Live Oregon

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An Apple Refined

Kevin Zielinski’s eyes light up as he names the apple varieties he tends at his Willamette Valley orchard, just outside of Salem. Champagne Rienette. Douce Moën. Muscadet de Lense. St. Martine. The sinuous vowels and soft consonants even sound delicious. Eventually, they become fluid when Zielinski transforms these French heirloom apples into a traditional sparkling hard cider that leaves many searching for words.

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Wild Mushroom Risotto with Oregon White Truffle Oil

Serves 10 as a starter or 4 for a main course Ingredients: ½ ounce dried porcini 1 quart water 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon soy sauce ¼ pound unsalted butter 1 cup long grain rice ½ ounce dried onion Grated Parmesan cheese 2 ounces Joel Palmer House Oregon White Truffle Oil   Directions: In uncovered saucepan, bring water, dried mushrooms, sugar, salt and soy sauce to boil then add rice and reduce heat to simmer. Strain out the liquid and reserve. Chop the mushrooms finely. In a medium sauté pan, melt the butter and add the dried onion and rice. Stir for one minute then add the reserved mushroom liquid. Cook uncovered and stir gently until water is absorbed and evaporated, about fifteen to twenty minutes. Portion rice, drizzle lightly with Parmesan cheese and truffle oil and serve.

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The Oregon Cherry

Bailey’s family has been growing cherries in these hills for more than eighty years, when his grandparents made their first investment in a piece of farmland. Since then, Orchard View Farms has grown to include 2,050 acres in four counties. The orchard is home to twelve types of sweet cherries, from perennial favorites Bing and Rainier to more unusual choices, such as Sweetheart and Skeena.

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Bike-to-Brew Guide

Without question, Oregon has earned a worldwide reputation for its craft brewing industry and craft beers. What started with a few Portland area brewers has spread to include more than one hundred microbreweries in a state many now lovingly call “Beervana.” Integral to Beervana are its many public houses, where ales and lagers find good company with comfort food.

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An Artist, Retrained

“I usually go into a trance for twelve straight hours and then I’m done,” he says. The creative urge lasts long enough to produce an image, a facial expression, a memory, or a feeling on the square or rectangle before him. “I never know exactly what the meaning is, but it works itself out.”

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Wine Across Oregon

Wine consumers and wine tourists can raise their glasses in a toast to the times. Prices have dropped, and wineries are courting tourists through their tasting rooms and wine clubs. The industry is in the hands of hundreds of small, family-owned wineries where visitors can often meet and talk with the people who craft the wine. The state’s wild, scenic beauty, its reputation as a foodie culture and a genuine place to taste wine attract many out-of-state tourists. And instead of all roads leading to Newberg or Dundee as they did in the ’80s and ’90s, wine lovers can get their fix in tasting rooms from Hood River to Ashland.

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Coastal Home Goes Green

For most people, integrating reclaimed wood into a new home isn’t personal. For Terry and Teresa Hancock, the choice to include Douglas fir timbers for the columns and beams of their Neskowin beach cabin on the Oregon Coast—in addition to the interior framing, wall paneling, flooring, stairs and ceiling—was a meaningful way to honor a piece of family history.

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New Jazz in Portland

Jazz in the Rose City is blossoming with youthful innovation these days in a Pacific Northwestern cult fueled by creativity. While expressing the independent spirit of Oregon, this emerging jazz culture also remains connected to the past.

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Oregon Grass-Fed Beef

Jill McClaran wears her blonde hair to her waist and spurs on her cowboy boots. The 27-year-old spends her days in the saddle herding cattle along the basalt rims and airy benches of Hell’s Canyon. Out of cell phone range and hours from the nearest town, this University of Idaho graduate looks over a thousand McClaran Ranch cattle as they graze the rugged and wild eastern Oregon grasslands.