Hungry Hill Farm, based in Scio, is a new vendor at the Albany Farmers Market! They’ll be providing produce and sheep wool fiber (yarn and spinning batts) each week this season. Here are a few items you can expect to see this week: Lettuce Rhubarb Spinach Mint Radishes Green onions Chives Thyme Sheep wool fiber (both spun wool and raw fiber) Glad to have you there, Hungry Hill!
It may not have been clear in my previous posts, or on other stories around the web about the City of Corvallis ordering the Bald Hill Farm store to close, but they are still open! They’re open daily, 10am to 6pm. Right now they are taking reservations for holiday prime rib, lamb leg, or ham. Or, considering that it’s already December 18 (whaaaaat?! How did that happen?), you would probably want to go there and just purchase what you need for your holiday dinner. The city council will resume their hearing on December 21, but with no further public testimony. Fingers crossed.
A seed grower from the Willamette Valley, along with other plaintiffs, has successfully sued the USDA and APHIS for failure to require an environmental impact statement prior to deregulation of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready sugar beet plants. Deregulation opened the door for transgenic sugar beet production in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, one of the most fertile agricultural regions in the world. The judge ordered that an environmental impact statement be conducted because USDA/APHIS failed to adequately consider the impact on the environment from stated cross contamination concerns, and the socio-economic impacts on consumers (eaters), farmers, and other market participants over the question of the continued availability of non-transgenic sugar beet crops. Check out the ‘Cooking Up a Story’ video interview with Frank Morton, conducted earlier this year before the ruling.
In my previous post about the Bald Hill store closure, I mentioned that there is a 299-page staff report on the violation and the farm’s appeal. The site that hosted that document was not easy to navigate, so I turned the entire document into a PDF. It can be accessed here on my site until the public hearing on the 7th. There’s a good discussion about this taking place over at the We Love Corvallis blog, and there are comments on the Gazette Times story as well. This issue has potential ramifications beyond the farm store itself, I would think. Yes, it would be supremely disappointing to lose the store — which consists of a couple of freezers, by the way, it is certainly not anything close to a grocery store — but Bald Hill Farm is steward to hundreds of acres of land in Corvallis. There’s the realignment...
Based on different interpretations of a land development code, the city of Corvallis has ordered the Bald Hill Farm store to close. The farm recently sent out this e-mail, which Amanda gave me permission to post: Dear Friends, We have some unfortunate news about the future of our little farm store. The City of Corvallis received a complaint on the road construction; as a result, they came to our site and decided that our farm store is an illegal land use and want us to shut it down. City staff classifies the sale of our farm products from our farm as “Food and Beverage Retail Sales”- like a grocery store. We believe that our farm store is rightfully classed as an “Accessory Use” allowed under LDC Chapter 4.3.50 for Agriculture which allows “Retail outlets, cafeterias, and offices accessory to the Primary Use.” As you all know, Bald Hill Farm LLC, has for...
Wow, fall really arrived in a blink. It’s time to head out to the farms and orchards for pumpkins and some fresh cider! A couple of websites I turn to when I’m looking for farms to visit are Local Harvest and Pick Your Own. On the Local Harvest site, you can search by state (here are my search results for pumpkins in Oregon), or narrow it even further by city or zip code. The Pick Your Own site is rather dizzying, but you can follow the links and end up on a page listing out farms by county (for example, Salem and the surrounding areas). Don’t forget to call before you go! Many of the farms are currently offering hay rides, fresh cider, corn or hay bale mazes, and more. I’ve updated the Recipe page and added a Baked Pumpkin Pudding recipe from HobbyFarms.com. Happy baking!
Flipping through the October, 2009 issue of Bon Appétit magazine, this little item about home milk delivery caught my eye. Curious if there were any dairies which provide home delivery in Oregon, I hit up Google. I found one and I have to say, I really thought there would be more. It seems like such an Oregon thing to do. But, anyway, I found certified organic Noris Dairy, based in Crabtree and providing service to several cities throughout the Willamette Valley. Hormone and antibiotic free, the cows at Noris graze on pasture year-round. Items available for delivery include milk, yogurt, cheese, and butter. Click here for distribution areas and days. Aside from the convenience, I find the idea of home dairy delivery a sort of romantic notion. Glass milk bottles, cream rising to the top. Supporting a local farming family and healthy farming practices. I’d love to hear from...
Okay, I suspected that Red Hat Melons was where my neighbor was going and bringing back these fantastic, awesome, best-ever melons and sharing with us — and our neighbor confirmed that this is the case. My husband is the melon fan in our house and he has been over the MOON about this. Even I think they smell good and have tried them, and normally I won’t touch melon of any kind. (Red Hat is in Corvallis, off Hwy 20 and Garden Ave., and can be found at the Farmers Markets as well.) The chickens are in heaven too, since they get treats of whatever we can’t finish. And… a comment I’ve been wanting to make in general: Collectively, we have to get over our bias towards “perfect” produce. That stuff doesn’t always have the best taste. Something with a little dirt on it, or slightly bruised or blemished,...
Check out the article in today’s GT about this event. I just went and looked again at all the participating sites and I realize, I’ve only ever visited four of them. What a great opportunity to visit some new places and help a worthy cause at the same time. The event runs from noon to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday, $10 passports are available at Corvallis Tourism Visitor’s Center as well as each of the tour sites.
I noticed a temporary stand on the corner of Hwy 20 and Garden Ave. (that’s the street by Texaco) — Red Hat Melons. If you like melon, you might want to get out there and check it out before they are gone. I also wanted to point out Kisler Farms. They are a bit off the beaten track and unless you already know about them or happen to catch sight of the sign on Hwy 20 & Garden Ave., you might never know they are out there. Their site confuses me because I thought they had more than tomato and peppers, but maybe I am thinking of someone else out that way. I’ll just have to take a drive out there and see what’s up! Edit: Okay, when I went by this morning I studied the signs — Kisler has tomatoes and peppers, and it’s Drahnacre Farms that has...
