Seventh Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2016

August 23, 2016 in Ecotrust, Food Fermentation, Keep Portland Weird, Portland DIY, Portland Fermentation ..., Portland Food/Drink Event, Portland Pickles, Uncategorized

(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

In the past couple years since my friend Gillion gave me a vinegar mother I've gotten really into making them. In this photo I was straining the Riesling vinegar and more plum wine vinegar. Both super tasty.

Yard Fresh Pt. 32

February 18, 2016 in Cookbooks, Food Fermentation, Portland DIY, Portland food, Tasty n Sons, The Tasty n Sons Cookbook, Toro Bravo: Stories- R..., Uncategorized

Since the start of the year I've been full-time writing again. I did this for the better part of three years between 2006 and 2009 and at the end of that I said I'd never write full-time again. Well, times change, I've learned a few things, forgotten a bunch more and now I'm at it again.

The main difference between then and now work-wise is that I'm now working primarily on books -- two under contract including the Tasty n Sons Cookbook with Sasquatch Books (out fall 2017) and a secret Tin House project (out spring 2017) as well as a novel (out sometime I hope!). In 2006 through 2009 I was mostly working on freelance food writing projects and a book toward the end -- the first edition of Food Lover's Guide to Portland.

What remains the same is that writing full-time is fucking hard and it's easy to burn out if you work a more normal five day, eight-plus hours a day work week. I know that this may sound spoiled and/or crazy since working full-time for yourself writing books sounds so dreamy but I have really strong work ethic so in living the dream I pushed myself a little too hard going into this full-time writing thing again. In the evenings after work I ended up snapping at people and drinking a little too much too often and in general I was just moodier than I want to be. And exhausted -- mentally and physically.

Now that I've realized eight-plus hours of writing five days in a row every week isn't sustainable I'm figuring out how to manage my time a little better and give my brain and body breaks throughout the day. Things that have helped with the transition -- I got a standing desk, I've been taking some mornings off, I've been taking more long walks throughout the day. I'm basically just being nicer to myself and changing my perception of what a proper work week is. Work smarter not harder. So true.

Oh, and food. Cooking has always been a form of therapy for me and when I don't do it enough I feel off and not myself. I think it's similar to how folks who work out regularly feel when they don't work out enough. Here are some tasty treats that I've cooked and eaten in the past couple months. I hope you've been cooking some tasty things too. If so I'd love to hear about it in the comments if you care to share. Happy year of the fire monkey!

Tested these open-faced Monte Cristos for The Tasty Cookbook with anglaise soaked challah, gruyere and spiced maple syrup. Ridiculously good.

Since I've been at my writing studio so much more lately I've been making more soups and stews that I can heat up in my electric hot pot there. Kimchi Chijae is one of my all-time favorites. I use Lauryn Chun's recipe from the Kimchi Cookbook.

Made with my homemade Choi's Kimchi recipe classic kimchi. So tasty. I put a lot of brined shrimp in it this time.

Sandwiches of course are also great to take to work. I made this one with Edelweiss Sausage & Delicatessen's spicy paprika loaf and my homemade sour pickles.

I tested The Tasty Cookbook collards at home a couple weeks ago. They're so yummy and taste like they cooked for hours even though they only took 30 minute/ and I've borrowed my friend's pressure cooker for way too long. I need to return it and get … — I tested The Tasty Cookbook collards at home a couple weeks ago. They're so yummy and taste like they cooked for hours even though they only took 30 minute/ and I've borrowed my friend's pressure cooker for way too long. I need to return it and get one of my own.

I also made this crazy good Mark Bittman pressure cooker black bean soup recently. The best black been soup I've ever made in THIRTY minutes from dry bean to rich, inky, spicy soup. If you have a pressure cooker find this recipe.

Started the Toro Bravo cookbook limoncella at the end of January so it has another week before I strain it, add the simple syrup and then freeze it for two weeks before drinking. One of my favorite recipes from the book.

In the beginning of January my boyfriend Jimbo and I went to Manzanita for a long weekend and it was lovely as always -- especially this simplest of breakfasts. Pomegranate is always such a treat. And The Little Apple is my favorite grocery on the O… — In the beginning of January my boyfriend Jimbo and I went to Manzanita for a long weekend and it was lovely as always -- especially this simplest of breakfasts. Pomegranate is always such a treat. And The Little Apple is my favorite grocery on the Oregon Coast.

One of my favorite quick eats at home is doctored up boxed mac and cheese. I made this one with kimchi, lots of fish sauce, gochugaru and sesame for my best housemat in the world Jennifer and I. I want some now.

I made a loaded with okra and shrimp gumbo last month and the best part of it was cooking it the next morning with rice and eggs and cheese. I will be doing this for the rest of my life. Highly recommend it.

My brother Andy, sister-in-law Laura and I toasting via Skype with the Vanilla Porter that Andy and I brewed when I was home in Cincinnati for Christmas this Christmas Eve. They sent me a package of a few bottles of it as they always do. Crazy good.… — My brother Andy, sister-in-law Laura and I toasting via Skype with the Vanilla Porter that Andy and I brewed when I was home in Cincinnati for Christmas this Christmas Eve. They sent me a package of a few bottles of it as they always do. Crazy good. And so cute.

Andy bottling the vanilla porter a few weeks ago. Laura sent me a photo...

More home recipe testing for The Tasty Cookbook -- Kyle's Granola with homemade sweet labneh and caramelized apples. I'm not all that into cereals but this one is awesome.

Making the labneh for it. Recipe testing till the break of dawn! Love it.

I've been making homemade fruit wines for years but 2015 was the first year I made Concord grape wine and it turns out it's pretty dang tasty. Not as good as the plum wine but yummy.

My Grandma Amy came up with a very special recipe based on a detective series that she read and loved called Wolfe Eggs (named after Rex Stout's character Nero Wolfe) that we had and continue to make for holiday breakfasts and now they're going to b… — My Grandma Amy came up with a very special recipe based on a detective series that she read and loved called Wolfe Eggs (named after Rex Stout's character Nero Wolfe) that we had and continue to make for holiday breakfasts and now they're going to be in a very exciting secret book project that I can't tell you about but will one fine day very soon. RIP Grandma Amy.

Another tasty soup that I took to my writing studio -- Melissa Clark's Red Lentil Soup with Lemon in the New York Times. I love red lentils -- so yummy, pretty and quick to cook.

Pizza night with Jimbo's nephew Jonah, Jimbo's sister Betsy and her fiancee Sara last weekend. We made six pizzas for five humans.

The Dapper Foodists -- Portland Fermentation Fest co-organizers George Winborn, me and David Barber right before the Panel of Fermentation Experts.

Portland Fermentation Festival 2015 Redux

November 09, 2015 in Ecotrust, Food Fermentation, Homemade Food, Keep Portland Weird, Portland DIY, Portland Fermentation ..., Portland Food/Drink Event, Portland Pickles, Uncategorized

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!

Keep on rockin' in Neil's free world and in our fermented world. — 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.

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.

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… — 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!

DJ Jimbo won't be spinning at the festival but he's put together a kick-ass salty/spicy/stiiiiinky festival playlist for us this year!

DJ Jimbo Jams for the Portland Fermentation Festival

October 22, 2015 in Ecotrust, Food Fermentation, Food Preservation, Homemade Food, Portland DIY, Portland Fermentation ..., Uncategorized

The final countdown has begun and this year's Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust is less than a week away -- this coming Tuesday, Oct. 27th from 6-9:30pm! Purchase your tickets now ($10,$20) and you'll have a lot less of a wait on Tuesday to get in. Day of is cash only -- ATM in the building. Children 12 and under get in for free.

On the rooftop you can purchase cider from festival royalty Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, sandwiches from festival co-organizer Bingo Sandwiches, beer AND you can shake a leg to the first ever festival playlist curated by my fine fellow DJ Jimbo!

Here are the songs -- first the actual songs and then their fermenty-pun counterparts. I'd make a Spotify playlist but there are too many songs that they don't have on there to do the list justice. You'll just have to come to the festival to hear it!

Alemany Shintay - Love Is Love Gregory Isaacs - All I Have Is Love Kickball - Sauvie Island The Weather Station - Came So Easy Pinback - Hurley Arlo Guthrie - The Motorcycle Song Justin Timberlake - Strawberry Bubblegum Prince - Raspberry Beret MY BODY - Clementine Ahmad Jamal - Autumn Leaves Goodie Mob - Soul Food The Stone Roses - Elephant Stone Tom Waits - Jockey Full Of Bourbon Typhoon - CPR/Claws Part 2 Gillian Welch - Red Clay Halo Townes Van Zandt - Don't Let The Sunshine Fool You Peter Tsotsi, Nashil Pichen and the Equator Sound Band - Pole Musa (Kenya) Spoon - Who Makes Your Money Wild Ones - From Nothing D'Angelo - Devil's Pie Clams Casino - All I Need [Soulja Boy] Milosh - It's Over

Their Portland Fermentation Festival DJ Jimbo treatment:

Alemany Shintay - Love Is Lacto Gregory Isaacs - All I Chop I Love Kickball - Salty Island The Weather Station - Pickled So Easy Pinback - Vinegurley Arlo Guthrie - The Motorpickle Song Justin Timberlake - Stinky Tofu Bubblegum Prince - Raspberry Lacto-Fermented Beret MY BODY - Clement Wine Ahmad Jamal - Autumn Pickles Goodie Mob - Soul Fizz The Stone Roses - Elephant Stiiiiink Tom Waits - Stoneware Crocky Full Of Bourbon Typhoon - CPR - Crocks Part 2 Gillian Welch - Red Kraut Halo Townes Van Zandt - Don't Let The Fermentation Fool You Peter Tsotsi, Nashil Pichen and the Equator Sound Band - Miso Musa Spoon - Who Makes Your Honey Wild Ones - From Salting D'Angelo - Anaerobic Pie Clams Casino - All I Mead Milosh - It's Demented Fermented

Festival Details:

Portland Fermentation Festival's Facebook event page.

This year we’re having a panel of experts kick of the fest rather than one guest speaker. The inaugural Portland Fermentation Festival was in 2009 with Sandor Ellix Katz as guest speaker and we were lucky enough to get him back to speak at the 2013 fest. Sandor is one of our heroes and favorite people so we asked him to speak again at last year's fest and this was his response:

“sorry can’t make it this year. have fun and keep me posted on future festivals. i’m heading to the boston fermentation festival next month and austin (tx) festival in november. you were the pioneer fermentation festival and they keep spreading…..”

Let’s all be super proud to be a part of “THE PIONEER FERMENTATION FESTIVAL”! We can’t wait to see you all on Tuesday at the STIIIINK!

PRESS RELEASE

Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival Tuesday, October 27th 6-9:30pm Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center Rooftop food/drink sales from Bingo Sandwiches, Reverend Nat's Hard Cider & salty/spicy tunes by DJ Jimbo 721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR All ages, open to the public, $10-$20 Children 12 and younger attend for free www.portlandfermentationfestival.com PURCHASE TICKETS!

Today is a big day in Portland because October 1st is the first day that you can purchase recreational weed legally AND it's also the first day you can purchase tickets to the Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival! Weed! Mead!

Kicking off this year's festival at Ecotrust is the panel of experts at 6pm moderated by co-organizer George Winborn. On this year's rad panel we have Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, festival co-organizer David Barber of Picklopolis and Bingo Sandwiches, Tressa Yellig of Salt, Fire & Time and Broth Bar, Matt Choi of Choi's Kimchi and Tara Whitsitt of Fermentation on Wheels covered by The New York Times +++. Tickets for the panel plus first tasting are $20 and tickets for either of the tastings solo are $10.

The Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival is on the evening of Tuesday, October 27th at Ecotrust. As always it's an open-to-the-public, all-ages celebration of fermented food and drink. Bring kraut, try kraut. Bring miso, try miso. Come out for Portland's fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing, and tasting event of the year. Taste and share live, fermented food and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the annual event that brought out more than 600 attendees in 2014.

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 kefir to cheese, hard cider, and mead.

Admission for the 7:00 or 8:00pm Tuesday tasting sessions and fermentation demos is $10. For $20 attend the 6:00pm panel of experts on all things food/drink fermentation in addition to the 7:00pm tasting and fermentation demos. Enjoy salty/spicy rooftop tunes curated by DJ Jimbo, food and drink from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and Bingo Sandwiches and others TBD.

Visit http://portlandfermentationfestival.com/ for more information.

Purchase tickets!

MEDIA COVERAGE THIS WEEKThe Oregonian

MEDIA COVERAGE OF FESTIVALS PASTKGW Cooking Up A Story Photos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to Portland KBOO Food Show OPB Willamette Week

CONNECT WITH THE PORTLAND FERMENTATION FESTIVALportlandfermentationfestival.com Facebook Twitter

This year's festival poster by Tim Root! He always makes us the most incredible festival posters. Download it over on our website and help us plaster it around town and spread the word.

Tickets on Sale -- Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2015

October 05, 2015 in Ecotrust, Food Fermentation, Portland DIY, Portland Fermentation ..., Uncategorized

Since 2009 my friends David Barber, George Winborn and I have put on the annual Portland Fermentation Festival with/at Ecotrust ((THANK YOU ECOTRUST!!)) and every year it gets bigger and better. We’re only three weeks out from this year’s festival — Tuesday, Oct. 27th from 6-9:30pm — so I’m taking a moment to let you know all the stiiiiinky details in one place.

Most importantly, online tickets are on sale now ($10, $20) and you can purchase them here. Secondly, you can still apply to be an exhibitor — more info. here. Beyond that I’m pasting the press release below and some recent media links. Here’s the Facebook event page.

Let’s all be super proud to be a part of “THE PIONEER FERMENTATION FESTIVAL”! We can’t wait to see you all in three short weeks at the STIIIINK!

PRESS RELEASE

Visit http://portlandfermentationfestival.com/ for more information.

Purchase tickets!

MEDIA COVERAGE THIS WEEKThe Oregonian

MEDIA COVERAGE OF FESTIVALS PASTKGW Cooking Up A Story Photos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to Portland KBOO Food Show OPB Willamette Week

CONNECT WITH THE PORTLAND FERMENTATION FESTIVALportlandfermentationfestival.com Facebook Twitter

Me holding my advance copy of Elizabeth Gilbert's forthcoming Big Magic when it arrived at the Hawthorne Books office.

Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic

September 03, 2015 in Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert, Uncategorized

I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of Elizabeth Gilbert's forthcoming book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear due out from Riverhead Books on September 22nd in the early spring and I've been rationing my reading of it ever since because I want to take full advantage of all the inspiration and motivation it gives me. Big Magic speaks to me like very few books on writing do and I've read a lot of great ones. Some of my favorites include Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Carol Sklenicka's Raymond Carver biography, David Lipsky's Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace, Virginia Woolf's essay A Room of One's Own ++.

If you are a published writer, an aspiring writer or madly in love with a writer (good luck!) get Big Magic and read it cover to cover and then read it again as I'm going to do. Here are some of the most important takeaways from the book for me: honor and feed your creative curiosity always, the idea of and celebration of the suffering artist/writer is harmful at its core and writing can and should be enjoyable and involve play, fear is boring -- conquer it, don't worry about being original focus on being true to yourself and your voice and then your writing will always be original, in honor of Wernor Herzog: quit complaining and do the work.

I want to tell you why Elizabeth Gilbert means so much to me. I visited San Francisco in the spring of 2012 to meet with my soon-to-be at the time publisher McSweeney's -- they published the Toro Bravo cookbook in 2013. A lot of fantastic things happened on that trip (The "Hurry up and get over to the office. David Byrne is bringing us ice cream!" text from my editor Rachel Khong. What the fuck?! For real.) and one of them was a dinner with Elizabeth Gilbert. She was on tour for her McSweeney's book -- a new edition of her great grandmother's out of print cookbook At Home on the Range which I wrote about here -- and the sweet lovelies at McSweeney's organized a double Liz tour of the McSweeney's office followed by drinks at a nearby bar and then dinner at Mission Chinese down the street from the office.

At dinner I got to sit next to Liz and please know this -- she is as beautiful and sweet as she seems -- even more so in person. So much so, in fact, that I was a little off-putt at first. Let me explain. Despite the fantastic trip I wasn't in the best of spirits. I'd been working on a novel for a couple years that was going nowhere fast (it didn't help that I referred to it in an insulting way during the duration of writing it as my "novelish") and I wasn't too happy in my long term relationship which ended several months later.

I'm pretty good at best foot forward but Liz obviously sensed my deep down bluesy blues and she worked on me in her big magic Liz G way. She asked a lot of questions about my novel -- so many that it felt a bit like a writing therapy session -- and I answered them with some seriously low self esteem where my fiction was concerned answers. After dinner and in front of the restaurant in the sparkly spring Mission night she gave me a big hug and said please don't give up on your fiction. Yep, she's that generous.

After I returned to Portland I read her short story collection which my editor Rachel Khong had raved about (I loved it too), I watched her now famous TED talk, I picked up Eat, Pray, Love where I'd put it down, I cooked from her great grandma's book and I wondered when I'd get to see her again. A few months later and a hand-wrapped advance copy of her novel The Signature of All Things arrived with an oh so sweet handwritten card from Liz and I devoured it. This spring a copy of Big Magic arrived with the same and I rationed it.

When Big Magic arrived several months ago I was well into the writing of my current novel -- the one that I dig and truly enjoy working on and the one that I'm FINALLY going to finish. In fact, the copy of her book arrived right before I set off for my first writing residency at The Sou'wester for it. I don't take Liz Gilbert's advice for and faith in me lightly. Of course I don't. And now that her Big Magic is about to publish I have a second Sou'wester residency lined up and I'm 30,000 words strong with the novel. I know that there's a lot of Liz G big magic at play where my fiction is concerned. So grateful to her.

Liz's book comes out in a couple weeks and I can't recommend it highly enough. If you are a writer or creative person I think you're going to love it. Even if you aren't there is much to learn about living life to the fullest in it. Oh, and she's coming to Portland for the book for an event sponsored by Powell's at the Newmark on October 4th. Get a ticket to that and a copy of the book is included.

A couple passages from Big Magic that I love:

"Give your mind a job to do, or else it will find a job to do, and you might not like the job it invents (eating the couch, digging a hole through the living room floor, biting the mailman, etc.). It has taken me years to learn this, but it does seem to be the case that if I am not actively creating something, then I am probably actively destroying something (myself, a relationship, or my own peace of mind.)"

"What you produce is not necessarily always sacred, I realized, just because you think it's sacred. What is sacred is the time that you spend working on the project, and what that time does to expand your imagination, and what that expanded imagination does to transform your life."

Cheers to Liz G, Big Magic and YOU! XOXOXO

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear By Elizabeth Gilbert pub. date Sept. 22nd

Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2015

August 20, 2015 in Ecotrust, Food Fermentation, Food Preservation, Portland Fermentation ..., Portland Pickles, Uncategorized

Since 2009 my friends David Barber, George Winborn and I have put on the annual Portland Fermentation Festival with/at Ecotrust and every year it gets bigger and better. This year we'd set the date for Wednesday, October 7th until earlier this week when Neil Young announced his tour dates for his October tour of The Monsanto Years album. When is he playing Portland for it you ask? Wednesday, October 7th! (Tickets on go on sale for the University of Portland show tomorrow at 10am PT!) So we did what any Neil loving fans would do -- we changed the date so we and YOU can go! Below are all the details for this year's stinky good time -- the 6th Annual Portland Fermentation Festival.

FULL PRESS 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

Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival NEW DATE!! Tuesday, October 27th 6-9:30pm Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center Rooftop food and drink sales and music 721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR All ages, open to the public, $10-$20 Children 12 and younger attend for free www.portlandfermentationfestival.com

Earlier this week Neil Young announced the October tour dates for his The Monsanto Years album and guess when he's going to play in Portland? Yep, on Wednesday, Oct. 7th at the University of Portland -- the very night we had planned to host this year's Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust. As lifelong fans of Mr. Young we have a strict no-compete clause with him in our heart of hearts so we've changed the Portland Fermentation Festival date so that no one in Portland has to choose between rockin' in Neil's free world and rockin' in our fermented world. You're welcome. Tickets for Neil's tour go on sale this Friday at 10am by the way. See you at the PDX show!

So, please, please join us now on the evening of Tuesday, October 27th at Ecotrust for Portland's annual, open-to-the-public, all-ages celebration of fermented food and drink. Bring kraut, try kraut. Bring miso, try miso. Come out for Portland's fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing, and tasting event of the year. We are very pleased to announce that this year's special pre-tasting event is a panel of fermentation experts soon to be determined.

Come celebrate pickling season at the Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust. Taste and share live, fermented food and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the annual event that brought out more than 600 attendees in 2014.

Admission for the 7:00 or 8:00pm Tuesday tasting sessions and fermentation demos is $10. For $20 attend the 6:00pm panel of experts on all things food/drink fermentation in addition to the 7:00pm tasting and fermentation demos. Enjoy rooftop music, food and drink from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and Bingo Sandwiches and others TBD.

Visit http://portlandfermentationfestival.com/ for more information.

Festival coverage past and present:

KGW http://www.kgw.com/media/cinematic/video/15892130/pdx-tonight-fermentation-festival/

Photos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to Portland http://www.lizcrain.com/foodloversguidetoportlandblog/2014/10/portland-fermentation-festival-2014-redux/

Cooking Up a Story http://cookingupastory.com/annual-fermentation-festival-opens-world-ferments

KBOO Food Show http://kboo.fm/node/24469 http://kboo.fm/content/foodshowon10151983

Portland Monthly http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/eat-and-drink/articles/four-reasons-to-get-excited-about-the-portland-fermentation-festival-september-2014

Willamette Week http://wweek.com/portland/article-18099-how_to_pickle_almost.html

Portland Mercury http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2014/10/15/fermentation-fest-what-microbobes-can-do-for-you

OPB http://www.opb.org/artsandlife/article/portland-fermentation-festival-offers-diy-techniques-tips

www.portlandfermentationfestival.com Twitter @PDXFermentFest Facebook Portland Fermentation Festival

My new batch of miso salted in and in the crock! The oldest I have now that's still fermenting is 5 years old.

Yard Fresh Pt. 31

June 19, 2015 in Cookbooks, Edible Gardening, Food Fermentation, Food Preservation, Foraged Food, Homemade Food, Portland DIY, Portland Gardening, Uncategorized

Well, well, well, it's been a year since I did one of these installments. Time flies when you're having fun and I've been having a lot of fun lately. Candle both ends as usual. The last Yard Fresh I wrote in May 2014 right when my kitchen was going into remodel surgery. That seems like years ago -- so many parties and dinner parties and cooking fun has transpired in it since. I am so grateful to my good friends at St. Johns Design Build for making my kitchen dreams come true. I couldn't love my kitchen more or recommend these fellows more highly for any home remodel project.

I'll get to the food photos in a second but here's a quick recap. of the past few months. I got to do my very first writing residency for my novel at The Sou'wester in April and it was awesome. I cranked out 3,000 words a day on average and even managed to cook and eat all kinds of tasty treats that you'll see below. I also got to go to San Francisco in early May to interview one of my food heroes Mark Bittman for a magazine I've subscribed to and loved for years. That interview won't publish for awhile and I'll be sure to let you know when it does.

For now, I'm still loving my work at Hawthorne Books which recently merged with Dzanc Books, working on my novel one day a week, we just finished the Tasty Cookbook proposal (we originally proposed a brunch book but now it's AM plus PM dishes mmmm) and our agent is sending it out, I'm working on a hard cider book with someone near and dear, we're about to set the date for the 6th Annual Portland Fermentation Festival this fall and get cracking on that again, I'm doing all kinds of fun things with Team Gorham as always, and I'm working on something with the fine folks at Inkshares this summer. Sheesh. That's a lot.

This summer I plan to be the river rat that I always am when the days are long and this time around it will often be with my sweet, sweet fellow Jimbo. That makes me very happy. I also plan to camp and cook outside a lot and use my pie irons often. We're going to the Outer Banks with my family in a month. I have 200 bottles of homemade plum wine to bottle this year from the Brooks Plum tree in the front yard. And, you know, drink. Friends make the world go round so I will be playing in the sun with them a whole heck of a lot in upcoming months.

Hope you've been working on good projects, having fun with friends and family and cooking and eating delicious food. I harvested my garlic one month early this year -- so hot these days! -- and now I have flashy trout's back lettuce and kale and soon tomatoes, chiles, zukes etc. SUMMMMMMMMMER! Love to you and hope you have an incredible summer. Do all the fun things as much as you can. Summer is magic and it always goes fast.

I didn't actually cook this buuuuut isn't it pretty?! My super talented friend Tom Humphrey designed it and John G and I and his team worked our arses off putting this FIFTY page book proposal together. Going out to publishers this week!

Potato taco time! My friend Raquel's late mom Anna taught me how to make these. These mean summer and love to me.

Potato tacos at night aaaaand potato tostadas in the morning! With soyrizo and eggs. Yummmmm.

Plum wine bottling and drinking with my housey and friend. And the White Wolf. Only 25 more gallons to go!

Plum wine in Grolsch bottles and getting fizzzzzzy.

Flashy Trout's Back lettuce from Territorial Seed. Have twenty this size in the backyard. Salad Dayzzzzz

Straining my homemade vinegars -- plum wine vin and grapefruit. My friend Gilion gave me the vinegar mother and I've made a bunch of these and pineapple vinegar so far. Love them.

Nettle pesto fixings -- olive oil, toasted hazelnuts, asiago, olive oil. Added bonus: flash boil the nettles for the pesto and you get nettle tea too.

Nettle pesto orzo with home canned tuna and pickled peppers.

Beach Bloody Mary and oyster bar with friends. And TINY TABASCO!

Backyard garlic harvest one month early this year.

Razor clam deviled eggs!! Sou'wester owner Thandi brought the clams to my trailer and I made us these with preserved lemon, pimenton and lots and lots of olive oil. One of my best deviled eggs to date and I LOVE deviled eggs. Dreamy.

Mr. Bittman's wacky good Manchurian Tofu and Cauliflower from his latest cookbook How to Cook Everything Faster which I love and have cooked a ton from.

Leftover mac and cheese from Dig A Pony with my kimchi and eggs. I want this now!

I'll leave you with this picture of spring/summer happiness: solo early eve Sazerac on my trailer stoop at the Sou'wester. Life is sweet.

Willamette Week's Eat Mobile 2015

April 17, 2015 in Eat Mobile, Food Carts, Portland Food Carts, Portland Food/Drink Event, Uncategorized, Willamette Week

I get asked what my favorite Portland food carts are A LOT and I have a few spots that I always say but I don't really eat at carts all that often. I used to when I worked downtown but now that I don't they just aren't a regular thing for me beyond this one by my writing studio. That's why I asked my friend Brett Burmeister of Food Carts Portland to write the food cart chapter for the second edition of my Food Lover's Guide to Portland and lucky for me he did.

Sooooo, I'm really looking forward to the eighth annual Willamette Week Eat Mobile (Wednesday, April 29th from 5-9pm) because I'm going to taste my way around TWENTY FIVE different PDX food carts. Yeah, yeah, yeah! Also at the event: music from DJ Short Change and Clarinet Cat Box and tasty beer from Baerlic Brewing Co. Strangely enough, I've never been to Eat Mobile -- really looking forward to it.

Here's a video from last year's. For EM volunteer inquiries contact aboucher at wweek dot com and for sponsorship or press inquiries contact sbarnhart@wweek.com.

Here's the scoop poop straight from WW. Tickets are available now and there are only 400 this year so get them while you still can:

This year, instead of bringing the carts to the people, the festival brings the people to the carts. Guests will enjoy samples from carts at two SE Portland pods, Tidbit and A La Carts Food Pavilion (Himalayan Food cart at this pod is one of my VERY FAVORITES!! So good.). Tickets are available here and admission is $40 and includes a wristband for more than 25 food samples, two free drinks, live music and shuttle service between pods.

"This festival is a flagship event for Willamette Week and we're excited about the change," said Steph Barnhart, events and marketing manager. "We want to allow the cart owners to do what they do best in their natural environment, and let guests taste something from nearly every cart at two pods we love."

Attendees will get samples from carts as the vendors compete for the coveted Carty Award, selected by Eat Mobile guests and judges. Guests will also vote for one pod to win “Best Pod Experience.”

GET TICKETS Willamette Week's 8th annual Eat Mobile Wednesday, April 29th 5-9pm

My St. Johns Design Build Dream Kitchen Remodel

February 26, 2015 in Brian McVay, Kitchen Remodel, St- Johns Design Build, Uncategorized

This past summer/fall I got my kitchen remodeled by my good friends at St. Johns Design Build and I still haven't recovered from the excitement of having my very own dream kitchen. It was such a long time coming considering I bought my house in 2006 and cooked on the shitty original electric stove, walked on the mustard and baby diarrhea colored linoleum and diced and sliced under the ugly fluorescents in it until 2014. That's a long time for someone to cook in a crap space with a bum stove who cares so deeply about food, who works as a food writer for fuck's sake.

My excuse for that long delay in remodeling whenever anyone asks -- well, money primarily, you big dummy -- and I never wanted to half-ass it. I could've done this, that and the other to improve it along the way but I figured why be piecemeal when I had a vision? I'd just wait until that vision could be fully realized. And now, it has! I'm lucky enough to call St. Johns Design Build owner/contractor Brian McVay a dear friend, along with his partners Clarence Jacobs and Rude Graves, so rather than write any more about this here I'm going to give it to you straight from the source.

Below is McVay's Crain Kitchen Recipe -- his words interspersed with my photos. I can't recommend St. Johns Design Build highly enough for any home or business remodel project -- these folks are the best and the brightest. (I also can't recommend the fellows as SJDB highly enough for draaaanks and great conversation on my front porch, OR at the Red Fox, OR anywhere else in North Portland that's up all night.)

CRAIN KITCHEN RECIPE by Brian McVay (as crafted by Brian, Clarence Jacobs, Rude Graves ++)

Objectives -- Create a kitchen for a food genius (these are definitely not my words) food lover, affordable, bring a group of artisans together to work on this project, respect the age of the home, use local/reused/recycled content materials.

After our initial meeting/walk-thru with the group it was obvious you had a great space, an open mind, and a pretty decent existing kitchen layout. Seeing that the cabinet boxes were reusable we set out to simply resurface the room. I personally love this era of home (built in 1907) and this is an easy part of the country to source materials that are historically appropriate. One of my favorites is Douglas Fir -- clear vertical grain (CVG) Douglas Fir. This material has such a history in this part of the world, and it also tells a story of its age by the density of the lines or grains i.e. if there are more than 10 vertical grains per inch that piece came from an old growth tree in an ancient forest.

I had been shopping at a local lumber reuse outfit called Green Star International and they had recently received a shipment of bleacher seats so I had my inspiration. Clarence hand made everything in our cabinet shop in SE portland.

The cabinets were to be new CVG drawers and door faces, naturally finished in shellac. We reused the cabinet boxes and the shelves. The shelves were covered with a vinyl tile in deep red.

Clarence Jacobs installing the cabinets he made from the CVG Doug Fir bleachers.

The counter, installed by our magic man Rude, (Rude also did all of the tile-work in the kitchen) comes from a company called PaperStone and their little known "bargain panel division". When you pick up the material your self it means big savings, thrift stores, and really good Chinese food (I scored a pair of rad green pants! Someone else might have really wanted to score something else green).

Paperstone is one of the few architectural solid surface materials certified to FSC standards by the Smartwood program of the Rainforest Alliance. It's made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper that has been saturated with their proprietary Petro-free phenolic resins and selected natural pigments on our treater lines. After trimming to length, resin-saturated sheets are stacked and moved into a press where they are fused together under heat and pressure. Paper sheet count determines the thickness of the finished panels.

Paperstone pick-up in Hoquiam with these fine fellows -- John Wenderoth (left), Brian McVay and Rude Graves's tiny head in the back of the Sprinter.

Rude, John and Brian checking out the goods.

Your kitchen sink came from the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store in Tillamook.

Stove and hood, obviously The ReBuilding Center.

My dream Dynasty/Jade range and Viking hood! Heart of the kitchen. Aaaaand they scored it for a quarter of the price.

The floor was removed by Minority Abatement Contractors out of Vancouver. I feel it important and try to hire sub-contractors that are either women, minority, or emerging small businesses.

So happy once that baby diarrhea linoleum was pulled up there was beautiful, original Doug Fir flooring!

Electrical panel was replaced by Coho Electric. Track lights fro you know who (John Gorham! He gave them to me when he was building out Mediterranean Exploration Company. So lucky/grateful). The lighting scheme needed to go from mood lighting to kitchen lab at the flick of a dimmer.

Custom metal work was designed by me, welded by Clarence. The table top material came from a local favorite -- Salvage Works.

Custom blacksmith work came from our shop mate Scott Rash.

I've always loved the J&M Cafe's mug tree and this is our understated version of that. Love it!

My very own custom built and blacksmithed pot rack!

More photos from the pre/post-remodel that I love...

Clarence built me a drawer for my secret spice stash!

Another one of my favorite features -- the kitchen table storage benches. The one on the right was the original refaced and Clarence mimicked it on the left.

Yes! Keeping a lot of my canning supplies and canned foods in there.

Me and the White Wolf soaking it all up. Happy.

And while my kitchen was out of service I did things like...

And once it was a wrap I had a big birthday/kitchen warming party. I'm so happy to have my dream kitchen and honestly a little sad that all the boys are gone. I guess I need to dream up another remodel project...

St. Johns Design Build www.stjohnsdesignbuild.com brian AT stjohnsdesignbuild DOT COM 971.678.3619 Who you gonna call? St. Johns Design Build! You ain't afraid of no ghost.

Food Lover's Guide to Portland Blog...

Featured posts:

Seventh Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2016

Yard Fresh Pt. 32

Portland Fermentation Festival 2015 Redux

DJ Jimbo Jams for the Portland Fermentation Festival

Tickets on Sale -- Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2015

Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic

Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2015

Yard Fresh Pt. 31

Willamette Week's Eat Mobile 2015

My St. Johns Design Build Dream Kitchen Remodel