Grow Your Own Book Launch Party at Holocene Wednesday, September 27

In 2015 and 2016 I got to write two books and edit one. It was a wild (and very busy) ride that allowed me to have one book launch party in July -- True Portland: The Unofficial Guide for Creative People, another launch party in August -- Hello! My Name is Tasty and a third launch party in September -- next week's Grow Your Own: Understanding, Cultivating, and Enjoying Cannabis!

We have put together one of the most ambitious and awesome book launch parties for Grow Your Own and I really, really hope that you can come. The party is next Wednesday, September 27th at Holocene from 6-10pm and it is free, open-to-the-public and 21+. There will be no cannabis on site as per OLCC rules but there will be all kinds of cannabis experts, growers, appreciators ++ on hand for an evening of green appreciation and education and last but not least CELEBRATION!

My fine fellow DJ Jimbo will be spinning music all-night long, I'll be emceeing on the upper stage throughout the night, the super smart and on-the-scene Ravens from Raven Grass -- coauthors of Grow Your Own -- will be tabling, talking and whooping it up in general and the fine folks of Tin House Books who brought this book to life will be the hosts with the most.

Did I mention that Bill Murray will be in the photobooth? Yep. You'll see what I mean. Did I mention that there will be a giant blow-up of the book's cover and rad Tin House interns snapping instant photos of party attendees with it? Yep. There will also be a special Grow Your Own cocktail of the night that I helped conjure up, all sorts of treats to try, herbs to sniff (as a part of the cannabis terpenes informational display), cannabis crafts to make (thanks to Make & Mary), and much, much more.

Below I'm including descriptions of all of the talks that will be taking place throughout the night on the upper stage by rad, super smart women in cannabis from throughout the Pacific Northwest. Curious about sex and cannabis, particularly how it affects women? We've got you covered. Have a question regarding growing or consuming cannabis that you've been wanting to ask? Stop by the 9:30pm Q&A with Nichole Graf and Lena Davidson.

I'm also including a linked list of all of the awesome businesses and organizations tabling at the event's Cannabis Community Fair in the main dance area of Holocene.

Please mark your calendars and help us to spread the word! This is the fist event of its kind in Portland -- a noncommercial, free, learn from the experts, cannabis education and appreciation event. Portland is lucky to get it and I'm lucky to be a part. I'm particularly excited about all of the women in cannabis talks and the terpene station. Thank you Holocene, thank you Tin House, thank you Ravens and thank YOU for reading this and coming out for our Grow Your Own launch party spectacular next Wednesday night!

XOXO

CANNABIS COMMUNITY FAIR TABLERS

Botanica Hilary Brown will be on hand to demo the Magic Shell recipe from Grow Your Own and talk through her recommendations for flavor pairings with cannabis, based on her experience as a world renown chocolatier. Plus, get ready to sample all of Botanica’s delicious (non-cannabis infused) treats!

Broccoli Magazine Get a sneak peek of this new to-launch women-in-cannabis quarterly from Anja Charbonneau the creator of Kinfolk. Van der Pop Check out samples of all of Van der Pop's beautiful offerings with April Pride.

Phylos Bioscience Get hands-on experience with the Phylos Galaxy model and learn how to track the strains you purchase from your favorite growers.

Hands-on Terpene Station from Pearl Extracts ++ A hands-on terpene station sponsored by Pearl Extracts and led by Grow Your Own author Micah Sherman — Learn about these aromatic cannabis compounds by interacting with them in person. Gain confidence in selecting strains based on terpene profiles, which can help you predict how different strains will interact with your body much more accurately than the old standbys of indica vs. sativa and THC potency.

Hana Medicinals Learn from Amy Risch all about the health and healing side of cannabis particularly its use in combating chronic pain in topicals.

WOMEN IN CANNABIS SPEAKERS

7:00PM — ANDI BIXEL, Creator of Drip Ice CreamCannabis as Medicine for Our Culture Let’s talk about the ways that normalizing cannabis can make big waves for our culture. Andi will explore the importance of properly introducing the plant to newbies and how we can play with and understand our experience of cannabis.

7:30PM — CAROLYN WHITE, Marketing Manager of Phylos BioscienceStaying True: Building a Values-Based Brand in the Cannabis Industry Carolyn will talk about the Phylos Bioscience model, science, and dreams for the industry. Get ready for a deep dive into the Phylos Galaxy and learn about the organization’s ambitious goal of mapping the cannabis genome.

8:00PM — MARY J POPPINS, Founder & CEO of Sativa Science ClubThe Importance of Education and Advocacy in the Cannabis Industry Mary will discuss the need for foundational science education for all those involved in the cannabis industry—professionals and consumers alike. She’ll also dive into why she founded Sativa Science Club and how to empower cannabis users through education.

8:30PM — EMMA CHASEN, Director of Education at Farma & Cannabis Educator at Sativa Science ClubCounter Culture: Re-framing Your Relationship with Cannabis in a Dispensary Environment The wonderful world of legal cannabis can be overwhelming to the novice consumer. That's why we have budtenders to guide our dispensary experiences. But what happens when the budtenders are ill informed? How can we as consumers ask the right questions? Emma Chasen, recently named Portland’s Best Budtender of 2016, will share helpful tips to make sure you get the most out of your dispensary experience.

9:00 PM — APRIL PRIDE, Founder of Van der PopHot Box: Women's Sexual Health in the Age of Legal Cannabis April, founder of cannabis lifestyle brand Van der Pop, will share all she's learned on how cannabis inspires sexual freedom in relationships and sexual satisfaction while alone. With only one approved medication dedicated to women’s sexual health (as compared to 26 for men), cannabis promises to close the gap.

9:30PM — NICHOLE GRAF, co-author of Grow Your Own and Creative Director of Raven Grass & LENA DAVIDSON, Director of Community Outreach at Botanica SeattleAsk Us Anything (About Cannabis) Join Nichole and Lena for a frank conversation about cannabis as a movement, our power as professionals and consumers, and the importance of Growing Your Own now more than ever. They’ll also be answering the questions you’ve dropped in the “Ask Us Anything” box over the course of the night.

See you next Wednesday at Holocene! #growyourownbook

Eighth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2017

Online tickets are on sale now for $10! A limited number of tickets will be available at the door the night of the festival and will be $12/cash only.

Well, the days are getting shorter, the nights are getting cooler AND the pickles are getting longer. Wait, what?! The date for the EIGHTH Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust (as always -- we love Ecotrust!) has been set and we're happy to let you know that it can serve to jump start your Halloween weekend yet again this year on Thursday, October 26th from 6-9:30pm.

Below are all the details from the press release that we have set so far for this year's stinky good time!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Organizers & Media Contacts:

Liz Crain lizcrain at gmail dot com

George Winborn gw dot winborn at gmail dot com

David Barber briney at picklopolis dot com

Heidi Nestler heidi dot nestler at gmail dot com

Eighth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival Thursday, October 26th 6-9:30pm Ecotrust's Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center Rooftop food and drink sales and music curated by DJ Jimbo 721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR All ages, open to the public, $10 advance, $12 cash at door Children 12 and younger attend for freeTickets on sale!

Please join us on the evening of Thursday, October 26th at Ecotrust for Portland's annual, open-to-the-public, all-ages celebration of fermented food and drink. Bring kimchi, try kimchi. Bring miso, try miso. Come out for Portland's fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing and tasting event of the year.

Come celebrate pickling season at the eight annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust. Taste and share live, fermented foods and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the annual festival that brought out more than 400 attendees in 2016. Talk to fellow fermenters, exchange cultures and recipes, get advice from local food fermentation enthusiasts, attend fermentation demo's and sample everything from sour pickles, miso and natto, to cheeses, hard cider and kombucha. We *just* learned that Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider is making okolehao for the festival this year! Nat always tries his hand at something awesome and experimental year after year for the festival. Check out the chicha he made for last year's festival!

Admission for the 6pm or 7:30pm Thursday tastings and fermentation demos is $10. Enjoy rooftop music by DJ Jimbo, food and drink from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, Bingo Sandwiches and others TBD.

Festival coverage past and present:

KGW

Photos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to Portland

Cooking Up a Story

KBOO Food Show

Portland Monthly

Willamette Week

Portland Mercury

OPB

Twitter: @PDXFermentFest Facebook: Portland Fermentation Festivalwww.portlandfermentationfestival.com

Seventh Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2016

(Photoshop wizardry by my friend Stephen Bodin.)

Here we go again! The date for the SEVENTH Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust (as always -- we love Ecotrust!) has been set and we're happy to let you know that it can serve to jump start your Halloween weekend this year on Thursday, October 27th from 6-9:30pm. We also encourage you to come out and sample a lot of briny and full of flavor food and drink to help brighten your mind and outlook so that you get out and vote on Election Day less than two weeks later. Do it!

Below are all the details from the press release that we have set so far for this year's stinky good time!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Organizers & Media Contacts:

Liz Crain lizcrain at gmail dot com

George Winborn gw.winborn at gmail dot com

David Barber briney at picklopolis dot com

Seventh Annual Portland Fermentation Festival Thursday, October 27th 6-9:30pm Ecotrust's Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center Rooftop food and drink sales and music curated by DJ Jimbo 721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR All ages, open to the public, $10-$20 Children 12 and younger attend for free

Please join us on the evening of Thursday, October 27th (Just days away from Election Day! Vote! Please encourage others to vote!) at Ecotrust for Portland's annual, open-to-the-public, all-ages celebration of fermented food and drink. Bring miso, try miso. Brink sour pickles, try sour pickles. Come out for Portland's premier fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing and tasting annual event.

Come celebrate pickling season at the Seventh Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust. Taste and share live, fermented foods and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the annual festival that brought out 600-plus attendees in 2015. This year's special pre-tasting event will be a panel of fermentation experts including Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider (He's bringing chicha to sample at this year's festival! All of the corn will be chewed pre-ferment!) and other local food and drink fermentation experts soon to be announced.

Admission for the 7pm or 8pm Thursday tastings and fermentation demos is $10. For $20 attend the 6pm panel of experts on all things food/drink fermentation in addition to the 7pm tasting and fermentation demos. Enjoy rooftop music, food and drink from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, Bingo Sandwiches and others TBD.

Festival coverage past and present:

KGW Photos from last year's festival at Food Lover's Guide to Portland Cooking Up a Story KBOO Food Show Portland Monthly Willamette Week Portland Mercury OPB

Twitter: @PDXFermentFest Facebook: Portland Fermentation Festival

Portland Fermentation Festival 2015 Redux

I was out a town for a week right after this year's Portland Fermentation Festival so I apologize for the delay in putting this post together. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who came out a couple weeks ago and made the SIXTH annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust a huge stinky success!

This year we had all sorts of new tasty treats including our first international neighbor to the north exhibitor. Todd Graham of HandTaste Ferments came all the way from Vancouver B.C. to take part in the fest, we also welcomed our first New York Times covered guest -- panel of fermentation experts participant Tara Whitsitt of Fermentation on Wheels and we had our first festival playlist curated by my favorite fellow -- D.J. Jimbo!

We put the Portland Fermentation Festival together every year with a shoestring budget + heaps of volunteered hours (thank you sooooo much to all of our kick-ass volunteers!) and as always we're so grateful that Ecotrust puts up with us year after year. Thank you again Ecotrust! We love you.

We had some great coverage this year including this spot on KGW News Live at 7 segment with Cassidy Quinn. We've posted most of the other coverage on social media. If you'd like to keep up with local fermenty goings-on please check out our website, Facebook and Twitter.

Below are a whole bunch of photos from this year's Stinkfest! If you have some great ones too please post them to the Facebook page or Twitter them with the hashtag #pdxfermentfest.

Thank you, thank you, thank you and see you all again next year we hope! Stay stinky! Oh, and please let me know if I attributed anything incorrectly. Thanks!

We had to switch the initial Portland Fermentation Fest date when we found out that Neil Young was coming to town that very night. My good friend Steve Bodin made me this image for that press release. Let's just pretend Neil came to the festival and rocked out on an electric pickle.

Festival cuties working the door at Ecotrust. My good friends left to right Wendy Wilson, Loly Leblanc, Kelli Brandt and Jimbo Sandberg.

Before the fest I got some pics of exhibitors including festival royalty Nat West and Sarah West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider.

Aaaaand festival royalty Matt Choi of Choi's Kimchi.

We're so lucky that super talented Portland artist Tim Root makes the festival poster every year. Love, love, love this year's poster!

We kicked off the festival again this year with an hour-long panel of fermentation experts.

Festival co-organizer George Winborn was the moderator and on the panel left to right was Tara Whitsitt, Matt Choi, Nat West, David Barber and Tressa Yellig. AKA all of the fermentation smarty pants.

After the panel we stacked the chairs and in came the crowd of hungry folks for the first tasting. Eat or be eaten!!

Cuties Connie and Brian Shaw from Hood River's Oregon Brineworks brought an incredible spread just as they did last year.

Including their garlic dills, beet kvass, ginger gold kvass, fermented hot sauce, fermented ketchup and more. So good!

Cassidy Quinn of KGW News came and interviewed us at the beginning of the first tasting and she tried some of David's Picklopolis black pepper fennel kraut. She loved it of course.

Emily Squadra's spicy Mexican kimchi and Korean kimchi were both spicy full-flavored hits.

The loveliest Allison Jones of Portland Monthly checking in on the media list and my good friends Koko Wadeson, Jess Bull and Loly Leblanc rocking their door/ticketing shift.

Todd Graham of HandTaste Ferments in Vancouver B.C. handing out samples of the awesome chickpea tempeh that he demo'd on the mezzanine.

Jenny Hogan of NuCulture Foods with her crazy tasty and creamy cashew spreads. A lot of markets in town carry them. Try them -- so good!

Festival alum and sweetheart Claudia Lucero, proprietor of DIY Cheese Kits by Urban Cheesecraft and author of One-Hour Cheese doing her labneh cheese demo. Really popular demo.

Olive Evelyn Bailey of Lion Heart Kombucha serving up all kinds of delicious fruity kombuchas. I tried the raspberry and it was deeeeelicious!

Tabor Bread baker and baking teacher Sarah Black with gratis sourdough cultures and yummy YUMMY natural starter whole grain rye bread.

My friend Kelli Brandt in the foreground trying Colin Franger in the background's Blue Bus Cultured Foods super tasty Shakedown Beet and Kraut-chi.

And then the second tasting commenced! My friends womaning the door left to right -- Stacy Goodwin, Loly Leblanc, Michelle Gilmore and Michele Knaus.

The rooftop in full swing with tunes by D.J. Jimbo, cider from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and sandwiches from Bingo Sandwiches. Beautiful night. Beautiful city.

Me and my fine fellow D.J. Jimbo.

Another rooftop festival cutie -- my good friend Jess Bull.

Crock maker Jon Westdahl on the right, Dario Barone of Sacred Summit and Julie of Squirrel and Crow.

Yummmmm!

Lovely Sasha Sunday and her crew with all kinds of OlyKraut tastiness including Smoke & Kale, Cumin Jalapeno and Sea Vegetable krauts.

Another festival royalty -- Queen Heidi Nestler of Heidi Nestler Cooking Classes doing her always well attended natto demo on the mezzanine.

The super sweet duo from Eva's Herbucha in the eye of the storm.

My good friend Loly Leblanc made a bunch of friends of the festival these awesome fuzzzzzzzy pickles to wear this year!

Beautiful Careen Stoll of Careen Stoll Ceramics with her beautiful handmade crocks.

Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider sadly packing up his milk wine. Every year Nat pushes the fermentation boundaries and brings something wacky that you can only try at the festival. Last year he brought LAMB cider. This year MILK wine. Weird and wonderful.

Closing time with my lovely ladies -- Loly Leblanc, Kelli Brandt, me and Michelle Gilmore. Most fun!

Every great Portland Fermentation Festival concludes with George donning his jet pack. All stinky things must come to an end.

Thank you to every last one of you who came out and were a part of this year's sixth annual Portland Fermentation Festival. We love you!

Portland Fermentation Festival 2014 Redux

Thank you to everyone who came out last week and made this year's FIFTH annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust such a stinky great time. It's unanimous amongst David, George and I (festival co-organizers/founders) that this year was the most fun for us and I hope for you.

Every year has been fantastic but the three of us got to enjoy ourselves a lot more this year. I got to sample everything! In years past I always find myself running around too much to sample the ferments. I made a pact to try everything this year and I did and it was deeeeeelicious. Thanks in no small part to all of the festival's awesome volunteers, participants and attendees. We've hit our stride. I guess five years has taught us a thing or two about throwing a big fermenty Portland party.

We put the Portland Fermentation Festival together every year with a shoestring budget + heaps of volunteered hours and as always we're so grateful that Ecotrust puts up with us year after year. Thank you again Ecotrust! We love you.

We had some great coverage this year including this spot on KGW News PDX Tonight with Drew Carney, as well as the KBOO Food Show with Chris Seigel, this Portland Monthly story by Kelly Clarke, Portland Tribune story by Jennifer Anderson, Portland Mercury coverage, Willamette Week and moooooore. I guess Portland is ok with us. Happy.

If you'd like to keep up with local fermenty goings-on please check out our website, Facebook and Twitter.

Below are a whole bunch of photos from Stinkfest! If you have some great ones too please post them to the Facebook page or Twitter them with the hashtag #pdxfermentfest.

Thank you, thank you, thank you and see you all again next year we hope! Stay stinky!

We kicked off the night with a fermentation experts panel with left to right: moderator George Winborn, Josh Grgas of Commons Brewery, David Barber of Picklopolis and Bingo Sandwiches, Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cidery and Eric Finley of Chop Butchery & Charcuterie.

Expert Panel 2The panel sold out weeks before and folks asked a lot of great questions. Most importantly we all learned that size does really matter especially in regard to fermenting cucumbers for sour pickles ;)

And then the madness of the first tasting ensued.

Perennial festival favorite -- Matt Choi of Choi's Kimchi.

OlyKraut brought all kinds of awesomeness including super tasty krauts and sour pickles and...

Their addictive spicy pickle brine.

Thank you Sash! She recommends using it in Bloody Marys and I am definitely going to.

Sweet Honey Farm's Lil and Jme serving up yummy krauts.

Cute shot of Lil right before the doors opened.

Out on the mezzanine the lovely Claudia Lucero did a fresh cheese demo with recipes from her hot off the presses rad book One-Hour Cheeses. Love her.

And on the other side of the mezzanine another perennial festival fave Heidi Nestler (heidinestler.com) and her husband Daisuke did a natto demo.

KGW News' Drew Carney came and shot the beginning of the fest for PDX Tonight. "Bow ties and beards right there. Surrounded."

Snapped this one during set up of my friends Teresa and Rich of Pitch Dark Chocolate. Kind of wild how many folks don't know that chocolate is fermented.

My boots photobombed their chocolate. So yummy.

Jon Westdahl getting cozy with one of his crocks.

The awesome salame spread from Chop Butchery & Charcuterie.

Connie and Brian Shaw of Oregon Brineworks with all kinds of super tasty ferments including fermented hot sauce and ketchup, beet kvass, ginger gold kvass and more. Love these guys.

My friends Jess Bull and Jemma Stromwick at ticketing in the lobby. Couldn't do it without all of our amazing volunteers. Thank you!

It was a beautiful night and on the rooftop we had food and drink from Bingo Sandwiches, Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and Commons Brewery and...

Music from DJ Pickle Barrel! The first time I got up to the roof he was playing Screamin' Jay Hawkins' I Put a Spell on You. So good.

Ecotrust/Edible Portland superstar and part of the fest dream team Lola Milholland having a tasty Bingo Sandwich with Patrick Barber. We took some swigs from my flask and talked about soy sauce. Geeky goodness.

Cute Colin Franger of Blue Bus Cultured Foods before the flood of people.

Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cidery's favorite ferment of the night -- the Blue Bus Kraut-chi. Pretty stinking tasty.

Definitely the craziest ferment of the night -- Nat's LAMB hard cider.

Definitely the craziest ferment of the night -- Nat's LAMB hard cider.

David Barber's friend Patrick Barber setting up Picklopolis samples. David was probably putting on his NASA socks when this photo was taken.

Love festival moments like this -- Gabe Rosen chef-owner of Biwa, Alem Gebrehiwot owner of Queen of Sheba and Eric Finley of Chop Butchery & Charcuterie shooting the shit and drinking hard cider on the mezzanine.

Biwa's Gabe and Ed demo'ing miso. They brought three of theirs and made a miso soup. Biwa is one of my very favorite Portland restaurants and they always come to the festival.

Careen Stoli's beautiful handmade crocks.

Brad's Bread -- soooo many awesome sourdoughs.

Including...

Cute depot -- Tim Root's daughter Lil and Adelaide and David Barber's tiny lil Junior. Kids 12 and under get in for free.

Tim Root's incredible poster. We are so lucky to have him as our festival poster artist. Yes!

The cuteness doesn't stop -- David and Junior.

Tasty jun and all kinds of yummy kombuchas -- coffee kombucha?! -- from Symple Foods.

Festival fave and veteran Tress Yelig of Salt, Fire & Time. I had seconds of her rose kombucha ;)

Portland Kraut Cooperative filling up samples.

Regular Portland Bread. They got a little newsy love on KGW.

One of their many tasty treats.

Awesome crowd.

Allison Kirley and Cathy right before the panel. Their kombucha was great.

George, me and David before we did our news spot. I love these two so much -- brothers from another mother.

Always my favorite closing shot -- George with his jet pack vacuum cleaner. All cleaned up and ready for cocktails!

Thank you everyone for making this year's fest one of the very best. We love you!

Revel in Portland

A few weeks ago I got a complimentary copy of Revel in Portland in the mail since Toro Bravo chef-owner John Gorham is featured in it (we're currently working on the Toro Bravo Cookbook due out from McSweeney's Oct. 2013) along with nine other creative folks in Portland including illustrator Carson Ellis, filmmaker Lance Bangs, and architect Jeff Kovel. There's a Q&A with each person in this pocket-sized book filled with beautiful matte art and photos that's followed by a descriptive list of their favorite Portland places.

There are three Revel in New York books already and the group is looking to expand with books for Austin, Miami and Los Angeles next year.

It's a fun, inspiring read that makes me proud to be a Portlander. Although the group hasn't secured significant distribution yet you can find Revel in Portland at Reading Frenzy, Ampersand, Heart Roasters, Albina Press and you can also purchase it directly via their site.

The Revel team puts it best:

"The Revel In Portland Guidebook is a celebration of the Portlanders who wear their hearts on their sleeves. Artists, chefs, musicians, designers, filmmakers, troublemakers, and our city's most interesting characters. 10 interviews, pictorials and 72 personal recommendations."

Revel in Portland, Volume 1 $10 www.revelinportlandshop.com

John Gorham's chapter in Revel in Portland Volume 1.