A Perfect Pair – Theater and Dining In Downtown Medford

A Perfect Pair – Theater and Dining In Downtown Medford sponsored content provided by Travel Medford Downtown Medford is a mecca for theater-lovers and foodies. Feed your mind, body and soul, and experience the thrills of downtown — all within walking distance! Great performances are a cornerstone of Medford’s downtown core. The Craterian Theater is the Rogue Valley’s premier live performance venue. Enjoy everything from ballet, to professional acrobatics, the local symphony and performances from famous musicians. As a cultural focal point of downtown Medford, every performance will amaze you. We guarantee you’ll return for an encore. But the fun doesn’t end there for theater fans. The Randall Theatre Company has a jam-packed season of stage plays and musicals. If you make a last-minute decision to see a show, the Randall Theatre allows you to pay what you want at the door for seats that remain unsold 30 minutes before showtime….

Southern Oregon Fall Harvest Activities

Favorite Fall and Harvest Activities in Southern Oregon sponsored content provided by Travel Medford Family, Farmers Markets, Fruit & Vegetable Stands, Outdoor Activities, Outdoor Adventure, Things to Do Harvest in Southern Oregon is the epitome of fall fun. The aroma of autumn is carried through the Rogue Valley, across apple orchards, whistling through corn mazes and rustling the orange, red and yellow leaves falling from the trees. With numerous harvest festivals every weekend, freshly picked food and family-friendly activities, there’s no better time to visit Southern Oregon than in the fall. There’s so much to do in Medford and the Rogue Valley this fall. To help plan your autumn adventure, we have compiled a snapshot of our favorite fall activities. Fall Festival Fun The entire family will enjoy sampling food, meeting local vendors and farmers, listening to live music and playing among the fall leaves. There are several festivals throughout…

Reusing Oregon Hazelnut Shells

Reusing Oregon Hazelnut Shells: Reducing waste, and saving the environment, with hazelnut shells interview and photography by Vanessa Salvia Turns out, Oregon’s hazelnuts are good for more than making pies, cookies and eating out of hand. Tualatin resident David Bantz, owner of He Sells These Shells, sells cracked, bagged hazelnut shells to garden centers and at farmers markets, and has participated in research looking into how effective hazelnut shells are at removing toxins from water. At home, Bantz has set aside a large area near his driveway where he unloads truckloads of hazelnut shells—80,000 pounds at a time. He bags them by hand and delivers them himself. Around his home, the hazelnut shells ll pots and line pathways, where this quintessential Oregon resource really shines. About 67,000 acres in Oregon are dedicated to growing the nut. How did you get into selling hazelnut shells? In 2008, I lost my job…

Two Portland Bathroom Luxury Remodels

Two mid-century Portland bathroom remodels pack a lot of luxury with light tile and charm written by Melissa Dalton A Modern Take on a West Hills Mid-century When a couple bought this rambler in Portland’s West Hills, it still held much of its Mid-century charm, which the new owners loved. Soaring ceilings clad in cedar in the living room? Check. Original kitchen cabinets in excellent shape? Yes, please. Unfortunately, their swooning stopped upon seeing the master bathroom. “ The house was built in 1954, and I don’t think the bathrooms had ever been touched,” said Stewart Horner, principal designer at Penny Black Interiors, who worked with the homeowners on a refresh. “It was pretty much as it had been for fifty-plus years, and it wasn’t pleasant.” First, there was the room’s unappealing Jack-and-Jill layout. A popular treatment during the Mid-century era, it meant the bathroom was shared between the parents’…

Weekend Wanderings in Eastern Oregon

Eastern Oregon: Plan your next vacay to this less traveled part of the state and find out why we think it’s one of the best places to discover. written by Jen Stevenson EN ROUTE In historic Pendleton, home to one of the country’s most famous rodeos every September, grab a bite at busy Sister’s Café before embarking on the entertaining 90-minute Pendleton Underground Tour. Try a pint of Righteous Indignation red ale at Prodigal Son Brewery and Pub, or pair wood-fired pizza with one of the beaker- bound house cocktails at Oregon Grain Growers Brand Distillery, then head a mile east to the Pendleton Woolen Mill, which offers four free weekday tours, no reservations necessary. In La Grande, sip Walla Walla rosé at charmingly renovated Wine Down café and wine bar, then eat 6 Ranch grass-fed beef burgers and smoked aioli-drizzled dirty fries alongside the local college kids at Side…

Bend Trip Planner

Turns out, Bend is a year-round kind of town written by Kevin Max Bend in fall, once a vacuum between summer mountain biking and ski season, is now one built around culture, the absence of crowds and top-to-bottom blue skies in the waning fire season. When kids go back to school and the floating battalion of protein in Crocs and flip-flops ops their way back south, Bend comes alive in a more subtle way. Fall brings the BendFilm festival, Oktoberfest, uncrowded trails, relatively open tables and the final bounty from area farms. As we witness the ravages of global warming, with hotter summers leading to more and bigger wildfires, summer is the nexus of hot, smoky and grey. As temperatures cool and wildfires recede, hiking and biking trails in Bend transform from temptation to reality. Much like Christmas, BendFilm Festival comes but once a year—setting cultural gifts under the learning tree…

Oregon Events and Product Highlights for Sept/Oct

Our picks for Oregon events to attend and products we think you’ll want to try written by Kelly Rogers Lincoln City Fall Kite Festival The Lincoln City Fall Kite Festival takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., October 6 and 7 on the beach in the center town, on the D-River Wayside. Kids can make their own kites, and everyone can enjoy seeing some of the largest kites in the world being flown while you watch the running of the bols—a race to see who can run fastest into the wind while harnessed to a doughnut-shaped kite. oregoncoast.org/lincoln-city- fall-kite-festival Botanical Bug Off Spray Summer may be almost over, but for those who still plan to hit the trails this fall, Suzi’s Bug-Off Spray is a must-have. It’s free of chemicals, like DEET, that you find in many commercial bug sprays, but still super effective, so that you and your…

Estacada’s Artists Paint the Town

Art Climbs the Walls Estacada’s artists paint the town red…and yellow and purple and… written and photographed by Catie Joyce-Bulay You may not notice Estacada’s artists at first glance, in this a sleepy little pass-through town to get to recreation destinations in bordering Mount Hood National Forest. If you stop to stock up in the grocery store, you can’t help but notice a Native American tribe fishing Celilo Falls under the “Fresh Produce” sign. Then look across the street and huge mushrooms rise from the forest floor among apartment doors and a giant forager. On the wall next door, Chinese-Americans harvest ginseng, an important pre-World War I crop for the region. These are the murals of the Artback Artists Cooperative. Twenty-one in all, they are ubiquitous downtown and in surrounding parks, calling visitors to take notice of the rural town of 3,000’s surprisingly vibrant arts scene. I recently spent a…

Best Places for Fall Foraging

Best Places for Fall Foraging around the state written by Jen Stevenson Oregon autumns are our favorite so we’ve rounded up our top three fall foraging destinations for you to put on your to-try list. SOKOL BLOSSER Not just a pretty patio for sipping and soaking in valley views, the Sokol Blosser family’s esteemed Dundee Hills winery is home to one of the finest kitchens in the Willamette Valley. When executive chef Henry Kibit isn’t dishing up savory parsley root custard topped with salmon roe and licorice fern and slabs of tender brisket over fried wild nettles, he’s roaming the miner’s lettuce and morel-strewn hills behind the vineyard, collecting seasonal treasures to incorporate into the six-course Farm & Forage wine pairing luncheons he serves in an intimate, sun-splashed space behind the tasting room. 5000 NE SOKOL BLOSSER LN. DAYTON sokolblosser.com RACK & CLOTH Exit I-84 onto the Historic Columbia River…