Livin' in the Blurbs: Kicking Off Fall in Style

Chef Kathryn LaSusa Yeomans of The Farmer's Feast and farmer Roger Konka kick off another season of their field-to-pop-up dinners, raved by none other than GQ food critic Alan Richman as "a glorification of farm, field, woods and wild" in a review of one of their events last year. This dinner, titled "Sunday Supper Revival," focuses on fall, with wild mushrooms, corn, pork and huckleberries all picked, foraged or raised by Konka and his family at Springwater Farm, with a scattering of other ingredients from local producers. They've also landed a new location, at Tabor Bread on SE Hawthorne, and the dinner will feature its breads, as well. Incredibly affordable, incredibly delicious…what more could you ask?

Details: The Farmer's Feast Sunday Supper Revival. Sun., Oct. 6, 6 pm; $35 per person, excluding beverages & gratuity. Local wine & beer will be offered. Reservations required via e-mail or phone at
503-734-4329. Event at Tabor Bread, 5051 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

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Fall is festival time in the Northwest, celebrating all things artisan from local beers to charcuterie and all manner of handmade foodstuffs. One of the biggies the last few years has been The Wedge, Portland's paen to our rich dairy culture (pun intended) that benefits the Oregon Cheese Guild, which helps promote and support our exceptional cheesemakers. This year's festival features no fewer than 30 specialty and artisan cheesemakers, craft breweries and food producers from across the Northwest who are coming together to celebrate cheese. Sample, sip and support these local artisans!

Details: The Wedge, Portland's Celebration of Local Cheese. Sat., Oct. 5, Noon-5 pm; $5 donation suggested. Event at the Green Dragon Bistro and Brew Pub and environs, 928 SE 9th St. 503-616-4443.

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Good event spaces in Northeast Portland are hard to come by. The ones that are available can be too small or too cavernous or a little down-at-the-heels. Which is why I was pleased to come across the Red Rose Ballroom, a 4,600 square foot ballroom built in 1925 that has been renovated and reopened as a creative events space in the last couple of weeks. It's big enough for large events, but doesn't feel too big for smaller events, and the wood floor had me feeling like waltzing. Check it out!

Details: Red Rose Ballroom, 1829 NE Alberta St. 415-285-1285.

Top photo by Kathryn LaSusa Yeomans. Cheese photo by Tami Parr of Pacific NW Cheese.

Food Farmer Earth: Anatomy of a Pop-up Restaurant

In this interview for Food Farmer Earth, I talk with Kathryn LaSusa-Yeomans of The Farmer's Feast, who dissects the elements that go into making her incredibly successful pop-up restaurant experiences.

“What’s a pop-up?”

It’s the question that Kathryn LaSusa Yeomans gets asked the most about her recent venture. A seasoned chef who early in her career trained with the likes of Lidia Bastianich and Diana Kennedy, Yeomans worked in restaurants in her home state of New York and in her adopted home in Portland, Oregon.

At a certain point, though, she needed to break free of the constraints of restaurant kitchens to pursue her dream of teaching people to cook using market-fresh, seasonal ingredients. With the birth of her own company, The Farmer’s Feast, she started doing cooking classes at area farmers’ markets, as well as for Roger Konka’s Springwater Farm, demonstrating how to cook with his foraged greens and mushrooms.

It was Konka who first suggested selling food as well as doing demonstrations, and it wasn’t long before there was talk of holding dinners for their growing throng of fans. They’d been renting space in a local restaurant for their commissary kitchen, and the owner was enthusiastic about having them use the place for dinners on nights when the restaurant was closed.

Read the rest of the article.

Watch part two of the interview with Kathryn, Teaching From the Source. In this week's kitchen segment, Kathryn shows how incredibly simple it is to make a basic risotto. To get regular updates on local producers featured on Food Farmer Earth, consider a free subscription.

Truffle Haiku: The People's Turn to Choose!

Diamonds? Meh. Couture gown? Sigh. A little red sports car? I dunno. But give me an Oregon truffle, particularly shaved over pasta or a rich risotto, and I'm all yours, baby.

My friend Kathryn LaSusa Yeomans, chef and mistress of the markets at Roger Konka and Norma Cravens' Springwater Farm, loves the subterranean fungal fruit as much as I do, and runs a truffle haiku contest on Valentine's Day every year for those moved to poetry over the subject. This year's winner was announced yesterday on her blog, The Farmer's Feast, and now is your chance to pick the People's Choice award for the 17 syllables that best describe the euphoria brought on by Oregon's native truffle.

So scan, analyze or just close your eyes and point at the screen to pick your favorite. Leave your name (or pseudonym) and the number of your choice in the Comments below. The haiku with the most votes will win a prize for the writer, and a winner will be drawn (and a prize awarded) from those who voted for it. Both will be announced at noon on Monday, Feb. 21, so pick your winner now and check back on Monday!

1:
Hidden Dame Truffles
Black and White Knobs of Pleasure
How My Mouth Waters

2:
First befriend a swine
Next profess your Truffle wish:
“Bejewel my pasta”

3:
Rooted from the damp earth
a little bit of heaven
sautéed for dinner

4:
Black or white delight
on all my favorite dishes
so trufflicious

5:
A kiss on her lips
A trifle for a truffle
A heart on a sleeve

6:
They lie underground
Waiting to be discovered
Heaven in the dirt

7:
Truffles, you grow in the ground
Pigs love you.
We love you also

8:
Some may dare call you
ascomycetous fungus
But truffles, you’re loved.

9:
I’m the hunter pig.
I am going to find you.
Truffles, you are MINE!

10:
Trufficulteurs find
some bumpy, wrinkled masses.
Thankful evermore.

11:

Underneath the duff
There lies most marvelous stuff
Treasures of Truffles

12:
Oh! Dew Drop Riches
Forested in your niches
Take me there again

13:
The foragers gaze
Only broken by smiles
In bountiful woods

14:
Black and white are tight
on all my favorite dishes,
so trufflicious!

15:
Dirt worm chance
My pig’s nose
Found it and an arrowhead.

16:
Truffle dance,
melt sensuously in
to the void I fear.

17:
It was our first time
You and I unearthed much more
Now we search as one

18:
How best to woo you?
Shaved lightly over pasta
Fragrant lumps of love

Photos above by Kathryn LaSusa Yeomans.

Market in the Making

"And up from the ground came a bubblin' crude…"

- Theme song from The Beverly Hillbillies

Like when Jed Clampett was shootin' at some food, Roger Konka and Norma Cravens saw an empty lot just off a nascent restaurant row on Northeast Killingsworth and what bubbled up before their eyes was a spot where they could sell their bounty of wild and cultivated mushrooms. A weed-covered emptiness, the lot was owned by a friend of Roger's. Of course, it didn't hurt that it was right across the street from Beast, perennially named one of Portland's best restaurants, and just down the block from Yakuza Lounge, Fats pub, Autentica, DOC and funky breakfast spot Cup and Saucer.

An instant hit, it didn't hurt that chef (and GSNW contributor) Kathryn LaSusa Yeomans (left) was dishing out samples of her crazy cream of mushroom soup, along with a rotating cast that included her bean stews, polenta with lamb and a heavenly apple crisp. (Try walking by that without stopping on a chilly Saturday. I dare you.)

Then, within a week they were joined by Hood River's Draper Girls, selling not only their signature fruit, but fresh-pressed cider, dried beans, pork and lamb. And just last week Nancy Chandlers' hugely popular Alsea Acre Goat Cheese joined them with her nearly impossible-to-resist herbed cheese spreads.

Apparently other vendors are clamoring to join them, so this little market may be going viral. I'll keep you posted on what bubbles up next.

Details: Urban Farm Market. Saturdays, 10 am-3 pm. NE 30th and Emerson, 1 block south of Killingsworth.