Livin' in the Blurbs: Summer Pursuits

Always dreamed of living on a little farm in the countryside, growing your own food and raising livestock but you just can't quite swing the logistics? Find out what three city-dwellers are doing to realize their dreams right in the middle of densely populated Portland. Slow Food Portland is sponsoring a family-paced, three-mile bike tour of three urban homesteads on June 28. Columbia Ecovillage will show off their cooperative farm, Glen Andresen will share his urban apiary and Harriet Fasenfest of Preserve will talk about householding and putting up food.

Details: Grow by Bike: An Urban Homesteading Bike Tour. Sunday, June 28, 9:30-noon; $5, tickets available online.

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It's all-organic, all the time at the North American Organic Brewers Festival at Overlook Park the weekend of June 26 through 29. It's bigger and better than ever this year, with 42 breweries from all over the globe bringing (at last count) 78 beers to this festival celebrating the goodness that is organic beer. In its fifth year, the beers will cover the gamut from pilsner to porter, amber ale to Belgian wit with plenty of Northwest India Pale Ales thrown into the mix. Don't miss it!

Details: North American Organic Brewers Festival. June 26-28; noon-9 pm Fri.-Sat., noon-5 pm Sun.; free, with $6 for participation in beer tasting and $1 a ticket for samples. Overlook Park, 1301 N. Fremont St. at the intersection with Interstate Ave.

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Gardening season has taken off at full speed, but you can still jump on the train with the great classes at Farmington Gardens in Beaverton. The instruction is geared to everyone from beginning gardeners to those with a few seasons under their belts, and they are totally free (though preregistration is encouraged), so check out the upcoming schedule:

• July 18, 10 am: Creating a Children’s Garden with Kristien Forness, Landscape Designer
• July 26, 1 pm: Succulent Container Gardens with Leah McDonald
• August. 2, noon: Eating Seasonally from the Garden with Rose Marie Nichols McGee
• August 15, 1 pm: Improving the Value of Your Home Through Landscaping with Vicki Burr and Ron Phillips

Details: Classes at Farmington Gardens. Free with preregistration. Farmington Gardens, 21815 SW Farmington Rd. Phone 503-649-4568.

Livin' in the Blurbs: Cheese, Beer and a Very Pink Sesquicentennial

Our pal Tami at Pacific NW Cheese says that it's Seattle Cheese Festival time. "If you go, you are guaranteed a complete cheese experience...there will be seminars about cheese. There will be cheese tasting booths as far as the eye can see, featuring local cheeses as well as cheeses from around the world. For the more cooking inclined, there will be chef demos. Want to try your own hand with cheese? The grilled cheese contest deadline is May 1st, and the winner will demo their own recipe at the festival. For the home cheese experimenters, there will be mozzarella making demos by the staff at DeLaurenti Speciality Food and Wine. You can also expect kids' events, wine tastings and more." 'Nuff said!

Details: Seattle Cheese Festival. May 16-17. Pike Place Market, Seattle. For more in-depth info about the festival including an event schedule and to register for seminars, see the SCF website.

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If you, like my husband, think that beer is the perfect food, then this is the festival for you because not only is it all beer it's all organic, which makes it practically good for you, too! The North American Organic Brewers Festival, which last year gathered more than 75 beers under its tent flaps, benefits the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the Oregon Food Bank and Oregon Tilth.

Details: North American Organic Brewers Festival. June 26-28; Noon-9 pm Fri.-Sat., noon-5 pm Sun.; free with $6 for tasting glass, $1 per taste. Overlook Park, 1301 N Fremont St. 503-730-5597.

Photo by Umaya Urzaa.

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Last Saturday morning, as usual, we were reading the paper and listening to NPR's Scott Simon when who should we hear but Thomas Lauderdale of our own Pink Martini. He was talking about some wacky radio show that comedian Stan Freberg wrote for Oregon's centennial celebration in 1959. Titled "Oregon! Oregon! A Centennial Fable in Three Acts," it was pressed into vinyl and promptly forgotten. Recently retrieved, revived and rewritten by Freberg and Pink Martini, it will tour the state as part of the Oregon's Sesquicentennial celebration and have four performances around the state in August and September 2009. No dates have yet been set, but you can listen to the original 21-minute performance and start memorizing the words. And stay tuned for details.