The Rise of Artisan Goat Cheese in Oregon
Tumalo Farms, Juniper Grove Farm and others are taking goat cheese to a refined level not seen or tasted before in the region.
Farm to Table
The Oregon Strawberry
Most mornings in June, starting at about 5:30, Chris Christensen is out in the strawberry fields of her 250-acre farm in Albany, picking the perfectly ripe fruit. “I’d rather sit and pick than do anything else” says Christensen, a third-generation strawberry grower. “There’s that quiet moment when the crew gets down to do it, and the birds are going, and you’re in your own thoughts. I’m giddy.” As she deftly plucks the berries from the plants, she’ll pop a few into her mouth, savoring the natural sugar and juice that combines in an intense flavor found only in an Oregon strawberry. From farm-stand shoppers to food scientists and high-profile chefs, people with discriminating taste buds agree that this state produces the most intensely sweet, red and juicy strawberries. Even the world’s strawberry cognoscenti, mostly food professionals, know this. Yet, the berries are still relatively obscure, in part because production…
Oregon Winemaking
At the northern edge of Oregon’s winemaking region, a Napa Valley couple staked a claim and began a new life of biodynamic farming and making wine with a big table at its center.
Crabbing the Oregon Coast
“My father’s a great fisherman, and he always says that in crabbing, there’s the quick and the dead,” says Rock, 38. “There’s only so much crab out there, and they’ll all be caught up. It’s just a matter of who’s going to do it.”
Oregon Hazelnuts
This thirty-five acres is part of a bigger story that puts Oregon and the nation at the forefront of hazelnut production globally. Oregon produces an average of 35,000 tons of hazelnuts annually, virtually all the nation’s crop, making the United States the second-largest producer of hazelnuts in the world behind Turkey, according to the Oregon Hazelnut Marketing Board.
