Livin' in the Blurbs: To Bee or Not To Bee…

First chickens, then goats. Now being into bees is the latest preoccupation among urban agriculturists in this most ag-obsessed city. In its third year, the Tour de Hives not only celebrates this industrious pollinator, it gives enthusiasts (wannabees?) the opportunity to learn what's going on in the backyards of other apiarists and learn the secrets of their success. Coinciding with National Bee Day on August 18 and organized by the Zenger Farm Bee Group, the tour will feature hives in the North, Northeast, Southeast and Gladstone areas. Best of all, the day is capped by lifting pints and discussing the finer points of beekeeping at the Lucky Lab pub. Now to organize an urban pig tour followed by a smoke-off…

Details: Tour de Hives organized by the Zenger Farm Bee Group. Sun., Aug. 18, 1-4 pm; post-event gathering at Lucky Lab at 915 SE Hawthorne, 4-6 pm. Tickets $5-$15 sliding scale with preregistration.

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For those too squeamish (or allergic) to want to put in their own beehives, there are ways to promote these infinitely useful invertebrates. One Northeast neighborhood has organized the Sabin Bee-Friendly Front Garden Tour that shows how easy and beautiful it is to plant a bee-friendly habitat. With 30 neighborhood homes participating, the tour is self-guided and you can peruse the gardens at your leisure all summer long. Even more helpful, there's an audio track available narrated by the homeowners themselves talking about their gardens. It's a great opportunity to learn a lot with little effort other than taking a walk through this lovely area.

Details: Sabin Bee-Friendly Garden Tour. Map available online or at Livingscape, Garden Fever or the Backyard Bird Shop Fremont location. Narrated audio track can be heard at 503-205-0326. For more information e-mail Diane Benson.

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And if the above activities aren't enough for you, or you get insanely inspired and become convinced bees are your new life's calling, there are several places you can get your bee on, learn more about hives and talk to your heart's content with other bee enthusiasts. (Don't you love living in Portland?) Check out these places for information:

• Zenger Farm Bee Group meets monthly and cares for the farm's hives.
• Naomi's Organic Farm Supply has classes, information and supplies.
• Ruhl Bee Supply, at 114 years the oldest bee supply company in town, has classes, info and supplies.
• Livingscape has supplies and information for home beekeeping.
• Bee Thinking has supplies and information about top bar hives.
• Portland Urban Beekeepers meets monthly.
• Portland Metro Beekeepers Association meets the second Thurs. of the month.
• Tualatin Valley Beekeepers Association meets the last Wed. of the month.
• Clark County (WA) Beekeepers Association meets the second Thurs. of the month.
• Oregon State Beekeepers Association has listings and information.
• Xerces Society is an organization dedicated to promoting and preserving pollinators. Lots of info here.

Quick Hits: Retrolicious and Pah Dee

If you somehow miss the bright pink food truck with its flock of pink flamingos, look for the Jetsons vintage t-shirt and the beaming smile on the face of Kimmie, the owner and head Retro-teer of the Retrolicious food cart.

A friend and I stopped in at lunchtime and I was instantly hypnotized by the description of their version of the Cubano sandwich called Damn That Castro. They give it the panini treatment, that is, pressed and grilled,  yet it was still a substantial hunk of a sando, with big slabs of fall-apart tender pork, pickled onions, aioli and just the right amount of melted, gooey cheese.

The potato salad on the side was of the vinaigrette-dressing style rather than a mayo-egg version, and quite nice. Word has it their crispy chicken and mac'n'cheese is awesome, too…and with a BLT, meatloaf, grilled cheese and chicken-and-waffles, this place looks like a hit.

Details: Retrolicious, 1930 NE Everett in the Green Castle cart pod. 541-409-9271.

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Ever since my brother moved his wine shop, Vino, to the perennially hip-and-happening food mecca that is 28th Avenue, I've been watching the corner of 28th and Burnside transform from depressingly dingy to downright dazzling. And with the addition of Pah Dee Thai in the spot formerly occupied by the scary darkness of Hungry Tiger Chinese, the transformation is complete.

On a recent summer afternoon the sliding windows were open and tables were dotting the sidewalk, making the walls almost disappear and allowing the breeze to cool the intimate yet comfortable interior.

A friend and I opted to share a couple of plates, and we were knocked out by the lemongrass shrimp salad. A base of romaine lettuce has enough structure to stand up nicely to a scattering of cilantro topped with sautéed tail-on shrimp and lemongrass in a warm fish sauce-inspired dressing. So fresh and full of the deep umami-ness that can prove dangerously addictive, the memory of this dish will have me coming back again, and soon.

Details: Pah Dee, 6 SE 28th Ave. 503-360-1453.

Rice Two Ways

The reasons I love contributor Jim Dixon's recipes are that they're invariably easy, they use seasonal (and even leftover) ingredients and he's not dogmatic in his approach. In this post he takes on that most seventies of grains, brown rice. And, as he mentions, you should feel free to substitute good quality brown rice for the Kokuho.

I love the brown rice I get from Koda Farms. I never really liked brown rice before I started eating Koda’s Kokuho Rose heirloom varietal, but to be fair, that other stuff was probably cooked poorly. The Koda rice requires some effort (soak, cook, rest, fluff, rest; I use a rice cooker, and the whole process takes more than an hour) to taste good, and maybe if all that brown rice I didn’t like had been given the same attention it would’ve been better.


I don’t mind taking the time to make the Koda rice, but lately I’ve tried using the Italian approach: cook it like pasta. Add the rice (without soaking) to a pot of well-salted boiling water, keep it boiling for 30 minutes, drain, return to the pot and let it sit, covered, for 15 minutes. The rice emerges fluffy and a little less sticky than the rice cooker version.

Sometimes I want that, like when I’m serving the rice alongside something hot and savory. But the Italian method gives me the perfect rice for a composed salad like this.

Brown Rice, Corn, & Mint Salad

The “composition” of most of the salads I make depends on what kind of leftovers I have. In this case, a few ears of roasted corn from a few nights earlier. I sliced the kernels off the cob while a chopped onion soaked in a bowl of Katz Late Harvest Zinfandel vinegar. I combined all that with a handful of mint from the garden, chopped roughly, and a generous pour of extra virgin olive oil. A good sprinkle of flor de sal and it was ready.

You don’t need leftover corn to make rice salad. Just take a look in the refrigerator, add something from the garden or market, and use plenty of good olive oil and vinegar. But have some rice ready to go, too.

Farm Bulletin: A Question of Strawberries

Decisions, decisions. That's what it's all about, even on a farm. Contributor Anthony Boutard discusses his process when it comes to choosing what works for Ayers Creek Farm. As well as what doesn't.

A couple weeks ago in the Hillsdale Farmers' Market newsletter, assistant manager Sarah West noted that one of the most frequently requested foods at the information stall are organic strawberries. It interested us because we have often toyed with the idea of growing strawberries, and the lack of this crop illustrates some of the challenges farmers face when deciding what crops to grow.

As organic growers, our stall should put to rest the claim that certain crops can't be grown organically. That is a prevarication, not a fact. Dependency upon synthetic crop inputs is relatively recent, and there is no crop that we can think of can't be produced without them. In fact, strawberries have naturalized on our farm and we find the occasional plant with the most sublime fruit you could ever dream of.  The lack of organic strawberries has nothing to do with organic farming, instead it is largely due to the historical structure of agriculture in Oregon. 

In 1965, there were roughly 14,000 acres of strawberries harvested in the state. Most of the crop was sent to processors for making jam and pie filling. By 1990, the acreage had dropped by half, and in 1999 it halved again to about 3,500 acres. Currently, the harvested acreage is fluctuating between 1,700 and 2,000 acres. These data show the change that has happened in the industry. Most of the strawberry producers gained their experience in the processor market and, as it collapsed, shifted to fresh market as the processors left the state or started using imported fruit. Historically, many of those growers had roadside stands and, as the shift occurred, they used that experience to move into fresh market. Most of the strawberry acreage shifted over to a more lucrative form of farming, nursery production.

There was no tradition of organic strawberry production in Oregon, so it is hardly surprising that as the industry shrank all of the remaining strawberry growers used synthetic inputs. At this point, growing fresh market strawberries is an "old sector" and there is no economic incentive for a young farm to make the substantial investment to grow the crop. Berry prices across the board are too cheap for a farmer considering a new planting. Beets and lettuce are a better investment for people entering the business: small package of seed, lots sweat equity with a low risk of failure due to weather. With fruit, a few hours or days of ill-timed rain and the farmer has to contend with the disappointment of losing a substantial chunk of income, as well as upset customers. So the cohort  most likely to bring an expertise in organic farming, young farmers, have little reason to consider fruit because the older cohort, and that includes us at Ayers Creek, have made our investment and suppress fruit prices.

There is an additional twist that is integral to our character as organic growers, and the reason why we answer "no" whenever we consider strawberries. Over the past half century, strawberry varieties have been selected and reselected in breeding programs that use synthetic fertilizers, aggressive soil sterilization, fungicides and insecticides. At the present, there are no varieties that have gone through a selection process for robust performance on organic farms. So we would be starting with debilitated plants that are essentially chemically dependent. In fact, all of the commercially available strawberry plants are grown in chemically fumigated soils and that sets up additional restrictions under the rules of organic agriculture. That is an additional barrier that can change, but as long as the price of strawberries remains so low there is no economic incentive for a shift toward organic breeding programs. 

Those naturalized strawberries we encounter from time to time gave us an idea about seven years ago. We dug up several hundred and planted them in a managed field. Our goal was to find a population with good natural resistance to disease and replicate the interesting diversity of flavors we found in those volunteers. Similar to what Frank and Karen Morton do with their lettuces. The wildlings, as we called them, were really good and we discovered we were really bad at growing strawberries. The farm has to be a good match with the farmers' personality, and we grow other crops with greater pleasure and success.

Smaller photos of strawberry plants from OregonStrawberries.org.

Camp Stories: A Weekend in Paradise

There are some traditions in my family that are not to be messed with: Christmas dinner means turkey and fixin's…no suggestions of ham, lamb or other funny business allowed. Same goes for Thanksgiving. And Friday evenings are invariably kicked off with Dave's martinis garnished with Spanish anchovy-stuffed olives.

Instant classic: the Sierra cup martini.

Now it looks like the fourth of July is becoming another don't-mess-with-the-best formula: a minimum of three nights of tent camping with a group of four couples sharing food and drink at what has been officially voted (by us) as a 10-out-of-10 campground, Paradise Creek in the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest just north of Carson, Washington.

Classy glassware? Who needs it?

A mere 90 minutes from Portland, it's pretty primitive, meaning no showers, flush toilets or hook-ups for big rigs. But that also means it's devoid of roaring generators, loud music and crowds of marauding children on dirt bikes. Instead the air is filled with the smell of campfire smoke and the sound of the small creek that flows by, and the night sky through the trees is studded with millions of stars.

New classic: Coney sauce.

This year we had dibs on making dinner the first night, so instead of trying to relive the success of last year's campfire posole I decided to try my hand at that hallowed American specialty known as the Coney Island hot dog. What I came up with is definitely a twist on the traditional, but what can you expect from someone who grew up on the left coast?

And the dogs were no Ball Park Franks or even Hebrew National, but a selection from local purveyors Olympic Provisions and Chop. Both types got raves, by the way, though I have to say I really liked the flavor and heft of the Chop dogs. And the sauce is one I'll pull out for a backyard BBQ soon, sided by some potato salad or coleslaw.

Coney Island Hot Dog Sauce

2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 lbs. lean ground beef
3 lg yellow onions, chopped fine
3 lg cloves garlic, minced
1/2 Tbsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 Tbsp. white vinegar
4 Tbsp. ancho chile powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes or hot chile powder
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 Tbsp. salt
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 6-oz. cans tomato paste
4 c. water

Heat a large Dutch oven on medium heat and add oil. When it shimmers, add ground beef and brown. Add onions and garlic and sauté till tender. Add garlic powder, vinegar, chile powders, cinnamon, cumin, salt and allspice and stir until fragrant. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Continue simmering for 3 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally to make sure it doesn't stick. Makes about 10 cups of sauce.

Read other Camp Stories in the series: Trout Creek Campground, Shadow Bay at Waldo Lake, LaPine State Park, Indian Crossing Campground, Frog Lake Campground, Patrick's Point State Park, Harris Beach State Park and Moss Creek Campground and last year's trip to Paradise Creek.

Garden 2012: Leaps and Bounds

A picture is indeed worth a thousand words. All I have to do is go back one month and look at the photos of the garden back then. Tomato starts just put into the ground. Teeny baby lettuces beginning to sprout from the seeds I'd planted.

Then take a gander at the salad greens above taken a couple of days ago…and that's after two hefty harvests the week before.

Wow.

The tomatoes (left), as foretold by wise gardeners I talked to, have taken off with the advent of warmer soil temperatures, some even starting to set fruit. The kale, still in the baby stage, should provide some good eatin' later in the summer and throughout the winter and spring. It's still a little early to tell if it'll be a good year for peppers, but hope springs eternal.

See? There is a reason I write this blog. Even if it just reminds me how quickly my garden grows.

Getting a Charge at Freddie's

I have to admit that I don't get into our neighborhood Freddie's very often, and when I do it's a quick in/quick out sort of trip. So when I saw this electric car charging station in the parking lot, I got…well…all charged up, even though our Chili isn't that sort of car.

Apparently ECOtality, the electric transportation and storage technologies company, struck a deal in 2011 with Kroger, which owns Fred Meyer, to install these chargers at designated stores Oregon and Washington. The Hollywood location, at 3030 NE Weidler St., was the first in the nation to install a fast-charging station, which can charge a Nissan Leaf's battery with up to 80 percent battery capacity within 30 minutes. More fast-charging stations are planned at other locations in the near future.

Just in time to pick up a few items at the store, methinks. Interesting strategy!

Quick Hits: Bollywood Theater & Eastmoreland Market

Right after we moved into our NE Portland neighborhood I made a complete food of myself after smelling the intoxicating aroma of smoky barbecue coming from someplace nearby. I wandered down the street, nose in the air, trying to discern from which back yard it was wafting. Fortunately, the surprised neighbor I hailed from the sidewalk was kind enough to offer me a rib rather than sicking his dog on me.

I similarly lose my senses when it comes to the herbs and spices of the various regional cuisines of India. All it takes is a hint of curry or tamarind, and I'm totally in the thrall of their sumptuous richness. Sadly, Portland has very few restaurants that do this country justice, most content to offer copies of the same old curries and stews, dals and raita.

Now comes a glimmer of hope that…be still my heart…we may be blessed with an establishment that truly understands this most diverse of culinary traditions. Troy McLarty, an alum of Chez Panisse and, more recently, at the much-lauded Lovely Hula Hands, has opened Bollywood Theater on NE Alberta, and a recent lunch there with a friend bodes well for the future.

Charmingly appointed with Indian tchotchkes and wall murals, Bollywood Theater does much, much more than get the sound track right. The menu, comprised of small plates of street food as well as curries (called Thali Meals) and vegetable sides, knows its samosas from its chutneys. The papri chaat, housemade crackers topped with chickpeas and potatoes drizzled with yogurt, tamarind chutney and cilantro, were fresh, creamy and crunchy and a great starter to munch on while we decided what else to order.

Goan-style shrimp was several big, juicy, tenderly moist shrimp in a rich coconut chile sauce with saffron rice. The beet salad, chunks of roasted beets with coconut milk and curry leaves, was one of the best beet dishes I've ever had and may be making an appearance here at the house this summer. I have to say that the dal, described as lentils simmered with spices, was a little blah compared to the other dishes but was far from disappointing.

Suffice it to say that this is a great, reasonably priced place to stop in for a snack or meal, and one that may draw you in again with its magical allure.

Details: Bollywood Theater, 2039 NE Alberta. 971-200-4711.

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Another magical place that draws me back again and again to its deep Southeast location is the Eastmoreland Market & Kitchen. Partly it's the Brigadoon-like surprise of finding not just a cute little café buried deep in the tony neighborhood surrounding Reed College, but more because of the consistently outstanding quality of its offerings, almost all of which are made on the premises.

In the morning its a sleepy little meeting spot for parents who've just dropped their kids off at nearby Duniway grade school or a place for dog-walking denizens to get their caffeine on. At lunch there are a dozen or so sandwiches on offer, most served with a side of chips and a wedge of nice pickle, along with deli salads from the case and daily soups.

Afternoons are dedicated to the previously mentioned coffees and menu items, plus beverages that include beer, wines and sodas. There's also the "market" side of the mathematical equation, which offers a broad selection of imported foods, meats and cheeses plus basics like boxed cereals and sundries, and they do a good business in take-out cold cuts and dinners from the kitchen before they close in the early evening.

A lunch stop the other day during one of the aforementioned dog-walking junkets had me ordering the house Cubano (top photo), a hefty roll packed with house-roasted pork, ham, assorted pickled vegetables and aioli that was mouth-wateringly satisfying. My dining and walking companion ordered the bocadillo de calamari (right) featuring fried calamari on a baguette with jamon serrano, manchego and aioli, a nigh-perfect combination of fried crunchiness and tender squid with an underlying smokiness. Wow.

I'd encourage you to seek out this little under-the-radar gem whether or not you've got errands in the neighborhood. It's that good.

Details: Eastmoreland Market & Kitchen, 3616 SE Knapp St. 503-771-1186.

Hopworks to World: Can It!

This man is Christian Ettinger. He owns a  brewery call Hopworks. Christian is happy. Very happy. Because he's achieved a big dream. A dream to put his beer in cans.

It was a dream that had to wait a long time. Wait until cans could keep his beer as perfect as the day it went into the can. Perfect from the instant you pop the top and take that first sip right up to the moment you drain it.

You'll find cans of Hopworks lager and IPA in local stores by this weekend. Which will make Christian even happier. Maybe happy enough that he'll make more beer and put it in cans. Which would make lots of Portland beer drinkers happy. Very happy.

Note: It's a can that also has a secret trick you can do with it. See the little red dot down at the bottom? The one that says, "Drink Responsibly"? It happens to be in just the right spot to shotgun the can of beer. But I wouldn't advise that, and neither would the brewery. No sir. It wouldn't be responsible.

More Corgi Cuteness: Shady Character

At the ripe young age of six, Walker still loves to find places to hide and nap, like under the dishwasher or,  in this case, under the small table on our porch.

The "L" Word: Clearing the Fridge

The other night I was totally stuck for something to make for dinner and didn't want to make a trip to the store. We had lots of odds and ends of leftovers (the "L" word around here) in the fridge, like a bit of roasted chicken that needed to be used, about three halves of various peppers that Dave had roasted on the grill the night before, four mushrooms and a half bunch of green onions that were looking a little sad.

There were also some garlic scapes a friend had given us from her garden, six baby Yukon Gold potatoes, a bag of greens from our own garden and several dozen eggs that had multiplied due to generous friends.

It was the eggs that finally made the lightbulb pop on. Since there weren't enough potatoes to make hash and I wanted to use up about a dozen eggs, the idea of a frittata seemed like the perfect solution. So I chopped up the veggies and threw them in our big nonstick skillet. When they'd cooked down to a tender pile, I threw those dozen or so eggs in a bowl, whisked them briefly and dumped them in the pan to seep into the hot vegetables.

While the frittata cooked, I rinsed and dried the greens and tossed them with my favorite dressing of olive oil and aged balsamic. When the eggs were mostly firm, all it took was a sprinkling of cheese, a brief visit under the broiler and dinner was ready.

Oh, and that roasted chicken? I'm having a curried chicken salad on the leftover greens for lunch as I write this.

Fridge Frittata

As mentioned above, this can be made from whatever vegetables or meats you happen to have on hand, sautéed and combined with eggs. Quick and easy, forgiving and always delicious, it's almost the perfect meal!

2 Tbsp. butter, margarine or olive oil
1/2 each green, red and ancho peppers, or about a heaping cup finely chopped
4 green onions, sliced into 1/8" slivers
4-6 mushrooms, halved and sliced thinly
5 garlic scapes, sliced in 1" pieces, leaving the bulbs intact
6 baby Yukon Gold potatoes (or the equivalent of 1 whole, chopped in 1/4" cubes)
12-14 eggs
1/2 c. cheese, grated
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter over medium heat until it sizzles. Add potatoes and sauté briefly till slightly tender. Add rest of vegetables and sauté until very tender. While vegetables are cooking, break eggs into a mixing bowl and stir until well-mixed, adding salt to taste. When vegetables are done, pour the eggs over the top, sprinkle on the cheese and cover the pan, reducing the heat to low.

When the eggs are cooked on the bottom and still runny on top, put the pan under the broiler briefly (don't walk away or get distracted like I sometimes do!). When eggs are lightly browned on top, remove the pan from the broiler.

To serve, run a spatula around the inside of the skillet to loosen the eggs. Then invert a serving platter over the skillet and, holding them firmly together, turn the platter and skillet upside down. The frittata should plop out of the skillet onto the platter.

Here Kitty Kitty

My friend Antonia Manda is a fabulously talented fabric designer, illustrator and artist, and I'm always knocked out by the creative touches she brings to everything around her.

Her garden is no exception, and when I saw these kitties* perched along the back wall of her garden, I just had to share them with you.

* Boxwood with small flower pots painted blue and turned upside down.

Food Farmer Earth: Awesome Kids, Awesome Farmers

In this interview for Food Farmer Earth, I talk with Mia Bartlett, program director of Supa Fresh Youth Farm, about how she came up with the idea to use an abandoned plot of land as a tool to teach her young clients about responsibility and healthy habits. To find out more about this series of interviews with local food producers, and to get some terrific recipes featuring the ingredients discussed, consider a free subscription.

Mia Bartlett (on right in photo at left), a career specialist with YouthSource, a program of the Oregon Human Development Corp., was walking her dog one day near Tigard. It wandered off, and she found it in what looked like an overgrown garden full of blackberries and rotting trees behind Durham Elementary School. She was struck by the thought that the small quarter-acre plot would be an ideal place for her teenage clients to start a garden.

In 2010, after a successful Kickstarter campaign, the donation of the land from the Tigard School District and additional funding from the U.S. Department of Labor's WorkSystems, Inc., the Supa Fresh Youth Farm was off and running. Its stated purpose is to train underserved teens in workforce skills, entrepreneurship, organic sustainable agriculture, nutrition and life skills.

Read the rest of the Supa Fresh Youth Farm story.

You Say Brew-shetta, I Say Brew-sketta

As regular readers know, Jim Dixon of RealGoodFood knows his Italian food. So when he says that the appetizer made with thinly sliced and toasted bread topped with all manner of delicious seasonal goodness is pronounced "brew-sketta," you'd best believe him. He's also working on expanding his selection of offerings and, if you're so inclined, you can give him a leg up by voting for him in the Chase Bank-Living Social grant contest. Details below the recipe.

Caramelized Onion, Caper & Sage Bruschetta

Let me get this little detail out of the way. It’s pronounced brew-sketta. Never brew-shetta, no matter what that sweet but not Italian-speaking server might call it. End of pronunciation rant.

I needed something to put on grilled bread this week. Onions in the pantry, sage in the garden and the newly-arrived Pantellerian capers (above, on the vine) seemed like a good idea. Slice a couple of yellow onions and start cooking them slowly in extra virgin olive oil; caramelizing onions takes time, so plan on at least 40 minutes.

While the onions are cooking, chop a handful of fresh sage leaves and a couple of anchovies and add them to the pan. Rinse the salt from a tablespoon or two of Pantellerian capers, chop them coarsely if you want (spreads the capery goodness around and keeps the little spheres from rolling off the bread), and add. A few chopped cloves of garlic are a good idea, too.

Let everything cook over a low flame until the onions start to brown, stirring occasionally. Grill or toast some good bread, drizzle with a bit of extra virgin, top with the onions, sprinkle on a bit of flor de sal, and eat. Then vote for Real Good Food.

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Hi. This is Jim, and I'm applying for a business grant offered by Chase Bank and Living Social. Real Good Food needs to grow, and while the chances of getting the grant are only slightly better than winning the lottery, completing the application has been a good first step in determining the best way to expand. Part of the process is getting at least 250 people to support my application. To help me continue offering you extra virgin olive oil and other delicious stuff, please go to the Mission: Small Business home page and click on the “Log in with Facebook” link. Enter Real Good Food in the search box, choose Oregon from the pull-down menu to the right (you can skip the City pull-down), and click “Vote” when the search results come back. Thanks so much for your support!

Startling Street Art

I've always loved street art, and I literally ran across this one on my regular loop through the neighborhood with the dogs. It was about two feet across and 18" high, and its vivid red color stopped me in my (our?) tracks.

"Razón," according to the vastness that is the internet, means "reason" or "argument," as in making an argument. (Feel free to weigh in on this…)

But whatever it means, the heart design with the primitive pointy triangles was quite striking, and the puzzling placement on a sidewalk in an otherwise solidly middle-class, tree-lined neighborhood was a nice shot of urban chic.

See more posts about these temporary pieces of public art: Art or Vandalism?, More Graffiti, Groovy Graffiti.

Soup in the Summer?

Growing up in Central Oregon, my family always went out into the woods in early December to cut our Christmas tree. (And yes, I know it's summer outside right now, but bear with me…) We usually went with a passel of other families, kids spilling out of cars to tromp through what at the time seemed like very deep snow to find the perfect tree.  Or at least one that would pass for perfect once we got it home and my dad drilled holes in trunk, sticking in a few branches to fill out the bare spots. When the tree had been shoved into the back of the station wagon, the kids would collapse, exhausted, to consume gallons of hot chocolate, soup and sandwiches.

Another tradition was the annual spring picnic, "spring" being defined as that time when the snow started melting from the Cascades. We'd all dress in our winter coats and boots, pile into the station wagon, drive out to the country, open the tailgate and eat hungrily from the basket of sandwiches and thermoses of soup that our mother had made that morning.

These heartwarming memories are all to cheer you up for the coming days of rain, when our planned weekend picnics are going to move indoors and the barbecues are going to go back under their rain covers until the sun graces us with its presence again.

But hey, make lemonade, right?

Or, in this case, a pot of soup. Because, at least in my book, the best antidote to cool, rainy days is something that'll fill the house with good smells and warm up our bellies. Put it in a thermos, pile into the car and take a drive. Stop someplace, let the kids out and have a picnic. Or just invite a passel of friends over for a soup dinner with a big loaf of crusty bread. I guarantee it'll make the rainy days go by a lot faster.

Mexican-style Black Bean and Greens Soup

1 lb. dried black beans
1/4 lb. bacon
1 1/2 c. yellow onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp. garlic, chopped fine
1 tsp. dried thyme
2 Tbsp. cumin
1 Tbsp. oregano
1/8 tsp. cayenne
1 28-oz. can tomatoes
8 c. chicken stock
4 c. mustard greens, kale or chard, roughly chopped
Cilantro, finely chopped
Lime wedges
Sour cream

Put beans in a saucepan and cover with water by a couple of inches. Cover and let sit out overnight. Drain.

Sauté bacon over medium heat in large soup pot or Dutch oven. Add onion, celery and garlic and sauté in the bacon fat until tender. Add spices and stir for 1 minute until fragrant. Add tomatoes, breaking them up with a spoon, and stir; bring to a boil and add beans and chicken stock. Bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer. Cook until beans are tender, at least an hour. Add greens and cook till wilted. Ladle into bowls and serve with cilantro, lime wedges and sour cream at the table.

Quick Hits: Otto and Acadia

Needing a convenient spot to have lunch with a friend and having heard raves about a little café on Hawthorne named, simply and succinctly, Otto, I arranged a meet-up. Bright and charming, it had an odd mix of sleek mid-century design (mod patterned upholstery on the booths, canted plywood bartop) and hunting lodge (a stuffed antelope head on one wall, large rack of antlers on another).

Grabbing a cozy booth for two under the aforementioned antlers, I ordered a beer from their pleasantly local selection and perused the menu. Labeled "brunch" and containing a nice selection of breakfast items like pancakes and hash, it also had more lunch-ish offerings like tacos and sandwiches. The beer arrived in concert with my date, and we ordered the house zucchini fries (top photo) to munch while our mains were prepared.

The sticks of zucchini arrived fried in a light batter, rendering them, as a long-ago Volvo ad* touted, crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle, and with a tasty schmear to dip them in (top photo). The tongue tacos I ordered were fantastic, the tongue tender yet beefy and topped with a cabbage-carrot slaw and lightly pickled onions. I was jealous of my companion's liverwurst, however, which verged on the heavenly, the wurst having a smoky flavor accented by an aioli and more of those pickled onions.

We had to try the chocolate brownie for dessert, and they gladly substituted tarragon ice cream for the vanilla that was listed. Gorgeous and decadent, it was totally over the top in a very, very good way. If the lunch is any indication of the quality to be found at dinner—and the menu looks oh-so-promising—you can bet we'll be going in soon.

Details: Otto, 1852 SE Hawthorne Blvd. 503-517-7770.

* The ad in question, written by iconic adman Ed McCabe of Scali, McCabe and Sloves, was a clever twist on the slogan of a popular candy bar.

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Who knew there were so many kinds of absinthe, not to mention that each could taste so distinct from the others? And if you're one of those who's hated that overly licorice-y flavor that this spirit is known for, my friend, then I'm here to tell you that you've simply been drinking the wrong one.

I got an education in this uniquely French disgestif at that outpost for all things New Orleanian called Acadia on NE Fremont. New Orleans has taken absinthe to its ample bosom, and Acadia has followed suit with no fewer than twelve to sample, from the very light, ethereal Kübler from Switzerland to the intensely botanical Delaware Phoenix Walton Waters from New York.

You can select individuals from the menu or share a flight with your table. All are prepared in the traditional manner, of course, with the absinthe poured into an elegant stemmed glass. A sugar cube is then placed on a special absinthe spoon that sits across the rim of the glass. This is placed under a spigot on the water fountain which then drips an exact portion of water into the glass, melting the sugar as it does so and transforming the absinthe from clear to a milky liquid called the louche.

In this case the fountain is a 4-spigot work of art handblown by local glass artist Andy Paiko, and it's well worth taking a seat at the bar to watch the whole process transpire. There was also a fine selection of New Orleans classics to go along with the beverages, from softshell crab (top photo) to Gulf shrimp (above right). Talk about dinner and a show!

Details: Acadia, 1303 NE Fremont St. 503-249-5001.

Food Wisdoms: What It Takes to Make An Egg

Spending a moment at the sink with farmer and artist Clare Carver of Big Table Farm gave me a whole new appreciation for those eggs I so casually crack into a bowl.

Watch the longer interview I did with Clare for Food Farmer Earth.

Food Farmer Earth: Which Came First, The Chicken or the Farm?

In this interview for Food Farmer Earth, I talk with farmer and artist Clare Carver of Big Table Farm. To find out about this series of interviews with local food producers, and to get some terrific recipes featuring the ingredients discussed, consider a free subscription. This week's recipe: a Dungeness crab and green garlic quiche.

Eggs aren’t just for breakfast at Big Table Farm.

Eggs, and the chickens that lay them, are a critical part of an integrated system that sustains the land and the couple who farm it, Clare Carver and her husband, winemaker Brian Marcy. The birds are also a frequent subject of Clare’s paintings, a living part of the landscape from which she draws her inspiration.

Carver was raised on her family’s farm, but at the age of 7 she moved to the city with her family. She took to riding horses at a nearby stable and participated in 4-H activities through grade school and in high school. Carver also started painting, often finding inspiration in the natural environments that surrounded her.

Now, as she and her husband live and work on Big Table Farm in Gaston, Oregon, Carver’s canvas largely focuses on the farm animals she raises, including her chickens and even their eggs—the latter more of a challenge, as she explains in this video.

Read the rest of Clare's story. Spend a moment at the sink with Clare as she washes eggs and talks about what it takes to produce them.