Posts Tagged ‘Oregon’
Plate & Pitchfork: Changing Perspectives on Food with Local Farm Dinners
Originally published here.
An organic dinner of farm raised ingredients. A table full of jovial guests and local wine. A summer night to appreciate good food and where it comes from. There’s a lot of talk about farm-to-table, and most of us living in high paced atmospheres have a tendency to romanticize pastoral images of happy cows and organic tomato plants. “If only I could be a farmer,” we think, forgetting the hardships that go into devoting a life to agricultural production. But part of having a better appreciation for what we eat, means having a better connection to where it comes from, and at the simplest level, that means eating there.
That’s the idea behind Plate & Pitchfork, an Oregon based business that helps people have a better of understanding of food and where it comes from, by serving it to them in the same place that it’s sourced. Hosting farm dinners, Plate & Pitchfork founder Erika Polmar puts consumers and purveyors together, in the ultimate farm-to-table experience.
That Kind of Weekend
The beauty of Oregon is salt air one day and snowflakes on a cross country ski trail the next.
Oregon is a Beautiful Place
The quiet of a country road. The smell of a property frequented by sheep and cows. Here in the nearly untouched landscape of rolling hills and tree canopies the sun comes out for a brief moment. We all turn towards it, trying to soak up as much as we can, knowing fully well it will disappear in minutes. Rain jackets are thrown to the ground to celebrate the brief moment of spring.
The white, fluffy clouds roll by, bringing darker, more mysterious ones in their wake. We wait for the storm and cross our fingers that it won’t be a deluge. It’s spring after all.
Friday Photo: Snowshoeing Galore
Friday Photo: Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?
In Portland, urban farming is big (there’s even a store completely dedicated to it), so it’s no surprise to find a chicken or too trotting down the sidewalk on an early morning. I’m off to get my own…
Save Wild Salmon, Nature and Our Future
Excited for my article that was posted this week on Planet Green. Here’s an excerpt:
When was the last time you thought about salmon? Sure, it’s a common food, but this one fish is a key link in the chain between environment, recreation, jobs and the economy. In the Pacific Northwest salmon fishing brings tens of millions of dollars into the regional economy each year, representing thousands of jobs.
But salmon runs are in decline, and that hurts the economy and the environment. In fact, this decline is severely affecting the local environment; including another endangered species — Puget Sound Southern Resident orca whales. Scientists say that these fish are the largest single change to the whale’s food supplies and are directly linked to their decline in recent decades. Endangered salmon runs mean that everything that these fish are linked to or have an impact on, from other species to our own economy, is threatened as well. Still think of salmon as just a dinner dish?
In a recent L.A. Times Opinion piece, scientist and author Carl Safina outlined the importance of salmon to the environment and to human beings in general. Safina, the author of Songs for the Blue Ocean and Eye of the Albatross, as well as a well-respected scientist, conservationist and the president of the Blue Ocean Institute, holds that the Obama administration isn’t doing enough to protect these fish, saying that the administration “should embrace salmon abundance as the beating heart of the Pacific Northwest — the flow of energy that connects and sustains people, fishing towns, bears, wolves, orcas, forests and the rivers and seas we all love and use.”
You can read the whole article here, as well as check out 5 simple ways you can take action to save wild salmon.
Mountainfilm on Tour in Portland
Via Under Solen:
For our Portland friends, here’s an event you’ll definitely want to check out. We’ve mentioned Mountainfilm before, but what’s really cool about the film festival is that they take the whole thing on tour, giving people that can’t make it to Telluride to experience some of the amazing films and inspiring messages. Mountainfilm on Tour will be in Portland this Thursday, January 28, 2010, hosted at Portland State University. Check it out!
What: Portland State’s Outdoor Program and Portland Mountain Rescue are hosting the Mountainfilm on Tour festival on campus. It will include four hours of films that celebrate the great outdoors—especially mountains and mountaineering culture. In addition to the festival screenings, the Outdoor Program will hold a raffle and silent auction. Both Portland State students and the public are welcome to attend.
Where: Portland State University, Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom, SMSU 355
When: Thursday, January 28, 2010, 6-10pm.
Cost: Students $7 advance, $10 door
Faculty and public $10 advance, $12 door
More info here.