Can Portland Outgrow Hunger?

Portland is, without question, among the cities at the forefront of the local food movement in the United States. Wherever I travel, whether across the country or even to outside of it, people have heard of our vibrant food culture. They're floored by the number of farmers' markets we have (more than 60 during peak harvest season), our thriving artisan food scene, the overwhelming number of restaurants featuring field-to-plate menus and the number of supermarkets purchasing produce and artisan foods from local sources.

Where we're still challenged is in providing access to fresh, local food to those people on the margins of our economy, who don't have the budget or the experience to make it a part of their diets. We've made some inroads by providing SNAP (food stamp) recipients with matching funds for purchasing farmers' market produce as well as access to CSA shares. Local non-profits like Zenger Farm, Growing Gardens, Grow Portland and others are committed to educating the public and providing garden space and access to food to low-income and immigrant communities.

A new local organization, Outgrowing Hunger, is joining the effort to get healthy food to hungry people by transforming unused private, public and institutional land into neighborhood gardens. It's already brought neighbors together to turn two locations in Portland's Rosewood neighborhood into productive gardens, providing those who help in the garden a share of whatever is ripe that day, often several meals worth of fresh produce for each family.

On Saturday, Oct. 26, Outgrowing Hunger is partnering with Slow Food Portland to host an inaugural fundraising event, a harvest dinner cooked by local chefs from produce grown on its projects. It'll be a chance to not only have a terrific dinner, but also to learn about the difficulties and opportunities of serving hungry people and how your support for a wide range of community-based garden projects can make a lasting difference.

Details: Harvest Dinner Fundraiser for Outgrowing Hunger. Sat., Oct. 26, 3-7 pm; tickets $25, available online. Event at Neighborhoods Community Garden, 835 SE 162nd Ave.

Potatoes with a Northwest Flavor

I have to begin this post with a disclaimer: My husband, though he's lived here for several decades and now considers himself an Oregonian, descends from a long line of New England potato farmers, famous for growing varieties with names like Kennebec, Katahdin and Green Mountain. Growing up, the children of his small town in Maine were let out of school for a period in the fall to help with the potato harvest. He is quick to tell of the time that his right arm was pulled into the potato harvester when his sleeve caught in it, and of the child whose arm had to be amputated in the field in a similar incident.

This history also means that he considers any potatoes grown elsewhere as inferior, pooh-poohing them as being "grown in sand" rather than in the rich soil of his native land. Though I think he would cede some props to the Ozette potato, a variety that was brought to the Northwest by Spanish explorers more than two centuries ago.

Originally picked up by the Spaniards in South America, the potatoes came on ships sent to establish beachheads on the west coast of America. One fort was built on the northwestern tip of what is now Washington state, where the Pacific meets mouth of the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Apparently the settlement didn't work out for the Spanish, and they left after only one year.

The native people of the area, members of the Makah tribe, found the potatoes in the overgrown gardens of the settlement and propagated them, naming this new food after one of the five villages in the area of Neah Bay. Because of the relative isolation of the region, these small, flavorful fingerlings maintained their unique heritage and weren't known to the outside world until the 1980s.

The Ozette potato was cataloged and seed was grown outside the region, and in 2005 it was added to the Slow Food Ark of Taste. In 2006 a partnership called a Presidium was formed to promote the potato and encourage farmers and individuals to grow it. Recently the Herbfarm in Washington offered seed to Northwest gardeners, and my neighbor Susana, co-owner of Portland's Culinary Workshop, volunteered to grow them in in the workshop's large vegetable garden.

If you're interested in growing this native potato yourself, check out the links above for information on where to get your own seed. I'll keep you posted as Susana's grow!

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.