Yard Fresh Pt. 14

Even though the garden isn't exactly fruiting at full potential this summer (not a great spring and early summer, sun-starved seedlings had a rough start) we're still eating a lot of tasty, fresh, homegrown and friend-and-neighbor grown foods these days.

The berries and greens have been great this year -- especially the blueberries -- so lots of pies, aguas frescas and salads. Right now the cucumbers and green beans are kicking in so over the weekend our house smelled like a pickle factory -- dill, garlic, spices, and vinegar brine. I love the smell of spicy dills cooling in jars on the kitchen counter.

I'm sad that Limbo has closed (very sad, one of my favorite Portland produce shops, not to mention the herbs and spices...) but to fill the gap I've been going to Kruger's Farm Market on Southeast Hawthorne and Cherry Sprout Produce in North Portland a lot lately to supplement our less than usual home fruit and veggies. And then, of course, there are all of the farmers markets which are going strong now.

I hope you've been eating lots of great fruit and veggies lately. Any new ones or old favorites you've been enjoying?

On the N/A side made this yummy strawberry lime juice with Hood strawberries from the front yard

Perfectly delicious on their own too...

Seem to always make a lot of migas in the summer. This one with refried beans and cheddar.

Egg sandwich with parm and tapenade with lots of herbs from the yard was delicious.

Vij chicken curry over basmati with a little raita to cool us off.

I eat a lot of ramen at my writing studio because only have a hotpot here. Added sauteed chard and onion to this one. So much better.

Lots of arugula this spring and summer. Salad of it with miso lime dressing and pickled onions over tapenade rice.

Another yummy breakfast with toasted corn tortilla, potatoes and chorizo.

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Portland Growers Alliance

A few weeks ago Portlander Lauren Morse contacted me to see if I might put something up about Portland Growers Alliance, a marketing collective for the farmers of Mercy Corps Northwest's Agriculture Project in conjunction with Grow Portland.

I'm a big fan of this Mercy Corps Northwest project and, in fact, I've written about it in the past for the Portland Tribune and on this blog. So, I said, of course, but why don't you write something and I'll put it up since I'm clearly not the expert. (Lauren also wrote a more personal blog post about Portland Growers Alliance here if you want to learn more.) Without further ado, here are some thoughts and photos from Lauren Morse, lead marketer for Portland Growers Alliance...

As a consumer, do you ever feel overwhelmed by the abundance of smells and sounds at Portland's bustling farmers markets? Imagine being a farmer there. Many shoppers do not realize the underlying steps required to orchestrate these markets. Farmers must reserve a stall, arrange transportation to the market, and communicate with customers. For many emerging farmers in the Pacific Northwest these simple steps are an impassable barrier.

The Growers Alliance is a new marketing collective designed to help emerging farmers succeed. It was founded in 2010 as a partnership between Mercy Corps Northwest’s Agriculture Project and Grow Portland.

Mercy Corps Northwest’s Agriculture Project provides refugees, immigrants, and new American growers with the access to land and supplies needed to begin market gardens. Grow Portland teams with Mercy Corps Northwest to provide the trucking and marketing services for growers to sell their produce locally. All growers are welcome to volunteer at markets and CSA pick-ups, but the Growers Alliance relies on its lead American growers to do the bulk of produce marketing.

An increasing number of growers in the Pacific Northwest are immigrants, refugees, or beginning American farmers. Though they make up a necessary component of local agriculture, these growers often lack the English skills, business training, or access to trucking necessary to sell their produce to direct markets. (Direct markets refer to any sales that occur directly between the grower and the consumer.) Selling through direct markets, however, guarantees that growers will get the best price for their product. But what if you lack the English skills to communicate with consumers? Or what if your individual plot is too small to have your own CSA or farmers market stand? This is where the Portland Growers Alliance steps in.

This year the Alliance is composed of Nepalese, Bhutanese, Slavic, Burmese, Somali, and American growers. Though their individual plots are less than an acre each, collectively they are able to sell produce through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, two Portland Farmers Markets (Saturday at PSU and Monday at Pioneer Square), and a few local restaurants. Visit the Growers Alliance webpage to learn how you can support these growers.

Most important to their marketing efforts is recruiting members for fall CSA shares. Fall shares run for 14 weeks from late August through November. Members can pick up at Mercy Corps Northwest in Old Town/Chinatown or the Warehouse Café in Southeast's Brooklyn neighborhood. Sign up here! Contact Lauren for more information at lmorse at growportland dot org or 503.858.0216.

Somali growers of Mercy Corps Northwest's Agriculture Program at Westmoreland Garden.

Portland Growers Alliance CSA boxes being filled in Southeast Portland.

www.growportland.org/programs/growers-allianceContact Lauren Morse for more information at lmorse at growportland dot org or call 503.858.0216Visit the Portland Growers Alliance booth at the Pioneer Courthouse Square (Mondays) and Portland State University (Saturdays) Portland Farmers Markets.Sign up for the fall CSA here

Portland's Urban Farm Store

Sometimes stories get cut and sometimes just portions of stories go RIP. A major national story about Portland food that I worked on last year left out Southeast Belmont Street's Urban Farm Store so I thought I'd finally post something about this sweet little open-since-2009 shop owned by husband-and-wife-duo Hannah and Robert Litt.

Urban Farm Store has a lot going for it. On my last visit I purchase a bale of straw, pantry moth traps and compostable dog waste bags. Yes, it's a diverse shop where you'll find everything from animal feed and beekeeping supplies to edible plants for the garden and DIY food and brewing supplies. (And if you don't have a copy of my book they carry it. Wink, wink.) Anyway, maybe you've been and maybe you haven't -- either way here are some photos that sum up this urban homestead shop...

All sorts of bulk feed, fertilizers and mulch to choose from at Urban Farm Store...

This is the largest supply of Urban Cheesecraft kits I've seen in town...

A lot of gardening and DIY books in the front.

Get some tasty local honey!

Urban Farm Store owners Hannah and Robert Litt with their shop kitties.

Urban Farm Store 2100 SE Belmont St. Portland, Oregon 97214 www.urbanfarmstore.com 503.234.7733

Homemade Fermented Food and Drink

Ever since I bought a copy of Sandor Ellix Katz's Wild Fermentation shortly after moving to Portland I've been a food fermentation freak.

I love everything about home food fermentation. I love the DIY aspect of crafting foods that I love such as sauerkraut, wine, and miso. I love the time and patience involved in creating these foods and drinks -- most ferments I make take anywhere from a few days to a year. I love the full flavor of food ferments -- from pungent and sour to salty and spicy to sweet and effervescent. I love that fermented foods and drinks are inherently good for me because of the live micro-nutrients they contain. I love that I'm carrying on food traditions born well before refrigeration, artificial preservatives, and pasteurization. The list goes on and on.

In January 2009, I got to travel to Nashville to meet one of my heroes -- Sandor Ellix Katz -- and interview him for The Sun Magazine. In October of 2009, we got him to come out for the inaugural Portland Fermentation Festival that David Barber, George Winborn and I organized and continue to organize every year. The date is still TBD for this year's and I'll let you know soon when/where it will be.

For now, I've got a bunch of home food and drink ferments that I've been checking on, bottling and eating up lately to share with you here. This weekend I started a sour cherry wine with fruit collected from a neighbor's tree. I'll post about that soon.

I've got two batches of miso going right now that I started in November -- soybean miso and red bean miso. Here's what they're looking like now after several months of fermenting...

I scraped the salt off the top of this red bean miso and it's looking pretty and already tasting DELICIOUS. Going to be patient though and let it ferment until fall. At least.

The soybean miso is looking and tasting great too. Did the same and scraped off the salt and mold, repacked with a nice layer of sea salt, covered and put back in the utility room till fall.

Yes, you have to be very generous with the salt so you don't get too much mold.

This year's three gallons of Brooks plum wine has finished fermenting and is now bottled. It's so good. It's tart and off-dry and tastes like a perfect plum. The alcoholic kind.

These petals and more went into this year's gallon of dandelion wine. We bottled last year's and it's delicious as always, a little more flowery this year too which is nice.

If you've never done any home food/drink fermentation I recommend starting with saurkraut or kimchi. They're both quick and easy ferments that pack a lot of flavor. I can't recommend Sandor Ellix Katz's book Wild Fermentation enough. I use it all the time. Happy fermenting! Let me know what you make.

Yard Fresh Pt. 13

I always like these blog posts but when the garden is kicking in they're even more fun. Lately we've been eating a lot of spinach, arugula, Hood strawberries, honeyberries, blueberries, sugar snap peas, nettles and fresh herbs from the front and back yard. In my front yard herb garden I have rosemary, thyme, lavender, sage, bay, mint, lemon balm, peppermint, fennel, chives, thyme, valerian and chamomile. I use the first five year-round and the remaining from spring through early to mid winter.

Coming in now we've got tomato plants searching out the sun, all kinds of beans and pickling cucumbers gaining ground, garlic curing, asparagus going uneaten so the root system gets bigger and better for next year, rhubarb thickening, blueberries ripening and seedlings trying to scare up some more sunshine. So there's a lot more good food to come.

If you have a garden, how's it growing? Any new edibles you've got in the ground or are planning to cultivate this year? If you don't have a garden what early season eats have you been enjoying?

Pickled this asparagus that a neighbor gave us for my boyfriend's Grizzly Tattoo shop opening party in early June. It went fast.

Everything in this arugula, ribboned fresh herbs (including oregano, mint, lemon balm, fennel, chives) and chive blossom salad was from the front yard except the toasted hazelnuts. Dressed it with a Jorinji Miso, lemon vinaigrette. Look forward to this every year.

Made potato tacos in the evening and the next morn used the filling for this tostada topped with a sunny side up egg.

Look forward to making this every year too -- hazelnuty arugula pesto with lots of lemon juice, parm, garlic and olive oil.

Pesto and tapenade spaghetti topped with parm.

Straight up Hood strawberries and honeyberries from the garden.

Mustardy tuna salad sandwich with homemade cornichons.

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Bite of Oregon 2011

I'm really looking forward to this year's Bite of Oregon. I attended last year's and had a booth with my then recently released local food book -- Food Lover's Guide to Portland. This year, I'll be judging a fun competition that you can compete in if you want called the Hot Shot Cook-Off.

Details...

Four aspiring chefs (18 years old+) will compete for the Hot-Shot Bite title on Saturday, August 13th and Sunday, August 14th. Competitors have thirty minutes to create one dish with a secret ingredient.

First Hot Shot Competition -- Saturday, August 13 12:25pm - 1:25pm Second Hot Shot Competition -- Saturday, August 13 1:30pm - 2:30pm Final Hot Shot Competition -- Sunday, August 14 12:30pm - 1:30pm

To enter...

Email contests@soor.org by Friday, Wednesday August 3rd and include: A photograph A written submission detailing in 100 words or less why you can stand the heat in the kitchen Your name Age Culinary aspirations Your favorite thing to cook Why you love to cook

Ten potential competitors will be announced on the Bite of Oregon Facebook page and public voting will commence. A week later the four competitors will be announced.

The prize...

The winner gets a trophy as the 2011 Hot Shot Cook-Off title holder and a prize package including a gas grill and a gift certificate to a culinary store. Their winning recipes will appear in The Oregonian.

Bite of Oregon www.biteoforegon.com August 12-14, 2011 Waterfront Park Portland, Oregon

Tanuki Time!

The first thing I want to say is -- don't be sad. Tanuki is closed (and yes, I agree, that this is enough of a reason to stay in bed all day -- all MONTH -- with a box of tissues), and Tanuki Northeast MLK is no longer on the table, but good things come to those who wait and I'm certain that Tanuki will find an even better location to kill it in Portland. Just you wait.

My boyfriend and I were lucky enough to be invited to the Tanuki friends/family closing party a few weeks back and good times were had by all. There were a lot of toasts, and so yes, lots of drinking, lots of incredibly tasty food -- most of which Janis grilled outside by the entrance, and a lot of good conversation too, well, from what I can remember.

My feeling throughout the night can pretty much be summed up by this -- a friend of Tanuki is a friend of mine. My feeling the next morning -- Holy f#!ck my head hurts.

Tanuki is one of our favorite Portland restaurants and we miss it very much. If you don't know what I'm talking about then stay tuned for its newest incarnation. For all things Tanuki go here.

Here's the scoop for before Tanuki finds its new brick and mortar spot. Details straight from Eater PDX:

"...Martin will set up shop in the downtown culinary incubator KitchenCru (whose owner Michael Madigan happens to be a longtime Tanuki regular), serving a series of lunches and happy hours on July 13-16 and July 20-21, from noon until 6pm. Expect happy hour faves like the kimcheezesteak sandwich, tsukune burger, and noodles on the menu, in addition to a few new items like yangnyeom dak (Korean fried chicken) and Dak Bal (crispy spicy chicken paws). 'Having access to an actual kitchen, I'll be doing a lot of things we couldn't do before,' Martin says. Also in the works: Kimchi available for purchase."

Tyler at Tanuki's closing party.

Things got a little blurry after that...

Tanuki Portland, Oregon www.tanukipdx.com

Vegan Iron Chef Lucky Winner!

Thanks to everyone who helped spread the word about the next Sunday, July 10th Vegan Iron Chef Competition and to everyone who commented on my last post about tasty vegan food. Lucky #8 commenter Lindy is the winner of two tickets to this awesome event! (So sad that I'll be out of town for it.) Lindy, please drop me an line at info at liz crain dot com for ticket details. Congratulations!

For those of you who don't have tickets already the advance tickets have sold out BUT there will be a limited number available at the door the night of the event. So definitely try your luck again because it's going to be a super fun event. Also, head over to the Vegan Iron Chef Competition website for more details on how to volunteer for the event and do other related stuff.

Here's a little more info. from the press release:

Three chefs from the community’s favorite establishments will prepare dishes inspired by an unveiled secret ingredient for a panel of esteemed judges and a live audience, while the event is live-streamed to anticipated thousands.

The event will be co-hosted by bestselling cooking author Isa Chandra Moskowitz of The Post Punk Kitchen and local artist and zinester Nicole J. Georges.

Our chefs are Kitchen Dances’ Piper Dixon, Homegrown Smoker’s Jeff Ridabock, and Dovetail Bakery’s Morgan Grundstein-Helvey.

This year’s judges include Julie Hasson from Native Bowl and Everyday Dish, Aaron Adams from Portobello Vegan Trattoria, Grant Butler from The Oregonian, John Janulis from The Bye & Bye, and last year’s crowned Vegan Iron Chef, Quasu Asaase Yaa.

Live music, exhibitors, sampling, trivia, and raffle prizes round out this can’t-miss event.

Tickets ($12 in advance/$15 door; $100 VIP tasting seats) are available at VeganIronChef.org. Sponsorship opportunities available now.

Vegan Iron Chef is a nonprofit organization based in Portland, OR, with a mission of spreading the message of veganism by showcasing the art of vegan cuisine and celebrating community. Other cities are encouraged to join the Vegan Iron Chef network, hold their own competitions, and unite for regionals and finals in upcoming years.

Below is one of this year's fierce competitors. Go Morgan!

Cheer your favorite competitor on at this year's Vegan Iron Chef!

Vegan Iron Chef Competition Sunday, July 10th, Competition 5-7:30pm; after party until late Event @ Refuge PDX

Vegan Iron Chef Ticket Giveaway!

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be here for the second annual Vegan Iron Chef Competition this year -- but if you are I've got a pair of tickets for one lucky commenter. Since last year's event sold out quickly I'm doing this giveaway early so those who don't win can go ahead and purchase tickets ($12 advance/$15 at door/$100 VIP tasting seats).

Comment below on the best vegan dish you've eaten out in Portland recently (or a vegan dish you've made at home recently if no restaurant dishes stand out) for a chance to win a pair of tickets.

From the press release:

Three chefs from the community’s favorite establishments will prepare dishes inspired by an unveiled secret ingredient for a panel of esteemed judges and a live audience, while the event is live-streamed to anticipated thousands.

The event will be co-hosted by bestselling cooking author Isa Chandra Moskowitz of The Post Punk Kitchen and local artist and zinester Nicole J. Georges.

Our chefs are Kitchen Dances’ Piper Dixon, Homegrown Smoker’s Jeff Ridabock, and Dovetail Bakery’s Morgan Grundstein-Helvey.

This year’s judges include Julie Hasson from Native Bowl and Everyday Dish, Aaron Adams from Portobello Vegan Trattoria, Grant Butler from The Oregonian, John Janulis from The Bye & Bye, and last year’s crowned Vegan Iron Chef, Quasu Asaase Yaa.

Live music, exhibitors, sampling, trivia, and raffle prizes round out this can’t-miss event.

Tickets ($12 in advance/$15 door; $100 VIP tasting seats) are available at VeganIronChef.org. Sponsorship opportunities available now.

Vegan Iron Chef is a nonprofit organization based in Portland, OR, with a mission of spreading the message of veganism by showcasing the art of vegan cuisine and celebrating community. Other cities are encouraged to join the Vegan Iron Chef network, hold their own competitions, and unite for regionals and finals in upcoming years.

Vegan Iron Chef Competition Sunday, July 10th, Competition 5-7:30pm; after party until late Event @ Refuge PDX

Portland Food Roundup

Sometimes it's nice to pull together a little food roundup so below I've linked up to some recent stories that I've written as well as food stories by others that I've liked lately. If you've come across something too good to not share then please leave a link to the story in the comments. Hope all is well!

Recent stories I've written or contributed to... Cooking Light, Portland Food Rules Budget Travel, America's Best Food Regions VIA Magazine, Portland's North Williams Avenue The Progressive, Joe Sacco interview Willamette Week, Devour Willamette Week, Summer Guide Portland Woman, Eat Your Way Around Portland Cooking Up A Story, 5-part Lisa Weasel interview

Other folks' stories and news that I've dug lately... Speaking of Faith Show, interview with Dan Barber McSweeney's new food quarterly Lucky Peach (Just subscribed! First issue out!) Portland Farmers Market looking for winter space Cooking Up A Story, raising backyard chickens with Naomi Montacre