The Guardian is a good one to check out. What are your thoughts?

Savor your safe food.

We'll talk to you soon.

PS> Be sure to check out the updated events and recipes pages! Freshen up your winter palate with kale chips or ginger muffins.

Think Out Loud

2011-03-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

We had a really productive Slow Food meeting this Monday! Many thanks to all who attended and offered their input on everything from the blog to upcoming events. Your energy is so appreciated! The minutes for this month's meeting are posted on the "Minutes" page here on the blog. If you want an emailed copy, feel free to contact Beth (beth.satt@gmail.com).

One topic that came up during the conversation Monday night was a recent Think Out Loud program on OPB radio about Food Deserts. Do you live in a food desert? How far do you have to drive to stock up on groceries? What happens if you can't get to your food sources? How secure is our food system, really? These questions and many more were engaged and debated by your fellow Oregonians on the show this week.

You can find the show online here or listen in at 91.5 FM (times are below). If you haven't listened to or participated in Think Out Loud, I highly recommend it! It is a great opportunity to learn about what is on the minds of Oregonians and to have your voice heard. You do have to set up an account to participate online (it takes about 20 seconds, and they don't send you spam), but you can read the comments inspired by the show for free! The show airs weekday mornings between 9 and 10am. Programs are rebroadcast in evenings in case you miss the morning show.

Go forth and learn something about food deserts!

Talk to you soon.

Spring Fever

2011-03-09T13:47:00.000-08:00

Hello foodies!

I don't know about any one else, but I have major spring fever right now. For the past few mornings, birds have been waking me up before the sun, and everywhere I look outside I see buds, buds, and more buds! March is a tease here in Oregon though--balmy enough to make us itch to get out in the garden again, and rainy enough to keep the mud ankle-deep.

Lucky for us, we can start plants inside... and attend Slow Food events! So why not take a break from nursing your plant starts and peruse the events page to see if one of our upcoming events calls to you? As always, check back with us to see what new events are on the horizon!

Happy Spring Fever!

Welcome Back!

2011-03-01T14:02:00.000-08:00

Hello readers, wherever you may be!

We wanted to give you a heads up that Slow Food is in the midst of planning great events all across the county for 2011! It's been a while since we've posted any news of events or upcoming projects, but there are a bunch of things coming down the pipe to keep your eye out for! A couple of items on the agenda include the Sue Buel Earth Day celebration, and participation in Chicken College, a day of fun seminars about our dear egg-laying friends taking place in Amity in a couple of weeks!

We are also working on revamping our blog, as you might have noticed. Please check back soon and often as we complete the update and start posting about our news and events as we enter the busy season of 2011.

As always, we welcome your comments and participation! If you have questions about upcoming events or getting involved, please email Judi at the email listed in the "About Us" section to the right.

See you soon!

Still here

2010-03-30T15:05:00.001-07:00

Whew, it's been awhile. Sorry all, I have fallen badly behind in keeping the website updated. But we're still here, and still offering some great library talks and other events, including a presentation by McMinnville gardener and author Ellie Gunn on vegetable gardening, that took place March 20 at the McMinnville Saturday Market. I'll get a list of upcoming events posted soon.
Nicole

April 13 meeting minutes

2009-06-04T20:49:00.000-07:00

Slow Food Yamhill County Meeting Minutes

April 13, 2009

In attendance: Lucy, Nicole, Rick, Judi, Mike F, and Marilynn, a guest.

1. Sue Buel Nature Day.

Mike brought seeds: fava beans, lettuce, and magenta orach. Lucy to make a ¼ page transplant handout with our website on it and a plant growth poster. (9-11). Nicole (9-11). Rick to bring banner (9-2). Judi (10-12) to bring a table, plants, and perhaps a plant book. Nanette (12-2). Nikki might arrive in the afternoon. Wear name badges.

II. Talks.

Native Pollinators. Zusee Society, Matt Shepard.

Winter Gardening. May 30. Kullas.

Permaculture. Jacki Dole?

III. On the brochures…do we have an email address? What is it?

slowfoodyamhillcounty@gmail.com

IV. Events Committee

Village Quarter Garden Proposal being reviewed by YCHA lawyer.

Potluck at Distillery—Nikki

Canning. Judi contacted Holly Berry to explore various options.

Dolce Farms potluck on hold.

Potluck with Yamhill Valley Peacemakers. Perhaps 6-28,7-19 or 8-2?

Talks: chicken talk: next spring; Lucy to get dates from library. Lawn to garden; vermaculture. Rick continues to look for presenters.

Tastings: grape cultivars. fruits. cheese.

V. Voting. Not ready, no date set. Dues are expiring.
VI. Projects.

Documentary-Lucy. Slow going.

Yamhill County Nutrition Task Force—Nicole. Very interesting.

VII. Slow Food.

We are officially recognized by national!

Nicole to send out general email.

Next meeting May 6th!

2009-03-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

March 4 Meeting Notes
Please note: These are my recollections of the discussion and I am not presenting what follows as official minutes except where voting was involved on Item 4.
Judi H.

In attendance: Susan Ruggles, Rick Throngburg, Nannette Villarreal, Nikki Shoemaker, Travis Orback, Mike Fahey and Judi Herubin

1. Village Quarter Garden: Master Gardeners are reviewing document, 3 of the 4 have responded with comments. Nanette and Judi will update document with all comments and submit the draft to the Executive Director at the Housing Authority for comment. The goal is to have a final document ready for signature from all three parties by March 31, 2009.

For future action: The garden as proposed does not fit the criteria for a community garden because it is for the residents of the property. Nanette has suggested that the residents choose the name when they meet to organize.

2. Mike Fahey explained two projects he has in the works. The first is a community garden site near Linfield. Mike is in the planning stages and is seeking interested parties to participate. He is currently has plans to meet with representatives from Greenfield and plans to meet with his neighbors if needed. Mike did not request any action from Slow Food at this time.

The second project is a proposed community event in the “Power of Community” mode with a focus on local food. The Peacemakers have decided not to take this event on and there was a suggestion that Slow Food be the main sponsor of this event. Members in attendance thought the idea had great potential to fit into what we have planned and it was requested that Mike write up an outline of what he envisions for the event and submit it to Slow Food for further consideration.

3. Review of other events and status: We seem to have a lot going on although the details of some events are not yet clear. We had at one time set a goal of having at least one event per month. We had an event in January and a co-sponsor presence in February. It does not appear we have an event in March but April looks very busy.

I have included a table below that show the events and projects that came to mind. I know it would help me to see what we have in the works in a format like this. Let me know what you think and if people find it useful I will get it updated and keep it going.

Event/Project Date Status Lead Results
Tableland 1/16/09 complete Judi/Nanette Small crowd, movie well received
Power of Community II 2/24/09 complete Susan Great event, Slow Food was a co-sponsor and had representatives and flyers at the event. Six people requested to be added to our info/event list
Seed Talk TBD Lucy/Nicole ?
Bee Talk TBD
Annual Meeting TBD – April? Nicole
Sue Buell Nature Day 4/18/09 ? Lucy?
McMinnville Fruit Tree Project TBD Lucy/Judi ?
Potluck at Tad and Mary’s farm (wine and spirit makers) TBD – May? They are willing – date to be set Nikki
Book share events TBD New Rick ?
Earth Day at Wednesday Wines April 22 New – emailed contact 3/5 for more info Judi
Nutrition Project with Public Health Meetings in progress Nicole

Provider List 4/15/09 – 1st draft Set deadline so Judi would get started Judi
Documentary Lucy
Newberg City Club 3/17/09 On track Nicole speaking Lucy contact
Slow Food Reports TBD Nicole for National
Susan for Financials
Farm Tour TBD TBD
Village Quarter Garden 3/31/09 – signed MOU In edits - on track Nanette
McMinnville Farmer’s Market presence Apps are due between March 16 and April 1 I thought we had discussed this at one point?
Canning classes TBD Judi ????
Winter Farm tour at Oak Hill TBD – soon? Lucy
4. We had a general discussion about marketing and it was decided we are ready for a banner. Susan made a motion that Slow Food to purchase a 2x6 banner ($36.00 at Copy Cats) Nanette second. The motion carried. Rick is going to work up a proof and will email the board for approval before ordering.
5. Susan brought information on the pending 2009 Legislation on Oregon Farm to School and School Gardens. Copies of the information were passed out to all in attendance. The group had some questions and it was decided to table the issue until the next meeting.
6. Next meeting: It was agreed that we needed to have another meeting a.s.a.p. and it was decided that the Board should reconvene on Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 5:15 p.m. at Village Quarter to review original agenda for 3/4/09, renew discussion on Oregon Farm legislation and the Power of Community III if that information is available by the meeting.
7. Travis would like to be added to the meeting minutes emails.
8. Adjourned.

Feb. 11 minutes

2009-02-20T12:09:00.000-08:00

Slow Food Yamhill County
February 11, 2009 Minutes

Attend: Judi, Nanette, Lucy, Nicole, Rick, Susan. Public: Nikki Shoemaker

1. Confirm bylaw adoption, discuss public meeting/elections. Bylaws adopted at last meeting. Public meeting/hearing: JH move to hold off until we are ready (probably April) and combine it with a fun event. NV2nd. Unan-aye. Side note: NM to call Dolcci farms about having that potluck at their place after the lambs come. Perhaps combine with potluck.

1.5 Rick Thronburg. LF put on table, JH moved to formally recognize Rick as a board member with full voting rights. LF2nd. Unan-aye (NM absent).

2. Village Quarter. Review comments regarding Memorandum of Understanding. NM move to send on to HAYC as is. LF2nd. Unan-aye. Lucy to ask Kullas (and others) for old, noncommercially viable seed for this and other projects.

3. Publications. Review comments on brochure…overall it is okay. Go ahead and pass out old brochures until we run out, then these. Put Valley Creek Farm on farm map.

4. Newberg Community Talk. Tueday March 17th. Nicole and Rick can do it if Newberg still wants us. Lucy to have brochure and (hopefully) map done. We can mention April potluck. Lucy to contact Newberg.

5. Power of Community. February 24th. SFYC has no real responsibilities at this though we will wear nametags, help collect canned food, and hand out brochures. SFYC will also have table space to put brochures/posters/etc. Judi to make nametags. Initial count of who will attend: Nannette, Judi, Lucy, Rick. We will have the opportunity to talk to Bill. There will be a POCIII in June.

6. Programming. February Bill Bradbury. Nicole to ask SFU about ‘promotional materials’. Lucy to work on a poster(s). Lucy to call Kullas re winter farm tour. NR: it is okay to sell seeds at library. Rick is talking with Oregon Tilth. April-Dolce Farms potluck. April 18th “Family Nature Day” at Sue Buel School. SFYC to have ‘seed planting station’ or some such thing. Lucy is contact, details to follow. April- Dolce Farm potluck/public meeting. May- winery tour…Nikki Shoemaker to talk to winery contacts regarding potential tasting/potluck at a winery/vineyard. An altenrative would be to have it at one of two distilleries (Ransom Wine and Spirits) or the Honey mead guy. Potential to have bee talk at Honey mead location?

7. Documentary. Lucy gave rundown on documentary idea, working with Linfield student Mike McDowell, etc. In short: A documentary of local food producers here in the County. A snapshot of various producers representing various aspects of food (e.g. vegetables, fruit, grains, meat, spirits, other?) In theory Lucy would organize and conduct all interviews with Mike filming and then following up with editing work. Cost to be very low. NM moved for SFYC to support Lucy in this endeavor, NV 2nd, unan-aye. Potential external funding/showing: Soil and Water Conservation, Extension, MACA, Ch 11, Library.

8. Community Health Project with Sara Bates (Yamhill County Health Services). Would like SFYC’s continued participation on the task force. Judi Herubin to serve as primary, Lucy and Nicole as alternates.

9. Sue Buel. No idea about garden. See above for “Family Nature Day”. JH moved to support SFYC involvement in Nature Day, NM 2nd, Unan-aye.

10. Email list. Judi to be responsible for email list. Likely to be broken down into: board members, SFU members, and general interest group.

11. Miscellaneous.
What is happening with Yamhill County agricultural study? Lucy to email Mary Stern and ask about it and ask if she wants SFYC emails.
Local Food Companies. Lucy has collected (large) list of food companies in Oregon. Would like to pass it on. Lucy to send Nikki S. list of companies in Yamhill County and she will share what she knows.

Next meeting: March 4th. 5:15 p.m. Village Quarter. Board meeting, public is welcome.

Jan. 21 minutes

2009-02-20T12:07:00.000-08:00

Oh, friends, I am sorry. Been swamped lately, and getting far too far behind with my Slow Food responsibilities. Here are your sadly belated minutes from Jan. 21, followed promptly by the also-belated mintues for Feb. 11.
Nicole
Slow Food Yamhill County Minutes
January 21, 2009

In attendance: Nicole, Lucy, Judi, Susan, Nanette, Rick

I. I. Bylaws. Judi presented four potential changes to the bylaws (sections 2, 8, and 9). SR moved to approve bylaws as amended. LF seconded. Unanimous approval.

II. II. Committee for information packets. Lucy and Nicole to update/amend brochure to make more informative for potential members. Lucy to update actual brochure and Nicole to draft something for an insert to the brochure outlining where the membership money goes.

III. Mission Statement. All recognized that we had adopted a MS in December.

IV. IV. First Quarter Member Meeting. Scheduled a board meeting for February 11th at which time we will: approve brochure, continue programming, review email list, update on Victor Manor garden, set agenda for public meeting, review nominations, decide who gets emailed minutes and such, and other as it comes up. Scheduled a PUBLIC meeting for March 4th at which we will: hold elections, reeducate members on 2009 goals. It was decided that proof of payment will qualify one to be eligible to be on the board.

V. V. Programming. Set: February 24th – Power of Community, talk with Bill Bradbury. April- Kulla talk on winter gardening. Victor Manor garden-Spring.

VI. Miscellaneous.
§ Susan will not be renewing her membership and thus will not be running for a place on the board.
§ Lucy thought it would be neat to have a documentary of local food producers.
§ Rick had a long list of great ideas that made me too interested to take notes.

VII. TO DO:
§ Lucy: update brochure and get out to Board for review. Contact library for Kulla date. Work on map. Go through email list with Judi.
§ Nicole: Where money goes insert to Lucy. Contact seed company and set talk date for Feb/Mar. Send out email to general interest group informing: here we are, this is what we are doing, this is how you might get involved, we love food, etc. Work on map. Contact/dates for bee talk. Complete SFU survey.
§ Judi: Add edits to bylaws for final perusal (though we already approved them). Draft letter of intent for VQ garden. Go through email list with Lucy.
§ Nanette: Continue to work with VQ residents on VQ garden.
§ Rick: Cast lines for those who might be interested in talking/hosting potluck/etc. Think of materials that the library might want to carry.
§ All: Review bylaws, brochure, and LOI and get comments back. Continue to think positively about Slow Food.

Jan. 7 2009 minutes

2009-01-20T15:39:00.000-08:00

Jan. 7 2009 minutes
Present: Rick Thronburg; Darryl Alt, Katie Kulla, Nanette Villarreal, Yanira Vera, Judi Herubin, Susan Ruggles, Nicole Montesano, Mick Cowles, Patty Mundy, Beverly and David Norman, Leslie Blanding
Absent: Lucy Falcy (excused)

Review of proposed bylines. Susan suggested the number of board members should be five to seven, given the difficulty we have had in recruiting members to attend meetings, then later suggested a range of up to 9 members. Judi questioned what other sections that might affect. Extensive discussion followed.
Susan also suggested term limits; the suggestion was adopted.
Discussion tabled until later in the meeting.
Discussion with Master Gardeners David and Beverly Norman, who coordinate the McMinnville Community Garden at the Salvation Army, and Master Gardener Darryl Alt. Yanira Vera from the Housing Authority, which owns Village Quarter, attended.
Nanette noted that Slow Food wanted to help Village Quarter residents plant a community garden in the rooftop planting beds, and was asking the Master Gardeners for advice and assistance. Slow Food’s ideas were that the residents could grow some of their own food, and perhaps also food to donate to local food pantries.
The Master Gardeners toured the rooftop gardens, to get an idea of the possibilities. Four large planter boxes are available for use.
The Normans strongly advised that the garden be run by a committee, rather than relying on a “lynchpin” person.
David Norman warned against starting with too ambitious a program, so they don’t recommend a formal “Row for the Hungry” at the beginning.
He said it should not be very expensive to get the project started, and that the Master Gardeners might be able to help. The Community Garden might also be able to donate seeds, and that the Newberg High School program also might have extra seeds. Katie Kulla said that Oakhill Organics also has extra seed.
Nanette noted that Slow Food would need to submit a letter of intent to the Housing Authority outlining a proposal for the project, and said the Housing Authority would provide a budget.
Beverly Norman said the Community Garden could provide some of the forms it uses, as a template, and talked about how the Community Garden went about becoming self-supporting, and forming a steering committee. The Community Garden charges participants $15 a year, which includes not only a garden row for personal use, but also water, seeds, fertilizer and advice. It also requires two four-hour workdays a month.
The same model wouldn’t work at Village Quarter, because it’s a different set-up. She said that it could be more relaxed, and that the gardens should reflect what the residents want to grow, and what will grow within the site’s limitations of size, wind exposure and altitude.
David Norman stressed that the residents must feel ownership for the project to work.
The Normans said they are willing to act as liaisons and work with the residents.
A residents’ meeting was scheduled for January 20th, at which the project was to be introduced; the Normans volunteered to attend.
They said there probably is not enough room for residents to each have their own garden space. The individual horse troughs might be used to grow herbs and flowers.
Judi said she’d like Slow Food’s role to be encouraging residents with activities like pot lucks and recipe-sharing.
Nanette is to report back to the board at its meeting on Jan. 21.
The board decided to postpone the year’s first big membership meeting until after the bylaws are completed.
Bylaws discussion was resumed. Judi to collect Lucy's comments, revise bylaws draft according to the suggestions made, and bring back on Jan. 21.
On Jan. 21, the board is to discuss creating a mission statement; forming a committee to create a membership packet for new members and the revised bylaws.
Rick Thronburg has collected several dvds: A Man Named Pearl; The Future of Food and Food Matters, that Slow Food may borrow for public showings.
On Feb. 24, the second Power of Community Event will take place, sponsored by the Peacemakers. Bill Bradbury will make a presentation on Climate Change.
The next meeting will be Jan. 21 at 5:15, at Village Quarter.

December potuck

2008-12-03T11:59:00.000-08:00

Our December potluck will be Dec. 12 at 6:30 p.m. at 1105 N.E. Johnson Street in McMInnville. The theme is Christmas around the World, with northwest ingredients. Please join us for a merry time.

Nicole

Nov. 15 board meeting minutes

2008-12-03T11:57:00.000-08:00

November 15, 2008 Minutes
Attend: Lucy, Nanette, Judi, Nicole; Absent: Susan (excused)
4:05 p.m. -7:50 p.m.

Slow Food- To be or not to be.
Discussion. NM- Yes, embodies our intent; JH: yes- we are establishing and growing, need to talk to SF about reducing fees; NV: yes, want to learn more about and get more knowledge; LF: yes, many people are recognizing it and expressing enthusiasm.
NF: motioned to remain with SF; LF: Second. In favor: unanimous.
NM to put together an ‘insert’ of where the SF application fee money goes (to what causes). This will go in brochure.
Associate member? JH: table for now but look into it further for ’09? NM: potential issues with national rules. We need to find out options and see where we are by June 1st.
Mtgs. NM: Chapter board needs to meet monthly but with public only one time per year. Recc meeting monthly with board but with public quarterly. All agreed.
Follow up: NV to get copy of bylaws.
Mission Statement.
General discussion leading towards something like “Empowering people to eat local food”… “through access, affordability, and education”.
Follow up: Get Susan’s three As and make sure they fit in.
2009 Goals
Discussion: NM: expand library series (change or have more), like idea of talk every month (add alt. pollinators), CSA/Farm list together with map and on web and published, community garden, build relationships with other organizations, get AT LEAST the required 20 members; improve the website. JH: work on stakeholder list and contacts, have co-sponsored events, perhaps get a stakeholder brochure; have at least 1 event a month; revive the tip of the month, farm tour. SR [read in by JH]: something for schools...a planting, get a feeler out to schools soon, have ongoing events at local businesses. JH: would be nice to get back to idea of co-op or at least buying seeds in bulk, fundraiser for SF. NV: increase membership, get energy for other projects, get organizations to pay for memberships, present to organizations to get input and buy-in, farm tour, continue library talks, and ULTIMATE: get a community garden going at VQ. LF: CSA/Farm list and map published and done, increase events, have more educational potlucks, be able to know and easily contact stakeholders, increase membership, get word out, think about TurkeyRama, look at expanding past MAC, get a Menu for the Future group going.
Pared Down Goals: monthly events (1. educational and/or social-at least 2 fundraisers); 2. CSA/Farm list maps; 3. Stakeholder list and contacts; 4. Membership to 20; 5. Network and get plan for school education and continue and expand seed planting project; 6. Support development of community-gardens especially through public agencies.
Motion: JH move to accept 6 goals for 2009; NM: 2nd. In favor: unanimous.
Follow up: To get 2009 goals into brochure (Lucy)
Activities, Events
General Discussion: JH: permaculture talk (Mike Fahey), farm tour, seed saving/heritage seed talk, water conservation/harvesting/drought friendly plantings talk, chicken keeping, local cheese/wine, etc. SR [read in by JH]: have events at businesses (Kame, R Stuart, HorseRadish, Panther Creek), “Tableland” at HorseRadish in March. JH: Potluck in conjunction with Greenfield , Menu for the Future with kickoff of in January. NM: cosponsor CoolMac rain barrel/cistern/drought friendly plant talk, alt pollinator talk-with native plant society or master gardeners? NV: combine potlucks with talks, perhaps have potluck in park, plant seeding at school, show ‘King Corn’; ‘Farmer John’. RT [read in by LF]: movies: The Real Dirt on Farmer John, How to Save the World, A Man Named Earl, Rainwater Collection, Peak Moment; Events: invite local chef for demo, permaculture, beneficial insects and pollinators, talk on cookware, talk on local vs. conventional foods. LF: many of above ideas plus repeat winter gardening and converting lawns to gardens.
Potential Calendar (Minimum):
i. Jan Show ‘Real Dirt on Farmer John’, Potluck, and intro to Menu to the Future at Baptist Church.
ii. Feb Talk at library- beekeeping (NOTE: this has since changed for political reasons—need to find new topic); Potluck at Linfield
iii. Mar Show ‘Tableland’ at the HorseRadish in Carlton
iv. April Year-Round Gardening Talk at Library (Kullas?)
v. May Plant and Celebrate Comm Garden at VQ
vi. June Seed Saving and NW Varieties talk at library
vii. July Canning with OSU Extension
viii. Aug Rainwater and DT Plant Talk at library?
ix. Sept Small Farm Tour and Potluck
x. Oct Lawn to Garden Talk at library (Blanding?)
xi. Nov
xii. Dec
Follow Up: Need to set schedule (library), make contacts, and make sure that we have everything that we want.
Subcommittees. Skip.
Bylaws.
Follow up:
i. Does Susan have Bylaws? Nanette to check.
ii. By the 3rd: Everyone needs to think hard about how many board positions we might want, what ‘board’ positions we might want to have and what each board position will be responsible for (e.g. ‘Secretary- taking notes, collecting articles, etc.’)
Meeting Dates:
Decided to move board meetings to WEDNESDAYS at 5:15 Location TBD.
Next meeting will be December 3rd for current board members (plus Judi and Rick T.) at News Register, 5:15

Slow Food USA asks help for rare hog breeder

2008-11-26T17:29:00.000-08:00

Dear Slow Food members and visitors,
A farmer in South Dakota who is working to save endangered hog breeds has just suffered a devastating loss. Slow Food USA is asking the Slow Food community to lend a hand.
Below is the letter I received today from President Josh Viertal.
Thank you all for any support you can give.
Nicole M.

Dear Leaders,
I just got off the phone with Arie McFarlen who is a member of our Ark of Taste committee. Arie owns Maveric Heritage Ranch in South Dakota, where she has single-handedly saved several rare breeds of pigs, bringing them back from the brink of extinction. Tragically, last week, Arie's barn burned to the ground killing over 40 of her rare breed hogs, sows with babies and her treasured horse. She lost everything - the feed she'd put away for the winter, the feeding troughs - she doesn't even have a pitch-fork. Yet she still has other animals to care for. Since it was an electrical fire and electricity powers her water pump there was no water on the farm to put out the fire.
Arie is devastated, but full of hope. Fortunately she kept duplicate breeding pairs of her rare breeds in multiple locations on the farm, so no breed was lost. Those remaining animals are keeping her going. Her neighbors are helping her out as well. She told me about neighbors using tractors to bring water for her animals until the pump could be restored with temporary power. She said, “One thing about living in a rural community is that everyone pitches in when something goes wrong.” To continue her work though she is going to need more help than her neighbors can give. Our shared work makes us all a part of her community and we should pitch in too.
Unfortunately there isn’t a chapter in South Dakota yet, so we’re reaching out to the larger Slow Food community. A special fund has been set up to help, and you can find more information in the linked press release. It is important that we take care of each other in times like these. I encourage you to share this information with your members, and if you can, to give
your support.

Donations can be made online at www.maveric9.com or sent to the “Endangered Hog Foundation” in care of Maveric Heritage Ranch Co. at:
Endangered Hog Foundation
Maveric Heritage Ranch Co.
47869-242nd St.
Dell Rapids, South Dakota 57022

You can read a letter from Arie below. We’ve posted her letter on the Slow Food USA blog at
http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/slow_food/blog_post/help_a_biodiversity_pioneer/.
Thanks,

Josh Viertel

-----------------------

Dear Friends of Maveric:

It is with the deepest and most profound grief that I write this message. At 5:30am November 19th, 2008, we awoke to our beautiful 100 year old gambrel barn engulfed in flames. Trapped within the barn was my beloved stallion, several rare Mulefoot hog sows with their litters of piglets, an extremely rare Wessex saddleback boar, a favorite guinea hog boar and all of my dearly loved cats. Although we made attempts to rescue our animals, we were unable to save any from the barn.

We were able to run pigs from their pens near the barn to the pastures and get them away from the heat & flames. Many animals in these pens were burned and have suffered smoke inhalation. Though it is several days after the fire, we are still losing animals we have been nursing and trying to save.

The fire burned with such intensity that it caught a large tree and our new barn on fire as well. The firemen were able to save our new barn, but our gambrel was a complete loss. The fire marshal reported that the fire was burning in excess of 2000 degrees due to the way the metal items in the barn melted and puddled. The fire was apparently caused by a failure in the main power breaker. When the power transformer began to melt, we lost power to the whole farm. This also left us without water, as our well is pumped by electricity.

All of our feed (approximately 1000 bales of alfalfa), our tools, watering troughs & feeders, buckets, piglet pens, fencing supplies, power cords, winter heaters, saddles & horse gear, construction materials for our new barn and so much more were completely destroyed.

We cannot replace our rare breed pigs. They simply do not exist. Our work for nearly ten years has been to preserve and save these breeds of pigs. We cannot begin to express our sense of loss over these animals, not just from our lives, but from all future generations.

This tragedy has made it even more clear to us that these rare breeds are in a very precarious situation. At any moment, a disaster, accident or disease could take yet another species from this planet.

Our friends have already begun to rally around us and offer support. We have received many calls and emails from the folks at Slow Food USA, Animal Welfare Institute, American Livestock Breeds Conservancy and Dakota Rural Action. Because of this outpouring of encouragement, we feel compelled to persevere and insure that future generations are able to raise and enjoy these breeds, and that biodiversity amongst pigs is preserved.

The Endangered Hog Foundation has been established to help us rebuild and to help continue work with endangered pig breeds. We fully intend to carry on with our DNA research, breeding program, establishing new breeders and promotion of endangered pigs. We have already begun the process of cleaning up the debris and will begin construction of a facility to continue working with our pigs as soon as spring arrives in South Dakota. Temporary measures to provide for the pigs during the upcoming winter are underway.

We need your help. Our immediate needs are for physical labor to help with clean up and building temporary shelter to winter the pigs. Additionally, we need to find a source for alfalfa hay square bales, to obtain portable shelters for the pigs due to farrow in early 2009, hog equipment and hand tools.

Donations can be sent to the “Endangered Hog Foundation” in care of Maveric Heritage Ranch Co. at the address below or through the link on our web page at www.maveric9.com.

Thank you to everyone who has offered support. I cannot describe how it feels to stand in a place of profound grief and intense gratitude at the same time. We will carry on through the love and support of our friends.

Endangered Hog Foundation
Maveric Heritage Ranch Co.
47869-242nd St.
Dell Rapids, South Dakota 57022

<('(..)')>
Arie McFarlen, PhD
Maveric Heritage Ranch Co.
(605) 428-5994
www.maveric9.com

Nov. 10 minutes

2008-11-12T13:35:00.000-08:00

In attendance: Nicole, Judi, Aimee, Lucy, Rick Thronburg, John Phillips

I. November 15th Movie and Panel. Meeting at 12 for brownbag. To bring following materials:
Nicole: invitation on blog, cards/paper for people to ‘submit’ ideas, 10 reasons to eat local.
Judi: Sign up sheets, Menu for the future publications, any SF publications
Lucy: Brochure (100), SQUASH,
Susan: doorprize and raffle stuff,

Lucy to talk 5-10 minutes on activities done so far, 2009 goals,

II. Powow. November 15th after Movie event. At Nannette’s. We’ll worry about food when we get there but it might be nice to have some wine to sip on…
Agenda:
1. Slow food: to be or not to be.
2. Formalize mission statement. (“empowering people to eat locally” (or something like that) or “expanding access to locally grown and produced food for everyone in the region”)
3. 2009 goals
4. Set list of activities/events for next year and begin to assign responsibility.
5. Revisit subcommittees (lucy to bring lists)

Lucy to bring a timetable for topics to be agreed upon at powow beginning.

III. Financial Reports. Susan motioned to have reports out quarterly and not monthly, Judi seconded, Lucy, Nicole, Judi: Aye.

IV. Misc.
Grant denied.
Nicole to work with Katie K. to update website.
Lucy: add John Phillips to meeting list.
Need follow up on Oakhill Organics Winter Farm Visit.
December Potluck. Theme: Christmases around the World. Lucy to find out date.
Event ideas: talks: local seed varieties that excel, beekeeping (FEB), Alternative pollinators, Extending the harvest with greenhouses, pruning. Movies: Dirt on Farmer John, A man Named Earl, Tableland.
Need a stakeholder list: Soil & Water, Mike Fahey –garden project. Greenfield , etc.
Need to follow up with Kullas regarding possibilities for 8000 sq ft plot in Mac.

Saturday movie and discussion

2008-11-11T08:11:00.000-08:00

Join us this Saturday, Nov. 15, for a community discussion on local solutions to global issues, including food, housing and transportation. Slow Food Yamhill County has joined with Yamhill Valley Peacemakers, Cool Mac, Greenfield and the Cozine Bicycle Club to offer a free showing of the award-winning documentary film "The Power of Community; How Cuba Survived Peak Oil."
We'll start with a brown bag lunch at noon, in the Great Room of McMinnville Cooperative Ministries, 544 N.E. Second Street, McMinnville.
The movie begins at 1 o'clock, and will be follolwed by a panel discussion.
Hope to see you there.
NIcole M.

Minutes of Oct. 27 meeting

2008-10-30T17:22:00.000-07:00

Present: Lucy, Susan, Rick Thronburg

I. November 15 forum with YValleyPeacemakers and Cool Mac. Lucy will be speaking either on City stuff or on SFYC stuff (Nicole has since volunteered to speak if necessary). Barbara Boyer might also be speaking on ag. Stuff. Will show movie “Power of Community” and then have a panel discussion on our community. Lucy to verify if they want City talk so that she can clear it with the City. A light lunch might be served but that begs the question: what type of food and is there potential liability for ‘home-cooked’ foodstuffs. YVPeacemakers to find out or to reschedule from 12-3 to 1-4. SFYC to co-sponsor event.

II. Brochure. Mostly done, needs some additional information. We went through and looked at it.

III. Rick (Judi-please add Rick to the mailing list rickzt@verizon.net ) He has a marketing background and wants to help. He is just learning about us but he might be able to give a talk on ‘knives’.

IV. Finance. Susan turned in the 3rd Quarter report and would like a vote to determine if she can continue turning in quarterly reports rather than monthly.

V. Misc. Nicole- Fees expire on Dec. 31st. Does this mean that all memberships expire then? What if we don’t have 20, etc.?
Lucy will talk to Kullas about their ‘cheap website’. We recognize that the blog is not really meeting our needs and that a website would much more.

Local turkeys available

2008-10-29T19:03:00.000-07:00

We received an e-mail from Jack Murphy of Hope Springs Farm, who has local turkeys to sell, for those of you looking for your Thanksgiving bird.
Jack's message follows:
Our turkeys are pasture raised - truly pastured, not the fake “free range” many industrial producers sell. They are treated with
NO antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, herbicides, or other yuk. They are fed conventional feed, not organic, which is unfortunate but for many reasons our best option (email for the two-page explanation!).The taste of these turkeys compared to the conventional Butterball is dramatic. We guarantee you’ll be pleased. They are processed and delivered vacuum packed on specific dates in November and December for you to freeze for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and whenever else. They can be cut into parts and/or ground as turkeyburger on Nov. 9 and Dec. 22 for an additional charge.

Whole birds are $4.50/lb (15-25 lb bird). We will have turkeys ready at the McMinnville First Baptist Church parking lot (2^nd & Cowles) 4:00-6:00 PM on the date you choose. Salem deliveries will be on Thursday November 13, and Portland deliveries on Saturday November 15 (time and location TBA). For bulk or cooperative orders, we can make
other delivery arrangements.

Please let us know how many turkeys you want on each of the following days by emailing us at hopesprings@onlinenw.com
or calling 503-835-0672.

_Dates available_
No preference (we’ll let you know what works best)
3 November
9 November (cut & grind optional this day)
12 November
Salem orders delivered Thursday November 13
14 November
Portland orders delivered on the 15th .
22 December (big birds! Cut and grind optional this day)

Jack also said:
I also noted that you recently had a dinner that featured ciderpressing. I am nearly obsessed with making apple cider, and put together a manually operated grinder/press late last year. It's gotten a great workout this year, and I thought you might want us to help out next year, or maybe even this year. There are plenty of apples left on the trees!
Thanks, Jack. We hope to see you at one of our potlucks, or maybe an upcoming meeting.
Nicole M.

Latest update

2008-10-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Seth and Leslie for a great presentation. We had a wonderful turnout that filled the room, and several people signed up to be added to our e-mail list. Librarian Jenny Berg has invited us to repeat the series again next year; she said the library was very happy with it. Let's talk about ideas for that.
Coming up, as Susan noted below, we're co-sponsoring a movie with Cool Mac and the Yamhill County Peacemakers on Nov. 15. The movie is "The Power of Community. More to follow on that in a later post.
We've had a wonderful first 10 months, and done some exciting things: monthly potlucks that have consistently drawn large turn-outs from the public; a three-part lecture series at the McMinnville Public Library that drew a lot of public interest; a canning class by the OSU Master Food Preservers Program; a bean planting project at local elementary schools by Red Fox Bakery last spring; hand-outs at the City Fair in September and of course our upcoming movie. We joined Slow Food USA, and created a mission statement you can find on this blog. Angelina created a terrific list of reasons to eat local food that we've been handing out to people, and Lucy is working on a formal brochure about our group. We've got a farm and csa list created, that we plan to post online as soon as we get a website set up. And, of course, we've got our blog. We've applied for grant funds to allow us to put on a county farm tour next fall, and the Soil and Water Conservation District has volunteered to work with us in setting it up, assuming we receive the grant.
I think next year is going to be even better and more productive, and I can't wait to see what the energy and imagination of this group will produce.
Nicole M.

Gardening presentation on Saturday

2008-10-24T19:23:00.000-07:00

Leslie Blanding and Seth Johnson of Figment Farms will speak about turning your lawn into gardening space to grow your own vegetables, from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Carnegie Room at McMinnville Public Library, 225 N.W. Adams St. Admission is free. We look forward to seeing you there.

Oct. 13 minutes

2008-10-17T14:20:00.000-07:00

Sorry so late, I’ve been sick. Lucy.

Oct 13th 2008 Minutes.
Present: Lucy, Nicole, Judi, Aimee, Marsha Macke

I. Potluck. Went well. Approx 30 attendees. Contest went well and got people thinking about creative/different recipes. Cider press was a fantastic addition and should be repeated next year with our without an apple themed meal (jury is out on that one). It might be neat to have a manual grinder to get more people physically involved. The press was from Mike Bahee. Next year perhaps we could pair or follow up with a talk on what to do with cider…jelly, etc. We might also want to consider a talk on ‘all things to do with apples.’ Thank you Dan Brown for hosting…we heard that you enjoyed it an we might call upon you again. For future consideration, Mark Bialy of Carlton Cider Works does french style apple cider (hard). A tour might be nice.

II. How to eat lawn talk. Judi has sent materials to NR. And has mailed to general interest list. She will touch base with the library but will NOT be there on the 25th. Seth & Leslie. Thank you. Do you need anything?

III. Membership. We are up to 12 members but still need AT LEAST 8 more to make our requried minimum. We are considering moving meeting days back to Wednesday. For next meeting, please come up with the following: a list of what people can do; a 2009 goals list; and a thought on our current catchphrase “Expanding access to locally-grown and produced food for everyone in the region.”

IV. Misc.
Angelina is to put updates on the blog (see Nicole).
(Note from Nicole; I've forgotten what this was about, so you'll have to see Lucy!)
November event: Peacemakers showing of Movie at Linfield. Susan and Nanette are contacts and need to get a date scheduled. Judi will also be communicating with them and let Lucy know if you want a farmer on the panel so that Lucy can get one.
December Potluck is in a house in MAC…perchance a ‘holidays from around the world theme’
January event: potential showing of “Tableland” and potluck. A challenge due to availability.
Nicole to get a bee speaker for a February meeting.
Lucy to come up with draft brochure by October 27th!
Lucy to call about grant.

Meeting dates

2008-09-26T18:25:00.001-07:00

Well, we thought that meeting on Mondays would make it easier for people to attend. Turns out it doesn't. At least a couple members, in fact, have informed us they can Never attend on Mondays. So what do the rest of you think? Should we keep it where it is, or just move it back to Wednesdays? Are you reading this blog?
Please comment.
Nicole M.

Canning class tomorrow!

2008-09-23T10:16:00.000-07:00

Hey all, just a reminder, the canning class with Holly Berry from the OSU Extension Service's Master Food Preserver program is at 7 p.m. tomorrow night.
Canning Fruits and Tomatoes: Basic boiling water canning processing method, review equipment, ingredients, current instructions, step-by-step. Wednesday, September 24, 2008, 7:00-8:30 p.m. OSU Yamhill County Extension Office, 2050 NE Lafayette Avenue. Instructor: Holly Berry,OSU Extension Service, Co-Sponsored by OSU Extension Service and Slow Food Yamhill County. $10.00 per person. Questions to Judi Herubin at 971-237-3953.
Nicole M.

Sept. 8 minutes

2008-09-11T16:13:00.000-07:00

Date: 9/8/08
Attend: Susan, Lucy, Nannette, Nicole, Sarah Bates (YCPH), Judi, Aimee

I. Sarah w/ Yamhill County Public Health on a grant that they have received regarding Chronic Disease in YC. YCPH is asking for assistance in doing the community assessment for this grant. They are looking into creating a county-wide directory of CSAs, farms, farmstands, etc (sound familiar?) Sara is getting most of the farmstand information from the USDA. We talked about a CSA brochure and noted John Foster (on Hill Rd) as a potential resource. We all recognize the shortage of community gardens and Sarah would also like a summary of community gardens in the County. Lucy recommitted herself to getting as much of this information that she is out for.

The upcoming community/school garden up by Grandhaven was also brought up. It is being sponsored by Petra & Jesse (of Natural Connections).

If you have any information/questions, Sara Bates can be reached at batess@co.yamhill.or.us.

She is also looking for any ‘champions in the community’ that we can pair up with.

II. YC Agricultural Industry Meeting. Lucy talked with Jodi Christensen (MAC Chamber) and SFYC is very welcome at the meetings. Susan will go to the first meeting and we will get details from there. This is being cosponsored with Extension. Susan will take money out of the account to buy jars which we will raffle off. Katie K. might attend in the winter?

III. Canning Class. Wednesday, Sept. 24, 7-8:30 p.m. at the OSU Yamhill Co. Extension Office 2050 NE Lafayette Ave. $10. Press release is out. Please send summary from Judi to anyone/everyone who might be interested. Susan will send it to Yamhill Valley Peacemakers. This is on the radio, press release to the papers, etc.

IV. Meetings. Keep on Mondays for now. Potentially have a field trip to Bernard’s after next meeting. Next agenda: bee presentation at library.

V. YC Grant. Add line about ‘conglomeration of private businesses and nonprofits’

VI. Winter Movie Sponsor w/ Yamhill Valley Peacemakers? They are showing “Power of Culture” at 3rd St Pizza. Yes, we definitely support it. Nicole knows of someone who studied agricultural systems in Cuba.

VII.Events.
September 21. 3 p.m. Potluck at Valley Creek Farm. Soup and Salad Theme.
October 12. 3 p.m. Apple themed potluck. Does anyone have a press?
(Update since minutes were sent out:Danny Browne has agreed to host our October potluck. The date that works for him is Sunday, October 12. We agreed to start again at 3 for consistency. He has a big backyard and a few apple trees. Let's discuss details at our next meeting. Judi)
Nov-
Dec-

TASKS:
Judi to continue with canning planning/potluck.
Lucy to invite Katherine Huit to the September Potluck and get her home mailing stuff to Judi.
Lucy to talk to Kullas about getting slow food information forwarded to Nicole.
Lucy to get Nannette numbers of ‘original members’
Lucy to check occupancy of canning demo building.
Susan to buy 2? Sets of canning jars with money from account.
Susan to talk with Bernard’s to find out appropriate hours.
Angelina to make flier for canning.
Angelina to make SF Flier w/ SFYC app. Sheet built in. J
Nanette to talk about the community garden at the next meeting.
Nannette to call original members.
Nicole to contact Cuban ag workers re. YVP movie night talk.

Potluck reminder

2008-09-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

September 21, 3 p.m. Potluck at Valley Creek Farm, 8910 SW River Bend Road. Soup and Salad Theme. Please come and enjoy a leisurely afternoon of good food and conversation.

Canning class scheduled

2008-09-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

Canning Fruits and Tomatoes: Basic boiling water canning processing method, review equipment, ingredients, current instructions, step-by-step. Wednesday, September 24, 2008, 7:00-8:30 p.m. OSU Yamhill County Extension Office, 2050 NE Lafayette Avenue. Instructor: Holly Berry,OSU Extension Service, Co-Sponsored by OSU Extension Service and Slow Food Yamhill County. $10.00 per person. Questions to Judi Herubin at 971-237-3953

Monday meeting agenda

2008-09-05T16:48:00.000-07:00

A reminder everyone:

We have a meeting next MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8th.

At a minimum, the agenda will cover the following:

- Finalize YC Cultural Coalition Grant.
- Presentation by Sarah Bates of the Yamhill County Public Health regarding a grant that she has received to study, amongst other things, nutrition in the County, existing resources, and community (food) needs.
- Details from Judi regarding September Canning Class.
- Potluck last minute touch-ups.
- Schedule for fall/winter events.

Lucy Falcy

Sarah is looking for information from us, as well as informing us about the new Community Health Advisory Council, which will assess community resources and needs and then develop a workplan. Nutrition is just one aspect of the grant, but it's one where we might be able to work with Public Health in coming up with some projects.
Please plan to attend the meeting to hear Sarah's presentation and add your thoughts.
Thanks,
Nicole M.

Aug. 22 minutes

2008-09-03T11:16:00.000-07:00

August 27, 2008
Attendees: Judi, Lucy & Matt Falcy, Nicole, Shari

I. Slow Food. Our enrollment numbers are unclear. We also don’t know if we need 20 by December or by our 1 year anniversary. Lucy is to call Katie to ask her to ask SF to send materials to Nicole.

II. Canning Demo. Demo kitchen at fair available for rent. Holly Berry may do canning demo on September 22 or 24th. She usually charges a small fee, perhaps she would donate it to SFYC. Judi is to write a press release as soon as the details are known.

III. Meeting Schedule. WE ARE OFFICIALLY CHANGING THE MEETING DAY TO THE 2ND AND 4TH MONDAY OF THE MONTH. SAME PLACE, SAME TIME. OUR NEXT MEETING IS NEXT MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH. Lucy to send out special notice, Nicole to update blog.

IV. Web site. Angelina, will you please add other YC names to the website ‘hit list’ (e.g. Newberg).

V. Grant. Lucy came up with a grant application for the YC Cultural Coalition. Group said it looks okay but Lucy is going to change some numbers to more accurately reflect what will be SF’s contribution. This could be big and fun. YC Soil & Water Conservation is also interested in ‘helping’ and Lucy has been talking with Tim S. As a result of this, she had to send an ‘off the hip’ list of potential farms for the tour.

VI. IDEAS. 1) Menu for the future party. 2) October apple party/potluck…(@ Oakhill Organics?) 3) November local cheesetasting event (w/ a fee). 4) Winter SF Movie night at First Baptist—ideas please. King Corn, Dirt on Farmer John, etc. We are trying to get stuff on board to carry us through the long, dark months.

Slow Food in McMinnville

2008-09-02T15:31:00.001-07:00

A possible new member brought it to our attention at the last meeting that our blog doesn't come up if you google Slow Food McMinnville, and that if you don't happen to think of Yamhill County, this blog can be hard to find. So here it is, a formal reference in the blog to Slow Food (in) McMinnville, for Google to look for. I am quite sure there's a better way to do this, but being blogging challenged, I haven't figured it out. Perhaps some of our real bloggers out there could offer technical advice.

While we're on the subject of Slow Food by the way, those of you who signed up with Slow Food USA may want to make sure you got into the Yamhill County convivium. Looks like some people got slotted in with Portland, and we're falling short of the number of members we need. Fortunately, we still have time to catch up.

Meeting date change

2008-09-02T15:26:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

We're changing our meeting dates! Hopefully, this will make it easier for people to attend, since a lot of our farmers market people are very busy on Wednesday evenings. So we're switching to Monday evenings at 5:15 p.m.., at the same Harvest Fresh annex. And many thanks to Harvest Fresh for allowing us to use the room.

Second and fourth Monday of the month. Hope to see you all there.

Nicole Montesano

Minutes of Aug. 13 08 meeting

2008-08-29T17:32:00.000-07:00

Aug. 13, 2008 minutes

In attendance: Lucy, Judi, Susan, Laurie, Nanette.

1. Preservation talk at the library by Nicole and Angelina. It went well, maybe use a mike next time. Most attendants were previous canners.

Spinoff idea: canning taste and recipe share. A party: bring in stuff you canned, taste, compare, share recipes. You might just LOVE blackberry cordial or pickled cherries!

Spinoff idea: hands-on canning class at the fairgrounds, senior center or Red Fox Bakery. Tentatively scheduled for late September. (Remember, soup potluck on the 21st.) Perhaps get Holly Berry to give class? Thinking tomatoes. Perhaps charge a nominal ($15) fee? Couldn't give out samples without waivers. Judi is to e-mail Holly Berry.

2. General email list. Judi has control of the general e-mail list and doesn't mind sending out notices (and perhaps minutes).

3. Yamhill County Cultural Grant. We would need money for: posters, newspaper advertisements, handout brochures, and on-site signage. Free publicity: e-mails and press release. We decided on a MID-September farm tour date. We think that we might ask farmers that wish to participate to pay a small fee to get into the brochure. Slow Food should be at each participating farm. LUCY will call Katherine and find out if, a) the grant amount is flexible or all or nothing and b) if the Y.C.C.S. would liek to be a hub or at least a participant. Luch to have language and an amount by the 27th.

4. Yamhill County Agricultural Board. The most recent e-mail made this sound like much less fun. Still, it would be beneficial to at least SIT in on the meetings. They will meet once a month for a year to "identify the needs of the county's agricultural community, industry trends, suitable sites and implementation policies" and to work on an agribusiness economic and community development plan to encourage investors to establish new businesses in the county that would support agriculture. If anyone is interested, please let us know. The first meeting is Sept. 25. Contact is County Commissioner Mary Stern. Lucy is to call Ms. Stern regarding the program and Jodi Christensen regarding the Chamber's role.

5. Idea: Farmer talks at the potlucks. A set of questions, they eat and talk, we eat and learn. Thoughts?

That's it. Remember the potluck on the 21st, and everyone enjoy themselves -- and start coming to meetings.

Preserving talk Saturday

2008-08-01T19:18:00.000-07:00

Angelina Williamson and food columnist Nicole Montesano will give a talk on food preservation techniques from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 2, at the McMinnville Public Library, in the Carnegie Room. Admission is free. We will offer an overview of various techniques, and raffle off a box of canning jars.

July 23 Meeting Minutes

2008-07-25T14:28:00.001-07:00

Attendance: Laurie Furch, Nicole Montesano, Mick Cowles, Patty Munday, Susan Ruggles, Lucy Falcy, Judy Herubin

I. Potluck- Decided to skip the August Potluck and planned a ‘Soup & Salad’ themed potluck at Valley Creek (Herubin) Farm (8910 SW River Bend Road) at 3 p.m. on Sunday, September 21st. As always, bring a dish and/or beverage…relax and enjoy.

II. August 2nd Preservation Class at Library. N.R. has been given a press release, we are in the ‘activities’ section. We are all looking forward to it.

Lucy will start collecting handouts from all events to have on record for future events, grant applications, etc. If you have handouts from past events (including potluck postcards, etc.) please get them to me. I am downtown approximately 45 hours a week.

III. Blog. We want to start thinking about making this more interactive and available. Please, everyone…please google “slow food yamhill county” in your spare time. The more time it is googled, the sooner it will make it to the first page. We discussed various avenues for updating/maintaining the site as a website instead of a blog. The Kullas are using ‘go blogger’ and we are also interested in getting a kid or two from MACA to have our website be their ‘project’. Suggestions?

IV. www.localfresh.net . While the ‘Availability’ Committee had grand intentions of getting all of the farms, etc. in Yamhill County online, Brian S. was concurrently working on a website to do just that. We have given him all of the information that we have at this point and we are hoping to build up this resource together. Go check it out.

V. Yamhill County Cultural Coalition Grant. www.yamhillcountyculture.org There is an opportunity to get an undisclosed small amount of money for a project that works to serve the goals of the coalition (which I cannot cut and paste here for some reason). We brainstormed and came up with the following opportunities:
§ Most Likely: A ‘tour of farms’ for sometime in the Fall ’09. The tour might look a lot like what Culpeper Farm has done (See www.culpeperag.org/farmtour2007 ). We need to look up what publishing costs for pamphlets would be/decide how many/etc. for the application. That would probably be all that we ask money for. The rest will be organizational/design work. Thoughts? The Chamber does a slightly similar project but only every other year with one agribusiness and only with Chamber members.
§ Second Most Likely: Get a few farms to agree to host some elementary school kids for a ‘day on the farm(s)’ either in the spring with cheese/wool/eggs or in the fall with the usual. We would be asking money for bus drivers. Cooperation would need to happen with the schools and we would need to be more sensitive to the potential participation of non-MAC school kids (we got in a bit of trouble for excluding last time)
§ Pressure Canning Kitchen…apparently the kitchen at the YC Fair Grounds is already available.
§ Partner with historical society to get ‘preserving’ resources.
§ Develop a book of ‘Old-Time’ Stories. This would involve contacting owners of Yamhill County’s older/heritage farms and talking to them. Do they have anything special on site? Do they want to share a story of something that happened at Grandma’s wedding when the bull got loose? Costs would be for publication/travel. Of course, this is likely a more likely project for the YCCC but who knows, we might partner up.
I am going to flush out the first idea to present/have the application materials ready for our next meeting on August 13th. (Application has to be postmarked by Sept. 15th)

VI. Upcoming Events:

Thursday Afternoons in August/September. Cooking with Judi on the mezzanine. valleycreekfarm@gmail.com

Saturday August 2, 9-3. The Home Orchard Society’s Potluck and Fruit Tasting 19600 Mollala Ave Oregon City. Free. http://calendar.oregonstate.edu/event/20324

Saturday, August 9. 10-3. Yamhill County Harvest Fest 2008. See attached brochure or download one at www.yamhillcountyhistory.org . Old time oat harvesting, hay rides, vintage farm equipment, etc.

September 13, October 11. One Green World Nursery Harvest Festival and Tasting. Try a wide variety of fruits from plants that they sell. 28696 S. Cramer Rd Mollala, Or 1-877-353-4028 www.onegreenworld.com

October 10-12; 17-19 Portland Nursery Apple Tasting (MANY Varieties, Cider, etc.) Free. 5050 SE Stark Portland

If anyone thinks of any additional events, please let us know.

VII. Administrative. We adopted the method of getting most agenda items done and out of the way by 6:00 p.m. That keeps things moving and leaves plenty of time for extra chatting afterwards. We are hoping to continue this trend and as meeting facilitator, I will personally do my best (LF). Also, we have a lot of people ‘signed up’ but not participating. We understand that it is a busy season and if you can’t make it to a few events, that is expected. However, if you are on our mailing list and you don’t plan on participating or if you would like to be on our ‘events’ email instead, please let us know.

2008-07-17T12:19:00.000-07:00

Potluck Tomorrow!!

Our monthly potluck is tomorrow between 6:30pm and 9:30pm.

Bring a dish using local ingredients and/or a beverage produced locally.

Bring a recipe card with your recipe on it so it can be collected for our slow foods cookbook.

Come to: 1420 NE Johnstone Court
(McMinnville)
you can call for directions: (503) 472-5304

We had a lot of fun last time and are looking forward to seeing everyone again- hopefully some new faces as well. Lots of talk about cooking, local farms, favorite foods, and how no one wants to be an elitist "foodie" because being pelted with rotten fruit is no fun for anyone. Come and be mellow and enjoy food and camaraderie with other people who share your love of local traditions and tastes.

2008-07-14T14:36:00.000-07:00

A few notes about current happenings:

1. The Oregon State University extension service's toll-free food safety/preservation hotline opened today. It will operate through Sept. 30, Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., except holidays. the number is 1-800-354-7319.

2. Fruithill in Yamhill will have picked, pitted pie cherries for sale beginning July 21. They sell buckets of 25 pounds cherries and 5 pounds sugar, for $50. For more information, call 503-662-3926, or email Lee@fruithillinc.com.

3. Kookoolan Farms in Yamhill is offering breadbaking and cheesemaking classes for $50 each. For more information, visit the website at www.kookoolanfarms.com.

July update

2008-07-09T19:20:00.001-07:00

I'm sorry we've been so slow about getting this blog going -- I've fallen down a bit on the job. However, we've had some exciting events. We got our official confirmation from Slow Food USA. Laurie Furch and Red Fox Bakery donated bean seeds to local classes for children to plant. Katie and Casey Kulla of Oakhill Organics gave a wonderful talk on winter gardening on June 21 at the McMinnville library that was well attended. Next, Angelina Williamson hosted a potluck at her house, for people to get together and talk about local food issues. We continue to hear from people who attended one or both events and are interested in either joining us or working together in some way.

One of those is Brian Stahl, who, with his wife, Kathy, is setting up a website where people can locate farmstands, u-pick farms, grocery stores and restaurants that offer local food, in the Yamhill County area -- a goal very similar to one of our own.

Brian attended our July 9 meeting (he very nearly found himself talking to himself; apparently most of us forgot to come, or had other commitments!) to talk about his plans.

He's got some great ideas, and will be setting up a link to our blog on the website. Once Local Fresh is up and running, we plan to offer a link to it from here, as well. More information as this develops.

Brian is asking that SFYC help come up with some criteria for listing grocery stores and restaurants on the website. Is it enough that they serve local tomatoes in August, when they can get them? Do they need to have a more dedicated local foods focus? Are there other issues you're concerned about? Jot down some notes, and let's talk about it.

Unfortunately, we've had to cancel the potluck that was scheduled for July 18. Nanette discovered she had a conflict, and wasn't able to host it after all. We're hoping to reschedule for August.

On August 2, we'll have the second in our series of library presentations on local food; a talk by Angelina and I on preserving techniques. It should be fun! We're planning to have some items available for tasting, and recipes.

In September, Leslie Blanding will talk about how to convert lawn into vegetable garden -- fall is a great time to start this process, and she'll discuss how to create a new vegetable bed without breaking your back.

Happy July, and please be sure to join us for our July 23 meeting.

Nicole Montesano

2008-06-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

Events Committee Meeting
notes

Judi, Nannette, and I (Angelina) met at Cornerstone Coffee for our Events Committee meeting last Wednesday. Here are the notes:

We discussed the upcoming potluck:

Friday June 27 6:30pm to 9:30pm

bring one dish or item that was locally grown and/or produced

If bringing a dish- bring a copy of the recipe to add to our local recipe collection

Set up a table for slow food information- brochures on talks at the library, any other relevant brochures.

set up donation jar?

set up mailing list

Angelina will make the flyer for potluck (ahem! today.) for e-mailing
First pot luck is for slow food group and everyone in it to invite friends
no press release for first one

We discussed projects for schools to do:

growing carrots or other fall vegetables in cups- what vegetable check the Seattle Tilth's Maritime planting guide

Slow Food group's wish list:
We thought we should compile a list of things our group needs and can use that people can help us out with if they want to donate to the group

books to donate to the library

plastic cups for school planting projects

seeds for kids planting

paper reams for printing flyers

printer ink for producing flyers

If anyone else has ideas, please let Judi know.

We brainstormed things that people can do to get on board right now:
Anyone who wants to be involved in the slow foods movement and wants a hands on project to tackle, we need to have things they can do.

print up any of our flyers themselves and distribute amongst their friends and anywhere else they feel comfortable leaving them.

plant a row for food co-ops. We need to find out if local food co-ops and soup kitchens will take produce donated from private gardens or if it needs to come through official channels.

come up with a monthly seasonal tip on eating locally "seasonal eating tip for July..." or "five things you can do right now to eat more locally..." When someone asks "what can I do" we'll be ready with an answer.

2008-06-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

Local Food Notes

Tomato bread soup

Salad

I have some committee notes to report from the Events Committee meeting, but I've decided to write about that in another post in the next couple of days. Instead, I want to share some food notes instead. As most of you already know, I am six months into a local eating challenge in which I am not buying any non-local produce and limited myself to purchasing mostly local packaged goods with a few exceptions that include oil, sugar, and a couple of condiments. Although most bread wheat is not grown locally, we are committed to only buying flour from local mills.

I did a lot of canning and freezing last fall which has really helped us get through the winter without feeling particularly deprived of good food choices. One of the things this challenge has really helped me to appreciate even more than I did before, is that eating truly seasonally has this side effect: that when you haven't eaten a fresh asparagus spear for ten months and then you see local fresh asparagus appear in the market it feels like finding a gold ingot in the rain gutter. It sharpens your food imagination and when food is eaten only in it's proper season, it gives you the opportunity to get excited about it in the same way that some people look forward to football season.

I would rather be tied to a truck and dragged through some mud than spend a few months glued to football games on the television- but I feel just like a football fan must feel when anticipating the opening of our local farmer's market season. Which happened two Thursdays ago.

There is an incredible selection of foods available at our farmer's market. You won't see tomatoes, peaches, or other summer delicacies for a while yet. But I bought: lettuce, strawberries, broccoli, radishes, bread, fava beans, zucchini, basil (!), spinach, and a buffalo bone for my dog which she later threw up on my nice carpet.

We are in the part of the season where those of us who have canned and frozen food from the last harvest still have plenty to use up and there isn't so much produce variety available that we don't need to use some of our pantry supplies. The dinner I made last night was a perfect example of how to use what's fresh in combination with what I already had. I will write up recipes later to add to our slow food group's collection.

I was very surprised to see fresh basil already and am not prepared to make a summery pesto with it. Partly because I froze 30 batches of it and have at least ten left. So, without having access to it's usual partner in crime- fresh tomatoes, I needed to figure out what I could make with it that would be exciting. Here's what I came up with:

Tomato bread soup. Yes, usually recipes call for the use of fresh tomatoes and I seriously don't think a commercially canned tomato sauce would result in quite as wonderful a result...but I meted out my home canned tomatoes very carefully this winter and actually have quite a few left so I used one jar of sauce and one jar of stewed. The bread was stale pieces of a sliced wheat sourdough from a Portland bakery (not an artisan bakery).

I used some frozen pureed garlic and the fresh basil. What resulted what an incredible hearty easy to make soup. I will time it next session to see if it would fit in my "30 minute" vegetarian meal series I hope to compile. It didn't take long to make and the simplicity of the ingredients made me wonder if this might be a great candidate for a recipe that the food pantry could use for its patrons?

To go with the soup I made a salad of butter lettuce, home made croutons, some home canned ~~three~~ two bean marinated salad, shredded cheese, one hard boiled egg from my own hens, and home made dressing. It was so delicious!

Exciting Start

2008-04-29T13:31:00.001-07:00

I am very glad to have this website up and running--Thank you Angelina!

Notes on upcoming events that we might want to attend:

"A Menu for the Future." a potluck gathering at the farm (8910 SW River Bend Road) on Friday night, May 2nd to have some fun as well as organize some groups and get the books out to people who are ready to get started. (The course books are $18.00 all payable to the NWEI to keep them doing their good works) We will start gathering at 6ish and plan to eat at 7ish.

"Buy Local" Kickoff- Thurs, May 15th, 6:30 p.m. Third Street Books

S.F.Y.C. Regular meeting- Wednesday, May 14, 5:15 p.m. Harvest Fresh