InFARMation -- Friends of Family Farmers are friends of mine

Although you won't find InFARMation in the dictionary it's a local agricultural event that takes place every second Tuesday of the month at Roots Organic Brewery in Southeast Portland where you can eat, drink and learn about all sorts of interesting local farm issues.

Since January 2009 Friends of Family Farmers has been hosting InFARMations in Roots' events space attached to the brewery. Folks arrive, order food and drink if they want (Tuesday is $2.50 brew night at Root's) and then usually by 6:30pm a farmer stands up front to talk about a pressing agricultural issue. Scot Callaway spoke at the first InFARMation I went to in mid-July. Callaway lives in Canby, Oregon and talked about how his community fought and organized against a Foster Farms CAFO setting up shop in their area. The fight isn't over. I learned a lot.

Before the event I got to talk with Michele Knaus about Friends of Family Farmers and its mission. The organization was founded in 2005 by co-president Kendra Kimbirauskas and received 501(c)3 status in May of 2007. In just four years FOFF has become a leading voice for Oregon's independent family farmers. The organization provides resources to help farmers and community members resist and retaliate against factory farms and support socially responsible sustainable farming.

Knaus is really happy with Portland's InFARMations. She says, "Bringing the farmers here and bringing the issues in from a different angle has been really helpful. It helps people connect with others in the community doing the same work. At an InFARMation I'll see a CSA urban farmer that I know talking to some old grizzly farmer who drove two hours to get here. I'll also see young urban people listening and taking it all in. I get really excited about that stuff."

I'm a big fan of InFARMations too. In college I attended all sorts of readings and lectures from visiting professors, writers, thinkers and I'm happy to live in a city where this kind of perpetual and diverse free schooling is available -- especially in relation to farms and farmers. Added InFARMation bonuses: delicious beer, decent food and a low-key communal feel with picnic tables and an informal Q&A. The Roots space isn't a quiet auditorium where you have to climb over ten people to get out. In other words feel free to stop by or take off beginning, middle or end.

According to Knaus October's InFARMation focus will be -- Eating Local: Thanksgiving, Winter, & Planning Ahead. November's InFARMation will be co-presented by the Oregon Food Bank. OFB will report on listening sessions and focus groups they've held around the state, specifically focused on food insecurity and fresh produce/farmers markets. In December Knaus hopes to get a lot of farmers in the room to talk about apprenticeships and how they're dealing with labor opportunities and training the next generation of farmers.

FOFF is always looking for volunteers and donations. Check out their website for more information.

Friends of Family Farmers

Friend of Family Farmers 503.759.3276 P.O. Box 1286, Molalla, OR www.friendsoffamilyfarmers.org

Travel Oregon's Cuisineternships -- applications due Friday

There's no time to lose if you feel like free schooling with some of Oregon's finest food folks including Full Sail Brewery's brewmaster Jamie Emerson, salmon and rockfish fisherman Lars Robinson, Bendistillery distiller/owner Jim Bendis and others. Travel Oregon's Oregon BountyCuisineternship applications are due this Friday. What do you get if you win? One of seven all-expense-paid trips (including airfare, lodging and a $1,000 meal stipend) in Oregon which includes a five-day, six-night apprenticeship as a chef, cheesemaker/chocolatier, craft brewer, distiller, rancher, fisherman or winemaker.

The biggest component of the application is putting together a two minute digital video of yourself. Check out already submitted videos here. Keep in mind that you can apply for as many of the seven cuisineternships as you want. Go here for answers to some contest FAQ.

Winners will be announced after September 28th on Travel Oregon's website.

David Gremmels of Rogue Creamery is waiting for you in his cave.

The chef -- Gabriel Rucker of Le Pigeon The cheesemaker and chocolatier -- David Gremmels of Rogue Creamery and Jeff Shepherd of Lillie Belle Farms The craft brewer -- Jamie Emmerson of Full Sail Brewing Co. The distiller -- Jim Bendis of Bendistillery The ranchers -- the Pickard and Boyer families of Oregon's Country Natural Beef The fisherman -- Lars Robison of Dockside Charters The winemaker -- Lynn Penner-Ash of Penner-Ash Wine Cellars

Lars Robison looks fine but did Gabriel Rucker take his Dramamine?

Travel Oregon www.traveloregon.com Oregon Bounty www.bounty.traveloregon.com

Homemade Cheese 101 -- Urban Cheesecraft

The first cheese I ever made was in high school. It was a quick and simple paneer for a buttermilk chickpea curry that was not at all a quick and simple curry. The paneer turned out great and I was amazed at how easy it was -- store bought milk, a little bit of lemon juice, some cheesecloth and a little weight and patience. Turns out 36-year-old Portlander Claudia Lucero started her trail of cheese discovery exactly the same way. She was working at an Indian restaurant in high school when she decided to try her hand at paneer -- her first homemade cheese.

Toward the end of writing my book I found out about Claudia and her company Urban Cheesecraft founded in 2008. I'd contacted the good folks at Mirador Community Store and co-owner Steve Hanrahan told me that they'd added something new to the large DIY cooking side of the shop -- a cheesemaking section. The bulk of the new section is Urban Cheesecraft kits that look a little something like this...

Most kits cost less than $30.

Each kit makes up to 10 batches of cheese and includes items such as instructional booklets, cheesecloth, citric acid, dairy thermometers, vegetable rennet and cheese salt. You can find Urban Cheesecraft kits in town at the Urban Farm Store, Alberta Coop, Food Front, New Seasons, Foster & Dobbs, Mirador Community Store, Montavilla Farmers Market and other locations and you can also purchase them online.

If you like the idea of making your own cheese but would rather take a class than self school sign up for one of Claudia's cheesemaking classes or demonstrations. Check out the website for more information about both.

Urban Cheesecraft www.urbancheesecraft.wordpress.com

Moving Right Along

At 7pm on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 a book was born. It's got some baby fat (10,000 words longer than contractually agreed) and it needs help with, well, everything but I did it and I feel great. To celebrate on Tuesday I went to EaT Oyster Bar with friends.

I'd heard that every Tuesday night EaT offers one or more types of raw oysters at $1 a piece but I hadn't been by for that although I've been to EaT a fair few times. I started with a sazerac and six oysters on the half shell -- petites from Oregon and Washington. 18 delicious raw oysters and a couple glasses of muscadet later I was on top of the world.

Yesterday I slept in and after I had a cup of strong coffee in my not-typing hands I stepped outside to see what was going on in the garden. The past couple weeks I only watered a couple times since my focus was elsewhere. Lucky for me we've had some heavy rain recently so rather than meeting a bunch of withered and neglected plants I got this...

My garden loves me

And if that's not good enough last night my boyfriend came home with a 5-gallon carboy of freshly pressed cider, a bottle of homemade hard cider and a bottle of fresh apple juice all from a fellow who's a client at my boyfriend's tattoo shop. We talked with this man at the Portland Fermentation Festival and it turns out he has a pretty awesome home set up for juicing apples that involves a big stainless sink and a garbage disposal just for that purpose. Anyway he just got done with his fall pressing and generously gifted us 5 gallons of the sweet, golden stuff to ferment into hard cider. All he asks is that we save him a bottle or two of the bubbly in the spring. What a guy. We cracked open the hard cider last night and the celebration continued.

Up next on the blog -- DIY cheese in Portland...

EaT Oyster Bar 3808 N Williams 503.281.1222 www.eatoysterbar.com

Food Lover's Guide to Insanity

I don't make a lot of excuses when it comes to work. Generally I agree to do something or I don't and that's that. I'm often early with my deadlines, which I highly recommend to all writers who want happy editors, and I often pick up the slack when something needs to be covered last minute.

Anyhow, I'm finishing up my book. It's due in less than a week and I assure you I won't be writing any turn on a dime stories and I also won't be delivering this sucker to my publisher early. While many Americans enjoy a long holiday weekend in a couple days I'll be halfway insane finishing up my book. In other words on Labor Day I'll be laboring like never before get Food Lover's Guide to Portland to the point where I can send its snaggletoothed self up to my fine publisher in Seattle on September 8th.

Please forgive me for a brief hiatus this week (overworked) and next (over work). I'll be back in full force as soon as I do things like shower and return phone calls. You wouldn't want to see me now anyway. I've been doing things like spending all day in my boyfriend's over sized sweatshirts, eating nothing but instant ramen and condiments on bread around the clock, talking to myself, stretching my neck compulsively. Its unsightly. I assure you that I'm looking after your best interests.

City Wine, Country Wine: Boedecker Cellars

Since 2003 Athena Pappas and Stewart Boedecker have been making award winning, delicious wine at Boedecker Cellars. And even though their facility is smack dab in the middle of Oregon's many wine growing regions it also happens to be in a forklift and train-tracked industrial part of Northwest Portland.

I got to visit with Athena for a couple hours in mid-July. I met her at the Boedecker Cellars tasting room where we talked about the history of Boedecker and the wine while sipping on a beautiful, sold out bottle of 2008 Pappas Wine Co. Pinot Blanc.

Pappas was working in the field of psychology when her husband's winemaking interest was sparked in the mid-90s. After taking an Oregon Winemaking 101 class at PCC Boedecker worked for several years at various vineyards, often without pay, in between his regular full-time employment and during his vacations in order to learn the tools of the trade.

Boedecker loved making wine so much that one day he said to Pappas, "I'm going to drive a crappy car forever, save all my money and start a winery." While Pappas and Boedecker worked together as tenants at The Carlton Winemakers Studio from 2003 to 2007 that's just what they did.

I really like this cork chair in the Boedecker tasting room.

Boedecker Cellars specializes in pinot noir and chardonnay but also produces pinot blanc, pinot gris, rosé and grenache. Depending on the time of the year there are usually several different pinot noirs available ranging from the Athena Pinot Noir and Stewart Pinot Noir to various single vineyard pinot noirs. When Pappas and Boedecker first started blending pinot together they realized that they had two very different palates and styles so they decided to do two different blends.

Pappas says, "Stewart's pinot noir is a very classic pinot noir. It's a red fruit, pretty blend, with good acidity that's going to sit in the cellar a long time. And I don't know why I like this, maybe it's because I grew up eating lamb and other big foods, but I like the bigger pinot noir. I like it structured too and we certainly have our winemaking style but I like a lot of spice and a little more umpf to it."

The Athena is the red one in front and the Stewart is the green labeled bottle.

I'm not telling which I like better.

Boedecker Cellars 2621 NW 30th Ave. 503.288.7752 www.boedeckercellars.com Tasting room hours Fri. 2pm-7pm; Sat.-Sun. 1pm-5pm but tours and tastings can be scheduled throughout the week as well.

It's On -- Portland Fermentation Festival THIS WEEK!!

I know I've written about this event already. I know that I've written A LOT about DIY fermented food and drink on this blog -- about my hard cider adventures, cherry wine making, kimchi fermenting, kraut making and dandelion winemaking. I'm head over heels for fermented food.

If you are too then you'll forgive me for shouting out loud and clear once again that this THURSDAY, AUGUST 27TH Ecotrust is hosting the first PORTLAND FERMENTATION FESTIVAL with special guest Sandor Ellix Katz author of Wild Fermentation and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved.

The event is open to whatever you want to bring -- fermented food and drink to share, products to sell, recipes, cultures etc. Or don't bring anything at all -- just come and enjoy some late summer skill sharing, talking, eating and drinking of all sorts of tasty food and drink.

As of now there will be a room full of tables and people and fermented food and drink. Everything else is up to what we make of it. Should be great.

Here's the press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Liz Crain 503.232.3548, lizcrain@gmail.com

For all other event inquiries Media Contact: Sandor Ellix Katz sandorkraut@wildfermentation.com

Portland Fermentation Festival @ Ecotrust THURSDAY, AUGUST 27th 6-8PM A free and open-to-the-public celebration of fermented food and drink. Bring kraut, try kraut. Bring miso, try miso. Come for fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing, tasting and more.

Portland Fermentation Festival Thursday, August 27th 6-8pm Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center 721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR All ages, open to the public FREE pdxfermentfest@gmail.com

Come celebrate pickling season at the very first Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust with featured guest Sandor Ellix Katz, author of Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods. Taste and share homemade live, fermented food and drinks such as sour pickles, miso, kefir, cheese, hard cider, mead and more. Talk to fellow fermenters, exchange cultures and recipes, and get advice from local food fermentation enthusiasts.

If you have a homemade fermented food or drink that you'd like to share please bring at least a gallon of it for samples and 100 copies of your recipe to hand out. If you have fermentation cultures you'd like to share please bring those as well. There will be no on site refrigeration.

Spend $25 or more on any produce that can be fermented or pickled at the Thursday Ecotrust Farmers Market during the month of August and qualify for a prize drawing at the market on August 27th at 6pm. Pick up your Pickle Punch Card at the Ecotrust Farmers Market throughout the month of August.

Portland Fermentation Festival Thursday, August 27th 6-8pm Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center 721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR All ages, open to the public FREE pdxfermentfest@gmail.com

Check out these two awesome stories by Kelly Clarke arts and culture editor at Willamette Week: pre-Portland Fermentation Festivalpost-Portland Fermentation Festival with photos from the event

Ristretto Style: Spella Caffe

There are a lot of great Portland food and drink carts and Spella Caffé, open since fall of 2006, is one of the best. The reason: Andrea Spella. Andrea is part Italian and part Polish and drinks about 10 to 15 shots of espresso a day. He claims it helps him sleep and adds with a smile, "I guess I'm just wired differently."

I guess so. In the past few weeks I've been so nervous about my impending book due date that I've sadly had to cut out my afternoon cup of coffee. In the past couple years I've looked forward to my afternoon cup almost as much as my morning cup but when your heart is aflutter with nerves too much coffee just adds to the stress. Anyway, 10-to-15-shots-a-day Andrea obviously doesn't feel my pain. I met with him in late April and learned all about why he loves coffee and why we Portlanders love his coffee.

Spella Caffe's signature classic Italian roast coffee is roasted in small 11 pound batches and pulled ristretto style with an old school piston machine as opposed to a modern pressurized pump espresso machine. There's no walking away from the machine or even talking much with customers while a Spella espresso is in full swing. The end result is a nicely extracted cup of coffee with a beautiful crema.

In addition to expertly prepared coffee the cart serves from-scratch chai, hand shaken iced drinks (Andrea doesn't like blenders), small batch Stella Gelato made in Eugene, and all sorts of tasty baked goods -- authentic biscotti, quickbreads and cookies -- prepared by a loyal customer and librarian at downtown's Central Library.

Over the years Spella Caffe has acquired quite a following so it's rare to step up to the window without at least a short wait. Two of Andrea's favorite regulars are Little Red Bike Café owners Evan Dohrmann and Ali Jepson who rode their tandem bike to the cart for a celebratory shot of espresso minutes after they were married (for the third time) at the Multnomah County Circuit Court in 2008.

Spella Cafe 901 SW Alder St. 503.421.9723 www.spellacaffe.com Mon.-Fri. 9am-4pm.

Because they're pink AND they make pork: Tails & Trotters

Last winter I went to a tattoo/chef event at my boyfriend's tattoo shop by day and Acadia by night. During the day I interviewed eight chefs and eight tattooists. One of the funniest things I heard that day was a story Matt Reed of Tiger Lily Tattoo told me. When his daughter was three she said, "Do you know why I like pigs?" Reed asked why she answered, "Because they're pink and they make pork."

Perfect.

When I interviewed Morgan Brownlow, former chef of Clarklewis, briefly chef/co-owner of the RIP Cafe 401 and co-owner of Portland's Tails & Trotters, several months later for Willamette Week he had his own porcine logic. According to Brownlow, “Some people don’t like fatty pork, but in my opinion, pork is fat.”

Brownlow and Aaron Silverman, former owner of Greener Pastures Poultry and Creative Growers Farm, have been working for the past few years on a line of hazelnut-finished pork that launched this June as Tails & Trotters.

T&T pork is ribboned and capped with a rich, nutty fat -- all the better to sear, grill and roast with. The pigs are raised at Food Alliance-certified Pure Country Pork in Ephrata, Wash., and fed hazelnuts for the last six to eight weeks before slaughter. Prior to that the feed consists of whole foods such as lentils, peas and flax. Most pigs eat eight pounds of feed a day and gain about two to three pounds a day according to Brownlow.

On a hazelnut diet pigs eat less but gain more -- from five to six pounds of feed a day they gain about four pounds daily. Once the animals are slaughtered and cleaned on Monday and Tuesday the meat is trucked to Portland on Wednesday and processed by Brownlow and Silverman at Nicky USA. Most restaurants throughout the state get their T&T meat between Wednesday and Friday.

In the future Brownlow and Silverman plan to produce a full line of cured meats from their nutty hogs (some of which are shown here -- photos by Silverman), but for now they’re busy enough butchering, packaging and distributing an average of five animals a week (with or without the head — your choice) to restaurants and markets mainly in Portland, Eugene and Seattle.

Silverman likes to slow roast T&T pork. He recently took a seven pound coppa roast, rubbed it with brown sugar, salt and a little spice and took it to a barbecue. They made it very plain so that the kids would eat it and the adults could add spice and sauce. They roasted it in a slow cooker with onions, garlic and tomatoes for about 12 hours. It was tasty and fell apart beautifully. Brownlow’s favorite recent at-home T&T preparation: tender pork shoulder carnitas roasted with onions, garlic and sage. “It was so good,” he says, “I ate it right out of the pot.”

In Portland, Tails & Trotters pork is available at the Thursday Eastbank Farmers Market, Laurelhurst Market (in the butcher shop and in the restaurant), Chop, Pastaworks, Nicky USA and regularly at restaurants such as Toro Bravo, Nostrana and Paley’s Place. Various cuts are priced from $5 a pound and up retail.

This just in about a Tails & Trotters class at Foster & Dobbs on September 16th. Here's some info. from the press release:

PORTLAND, Oregon (August 19, 2009) – Foster & Dobbs is mostly all about cheese, but owner Luan Schooler also features a wide range of artisan charcuterie in her cheese case. The newest local producer is Morgan Brownlow and Aaron Silverman of Tails & Trotters. Inspired by the regional charcuterie of Europe, Tails & Trotters is dedicated to developing a truly Northwest prosciutto from quality pigs finished on hazelnuts, rather than acorns. Foster & Dobbs will feature a class led by Brownlow and Silverman to discuss this new venture and the European style of butchering. They will also explain the best ways to use various cuts of pork in the home kitchen and share their experiences raising the pigs. The “Going Whole Hog” class will take place on September 16th at 7:15 p.m. for $20 per person. For reservations, please call Foster & Dobbs at 503-284-1157.

Counting the days till cured T&T coppa.

And Tails & Trotters pork belly

Tails & Trotters 503.680.7697 www.tailsandtrotters.com

Pie Time: Portland Pie-Off Sunday, Aug. 16th

Because I'm feeling a wee bit overwhelmed by the fact that I have 30 days until my book is due I'm just going to post this press release pretty much as I got it. I remember hearing about this last year and wishing I could go. Sounds awesome...

Second Annual Portland Pie Baking Contest and Community Celebration

The Portland Pie Commission is pleased to announce the second annual Portland Pie-Off on Sunday, August 16th, 1pm at Peninsula Park, Site B (corners of N. Ainsworth, N. Albina and Rosa Parks Way). Part contest, part community celebration of all things pie, the Portland Pie-Off is a chance to meet other pie lovers, win fun prizes with your pie-making prowess, swap recipes and eat pie!

Why pie? Pie is egalitarian. Pie stands for sharing. Pie is humble and Pie is versatile. Pie is community!

Following on the heels of last summer’s wildly successful first Portland Pie-Off when over a hundred people and 50+ pies came together to celebrate community and pie, the second annual Portland Pie-Off is sure to be a hit with pie novices and sophisticates alike. The rules are simple: make a homemade pie (or several pies), bring it, your friends and family, and enjoy an afternoon at the park. Participants are strongly encouraged to register online http://www.portlandpieoff.com but in the spirit of pie, it’s all very simple. Step up to enter your pie, $5 donation per pie appreciated.

Categories for pies are: Savory (e.g. meat, cheese, tomato), Stone Fruit (e.g. peach, plum), Berry, Fruit, Cream, Custard, Mash-Up (rock your own weird combo), Nut, C.P.R. (ingredients beginning with C, P and R and as judged by American Red Cross). CPR pie? Of course!

Or just bring a pie for eating. In fact, we don’t even care if you bring a pie as long as you come with a stellar high-on-pie attitude. This is a grass-roots effort and it’s a first come first serve basis: don’t be late! After the judging, the pies will be available for eating. The more pies you bring, the more chance everyone has of eating some. Bring your own chairs or picnic blanket, pie serving utensils and beverages, and any toppings to your pie you may demand. There will be a 2-hour judging time so we encourage participants to bring yard games or a picnic and enjoy one of Portland’s most beautiful and historic parks.

Judges for the Portland Pie-Off include prolific blogger Jack Bogdanski, Greg Abbot (Whiffies Fried Pie Cart), Tricia Butler of Sassafras Catering (Grand Winner of Portland Pie-Off ’08), Joe of Stone Pie Joe’s, Byron Beck (journalist), County Commissioner Jeff Cogen, Kaie Wellman (Eat.Shop.Portland), Gary Walter, Stephanie Stricklen (KGW) and Rudy Speerschneider (Junior Ambassadors) as of August 4, 2009.

For more information, categories and pie-off contest rules, please go here. We are on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Photos from last year’s event.

The Portland Pie-Off is the brainchild of the Portland Pie Commission; Gretchen, Karol, LeAnn, and Lizzy all connected through their love of Pie and Twitter. We are community driven and appreciate the support of County Commissioner Cogen, The Oregon Raspberry and Blackberry Commission, New Seasons and others in helping make this classic summer event happen.