The 2015 Winter edition of Take RootMagazine is on magazine stands! If you've not seen this colorful
quarterly that focuses on food, farms and beverages in the Willamette
Valley, please check it out:
If it proves irresistible, please consider subscribing or picking up
a copy at your favorite news stand. It's also available at the
Corvallis Public Library. Publisher Debbie Duhn works hard on a very
thin shoestring budget to make it a lovely, informative “keeper”
(as in too good to recycle or toss). They're meant to be kept (or
passed on to friends) as a guide for current and future adventures in
the Willamette Valley. She's also just brought out her second
comprehensive Guide to Oregon Wines and Vineyards. You'll find it on
the website too, plus back issues of Take Root.
I've always known that the monetary
compensation for writers rarely matches their passion, skills and
time investments but working closely with Debbie, I've learned it can
be even tougher for people in her chair. I'm grateful she's so
devoted. Let's support her tireless efforts in finding the people and
stories we all want to hear (read), about our “neighborhood” and
the creative people who inhabit it.
Shameless promotion
In this issue of Take Root you'll find
my piece on Vitality Farms. I live in the foothills of the Coast
Range and one of their farms is just “down the hill” on the broad
flats where fields, pastures and oak woods are stitched into a
richly-textured quilt along “seams” created by crooked streams
and roads. Every time I pass the farm on my way into town I'm on the
lookout for birds. You're almost always guaranteed a sighting of
something amazing – like the bald eagle perched on a fence post
right by the road last week. There are lots of hawks too, of all
sizes and colors. They're all adept at nabbing pesky rodents – a
real bonus – but can also be very unhelpful
around livestock sometimes, especially during lambing season. It's
Nature's way. Naturally, having six big mobile hen houses is an
attraction too...
When I dropped by Vitality's office
the other day, Karen Wells (a.k.a.“Mother Hen”) made a comment
that reminded me that we consumers aren't always the “locavores”
we think we are. She said some of their customers get a bit upset
when egg production goes down in winter. One the one hand, we want
free-range, pasture-raised animals and their products (eggs), but
don't think about the fact that in being outdoors, they get COLD in
winter, just like we do. Hence, egg and milk production drop. (Well,
duh!) We can get white-shelled, pale-yolked eggs year-round in any
grocery store, but country “girls” are doing their best to keep
warm when we're snug by the fire, sippin' eggnog. Production will
increase as the days lengthen and weather warms. There will be plenty
of eggs come Easter.
Vitality's hens are definitely
free-range. Their mobile hen houses are moved (slowly, so no one gets
caught sleeping!) every few days to fresh pasture. When farm owner
Jason Bradford took me on a walking tour through several acres last
November the “girls” surrounded us like we were rock stars,
drowning out his words on my tape recorder. But, when they saw we had
no food (or weren't going to sing?), they got back to lunch.
Top chef
Among other
interesting reads in this issue of Take Root is a piece on Albany's
restaurant gem, Sybaris, and its owners/chef. Chef Matt Bennett
really was “top chef” at Ten River Food Web's first Chefs'
Show-Off. (Hmmm...there are embarrassing drool marks on my copy of
the magazine on those pages.) Check out his monthly, seasonal/local
menu at their website.
Note: At the
annual Celebrate Corvallis on January 16, 2015, Vitality Farms was
awarded the Good Steward of the Planet Award. Also, one of Chef Matt
Bennett's favorite charities, the ABC House, was honored as Community
Non-profit of the Year.
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