Edible Portland Blog

Read the Edible D.I.Y. story, Making Cheese: Kitchen Magic with Curds and Whey by Tami Parr. To find out where to purchase special ingredients and supplies as called for in this recipe, go here.

PANEER

One of the simplest cheeses you can make at home is paneer. Paneer is a style of cheese made in India that uses the acidity of lemon juice to curdle the milk. It is a plain tasting cheese that takes well to a variety of sauces and spices. It’s good as a snack when drizzled with honey. Indian cooks use paneer in a variety of dishes such as the popular staple of Indian restaurants, palak paneer. Cut your finished product into cubes, brown in butter (or ghee), and combine with your chosen sauces or accompaniments.

Adapted from Lord Krishna’s Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi

Makes about 12 ounces of cheese. Use immediately, or keep in the refrigerator for up to one week.

1 gallon whole cow milk (avoid ultra-pasteurized)
8 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (or lime juice or white vinegar)

Combine Ingredients
1. Heat milk in large pot until boiling, stirring occasionally to avoid scalding. (Be careful—once milk boils, it foams and makes a mess quickly.)

2. Turn off heat. Add lemon juice and stir. The milk solids should start to separate almost immediately. Once fully separated (1-2 minutes), cover and let the mixture sit for 15 minutes.

Separate Curds and Whey
3. The process is complete when the whey is yellowish and clear. If the whey is cloudy or milky, allow extra time for further separation. If necessary, add additional lemon juice in very small amounts.

4. Line a colander with 2-3 layers of cheesecloth and place colander in the sink. Gently scoop the curds out of the pot and place into the lined colander.

5. Once you’ve transferred the curds, pick up your “bag” of curds and rinse around the outside to wash away any residual acidity. Note the texture and taste the curds—they should be light, fluffy, and taste pleasantly of dairy.

Drain Curd
6. Draining can be accomplished in a variety of ways—by tying the curd bag to your kitchen faucet or by placing the lined colander in your kitchen sink and letting gravity work its magic. For quicker draining, place a moderate weight on top of the draining curd (a bowl of water works well).

7. Drain until the consistency is to your liking—time will determine the texture of the finished product. Generally speaking, drain at least 1 hour and up to 5.

All photos by Tami Parr. Tami is the author of Pacific Northwest Cheese Project, an online chronicle of all things artisan cheese.

Photo of Gruyere courtesy of New England Cheesemaking Supply Company

The following resources, compiled by Tami Parr, will be valuable as you try your hand at cheesemaking using these recipes for Fresh Mozzarella and Paneer. Read the full Edible D.I.Y. story on cheesemaking from the Spring 2008 issue here: Making Cheese—Kitchen Magic with Curds and Whey.

SUPPLIES
Kookoolan Farms
This just in! Kookoolan Farms, located in Yamhill, has cheesemaking supplies for the the Portland metro area. They appear to be the only local supplier. However, it also seems that they source their supplies from The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company. The Kookoolan Farms website lists "cultures, rennets, cheesecloth, wax, thermometers, curd-cutting knives, wrapping papers, and enzymes" to all be among their shop.

New England Cheesemaking Supply Company
An exceptional resource for supplies, kits, and everything the aspiring home cheesemaker could ever want. Owned by Ricki Carroll, author of Home Cheese Making: Recipes for 75 Homemade Cheeses. The Thirty Minute Mozzarella Kit includes everything you need to start making your own mozzarella.

Glengarry Cheesemaking and Dairy Supply
Based in Canada, Margaret Morris’s company is a useful source for supplies, recipes and advice for home and professional cheesemakers.

BOOKS
Home Cheese Making: Recipes for 75 Homemade Cheeses by Ricki Carroll
Ricki Carroll, self-described “cheese queen,” has helped hundreds of commercial artisan cheesemakers get their start with her simple, easy-to-use instructions, recipes, and advice. This book is an indispensable guide to home cheesemaking.

American Farmstead Cheese: The Complete Guide to Making and Selling Artisan Cheeses by Paul Kindstedt
More advanced than the previous book, Kindstedt includes in-depth science as well as advice about business strategies. Nevertheless, offers sound cheesemaking advice in an easy-to-use, accessible format.

CHEESEMAKING CLASSES
Kookoolan Farms
Yamhill, Oregon
503-730-7535

Foster & Dobbs Authentic Foods
2518 NE 15th Avenue, Portland, OR
503-284-1157

WSU Creamery
Washington, Oregon and Idaho locations

WEBSITES
Cheese Chick
Check out Christine Hyatt's Cheese TV!

Pacific Northwest Cheese Project
Includes comprehensive lists of ALL Northwest cheesemakers.

NOTES ON MILK

Good Cheese Comes from Good Milk
As with all cooking projects, the quality of your finished product depends on your ingredients. Use the best quality milk you can find—if you have access to milk from a local farm, all the better. Whole milk makes the best cheese.

Avoid ultra-pasteurized milk, which has been heated to a high temperature that lengthens shelf life, but harms the internal protein structures of milk. This process affects rennet’s ability to coagulate the milk’s solids.

Using Raw Milk to Make Cheese
The use and consumption of raw milk is controversial, and it is important to understand the issues before deciding to use or consume it. When making cheese at home, use pasteurized milk—leave raw-milk cheesemaking to the professionals.

Pasteurization is the process by which milk is heated to a temperature at which any bacteria and potentially harmful pathogens present in the milk are destroyed. So-called “raw” milk is simply unpasteurized milk. Some believe that pasteurization destroys beneficial bacteria and proteins in milk; others advocate that all milk should be pasteurized lest harmful pathogens be consumed by humans. In Oregon, farms can sell raw goat’s milk, if they follow certain handling regulations, but not raw cow milk. In Washington, farms can sell raw cow milk if they are licensed to do so.

In the United States and Canada, laws require cheesemakers who use raw milk to age the cheese a minimum of 60 days, the threshold at which it is believed that any harmful pathogens in the milk will not survive in the finished product. This is a sore subject among domestic cheesemakers, who point out that cheeses have been made with raw milk in Europe for centuries. Cheese aficionados say that artisan cheeses made with raw milk have more complex and nuanced flavors than those made with pasteurized milk.

LITTLE GEM SALAD

From Troy MacLarty, Chef, Lovely Hula Hands
4057 N. Mississippi Ave., Portland, OR 97227

Makes 6 servings

16 heads little gem lettuce, cut in half lengthwise, washed and dried
18 small breakfast radishes, stems removed
4 farm-fresh eggs
1/4 baguette, thinly sliced
1/4 bunch chives
1/4 bunch chervil, picked from stem
1/8 bunch tarragon, picked from stem
1/8 bunch parsley, picked from stem
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 small garlic clove, lightly crushed so it stays together
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Make vinaigrette by mixing mustard, red wine vinegar, garlic, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Allow mixture to macerate for 15 minutes. Add olive oil and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

2. Make croutons by brushing baguette slices with olive oil and toasting in 400-degree oven until lightly browned. Allow to cool and break up into croutons.

3. Cook eggs in simmering water for 9 minutes and then shock in ice water. Peel eggs and cut into quarters. Each egg should have a set white and soft yolk. Season the eggs lightly with salt and pepper.

4. Slice radish thinly on a mandolin or by hand. Toss little gems, radishes, croutons, and herbs with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Toss with vinaigrette, keeping in mind that little gems are fairly compact and therefore need more dressing than typical salad greens. Separate salad onto six plates; top each with three-quarters of an egg, and serve.

Shrimp cakes made with Oregon pink shrimp

ASK YOUR FISHMONGER

You just got another great option for your plate. On April 1 (no joke!) you’re going to start seeing little blue labels on packages of shrimp in your fishmonger’s case. The label indicates that Oregon pink shrimp just got the world’s first sustainable shrimp certification by the Marine Stewardship Council, an international nonprofit that promotes responsible fishing practices.

So your next Shrimp Louis will not only taste good, but you’ll feel better eating it.

Marine Stewardship Council

- Kathleen Bauer

Thanks to a partnership with the local film company Cooking Up A Story, you can watch this story come to life here: Community Egg Co-op.

Eastside Egg Co-operative member and two Barred Rock hens. Photo by John Valls

EASTSIDE EGG CO-OPERATIVE
Fifty Chickens and a Grand Idea
By Angela Sanders
For Spring 2008

Early on a November morning when it was still dark, fourteen members of the Eastside Egg Co-operative braved the driving rain to gather at Zenger Farm. They had come to move a chicken coop.

The coop movers, the smarter of them wearing rubber boots, walked past a field of leeks to a coop smaller than an upended outhouse. The 50 hens shut in the coop started to cluck as they heard people approach. As the coop was lifted, the hens’ cackling jumped to a fevered pitch. Once the coop was set down in its new home in an adjoining field and the coop’s door opened, the hens shot out like cannonballs, quickly scattering to peck at chickweed. A glance back showed the chickens’ old field pecked clean down to the dirt.

The Eastside Egg Co-operative is a group of Portlanders who take care of a flock of Barred Rock hens in exchange for eggs. Zenger Farm, a nonprofit educational farm in east Portland, provides supplies, land for the hens and coop, and room in the barn to store eggs and supplies. In return, Zenger Farm receives free fertilizer for its fields and an educational opportunity for visiting school children.

Patrick Barber and Holly McGuire run the co-op. They manage volunteers and work with Laura Masterson, who farms at Zenger, to coordinate where to move the chickens so that they forage from finished crops and fertilize fallow fields in preparation for the next crop.

SECOND THURSDAYS

Chef Jonathan Grumbles at Opposable Thumb Café has the prix fixe dinner Portlanders have been waiting for. On the second Thursday of the month, for around $25, you’ll get three courses plus hors d’oeuvres and a glass of wine, with vegan and vegetarian options available.

Emerging from a winter of root vegetables, Jonathan’s as jazzed about spring greens as you, so plan to head over, take a seat, and have a great time.

3312 SE Belmont, Portland
503-235-0146 for reservations

- Kathleen Bauer

The Barred Rock hens of the Eastside Egg Co-operative live on Zenger Farm. The hens clear farmland, produce free nitrogen-rich fertilizer for crops, aerate soil, provide educational opportunities for youth, and supply eggs to cooperative members. They're busy.

The story of the group of dedicated volunteers that came together to organize and manage this unique community enterprise comes to life below.

Thanks to a new partnership with a local film company that produces Cooking Up A Story, a show about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living, we’re able to bring Edible Portland stories to life in video format. Cooking Up A Story’s work is shot unscripted, and the stories are told in the voice of the subject.

Read the story as published in the Spring 2008 issue of Edible Portland here: The Eastside Egg Co-operative: Fifty Chickens and a Grand Idea.

Garden State food cart. Photo by Leah Harb

SICILY IN SELLWOOD

Food carts are all the rage in Portland dining circles and the subjects of conspiratorial whispers and furtive blog postings.

One new cart that’s garnering a lot of attention is Kevin Sandri’s aluminum-quilted Sellwood start-up called Garden State (“Italian street food from the Willamette Valley”). Kevin is in love with the food of Sicily and equally committed to local ingredients from vendors such as Gaining Ground Farm in Yamhill.

Entrees include arancini and his Meatball Hero made from Oregon Country Beef, a rich, savory homemade marinara and melted mozzarella. This cart is on a roll!

SE 13th & Lexington, Portland
503-705-5273

- Kathleen Bauer

SPRING VEGETABLE AND CHIVE DUMPLING POTPIE

Recipe by Ali Jepson and Evan Dohrmann, Little Red Bike Café
4823 N Lombard St, Portland, OR 97203

Yields about 6 servings

Sauce
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups vegetable broth

Chive Dumplings
6 Tbsp cornmeal
6 Tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup milk
1 large egg
3 Tbsp finely chopped chives

1. Sauce: Melt butter over low heat. Add flour and increase heat to medium. With a wooden spoon, stir butter and flour constantly until they begin bubbling and start to turn slightly golden. Slowly whisk in vegetable broth. Whisk until the sauce is very smooth. Bring to a gentle boil and cook for 5 minutes. Once the sauce has thickened, set aside and begin cooking the filling.

2. Filling: Melt the butter over medium heat. Add onion and green garlic. Stirring occasionally, cook until the onions soften, about 5 minutes. Add the onions to the thickened sauce. Stir in potatoes, carrots, asparagus, peas, parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, and dill. Return the saucepan to medium heat, and stirring often, cook until the potatoes and carrots begin to soften, about 10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

3. Dumpling batter: Combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt. Add butter to dry ingredients and cut into pea-sized pieces using a fork or a pastry blender. In a separate bowl, whisk milk and egg together. Add milk mixture and fresh chives into the cornmeal mixture and stir just to moisten.

4. Drop rounded tablespoons of batter onto the bubbling filling. Cover the saucepan and adjust heat to keep the potpie at a gentle boil, until dumplings are cooked, about 10 minutes.

5. Use a knife to cut into one of the dumplings to make sure that they are firm throughout. Remove the saucepan from heat and spoon filling and dumplings onto serving plates.

By Jonathan Grumbles, Opposable Thumb Gallery and Café
3312 SE Belmont, Portland, OR 97214

Yields 6-8 servings or 2 quarts

1 stick Kombu (dry seaweed)
8 medium shitake mushrooms, stems removed and reserved and caps cut into thin slices
2 quarter-sized spring onions, tops removed and sliced on bias into thin slices
1 medium-sized carrot, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick discs
8 cups water
1 piece Wakame seaweed, cut in thin strips
1/3 cup shoyu or tamari
1/8 cup brown rice vinegar
1/2 lb tofu cut into 1-inch cubes
6-8 asparagus spears, bottoms snapped off and discarded and rest cut thinly on bias
1 cup snow peas, ends trimmed off
8-10 Tbsp mellow white miso
1/2 bunch watercress, chopped, or 1 1/2 cup spinach, rinsed well

1. Combine Kombu, shitake stems, spring onion bulbs, carrot and water in a medium-sized stock pot and bring to a boil. Then reduce to simmer for about 10 minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2. Once all other ingredients are ready, either fish out the stock ingredients with a hand-held strainer or pour stock through a sieve into another stock pot.

3. Add shitake slices, Wakame strips, shoyu and brown rice vinegar to the stock. Simmer over medium-high heat for 10 minutes.

4. Add tofu and simmer for 5 more minutes.

5. Add asparagus, snow peas, and spring onion tops. Remove 1 cup broth and combine with miso, making sure to stir well so there are no clumps. Add the miso stock back to rest of the soup and simmer for 5 minutes more over low heat. Be careful not to boil as this destroys the beneficial properties of the Miso cultures.

6. Remove the soup from heat and add in the watercress or spinach. Serve.

By Ellen Jackson
Serves 4

2 1/2 lbs lamb steak (from the leg or other tender cut), chunked in 1 1/2-inch squares
1/2 cup olive oil
Zest and pulp of 1 lemon (cut away peel & pith), finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely minced (about 1 1/2 Tbsp)
1 Tbsp ground cumin (freshly toasted and ground, if possible)
1 tsp each coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup parsley leaves, coarsely chopped

Minted Yogurt Sauce
2 cups plain whole milk or Greek yogurt
Juice of one lemon
1 tsp finely minced garlic
1/2 cup parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup loosely packed mint leaves, coarsely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Finely chopped cilantro for garnish

1. Put the chunked lamb in a bowl with the olive oil, lemon pulp and zest, garlic, ground cumin, salt, pepper, and parsley. Toss with your hands to combine and coat each piece. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator 4 to 6 hours, or up to overnight.

2. To make the minted yogurt sauce, whisk the yogurt, lemon juice, and garlic together. Fold in the parsley and mint, and season to taste with salt and black pepper. Soak 6 to 8 wooden skewers in water at least one hour before you want to grill the lamb.

3. When you are ready to cook the lamb, remove it from the refrigerator and preheat the grill to high, covered, for 10 minutes. Thread the lamb chunks on the skewers and reduce the heat to medium high.

4. Lightly brush the kebabs with oil before placing them on the grill. Cook, turning several times, until the lamb chunks have browned but are still slightly pink in the center, 8 to 10 minutes total.

5. Place 2 skewers on each plate, top with minted yogurt and cilantro, and serve alongside couscous or rice.

COMMUNITY-SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE: THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR FOOD LOVERS AND FARMERS ALIKE

Talk and book signing with Elizabeth Henderson
Monday, March 10, 7:30 p.m.
Powell's Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne, Portland

To an increasing number of families, the CSA (community-supported agriculture) is the answer to the globalization of our food supply.

The premise is simple: create a partnership between local farmers and nearby consumers. In exchange for paying in advance—at the beginning of the growing season, when the farm needs financing—CSA members receive the freshest, healthiest produce throughout the season and keep money, jobs, and farms in their own community.

In Sharing the Harvest, authors Elizabeth Henderson and Robyn Van En lay out the basic tenets of the CSA, provide useful information for both farmers and consumers on starting and running a successful community farm project, and describe hundreds of useful strategies that have worked (or not worked) for CSAs from Alaska to Florida.

Shari Sirkin of Dancing Roots Farm CSA will also be on hand to answer questions and get you signed up for the upcoming season.

Tonight's event at Powell's on Hawthorne has been canceled! The author is stuck on the east coast due to weather.

You can find more information about local farms using the community supported agriculture model through the Portland Area CSA Coalition.

In this video, Michael Pollan discusses how Americans have come to view food through the lens of nutritionism, valuing the act eating only as seen from the health perspective. As Michael aptly reminds us, there are a number of other compelling reasons for eating whole foods.

This is part two of a four part video series produced by Cooking Up A Story. View part one here.

This video is in thanks to Ecotrust's partnership with a local film company that produces Cooking Up A Story, a show about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living. Cooking Up A Story’s work is shot unscripted, and the stories are told in the voice of the subject.

Read the Edible D.I.Y. story, Making Cheese: Kitchen Magic with Curds and Whey by Tami Parr. To find out where to purchase special ingredients and supplies as called for in this recipe, go here.

FRESH MOZZARELLA

Adapted from Ricki Carroll, Author of Home Cheese Making
Makes about 3/4 pound

1 gallon whole cow milk (avoid ultra-pasteurized)
1 1/2 tsp citric acid
1/4 tsp liquid rennet
Cheese salt

Combine Ingredients
1. Combine rennet and 1/4 cup water in a small bowl and set aside. In another bowl, dissolve citric acid powder in 1/2 cup water and stir until dissolved. Pour citric acid into a very large pot. Add milk, stir, and heat moderately. Small clots starting to form and float in the milk is normal.

2. Using a cooking thermometer, remove pot from heat when the milk reaches 88 degrees. Add rennet and stir for 30 seconds, then allow to set undisturbed for 6-8 minutes. The process is complete when the liquid milk has transformed into a semi-firm custard consistency.

3. While still in the pot, cut the curd gently with a knife. Drawing the knife through the curd from top to bottom and from side to side, you’ll end up with a checkerboard pattern in the surface of the curd. The liquid whey should be clear and slightly yellowish.

Drain, Heat and Knead
4. Scoop out the curd and put into a colander. Curds will be soft but should hold their shape. Drain curds briefly while gently pressing. Pour off pooling whey.

5. If you have a microwave, microwave curds on high for 1 minute. Drain off excess whey, then knead the curd the same way you would bread. Heat for 30 seconds, drain, and knead again. Repeat this process at least 3 times. Note that the cheese curd will become very warm, so you may want to wear rubber gloves. Incorporate salt in small amounts as you knead (not more than a teaspoon).

6. If you don’t have a microwave, heat a pot of water to near boiling—about 180 degrees. Dip the curd in the hot water for several seconds, remove, and knead. It’s helpful to divide the curd into several segments. Repeat the process about 3 times. Incorporate salt to taste.

Stretch!
7. As you knead, the mozzarella will gradually become smooth and pliable, much like bread dough. When the curd stretches effortlessly like salt water taffy, shape the cheese in any manner you like (balls of any size, one large ball, or strands).

8. Cool in ice water. Once cool, it’s ready to eat!

All photos by Tami Parr. Tami is the author of Pacific Northwest Cheese Project, an online chronicle of all things artisan cheese.

Edible Portland is delighted to introduce its newest department, Edible D.I.Y. We hope to remove the mystery from kitchen projects such as canning, pickling, infusing, drying, and making sourdough. Let's build our self-sufficiency and get a taste for urban homesteading by choosing a few grocery store staples to make in our own homes.

First up? Do-it-yourself cheese.

Mozzarella balls, the finished product. Photo by Leah Harb

MAKING CHEESE
Kitchen Magic with Curds and Whey
By Tami Parr
For Spring 2008

Cheese was first discovered, so the story goes, by wandering nomads carrying milk in animal stomachs. Bacteria in the milk reacted with the natural enzymes in the stomach walls, curdling the milk and forming history’s first cheese.

Since then, cheesemaking has evolved considerably. Hundreds of varieties of cheese are made all over the world from the milk of animals as varied as goats, water buffalo, and camels. Nevertheless, the same basic principles are still at work in today’s cheeses. “The cheesemaking process is, in essence, just concentrating milk proteins,” says Dr. Lisbeth Goddik, Associate Professor of Food Science & Technology at Oregon State University and Oregon’s resident cheese science expert. Modern cheesemakers have developed myriad ways of capturing those proteins and transforming them into cheese.

While making fine artisan cheese can be a complicated process, many styles of cheese are easy to make at home.

Cheesemaking is a fascinating demonstration of food science in action as well as a great activity for kids, who can learn about where their food comes from in the process.

The simplest cheeses to make are those that are created by the addition of acidic agents such as lemon juice or bacteria. These so-called “acid-set” cheeses include paneer, queso fresco, and cottage cheese. These cheeses have fresh dairy flavors and don’t melt when heated.

Toast's freshly made English muffins. Photo by Leah Harb

ENGLISH MUFFINS

By Jonathan Merritt, Chef, Toast restaurant
5222 SE 52nd Ave, Portland

Makes 15-20 muffins

2 lbs (7-8 cups) all-purpose flour
1/2 oz (2 packages) instant yeast
1/2 oz evaporated cane juice sugar
1/2 oz fine sea salt
3 cups cold water
Cornmeal
Extra flour
Cooking oil (vegetable, canola or grape seed)

1. Mix the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a stainless steel bowl.

2. Make a well in the flour mixture, and pour in cold water. With a wooden spatula, mix the water and flour until it becomes a rough mass. With your hands, bring the dough together with a push-fold-turn kneading method, just until it comes together. It will still be a little tacky. The goal is to end up with lean dough that becomes extremely dry as it rises. If too much gluten develops, it will be like bread rather than a porous muffin.

3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for about 1 hour. Let the dough rise to double the original volume.

4. Dust a flat work surface with a 50% flour and 50% cornmeal mixture. Turn the dough out onto the dusted surface, dust the top of the dough with the same mixture, and roll out to a half-inch thickness.

5. Let the dough sit for about 2 minutes. Place parchment paper in a sheet pan and sprinkle with cornmeal. Cut out muffins with a floured ring mold (3 inch diameter). Don’t spin the mold; simply push it down and lift it up. Move the muffins to the sheet pan and let them rest for about 30 minutes.

6. Once the muffins are ready, heat a griddle on low. Oil the griddle and cook each muffin at a low heat until the interior is baked—about 10 minutes on each side. Add oil to the griddle when you turn the muffins as each surface will absorb a little.

7. When done, place on a cooling rack and let cool completely.

8. To open the muffins, either use a fork to pry them apart or use both hands to pull them apart. (Do not twist.) Toast and serve with jam.

MARCH 15 - OREGON CHEESE FESTIVAL

Left: Siletz River Drum by Rivers Edge Chevre; Right: Hillis Peak by Pholia Farms

Oregon Cheese Festival
Saturday, March 15, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Rogue Creamery, 311 North Front St, Central Point, OR
$5 entry fee includes tastings and demonstrations
Contact: Rogue Creamery, 541-665-1155 x163

Thousands of visitors will attend this festival, gathered under a giant tent to sample cow, sheep and goat cheese from Oregon creameries.

"The farmers' market format will present an interactive experience between makers and visitors, giving everyone an opportunity to talk about the product, the process and learn each individual cheesemaker's story," says David Gremmels, owner with Cary Bryant of Rogue Creamery. "It's a way to truly be connected with the source of the cheese being presented."

MARCH 19 - D.I.Y. CHEESEMAKER ROUNDTABLE

Foster & Dobbs Authentic Foods
Wednesday, March 19, 7:15 p.m.
2518 NE 15th Ave., Portland, OR
Free
Contact: Foster & Dobbs, 503-284-1157

Foster & Dobbs found that a sizeable group of D.I.Y. cheesemakers are in the Portland area. Why not meet each other? In January, a group of 18 home cheesemakers - of all different experience levels - showed up to Foster & Dobbs to exchange ideas, experiences and resources. The group is meeting again and is open to newcomers.

Come with your questions and ideas, and bring some of your homemade cheese to share!

VIDEO: SHEEP CHEESE BY ANCIENT HERITAGE DAIRY

So, how do the professionals do it? This video by Cooking Up A Story explains the ways Ancient Heritage Dairy in Scio, Oregon.

Sheep cheese tastes distinctive, characteristically strong, and very different from cow or goat cheese. On this family sheep farm, the making of cheese reflects a slower pace of life along with a direct connection to the land.

It's easy to find copies of the new Edible Portland. Go to Advertisers & Where to Find and look for this symbol:

You'll discover all sorts of wonderful places such as Concentrates, Inc., an agricultural supply store at 2613 SE 8th Avenue, with lovely displays of the spring issue of Edible Portland as pictured above.

To make sure you get every issue, subscribe and it will arrive at your door.

How do we decide what to eat? Pleasure, a sense of community, and connecting to nature are all highly important aspects of eating that today are overlooked because of our reliance on the science of nutrition. In the third part of this four part video series, Michael Pollan encourages us to accept culture as the trustworthy guide in our approach to eating food.

View part one and part two of this four part series.

This video is in thanks to Ecotrust's partnership with a local film company that produces Cooking Up A Story, a show about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living. Cooking Up A Story’s work is shot unscripted, and the stories are told in the voice of the subject.

TURNIP AND TURNIP GREENS SOUP

From Troy MacLarty, Chef, Lovely Hula Hands
4057 N. Mississippi Ave., Portland, OR 97227

Makes 3 quarts

1 medium onion, sliced thinly
2 leeks, white and light green part only, washed and sliced thinly
3 cups chicken stock
3 cups water
3 cups small white turnips, cleaned and sliced
1 small russet potato, peeled and roughly chopped
4 parsley stems
3 bay leaves
4 thyme branches
1 cup chopped turnip greens
Olive oil as needed
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Slowly cook onions and leeks in olive oil in a covered pan, seasoning with salt and pepper, until they are soft and broken down completely. This technique, known as “sweating,” creates depth and richness in the finished soup. Add chicken stock, water, turnips, and potato.

2. Make a sachet by wrapping parsley, bay leaves, and thyme in cheesecloth and tying with butcher’s twine. Add sachet to soup and bring to a simmer.

3. While the soup is cooking, sauté turnip greens in olive oil until tender. Season with salt and set aside to cool.

4. Remove and discard sachet once potatoes and turnips are tender. Puree soup in blender and pass through a mesh strainer. (Be careful with hot soup: only fill blender 1/3 full and start on a slow speed.) Adjust seasoning of finished soup with salt and pepper to taste. Adjust consistency of soup with water to your liking.

5. To the blender, add 1 cup soup and turnip greens. Puree until smooth.

6. Serve soup immediately with white soup as base and green soup swirled on top as garnish. If serving soup later, chill the pureed greens quickly over an ice cold water bath or they will lose their bright color.

Recently, Zoë Bradbury left her urban job in Portland to start farming on the south coast of Oregon. She’ll be blogging here about her experience as a young farmer for the rest of the season. Below is the first entry in Diary of a Young Farmer.

ARTICHOKES

Thirty-odd years ago my parents headed north from San Francisco on Highway 101 and ended up in a little town called Bandon on the southern Oregon coast. What started as a weekend road trip ended with them dropping out of college and buying a short order restaurant.

After six months of serving milkshakes and greasy burgers to the after-church crowd on Sundays, they traded the dumpy little restaurant perched over the Pacific for 40 acres and a run-down farmhouse on Floras Creek.

It was my dad’s idea. My mom cried when she saw the place. They weren’t tears of joy.

The place evolved. With some friends, my mom took a chainsaw to all the interior walls and opened the house up. In the yard she built raised beds, put in a pyramid of strawberries, and got a couple of artichoke divisions from a friend on Short Street.

The garden grew. My sister and I were born. Once we had teeth, we ate artichokes each spring.

When I bought my own house in Portland five years ago, my mom dug into the artichoke bed, pried a few loose, and gave them to me along with some raspberry canes. I turned over all the grass in the backyard and put her plants in the ground—the same genetic stock that had fed me for 25 years.

They divided and grew and chokes shot up each spring like the Statue of Liberty’s torch. I don’t have a clue what the variety is: pointy-leaves tipped with sharp spines, dark green fists, the world’s best vehicle for melted butter.

Last week, I was in Portland packing up my house to move, and I took the shovel to the artichokes again.

I pulled up to my new greenhouse on Floras Creek today with a riot of saw-toothed artichoke divisions in the back of the truck, teased them apart into one-gallon transplant pots, and officially began my first season farming for myself, next door to my mom and sister. It seemed like the perfect thing to do on a leap day.

After our five-year stint up north together, me and the chokes have finally come full circle back to home turf. We’re planning on staying awhile.

- Zoë Bradbury

SPRING LAMB
By Ellen Jackson
For Spring 2008

Wherever there have been undulating grassy slopes and people living among them, there have been sheep. The animal and the people who tend it have long embodied the gentle, bucolic spirit of a culture. Like Mary and her little lamb, flock and shepherd wander freely from one verdant knoll to the next without destination or deadline. When counted, they woo us to peaceful slumber. Theirs is an innocent freedom that celebrates nature’s renewal.

From time immemorial, lamb has symbolized the season of rebirth. Mostly associated with iconic and religious rituals, especially at Easter, “spring” lamb represents the expiatory sacrificial lamb for some, the most delectable of seasonal treats for others.

The reasons for lamb’s seasonality are straightforward: Ovulation in ewes is naturally prompted by the shortening days of autumn, so the birth of lambs, whose gestation period is five months, coincides with the first fresh grass of spring. The term “lamb” actually describes the meat of the animal from the time it is weaned, at four months, to one year old. A bit of simple arithmetic raises this question: Why is there a tradition of eating “spring” lamb at Easter?

Michael Pollan connects the dots between government policy, public health, and the cost and availability of fresh, wholesome foods. Due to current government subsidies that make the least healthy foods the cheapest, we will have to pay more to eat well. That could all change with a federal universal health care system.

View part one, part two and part three of this four part video series.

This video is in thanks to Ecotrust's partnership with a local film company that produces Cooking Up A Story, a show about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living. Cooking Up A Story’s work is shot unscripted, and the stories are told in the voice of the subject.

Ingredients for Hollandaise Sauce. Photo by Leah Harb

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

By Jonathan Merritt, Chef, Toast restaurant
5222 SE 52nd Ave, Portland

Yields approximately 3 cups

16 Tbsp (2 sticks) butter
1 sprig thyme
1 large shallot, peeled and sliced
1/2 tsp cracked peppercorns
1/2 Tbsp sel gris
1 tsp lemon juice
8 egg yolks
1 pint water

1. Melt the butter with half a sprig of thyme over low heat. Reserve.

2. Place the shallots, the rest of the thyme, pepper, sel gris, and lemon juice in a stock pot over low heat. Simmer until the mixture reduces to about 1/4 of its original volume.

3. Place this reduction into a medium-size stainless steel bowl. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water. Whisk in the room temperature egg yolks. Continue to whisk the mixture, touching it occasionally to feel its temperature. Small air bubbles will appear and it will feel slightly warmer than the air when it’s ready for the butter.

4. While stirring continuously, very slowly drizzle in the melted butter. Be patient! Work very slowly! When the butter is fully incorporated, increase the heat and continue to whisk until the sauce becomes like a loose mayonnaise.

5. Take the bowl off of the water and, while still stirring, add water from the pot into the sauce to thin it — about 1/3 cup or so depending on when you’ll serve the sauce and your desired consistency. Before serving, taste the Hollandaise and adjust the flavor with salt and lemon juice to taste.

Note: If you’re not going to use the Hollandaise immediately, pour it into a covered container set in warm water around 145 degrees. Stir occasionally to prevent excessive thickening.

To make a Benedict Oh, a breakfast specialty at Toast:
Toast an English muffin. Set both halves on a plate, lay two poached eggs on top, and add a dollop of Hollandaise on each egg. Serve with a twist of pepper, two freshly griddled breakfast sausage patties, and a small pile of lightly blanched leafy greens.

Talk with author Gene Baur
President and Co-Founder of Farm Sanctuary

7 p.m., Thursday, March 27
Clinton Theater
2522 SE Clinton, Portland
FREE

Factory-farmed meat has been front and center in the news, mostly thanks to the recent undercover investigation at the California slaughter plant that revealed rampant animal cruelty. The fact that the plant was a major supplier to America's school lunch program made us all sit back, take notice, and ask questions: What are downer cows? What is supposed to be done with them? Where were the USDA inspectors who are tasked with keeping such cruelty from happening?

It is a great time, then, to pick up a copy of Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food. Author Gene Baur knows firsthand what happens in stockyards, slaughterhouses and factory farms. Baur, a vegan, does not proselytize in this book. "Rather, he makes a strong case that meat eaters have an ethical responsibility to ensure that the animals they eat have not been abused." (Publishers Weekly)

Baur encourages us to support local farms and to avoid factory-farmed meat, milk and eggs when possible. We're lucky to be living in Portland, where it's relatively easy to do so.

Chicken Fest!
March 28-30, 2008

Livingscape Nursery
3926 N Vancouver, Portland
livingscapenursery.com

Find a schedule of workshops and films online. Chicken Fest! is a benefit for Growing Gardens.

Alexander Velikoretskikh transformed this once-vacant lot in southeast Portland into Great River Farm. Photo by Andrew Daddio

GROWING NEW ROOTS
Immigrant and Refugee Farmers Dig In
By Zoë Bradbury
For Spring 2008

The translator is late.

Cumulous clouds scud across a rain-washed blue sky, the spring light playing over bunches of neon-orange baby carrots, redder-than-blood beets, and tender heads of lettuce. On this Sunday morning, Alexander Velikoretskikh and four of his eight children work together in a quiet choreography under a white E-Z Up canopy as they arrange produce for display at the Lents International Farmers’ Market in outer Southeast Portland. In quick, soft Russian, Alexander says something to the oldest boy. He runs off, returning a few minutes later with a whiteboard borrowed from the market manager.

“To make sign,” gestures Alexander in halting English. “Velikoretskikh is ‘Great River.’ My name,” he pronounces proudly, smiling and jabbing a thumb towards his chest. “Great River Farm.”

Without the translator, relying on shy pantomime and only a few words of shared English between us, Alexander and his kids convey fragments of their story to me. Among the roughly 10,000 refugees who have resettled in Portland in the last decade, they came in December 2006, having fled religious persecution in Ukraine.

Shortly after arriving, Alexander discovered Mercy Corps Northwest’s New American Agriculture Project (NAAP). Three months later, he and his family seeded their first crop on a vacant half-acre lot in Southeast Portland.

Zoë Bradbury left her urban job in Portland to start farming on the south coast of Oregon. She's blogging here about her experiences. Below is her second entry in Diary of a Young Farmer.

JILL OF ALL TRADES, MASTER OF NONE...

So here’s the reality: farming is one of those things where you do a little bit of everything. Carpentry, botany, soil science, Microsoft Excel, plumbing, accounting, people management, marketing, grunt labor, welding, mechanics, etc. A lot of farmers get really good at all of them — after enough years. I haven’t had enough years yet, so my skill set break down looks something like this at the moment:

Good (enough) at it:
• carpentry
• botany
• marketing
• grunt labor
• Microsoft Excel
• plumbing

Needs improvement:
• accounting
• soil science

No clue:
• welding
• plumbing gas
• mechanics

The thing is, hiring someone to do the things you have no clue about costs money — usually a lot of it — so I tend to take what I know from the “good enough” category, apply it to the things in the “no clue” category, and cross my fingers. A lot of times it works, and I learn enough to move from the “no clue" category to “needs improvement.” It’s a good, self-reliant, empowered kind of feeling.

But this week the experiential learning model backfired when I went to plumb a gas line from my propane tank to my hot water heater in the greenhouse.

Given that “plumbing gas” falls into the “no clue” category, I suppose it’s reasonable to assume that the combination of explosive hazard and installer ignorance would be a good reason to bite the bullet and hire this job out, but I couldn’t stomach the idea of paying $500 for someone else to run 10 feet of gas line.

So I did it myself.

THE HUB OF BEERVANA

Brewer Christian Ettinger has been the subject of many a man-crush in Portland, and his Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) gives local beer nuts the chance to sip their favorite suds and swoon.

Located in the former Sunset Fuel building on Powell, this 16,000-plus square-foot space resembles an overturned wooden ship. Ettinger has painstakingly stripped the interior and created an eco-friendly and sustainable home for his outstanding beers. Stop in and grab a pint under the recycled bike frames over the bar, or sit on the deck and watch the sun set over the West Hills.

2944 SE Powell, Portland
503-201-8957

- Kathleen Bauer

Read Kathleen's recent review of HUB on her blog, Good Stuff NW.

CALLING ALL GARDENERS

You know it’s spring in Oregon when the first sunny days of March bring not just the buds of spring, but gardeners out in their shorts and clogs digging away in their muddy gardens.

Spring also portends the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon Spring Plant Sale & Garden Festival, an event that brings together more than 75 nurseries and wholesale growers for a public sale of the best plants you’ve ever seen, often at less-than-nursery prices. So bring your garden wish list to the Expo Center the weekend of April 12 and 13; you won’t go home empty-handed!

Portland Expo Center
Saturday, April 12, 10 am - 5 pm
Sunday, April 13, 10 am - 3 pm

- Kathleen Bauer

Zoë Bradbury left her urban job in Portland to start farming on the south coast of Oregon. She's blogging here about her experiences. Below is her third entry in Diary of a Young Farmer.

GRATITUDE

I was on the tractor at dusk today, prepping beds for the asparagus and raspberry rootstock that I’ll plant out later this month, when I was struck by the realization that the reason I am able to come home and do this, and hopefully make a living at it, is in large part thanks to the local food movement.

Twenty years ago, I would have been laughed out of town for trying to hawk strawberries and golden beets to the restaurants and retail stores in town. Now they’re hungry for it. It’s also taking a heap of planning, investment, sweat, and a little blood to manifest this farm start-up, but were it not for the groundswell of interest in homegrown, farm-direct, good, fresh food, I’d be dead in the water.

Being able to rent my sister’s shiny, orange 32-horsepower tractor helps, too.

It was long after sunset that I finally took my last pass and cut the engine. There were the sounds of the creek playing over the gravel bar and a hoot owl calling across the valley. There's something about that spot on the property — where the river comes out of the canyon and begins to meander along the bottomland and the steep timbered coast range gives way to pastured hills — something that feels good and calm and centered. My fiancée, Danny, practices Chinese medicine and he says it’s the way the qi flows there: not too fast, not too slow, just right. And you can tell. It’s easier to take deep breaths.

Looking out at my fields and the valley, I took one and then mouthed a slow, silent thank you.

- Zoë Bradbury