Think Oregon

Parks and gardens proposed for the riverbank.

Albina Rising

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PNW Businesses Rush to Aid in the Battle Against COVID-19

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Puppies in Prison

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Tetherow home

An architect and interior designer fashion a modern Tetherow home befitting the high desert

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Liberty Bell in Oregon

When the Liberty Bell Came to Oregon

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Oregon Granges continue to connect rural communities

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My Workspace: Saddle Up with Rod Retherford

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Festival Sustainability

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Portland Flood of 1894

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14 Things We Love About Oregon

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Fresh dulse seaweed could be the new kale and a carbon mitagtor as well. Fried, it tastes like bacon.

We Need Seaweed

Eating Oregon’s dulse can save the world True, you might not be interested in eating a clump of seaweed. When you’re hankering for a hefty meal, a red alga poking about in the tide might not be what you had in mind. It’s often called a weed, after all, and who wants to eat weeds? But there are particular strains of seaweed called dulse that you might want to consider. Patented in the labs of Oregon State University, under the guidance of professor Chris Langdon, who has specialized in aquaculture for decades, and promoted by Chuck Toombs, an entrepreneur who is part of OSU’s School of Business, dulse is something you should really get excited about. You’re not excited yet. It’s seaweed. But why can’t dulse be the new kale? It’s high in protein, provides natural iodine, has twice the potassium as a banana, has all the amino acids a…

Sunday Afternoons hats

Hat Trick

Ashland outdoors retailer Sunday Afternoons doesn’t put a lid on innovation written by Kevin Max Angeline and Robbin Lacy began their business thirty years ago with an outdoor blanket they’d designed for their family adventures, but it was the fabric scraps that built the Ashland-based company. They began making high quality hats from the scraps. Today, Sunday Afternoons is focused on innovation and hats. The company has forty-five patents for inventions such as a sunglass lock, which is two narrow pockets on the sides of a hat that hold the arms of sunglasses in place, and a split brim that allows for easy folding and packing. They sell their hats in fifty-seven countries. Prior to becoming Sunday Afternoons CEO, Sarah Sameh was working in the outdoor retail sector and was intrigued by the brand and where it could go. “I had known about Sunday Afternoons and, by chance, met Robbin…

Sixth, seventh and eighth graders participate in a field trip with ECO educators in November.

World Class

ECO drives a new model of climate change education written by Kevin Branaghin The idea for nonprofit ECO, Ecology for Classrooms & Outdoors, hatched in 2005 when friends Sarah Woods and Bethany Shetterly were volunteering as environmental educators. They identified a gap in primary education and a growing need among students who were increasingly interested in environmental studies. “They wanted to expand environmental education and do field trip programs to educate elementary youth in the Portland Metro area,’ said Monica Smiley, ECO director of development and communication. “Since then, they developed an organization and programs that serve elementary students with hands-on field trips and in-classroom educational lessons. At this point, ECO has served about 32,000 students.” ECO developed and has always used a model of direct service, one that sends its own educators into classrooms to teach the curriculum and lead the service aspects of the program, too. The restrictions…

In the Newberg Airpark, Longplay Wine’s sleek, modern, industrial style space reflects its tagline: “analog wine for a digital world— no overdubbing, no remixing.”

Space to Taste

Tasting rooms are blossoming throughout wine country and beyond, with no sign of a slowdown written by Cathy Carroll On the heels of soaring wine sales—with safe sipping, solo or in safety pods—now in the rear-view mirror, there’s a new trend in town and it’s oh so much better. Fresh concepts for tasting rooms are bearing fruit all around. Our list goes to eleven: 1: Willamette Valley Vineyards is opening a new winery in the Dundee Hills and sister sipping spots in four cities. Anticipated to open this year, Domaine Willamette will produce world-class méthode Traditionnelle sparkling wines with an underground aging cellar at the biodynamically-farmed Bernau Estate Vineyard in the Dundee Hills of Dayton. Oregon-inspired hospitality will reign with wine and food pairings, stunning views, educational tours and beautiful gardens to explore. Four winery restaurants are in the works, following a successful pilot restaurant, Willamette Wineworks in Folsom, California….

Founder Robert Seidel at The Essential Oil Company in Portland.

Aromatic Quest

The scent of balsam fir propelled a forestry student to build a company based on essential oils written by Seamus Casey photography by Dan Hawk Robert Seidel was studying forestry in New York in the 1970s when he encountered the aroma of balsam fir. This set off a “quest” for the extraction of aromatic compounds from natural products and, later, designing his own distillation equipment. He learned everything he could find on the topic and then, at Powell’s Books, found a six-volume set of books, The Essential Oils by Ernest Guenther. “I devoured all six volumes and still use that set of books today.” “I started my business in 1977 with the goal of supplying true essential oils to the consumer, the herbalists, soap makers and candle makers,” Seidel said. The Essential Oil Company, based in Portland, imports the majority of its essential oils from around the world—rose from Bulgaria…

Jason McNeal Graham of Bend leverages humor while addressing serious topics.

WOtta Fellow

The artist known as MOsley WOtta embarks on a new chapter encouraging dialogue interview by Cathy Carroll When Jason McNeal Graham of Bend, better known as MOsley WOtta, describes himself as a “multiethnic, multimedia, multivitamin artist,” it’s clear that humor doesn’t run counter to his writing, painting, and music. He recently received a Fields Artist Fellowship, a partnership between Oregon Humanities and Oregon Community Foundation to invest in individual artists and culture bearers and their communities. Four Fields Artist Fellows will receive $100,000 each during the next two years, along with robust professional development, networking, and community building opportunities. With this fellowship, he plans to produce multimedia performances, collaborative murals and stories addressing and explore system inequities in Oregon and encourage dialogue throughout the state. His work in music and writing has been featured on “TEDx, NPR, the NBA, and several other three letter acronyms,” according to Graham, and he…

Argonaut bikes are made with sealed resin and pressurized carbon for a sleek, stable ride.

Argonaut Cycles—Wheels of Fortune

Argonaut Cycles drives a carbon manufacturing and aesthetic revolution Written by Kevin Max The Argonaut Cycles bike manufacturing space in Bend may seem like many other modern maker spaces in Oregon—a stylish small array of furniture, an espresso machine, the latest craft Pilsner from a local brewer and a large screen TV to watch the Tour de France and other cycling events. Then there’s the Argonaut bike that, while motionless on a stand, feels like speed interrupted. Its lithe carbon frame has an appearance so clean and smooth that it feels as if no manufacturing process was involved in its creation. Indeed, none of this was accidental. “I wanted more control over the material and more ability to differentiate,” said Argonaut founder and owner Ben Farver. When he first started making bikes in Portland in 2007, Farver was working with steel frames and what he describes as a lot of…

Parks and gardens proposed for the riverbank.

Albina Rising

After bulldozers, highways and development brought down Portland’s historic cultural hub of the Black community, an innovative path forward emerges Written by Fiona Max On a Friday evening in the ’60s, locals of Northeast Portland’s Albina district could be found in the Hill Block building, an iconic, domed building on the corner of Williams and Russell Street. At the time, the place was home to the Cotton Club, a jazz club which had quickly gained popularity under owner Paul Knauls. Knauls had worked his way into the scene in Spokane, Washington, at the Davenport Hotel, and had gone to Portland in search of a venue of his own. He bought the rundown Cotton Club in 1963, and brought it back to life. Its fall, Knauls said, would come in 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., as tensions between the Black and white community ran high. “People came…

Kate Fitzpatrick, the new executive director of Deschutes River Conservancy, thinks big.

Water Wisdom

How the Deschutes River Conservancy aims to bridge the divide among water users Interview by Kevin Max Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting. At the Deschutes River Conservancy in Central Oregon, they’re taking the fight out of water. The new executive director, Kate Fitzpatrick, is a veteran of the organization and skillful ambassador among the widely divergent stakeholders of water management and marketing. We caught up with her just after the river conservancy received federal funds for new projects. What are the different water interests you’re balancing on a daily basis? We are balancing water demands for healthy river flows, irrigated agriculture and growing urban communities. The lion’s share of water in the Deschutes Basin (86 percent) is allocated in the form of water rights that are diverted from the river to support irrigated agriculture. The challenge is to restore more natural flows to the river while…