Food & Beverage

Fresh Pumpkin Soup

Two notes before I post this recipe: 1. I took a photo of the finished soup, but it was at that very moment that the SD card in my phone decided that it hated me and turned itself into a worthless sliver of plastic. Luckily I had this adorable photo to fall back on. Right? This is better than a bowl of orange soup. 2. I’m really bad with measurements and am always adding a dash of this or that, but I got the basics down for this recipe. If you feel adjustments are necessary, or want to try it with different spices, feel free. Oh, wait, three notes: 3. I used a pie pumpkin, but there are many people who say that field pumpkins are just fine for cooking. You may need to drain off extra moisture. Fresh Pumpkin Soup 1 medium pumpkin (yielding about 3 cups of...

Vino Veritas

By Kate

You may have noticed an ad at the top of the blog, which is something I’m trying out for a while. It’s not a paid ad, but rather, I’ve donated the space to Three Crows Media to help them promote their wine movie, Vino Veritas. Clicking on the ad will take you to their Facebook page where they are currently hosting a drawing to win a bottle of wine! If you follow the link below – which goes to a Kickstarter fund raising page – you can see a nice little trailer for the film, plus some footage of the filmmakers talking about the project. If you can’t see the widget above, try this link.

Blackberry Cobbler

By Kate

Made this fantastic cobbler the other day… blackberries came from the back yard, local milk, butter and flour. The only thing not local is the sugar! The recipe is from The Pioneer Woman and is a bit different than what I think of as cobbler (I’m picturing the kind with the crumbly crust/topping), but it really tasted great. Couldn’t be easier to prepare, either. The self-rising flour can be replaced with 1 cup of local all-purpose flour sifted together with 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder, plus 1/8 teaspoons salt. I ignored the bit about whipped topping from a can and went with vanilla ice cream, of course!

Freezer Jams: An Easy Start to Preserving

By Kate

I had grand plans for learning how to preserve food this summer. Had all my equipment ready, the Ball Blue Book to Preserving standing by, websites bookmarked… I was going to DO THIS THING! And then we decided to tear apart our kitchen: Oh. Gamely, I made one batch of cherry jam with some cherries we’d picked from Detering Orchards. I think it came out quite well in the end, but without some handy counter space, it was more of a chore than I wanted to deal with for the rest of the summer however long this renovation takes. Sad, but lazy, I decided to think more in the short-term and turned to freezer jam & refrigerated pickles. Freezer jam is a simple process of washing/peeling/chopping your fruit and combining it with sugar and sometimes lemon juice, boiling the pectin for one minute, mixing it all together and filling...

Hazelnuts

By Kate

We all know how plentiful hazelnuts are here in the beautiful Willamette Valley, lucky for us! According to the Pacific Hazelnut Candy Factory, located in Aurora, the first hazelnut tree was planted in Oregon around 1857. Our climate is just right for these tasty & versatile tree nuts. Sometime next month, you’ll be able to start harvesting your backyard trees, if you’ve got them. If you’d like to check out some bigger operations, visit the Hazelnut Hill shop in Corvallis (at milepost 95 between the towns of Corvallis & Monroe on Hwy 99 West), or observe through the windows at the Pacific Hazelnut Candy Factory (about an hour and 20 minutes northeast of Albany). Want some recipes? The Hazelnut Council has some that… that… um… where was I? Sorry, I got distracted by the cinnamon… rolls…

Buy Local: Honey

By Kate

I bookmarked this post from Fair Food Fight ages ago after following a link from Twitter. I keep meaning to post it, but keep getting a little overwhelmed by the information. “The honey trade is anything but simple, however, namely because the U.S. is so dependent on foreign honey – 60-70% of our honey is imported, much of it from China. Making matters worse, in 2002, 2003, and 2007, U.S. Customs seized multiple Chinese honey shipments that were tainted with antibiotics banned in the U.S., including chloramphenicol, a chemical that has been linked to serious blood disorders.” Both the blog post and the series over at the Seattle P.I. – Honey Laundering – are worth the time to read. The information about labeling (it’s the usual news… labels don’t mean jack) is an especially good reminder that we shouldn’t necessarily be paying more for something labeled “organic” or “pure”....

Pig share opportunity

By Kate

Recently, I discovered an opportunity in nearby Salem to take part in a “pig-share”. For $450, one can purchase a share of a sow and receive two of her pigs the following year. The farm raises the pigs on pasture (they’re being raised on a 15-acre blackberry patch) and will deliver them to Mt. Angel Meats in April of next year for processing. The customer pays for processing at that time. As I look at prices for local, pastured pork, I am finding this to be a really excellent deal (even with the driving I’ll need to do to pick up the meat!). Each pig will be no less than 200 pounds live weight, which could yield anywhere between 100 – 140 lbs of cuts, according to this handy chart. We wanted to keep one pig ourselves, but didn’t think we could handle two, so I worked with two...

Preservation Basics Class in Corvallis

By Kate

Starting this weekend, there’s a course of preservation classes taking place in Corvallis. There are also open classes taking place starting in August. Check out the flier below for details.

Harry and Annette’s Fresh Fish

By Kate

I have been remiss by not posting about Harry and Annette’s Fresh Fish before now. How could I forget? We stopped in yesterday and found the most amazing, buttery, melt-in-your mouth smoked black cod. That was dinner last night, along with some bread, brie, and an Oregon Pino Gris from Oak Knoll Winery… and at this very moment I am regretting encouraging my husband to take the last little bit of the cod to work for lunch. Drat! At Harry and Annette’s, you’ll find wonderful fresh and smoked fish, live crabs, smoked salmon pâté, and more. On our very first visit, Harry invited us into the back to see the smoker, clearly proud of his work and the fish that they offer in the shop — with good reason! We also discovered that as of this last weekend, the shop is offering selections from the Willamette Cheese Company, Sweet Briar...

Are you growing sage in your garden?

By Kate

I am, and I have a pretty limited range of uses. I like it with butternut squash. In fact, butternut squash ravioli with a light topping of crispy sage & browned butter is my idea of a nearly perfect dish. What else. Oh, it’s good on turkey & in the dressing at Thanksgiving, of course. And then I just kind of forget it’s out there. Like “sage = fall” in my mind or something. But my sage plant is lovely and healthy and I really want to use what I’ve got growing in the garden! I was happy, then, to see this post from from Chocolate & Zucchini yesterday on 45 things to do with fresh sage, many of which would make the basis for a wonderful summer dinner. How about you, readers? Anyone have some additional ideas for fresh sage?

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Food & Beverage

Fresh Pumpkin Soup

Vino Veritas

Blackberry Cobbler

Freezer Jams: An Easy Start to Preserving

Hazelnuts

Buy Local: Honey

Pig share opportunity

Preservation Basics Class in Corvallis

Harry and Annette’s Fresh Fish

Are you growing sage in your garden?

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