Oregon Books

The Campout Cookbook

The Campout Cookbook offers tips and tricks to up the fun on your next foray into the wilderness interview by Marnie Hanel and Jen Stevenson While kicking around ideas for their second cookbook, The Campout Cookbook, Marnie Hanel and Jen Stevenson, the IACP-award-winning authors of The Picnic, kept coming back to their favorite childhood food memories, many of which happened to involve a campfire. The result is The Campout Cookbook, a collection of more than 100 recipes designed to keep campers sated from the moment they pile into the station wagon to the final breakfast before the rubber hits the road. Here, the co-authors discuss the ins and eats of their writing process. MH: You camped quite a bit growing up. Did you ever imagine you’d write a cookbook about it? JS: Never in a million years. But looking back, it actually makes a lot of sense. We took very,…

Live Oregon, Think Oregon

Oregon Innovators Then and Now

A look back, and ahead, at Oregon Innovators written by James Sinks In the yellowed pages of history, the promise of Oregon Innovators bade explorers to plunge headlong into the rugged—and often damp— frontier. It was no place for fear of the unknown. at same unforgiving ethos goes for the Oregon trailblazers of the business sort. “ The cowards never started and the weak died along the way,” said Nike co-founder Phil Knight, in his bestselling memoir, Shoe Dog.  The Oregon economy of today has been shaped by big thinkers, like Knight and others, whose ideas and dogged tenacity created opportunities and jobs by the thousands, spawned spinoffs, saved lives and—to help all of us celebrate more effectively—made vineyards more productive. Of course, some Oregon inventions are just plain fun, and tasty. The beanbag Hacky Sack that helped occupy the time of countless college students before dating apps? Created in 1972 in…

Things to do in Oregon

Top 3 Outdoor Thrills in Southern Oregon

Here are the top 3 outdoor thrills to experience in Southern Oregon sponsored content provided by Visit Medford Southern Oregon is an amazing place, from the moment you land in Medford, you’re surrounded by adventure on all sides. If you like the water, you can hit the rapids. Or grab your favorite hiking shoes and take to the mountains. You can also fly…On a zip line, of course. If you’re thirsty for thrills, embrace the rogue spirit and start your next Southern Oregon adventure! Zip It Good Soar across the sky on a zip line and watch the ground race by below your dangling feet. The wind snatches your breath away and it’s easy to imagine your toes touching the treetops. Tucked away in the historic gold mining hills of Southern Oregon, Rogue Valley ZipLine Adventure brings summer fun to sky-high levels. Hike It – One Step At A Time…

Things to do in Oregon

Experience the Britt Festival Live and Outdoors

A unique summer experience awaits you at the Britt Festival sponsored content provided by Visit Medford At the Britt Festival, you’ll find world-class music acts in a charming small-town setting. The Britt Music & Arts Festival, based in historic Jacksonville, Oregon, is the premier outdoor summer performing arts festival. The nonprofit presents dozens of summer concerts––from pop to classical and bluegrass to folk––each year. The music is great––the venue is even better. Held in a naturally formed amphitheater shadowed by ponderosa pines and madrones, you’ll watch your favorite acts perform from the hillside estate of nineteenth-century photographer Peter Britt. Visitors travel from all over the West to pack a picnic, grab a bottle of wine and relax while the music echoes through the amphitheater. The Britt is 5 miles from Medford, 15 miles north of Ashland (and its famous Oregon Shakespeare Festival), and a day’s drive from Seattle, Portland or…

Food+Drink

The Oregon Wine Experience in Jacksonville

If wine is your thing, check out The Oregon Wine Experience in Jacksonville. sponsored content provided by Travel Medford The Oregon Wine Experience is a weeklong festival, at the Bigham Knoll Campus and at wineries and restaurants around the region, offers a celebration of all things wine. This year, the experience will take place August 22 to August 26. Start with the Medal Celebration on August 23, which offers small plates and award-winning wines from the Oregon Wine Competition. Or indulge in an Ultimate Vintner Dinner, taking place throughout the month. The dinners, hosted by winery owners at their winery and vineyards, are multi-course meals with wine pairings and other experiences. Participating wineries include local favorites 2Hawk Vineyards & Winery, Troon Vineyard and Kriselle Cellars. The Founders’ Barrel Auction, on August 24, features barrel tastings, lunch from Seven Feathers Casino Resort chef Mark Henry, and, of course, an auction. If…

Live Oregon

Weekend Wanderings in Central Oregon

Weekend wanderings in Central Oregon find out where to eat, sleep and stay written by Jen Stevenson EN ROUTE Heading east on Highway 22 from Salem, stop for a marionberry scone break at homey Rosie’s Mountain Coffee House in Mill City, or continue on to Mountain High Grocery in Detroit for the homemade doughnuts. If traveling via Highway 26, brake for blueberry cake doughnuts and apple fritters at Joe’s Donut Shop in Sandy. EAT + DRINK In Sisters, get a hearty start to the day with The Cottonwood Cafe’s Big Tree Benedict, piled on a flaky homemade herb biscuit. After poking around the local shops, take a golden milk latte and crêpe break at Suttle Tea teahouse, pick up local provisions and organic smoothies at Melvin’s Market, then share wood-fired pies on the patio at Boone Dog Pizza cart. Or, drop in for lunch at Rainshadow Organics, an enchanting 200-…

Food+Drink

Best Places to Eat a Summer Meal in Oregon

Best places for enjoying a summer meal in the garden written by Jen Stevenson XICO For a taste of Mexico City and Oaxaca in a secret urban garden off Portland’s busy Division Street, ask for a patio table at this mecca of masa and mezcal. Chef Kelly Myers’ dinner menu beckons with serrano vinaigrette-tossed squid atop homemade blue corn tostadas, grilled chorizo verde with grilled cactus salad and cinnamon sugar-dusted sopaipillas with blackberry mezcal sauce. The recently revived lunch and brunch menu holds its own— chilaquiles and a Michelada al fresco make for the perfect summer Sunday morning. 3715 SE DIVISION ST. PORTLAND xicopdx.com GATHERING TOGETHER FARM Take a mini summer road trip to this working Philomath farm, where the south Willamette Valley fields and orchards part briefly to accommodate the cozy covered porch cafe and market. The menu changes with the crops, so expect duck breast with boysenberries and…

Business

Austin Wallace Is Making Animal Welfare A Priority

A Special Agent Is Making Animal Welfare A Priority interview by Sheila G. Miller A special agent commissioned with the Oregon State Police and employed by the Oregon Humane Society, Austin Wallace is in his thirteenth year serving in this role. He’s worked in law enforcement and animal welfare around the country for nearly twenty years. As a child in Scotland, he grew up with budgies (Scottish slang for parakeets) and felt a kinship with animals. After a brief stint in the air force, he got into law enforcement, first covering the animal control officer on vacation and eventually taking over the position full time. “It wasn’t my main career goal, but it found me,” he said. The Oregon Humane Society, which this year celebrates its 150th anniversary, receives more than 5,000 calls and emails to its investigations line each year, and Wallace and the rest of the team work…

Business

The Portland Spoon Company

Russell Clark of the Portland Spoon Company uses tree waste for spoons written by Katrina Emery The Portland Spoon Company was born out of an excess of wood and a little hobby. Russell Clark, a carver, works by day as an arborist in the Portland Metro area. From tending to the dead and downed trees, he saw so much wood go through the chipper that when he picked up spoon carving he found himself with a glut of material. He taught himself from books, videos and fellow carvers, online or in person. “The first few were terrible,” he laughed, but he now sells the beautiful spoons, ladles and spatulas online and in a handful of shops around Portland, like the Hoyt Arboretum gift shop. With all the tips and tricks in his arsenal, and so much passion for the craft, he’s partnered with Wildcraft Studio School to teach spoon carving…

Business

Pop of Joy Makes Weddings Manageable and Memorable

Keeping It Simple Pop of Joy wants to keep your wedding manageable, simple and beautiful written by Sheila G. Miller | photography by Road 40 Weddings are supposed to be about one thing—two people declaring their love and commitment to one another. But over the years, they’ve also morphed into focusing on other things, like twenty bridesmaids and photo booths and donut walls and sparkler sendoffs and coordinated dances and multiple dress changes. Now, Sharayah Dancer has a plan to bring the meaning back into focus with her new company, Pop of Joy. “We want to make sure to make it so easy for brides,” Dancer said. “Weddings get crazy and so stressful, and there are so many parts to weddings that people don’t understand until they start planning.” Dancer, with a business partner, used to run Blush Events, a wedding planning company in Salem. But after her business partner…