When the photos for the profile of Carafe’s back of the house first came in, the "opera" cake image was out of context. And then I learned the back story behind the photos and I fell in love with this department (new to Edible Portland). Ivy Manning and her husband Gregor Torrence take us behind the scenes, where we get to watch Pascal Sauton and the gang at Carafe handle a restaurant filled with hungry and hurried opera enthusiasts.

If Ivy's story makes you want to wait for the next opera before visiting Carafe, take note: Portland Opera's Rodelinda opens February 8th.
-Deborah Kane

Photos by Gregor Torrence

BACK OF THE HOUSE
Opera Season at Carafe
By Ivy Manning
For Winter 2008

It’s 5:30 on a Saturday night at Carafe. Through the pick-up window, pantry cook Sarah Bray can see groups of patrons dressed in tuxedos and evening dresses waiting outside the Parisian-style bistro. “Here they come,” she says with a deep breath.

It’s the first night of opera season at Keller Auditorium and chef/owner Pascal Sauton announces in a Parisian accent, “The shit hits the fan at 5:45 and won't stop hitting it until 7:15. Are you ready?”

Carafe’s unique combination of location (it’s nearly the only restaurant close to the auditorium) and French-meets-Pacific Northwest cuisine made with local ingredients brings the sophisticated theater crowd directly to his door, seemingly all at once.

The five twenty-something cooks led by Chef Sauton work in rhythmic prep-work dance—grilling artisan bread slices, whisking béarnaise sauce for the steak frites, braising Cattail Creek Farm’s lamb with rosemary, and 100 other tasks in a kitchen of about 350 square feet.

The electronic ticket machine breaks the silence at precisely 5:50 and orders come scrolling in faster than the cooks can grab them. Sauton calls out orders across the kitchen, “two escargot, one frisée salad with duck egg, one lamb—hold the Hubbard squash,” and a flurry of activity ensues. Soon, the pick-up window is full of bistro fare.

At precisely 7:15, the crowd of theatergoers rises almost as a single entity and exits one of Portland’s best-loved restaurants for the opera.

Posted by Laura Ford at 5:56 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Organics and local foods are often pricier than their non-pedigreed equivalents, and for families on public assistance or tight food budgets, the premium for healthier foods can be an unaffordable luxury. But the extent of those price differences can sometimes be shocking, as I found in October 2007 when I visited a Portland supermarket (not an upscale health food store).

There were a few surprises. Only pennies separated the price of conventional canned beans from their organic equivalents, and the produce manager said that he’d stopped stocking non-organic beets because the price differential was negligible.

But for most staple items, the cost of organics was not only higher, but substantially so. The above six items tell the story: The organic alternatives exceed the average recipient’s weekly allotment of food stamps*, but the non-organic varieties consume only 54%.

*The average food stamp recipient in America receives $21/week for groceries.

-Kevin Allman

Read Kevin Allman's story on the affordability of organics and natural foods in the Winter 2008 issue of Edible Portland.

Tips on reducing the damage of conventional fruits and vegetables.

Posted by Laura Ford at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

STICKER SHOCK
Organics and healthier foods are more available, but not everyone can afford them. Some Oregonians are looking for solutions.

By Kevin Allman
For Winter 2008

In 2007, Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski and several members of Congress took the “food stamp challenge”: shopping and eating on a $21 per week budget that represented the average American’s food-stamp allotment. Kulongoski and his fellow politicians met with limited success; some managed the challenge, while others ended up cheating by week’s end.

After the experiment, Nancy S. Tivol of Sunnyvale Community Services, a California nonprofit emergency assistance agency, wrote in the San Jose Mercury-News: “Feeling full on $3 a day is one challenge; eating nutritionally is virtually impossible. Illinois Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s week’s worth of fruits and vegetables consisted of one tomato, one potato, a head of lettuce, and five bananas.”

Hungry bellies aside, the food-stamp challenge illuminated a more subtle aspect of poverty: the lack of quality food available to the poor. For some, the opportunity to buy fruits, vegetables, and meats without antibiotics, pesticides or growth hormones is nonexistent, even if they’re on the corner market’s shelves. Something as basic as organic kale or a pound of natural ground beef might as well be lobster or caviar.

As Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Ca.) reported in a public diary during her week on the food-stamp challenge: “This is such an unhealthy diet. I am trying to eat the most healthy food I can afford, but I have no problem imagining how someone eating like this could quickly develop diabetes or high cholesterol. And with all these carbs, I can see how easy it would be to gain a fair amount of weight.”

THE PROBLEM
In Portland and across the nation, organic and locally grown foods are more available than ever before, from upscale specialty stores to supermarkets and even retailers such as Wal-Mart. But with social services agencies reporting record demand for their help, the gap between affordability and availability is wider today than it’s ever been. And the products made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s commodities program aren’t always the most healthful.

Jessica Chanay knows that struggle firsthand. In the early 1990s, she was a young mother with two children, and her family was on public assistance. Today, she’s a program coordinator for the Oregon Hunger Relief Task Force (503-595-5504), a group that’s “attempting to address the economic disparity in the availability of healthy foods,” according to Chanay.

The task force was created in 1989 by the state legislature to work with state agencies, nonprofit groups, public policy organizations, and federal nutrition programs. One of Chanay’s goals is providing an alternative to what she calls “filler food”—high-calorie meals and snacks that may be cheap but provide little nutritional benefit, such as the “dollar menu” items at fast-food restaurants. Chanay says she understands why overworked people who might be dependent on public transportation may find it easier to buy a 99-cent fast-food burrito or cheeseburger after a long day.

“As a society, we don’t cook as much as we used to, and that particularly impacts people with lower incomes and higher stress,” she says. “But the cost of food is rising rapidly at this point, and the purchasing power of those food dollars has been eroding. We’ve been working hard on the federal Farm Bill, and the food stamp program, that’s really benefited a lot of people. We’re trying to help people with limited resources get access to healthy foods, with programs like farmers’ market vouchers."

Continue reading " Sticker Shock: Organics and healthier foods are more available, but not everyone can afford them. " »

Posted by Laura Ford at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

I don’t have a membership in any of Portland’s food co-ops so I’ve never really had that “walk in like you own the place” feeling. But Lola Milholland’s story on the vibrant co-op scene and the necessary role they play in our community has inspired me. Sign me up! -Deborah Kane

People's Food Co-op. Photo by Rachael Torchia

WALK IN LIKE YOU OWN THE PLACE
Rediscovering Portland's Cooperative Grocery Stores
By Lola Milholland
For Winter 2008

The last time I visited Food Front Co-op was some six years ago with my mom, when she pulled our car into the parking lot and announced, “A-ha, my old haunt.” In the 1970s, she had been a general manager, stocking bulk bins, boycotting Nicaraguan bananas, and convincing members that the co-op should sell alcohol. When I was a kid, I never considered Food Front to be a real store stocked with groceries, but rather the memorial of an era in my mom’s life.

When I returned from college this June, the glamour and abundance of New Seasons Market blinded me to the co-ops. At New Seasons Market, there is always the promise of a plastic dome filled with bread samples. Often, without bothering to focus my eyes, I marvel at the variety of jams and jellies—pounds of sweet preserves loaded onto the shelves—then I grab chunky peanut butter and run. I get exhausted, running from item to item like a television show contestant. But somehow, I rarely consider other shopping options.

Surprising myself one afternoon while I’m biking around NW Portland, I stop at Food Front Co-op. Near the entrance I linger at the apple and pear display. Who knew that there were so many apple varieties grown in Oregon? Melrose, Senshu, Belle de Boskoop. I grab a basket.

As I’m walking Food Front’s aisles, I notice that I’m actually paying attention to the individual products on the shelves. As though in perfect contrast to the produce section, where I stood in awe of our local bounty, much of it delivered directly from nearby farms to the co-op’s door, the grocery aisles are restrained. Local products—many displayed at eye-level—jump out at me.

Portland has three independent consumer cooperatives: Food Front Cooperative Grocery, People’s Food Co-op, and Alberta Cooperative Grocery.

The small scale of all three allows for personality and direct relationships. A farmer may walk in with a box of freshly picked raspberries, and moments later watch as a customer walks out with a carton of the ripe, dewy berries in hand.

Continue reading " Walk in Like You Own the Place: Rediscovering Portland's Cooperative Grocery Stores " »

Posted by Laura Ford at 6:29 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

Did you hear the news that Cory Schreiber, the former chef/owner of Wildwood Restaurant, was recently hired by the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA)? He’s going to help ODA find a way to get more Oregon grown or produced foods into our public schools. Hooray! If he can get the kids eating his Cannellini Beans with Chanterelles (recipe), he’ll be a hero in my book. -Deborah Kane

Photo by Christine Hyatt

WINTER'S BOUNTY IN A BEAN SHELL
By Cory Schreiber
For Winter 2008

This winter, I’ve been cooking a lot of vegetarian meals at home. Not surprisingly, when I reach into my pantry, I go for the shell beans. They excite the winter menu with their endless variety of colors and shapes, adding a textural component to winter soups, salads and ragouts. Shell beans are nutritious (high in protein, iron, B vitamins and fiber), filling and, when cooked with a patient hand, result in a delicious meal.

In my restaurant career, shell beans were rarely “worthy” of the fine dining experience—that is, until Ayers Creek Farm introduced their fresh heirloom shell beans at Wildwood Restaurant. Since then, shell bean dishes have been appearing frequently on fall and winter menus: scarlet runners (a fleshy black-purple bean) added to a hearty salad with chicory, bacon and croutons; cannellini beans simmered slowly in their broth with a bouquet of herbs and root vegetables, to be spiked later with a dollop of parsley pesto; large white corona beans flash-fried and seasoned with coarse sea salt and fresh lemon juice, creating a crispy, blistered shell with a creamy interior—a perfect finger food.

Unlike other foods that often taste better fresh, I admit I can’t taste the difference between dried shell beans and fresh ones. Of course, dried beans do take longer to cook. Differences between the beans themselves include size (the larger the bean, the meatier the texture) and color (the darker or richer the color of the skin, the more pronounced the bean color and its stock will become during the cooking process).

Beans are incredibly versatile, and you can often use them interchangeably, depending on what’s available in your pantry or at the farmers’ market.

Continue reading " Edible Expert - Winter's Bounty in a Bean Shell " »

Posted by Laura Ford at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

The last time I visited my parents, my father was sick enough that my mother boiled a chicken carcass to make a very bland version of chicken noodle soup. In the process, she noted that chicken soup is sometimes referred to as “a Jewish mother’s penicillin.” I’d never heard that expression before, but Angela Sanders’ story on "invalid cookery" suggests my mother was spot on. -Deborah Kane

Calumet Cookbook's "Cooking for Invalids" chapter offered remedies for wintertime illnesses.

STARVE A COLD, FEED A FEVER
A Brief History of Invalid Cookery
By Angela Sanders
For Winter 2008

About this time of year, many of us will wake up with achy muscles, a sore throat, or a stuffy nose. We’ll call in sick to work, and we’ll settle on the couch with a quilt to watch reruns of Perry Mason. At some point, if our stomachs can handle it, we might think about food.

Food for a sick person today usually means chicken soup and orange juice. But until around World War II, cooking for sick people—then called “invalid cookery”—was an important part of a housewife’s repertoire. Food for invalids was meant to be easy to digest, nutritious, and appetizing. But to someone with today’s sensibilities, invalid cookery looks less like sustenance and more like a purgative.

In classic invalid cookery, the sickest of the sick were fed a liquid diet. Some popular liquid options were beef broth; barley water (strain the water from cooked barley, add lemon); toast water (soak toast in water, strain, add cream and sugar); Irish moss (simmer moss in milk, strain, add cream, sugar, and vanilla); raw egg white in milk, water, broth, or juice; and buttermilk stew (simmered buttermilk with butter, ginger, and honey).

Continue reading " Starve a Cold, Feed a Fever: A Brief History of Invalid Cookery " »

Posted by Laura Ford at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

There wasn't a dry eye in the office the day this story was filed. See if it doesn't remind you of cherished memories and friends with whom you've shared a meal.
-Deborah Kane

Heidi Yorkshire's recipe file. Photo by Leah Harb

IN MY LIFE I LOVED THEM ALL
Recipe File Holds Memories
By Heidi Yorkshire
For Winter 2008

When the weather turned wet and the days got short, I turned my attention to indoor projects that I’d been ignoring while the sun seduced me into the garden, like cleaning out my old recipe file. It isn’t a real file, just a bulging folder held together with rubber bands, filled with recipes from here and there. When the folder was crisp and new, more than 25 years ago, it was a mottled cantaloupe color. Now, scuffed and worn, it’s got naked spots where bare buff cardboard shows through. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d opened it.

I eased off the crumbling rubber bands: A jumble of cards, clippings and scraps of paper tumbled onto the table, some stained and dog-eared with use, others fresh, barely touched. It should be easy to toss out some of this stuff, shouldn’t it?

Here’s a piece of pale blue note paper with a typed recipe from Sarah for Hot Olive Cheese Puffs, one of those retro appetizers she did so well. I haven’t seen Sarah in years, but the recipe transported me to the kitchen of her 19th-century townhouse in Savannah, where I once spent a few days helping with her catering business.

We stuffed shrimp salad into snow peas, wrapped bacon around chicken livers, and talked non-stop, searching, in our thirties, for new pathways in life. My career was going fine, but I’d just ended yet another relationship with a man not exciting enough to spend a weekend with, let alone the rest of my days. “Is reliable always a synonym for boring?” I wondered out loud.

Continue reading " IN MY LIFE I LOVED THEM ALL: Recipe File Holds Memories " »

Posted by Laura Ford at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 )

It’s amazing to me how the word "horsepower" has had staying power throughout the ages, but not the actual horses that inspired the word in the first place! To hear Zoë Bradbury tell it, horses are making a comeback on Northwest farms. And she’d know too, for Zoë is headed home to Langlois, Oregon where she’ll “gee, haw, and whoa” with a team of her own.

Read the story below, then check out Zoë's horsefarming resources here.
-Deborah Kane

Eric Pond of Greenleaf Farm works with June Bug, the newest addition to his herd. Photo by Zoë Bradbury

PUTTING THE HORSE BACK INTO HORSEPOWER
Grass-Powered Agriculture
By Zoë Bradbury
For Winter 2008

From a gentle rise overlooking an apron of floodplain along the Santiam River, Greenleaf Farm is laid out in long, straight rows alternating brown and green. Heavy, low-slung clouds drop a cold mist on Eric Pond as he points out the boundaries of his recently-acquired 67 acres, over two-thirds of which he has planted into blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries for the organic processing market.

After years of working for wages managing other farms, including a 1,000-acre Christmas tree operation, this view from the knoll has been a long time coming. “It’s been my dream to have my own farm forever,” he says, nodding out to the fields. “Ever since I was old enough to realize I had dreams.”

Parked behind Eric is a Kubota tractor specially rigged with state-of-the-art hydraulics to cultivate the berries. A little ways off is a computerized moisture monitoring system installed on the farm for precision irrigation.

But Eric has another quiver of tools as well: Next to the Kubota is a string of cherry-red farm implements best described as his two-horsepower collection. The names roll off Eric’s tongue like lyrics: straddle-row cultivator, springtooth harrow, single-bottom plow, and forecart. He gets animated as he describes what is at once the simplicity and versatility of each implement, all of which are pulled around the farm by Josh and Riva—his team of chestnut and buttermilk Belgian draft horses—and made by I & J Manufacturing, an Amish-owned business in Pennsylvania that designs, builds, and sells new horsedrawn equipment.

Continue reading " Putting the Horse Back into Horsepower: Grass-Powered Agriculture " »

Posted by Laura Ford at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

You have until December 24th to catch an Oregon Ballet Theatre performance of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker. If you're lucky, Gavin Larsen will be dancing the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Photo by Andy Batt

BALLERINA GAVIN LARSEN: Our Sugar Plum Fairy in the Land of Sweets
By Luther Cave
For Winter 2008

Gavin has a few hours before she’ll head across town to rehearsal. She leads me into her upstairs apartment in John’s Landing, between downtown and the Willamette River. The Portland Aerial Tram glides directly overhead.

Laughing warmly while she strides, Gavin assures me that she’s become a less picky eater than when she was a little girl. For an entire year, she ate mainly vanilla and lemon-flavored yogurts, she proclaims. Inside her bright, red and yellow kitchen, she stands perfectly straight, her shoulders still, her feet slightly out-turned in what resembles fifth position.

Gavin is an Oregon Ballet Theatre company dancer, and one of five ballerinas who will play the Sugar Plum Fairy in this season’s run of The Nutcracker—twenty-two shows in Portland and six in Anchorage.

For countless Portlanders, The Nutcracker brings tradition and magic into grey, chilly December. For a few hours we live amid childhood fantasies of Mouse Kings and toy soldiers, only to wake into a Land of Sweets. Yet for Gavin, The Nutcracker isn’t a fleeting night’s reverie; it’s a daily fact.

Continue reading " Portland Fridge - Ballerina Gavin Larsen " »

Posted by Laura Ford at 4:14 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

I about fell out of my chair when I read this excerpt from Ellen Jackson’s essay on brussels sprouts: “Sometimes I peel each tightly curled leaf from its compact globe.” Peel each leaf!? That reminds me of the time my friend (at the suggestion of Martha Stewart, a woman with lots of helpers I’m sure) hand sliced open and then stuffed 100 snow pea pods for a dinner party she hosted.

I love brussels sprouts so maybe I’ll try Ellen’s suggestion, but more likely I’ll dive into the recipe for Brussels Sprouts & Bacon we share below.

–Deborah Kane

BRUSSELS SPROUTS
Written by Ellen Jackson
For Winter 2008

Is there a vegetable more despised, condemned for its lack of subtlety, its imposing perfume? Brussels sprouts are like cilantro. People don’t have mixed feelings about them. They either love them or hate them.

Though smaller than their cousin the head cabbage, brussels sprouts pose an equal threat of overwhelming with their off-putting flavor and slimy texture. Pile on a host of indignities from being picked too large (they should be no larger than a small plum), stored too long (get them on the trunk, at the farmers’ market) and cooked to death, and you get a vegetable that’s never chosen, begrudgingly accepted, and no one’s favorite. For some, the only positive thing about it is that it’s over in one hold-your-nose bite. Cabbage, however, can go on forever!

Continue reading " Edible Seasonals - Brussels Sprouts " »

Posted by Laura Ford at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Edible Portland is pleased as persimmons to welcome Kathleen Bauer to the Edible community. Starting with the winter issue, Kathleen is writing the Edible Notes column for one year, now found online here: Edible Notes. Go there to add your comments and suggest future tidbits.

Check out Kathleen's blog, Good Stuff NW, where she features "stuff that is good in the NW" and has a great events listing.

Welcome Kathleen!

Posted by Laura Ford at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Faced with buying property to make good on their dream to farm, Michael and Jill Paine went to the bank for a loan with a solid business plan in hand. First the bank refused. And then upon further consideration, Michael and Jill were counseled to take the word “farm” off the loan application. That’s when Michael and Jill got the money they needed for their “country estate,” now know as Gaining Ground Farm.

This amazing story comes to life below. Michael’s first-hand telling of his experience trying to capitalize his new farm business is truly captivating.

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.

They are tremendous new allies as we work to spread the word far and wide about the amazing people behind our very best stories. You can look forward to enjoying Cooking Up A Story's great work throughout 2008 at edibleportland.com.

Read Michael and Jill Paine's story as published in the Winter 2008 issue of Edible Portland here: Meet the New American (Zen) Farmer.

- Deborah Kane

Posted by Deborah Kane at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

The story on Gaining Ground Farm marks an important milestone for us at Edible Portland. We've fully entered the digital age. We have teamed up 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.

Their work is shot unscripted, and the stories are told in the voice of the subject. Our new partnership begins here, with the story of Michael and Jill Paine. Read the story, then see Michael and Jill's story come to life in video format right here at edibleportland.com: A New Family Farmer.
- Deborah Kane

Michael and Jill Paine planting seeds in their greenhouse. Photo by N. Scott Trimble

MEET THE NEW AMERICAN (ZEN) FARMER
Michael and Jill Paine of Gaining Ground Farm
Written by Ivy Manning
For Winter 2008

In Michael and Jill Paine’s modern split-level farmhouse nestled in the rolling hills of the Chehalem Valley, there’s a picture window with a breathtaking view of the ADEA Vineyard and the wooded hills beyond. Next to this bucolic view hangs a framed piece of calligraphy that reads:

“Until enlightenment: chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.”

I read the phrase and looked with bewilderment at my host for an explanation. “It’s a birthday present I got a few years ago,” Michael says with his characteristic wide smile, “to remind me of the Zen of being a farmer.”

It’s suddenly obvious that I’m not chatting with the average American farmer. At a time when small family farms are disappearing and the average age of farmers is 55, this 30-something couple is an anomaly. Led by their passion for working the land, a love of food, and a need to prove the loan officers and big-business agriculture wrong, Michael and Jill Paine have done something very risky: they’ve gone into farming.

Continue reading " Meet the New American (Zen) Farmer: Michael and Jill Paine of Gaining Ground Farm " »

Posted by Deborah Kane at 8:39 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

Photo by Zoë Bradbury

Workshops, Clinics & Apprenticeships:
Doc Hammill’s Horsemanship Workshops
www.dochammill.com

Good Farming Apprenticeship Network
www.ruralheritage.com/apprenticeship

Publications & Websites:
Rural Heritage
www.ruralheritage.com

Small Farmer's Journal
www.smallfarmersjournal.com

Photo courtesy of Horse Progress Days

Gatherings & Events:
31st Annual Small Farmer's Journal Draft Horse & Horsedrawn Equipment Auction
April 18 - 20, 2008
Sisters, Oregon

15th Annual Horse Progress Days
July 4 - 5, 2008
Mt. Hope, Ohio

Partial list of horsepowered farms in Oregon:
47th Avenue Farm, Portland
SweetWell Farm, Scio
Greenleaf Farm, Jefferson
Horsepower Organics, Halfway
Ruby & Amber’s Organic Oasis, Dorena

Read Zoë's story on horsefarming in the winter issue of Edible Portland.

Posted by Laura Ford at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

The Winter 2008 issue will be on newsstands by Monday, December 3rd! Check with our advertisers to pick up your copy.

You don't need a reminder that the holidays are here. But have you thought about a gift subscription to Edible Portland for friends and family? They're guaranteed sumptuous reading all year long. Place your order here, and we’ll mail the first issue with a gift card.

You can also just print this Gift Subscription Form and mail it to:

Edible Portland
c/o Ecotrust
721 NW 9th Ave, Suite 200
Portland, OR 97209

Posted by Laura Ford at 6:25 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )