Wild Food

Portland Fermentation Festival attendee 2016, "I can't get the sound of the wailing, howling pickles out of my head! Never again. Those poor pickles."

Eighth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2017

September 14, 2017 in Ecotrust, Food Fermentation, Homemade Food, Keep Portland Weird, Portland Chefs, Portland DIY, Portland Fermentation, Portland Fermentation ..., Portland Food/Drink Event, Portland Weird, Reverend Nat's Hard Cider

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

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

I'm really looking forward to the years to come with this book. Great wild edible reference by Katrina Blair with an intro. by my friend and food hero Sandor Ellix Katz.

Katrina Blair author of The Wild Wisdom of Weeds at Reed College for free & open-to-the-public event this Thursday

November 10, 2014 in Foraged Food, Uncategorized, Wild Edibles

A fine fellow in my life called me a hedonist in a sweet and loving way this weekend -- it was my birthday weekend after all -- and I agreed wholeheartedly before adding that I do well by my happiness-above-all-else and pleasure-seeking ways because I genuinely love the natural, wild side of life in addition to my less wholesome proclivities.

When it comes to food and drink that means that I favor whole foods and quality ingredients, homegrown fruits and veggies, homemade ferments and most importantly here -- wildcrafted foods. (I especially love wildcrafted Munchos. I forage these in this region primarily from Plaid Pantries.) I started foraging when I moved to Portland in 2002 and every year I seem to add a couple more foraging favorites.

Some things that I look forward to harvesting from the wild annually in the Pacific Northwest include morels and chanterelles, stinging nettles, dandelions, miner's lettuce, sorrel, blackberries +++

I'm so lucky to have received an advanced copy of Katrina Blair's book The Wild Wisdom of Weeds just out from Chelsea Green. My friend and food hero Sandor Ellix Katz wrote the intro. and I agree with him when he writes: "In our contemporary society, most people grow up with minimal connection to the natural world around us. Most of us can identify many more corporate logos than plants. Yet plants are incredibly important and without them we could not exist."

Katrina's book is a very personal, dig deep look at 13 of the world's most common wild edible plants that includes all sorts of DIY projects and recipes (100+) for the plants including info. on fermenting, dehydrating, making oils from and sprouting these wild edibles: dandelion, mallow, purslane, plantain, thistle, amaranth, dock, mustard, grass, chickweed, clover, lambsquarter and knotweed. Half of these wild edibles are already my friends and the other half I want to become more acquainted with. I'm looking forward to using this book as my guide.

Katrina is in town this week for a fun, free and open to the public event at Reed College. Maybe I'll see you there?

When: Thursday, November 13 from 4-6pm Where: Meet at Eliot Hall Room 314 Reed College What: Go for a wild plant walk with Katrina Blair, wild-foods advocate and author of the new book The Wild Wisdom of Weeds: 13 Essential Plants for Human Survival. Return to the Aspen Utility Room for a presentation and wild green juice sampling. This event is hosted by the Reed Outing Club

My kitchen is being remodeled by my friends at St. Johns Design Build. Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Yard Fresh Pt. 30

May 15, 2014 in Foraged Food, Portland Gardening, Portland Yard, Uncategorized

I haven't done one of these since last summer! Holy shit time flies. Lately I've been wishing that there were a way to expand time to fit more of the best of life in. I don't necessarily want the days to be longer I just want to be writing, sailing, cooking, loving, swimming, travelling and on and on and on contemporaneously somehow/someway. So that each would be enjoyed fully but a different part of me would be present for each. I'll go do some more drugs now. Sorry.

So, I'm getting my kitchen remodeled! Finally. My super talented friends at St. Johns Design Build (they don't have a website yet but once they do I'll shout it out here) -- Brian McVay, Clarence Jacobs and Rude Graves -- are kicking ass doing a complete overhaul. Things that I'm really looking forward to: the original fir floor being sanded and finished, my new-to-me kick-ass professional-style Dynasty gas stove, sweet-ass tiling by Rude, old bleachers made into beautiful new cabinets and drawers and shelves by Clarence, a bar, maple chopping block peninsula, paperstone counters and all sorts of other magic by Brian and crew. Life is sweet. I'll put up some photos of the progress in the next several weeks.

In the meantime, near and dear friends in the neighborhood are happy because I've been using their kitchens more and I also have a funky little interim kitchen in the back of my house in the utility room with a hotpot, rice steamer and toaster. It works and it's actually been fun to have some cooking restraints. It's like camp cooking, boat cooking etc. -- pushes you to be creative and work in new ways with what you've got.

It's been a really fun spring so far and I hope you've been doing well too. I just finished writing the Tasty Brunch Book proposal with John (now it's with our agent, next to the designer), I'm working on all sorts of food-plus projects at Hawthorne Books, working on a still secret book project, little here and there on my novel and Food Lover's Guide to Portland 2.0 review copies go out NEXT WEEK and it publishes in three short months. Madness. In the very best sense of the word.

Here's what I've been eating. What have you been cooking and eating?

Miso, bacon, fish sauce, broccolini spaghetti. Really good.

Mission Street Food's Braised Sausage with my friend Kalera's kraut, Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and house German sausage from Western Meat Market on Lombard.

Rice cooker steamed Dover sole in homemade miso/ginger/lemon sauce with asparagus.

Nettle'ing with Jess. Made all kinds of dishes with them. Morel nettle risotto, sauces, tea yada yada. Love nettles.

Found this huuuuuge morel in my backyard. Was too waterlogged and gone to eat but still had...

The last of the dehydrated/foraged ones from last spring. Have been making a lot of risottos with them. My friend Jess, different Jess, took these from the Mother's Day risotto I made for her and Rich with red-veined sorrel from the yard and my home… — The last of the dehydrated/foraged ones from last spring. Have been making a lot of risottos with them. My friend Jess, different Jess, took these from the Mother's Day risotto I made for her and Rich with red-veined sorrel from the yard and my homemade plum wine. Tasty.

Bottled the plum wine. 100 bottles this year from the Brooks plum tree in my front yard

Also bottled last year's dandelion wine and started this year's. Make it every year with my friend Michelle and her daughter...

Dinner becomes breakfast. Spag and eggs. One of my favorites.

Still cooking from the Toro cookbook. Forever and always. Toro's piperade and boquerones over pan-fried polenta.

For our first kitchen remodel meeting/party made a big batch of kimchi fried rice and it, of course, became breakfast the next day. So good.

Festival co-organizers me, George Winborn and David Barber with this year's special guest speaker Sandor Ellix Katz.

Portland Fermentation Festival 2013 Redux

October 30, 2013 in Ecotrust, Edible Portland, Food Fermentation, Food Preservation, Portland Farming, Portland Fermentation ..., Portland Food/Drink Event, Sandor Ellix Katz, Toro Bravo Cookbook, Uncategorized

We couldn't be happier about this year's fourth annual Portland Fermentation Festival. We got Sandor Ellix Katz back as guest speaker, we had more exhibitors sharing fermented foods and recipes than ever, we took the party to another level literally on the rooftop with D.J. Pickle Barrel, Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and Upright Brewing, we had advance tickets sales and the talk and first tasting sold out and we had demo's on everything from natto to nightshade-free kimchi.

It was a stinky good time and thank you so much to everyone who participated and attended! We put 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 every stinking (literally) year. Thank you again Ecotrust! We love you. Thank you to festival sponsor Willamette Week and to this year's poster designer Tim Root as well.

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

I was able to take a good amount of photos at the festival last week so here they are in no particular order. I know that I missed some exhibitors and I may have even mixed up some names and folks. If so please let me know and sorry in advance. Alright, on to the photos. See you at the stink next year!

Perennial festival faves the Biwa crew with their housemade miso. So good.

Andie Thompson sampling her super tasty liquid non-dairy kefir and ice cream.

Connie and Brian Shaw made the trek from Hood River with all sorts of delicious Oregon Brineworks ferments.

Heidi Nestler's very well attended natto demo. Heidi teaches some great cooking classes check out heidinestler.com.

Festival co-organizer Brineyman aka David Barber giving out all sorts of Picklopolis magic.

Tressa Yellig's Salt, Fire & Time kvass samples. As tasty as it is pretty.

Joshua Unterman's beautiful/functional handmade crocks.

Rebecca and Fred Gerendasy of Cooking Up a Story documenting the stink!

Eric Christensen of It's Alive! with his tasty krauts, raw crackers and bars.

Thomas Trotter's spicy/tangy/yummy fermented hot sauce.

Colin and Kristein Franger's of Blue Bus Kraut brought spicy kraut-chi and tasty straight-up kraut.

Lost Art Kitchen's Chris Musser's super informative nightshade-free kimchi demo. Check out www.lostartskitchen.com.

Sash Sunday's OlyKraut with yummy sea vegetable kraut.

Annie Moss with all sorts of fermenty good Tabor Breads.

Jon got Sandor to sign some of his crocks!

Toro Bravo charcuterie manager Josh Scofield sampling Toro's chorizo with the Toro Bravo Cookbook in tote that I was lucky enough to co-author. The charcuterie chapter was one of my favorites to write.

Choi's Kimchi in the house! Sooooo good.

Party on the rooftop with DJ Pickle Barrel, Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, Upright Brewing and Bingo Sandwiches.

DJ Pickle Barrel and one of Portland Fermentation Festival's best, best friends -- Ecotrust's Lola Milholland.

Robert Jordan's tasty sourdough bread and pancakes.

Coreen Stoli's beautiful porcelain crocks.

Ivy Stovall's shiso pretty pink pickles.

Judge D. Finklea and Lindsay Dekey's fruit kimchi and kombucha.

Megan Denton of Able Farms sampled her kraut and kombucha.

What better way to end this with Lynne Van Dusen's beautiful smile sampling her Vine to Brine lacto-fermented sodas?

See you all at the stink next year & thanks for making this one so fantastic!

Check out this year's 2nd annual Tour de Hives put on by the Zenger Farm Bee Group.

2012 Tour de Hives

August 06, 2012 in Beekeeping, Edible Gardening, Portland Beekeeping, Portland DIY, Portland Gardening, Uncategorized, Zenger Farm

The Zenger Farm Bee Group has organized Portland's second annual Tour de Hives and it's taking place in backyards near you on Saturday, August 18th in celebration of National Honey Bee Day. Local backyard beekeepers will host self guided apiary tours throughout the Portland area from 1-4pm in order educate the public about urban beekeeping and how to be a good steward of the honeybee.

Tickets can be purchased online at the Tour de Hives website at a sliding scale of $5-15. Children are free with an adult. All proceeds benefit Zenger Farm. I'm not sure if I'll be back in town by then but if I am I hope to see you there. Sounds fantastic.

One week prior to the event, a tour map and site addresses will be emailed to ticket purchasers. For the self-guided tour participants transport themselves to each site, and set their own pace exploring a wide spectrum of urban beekeeping styles. A full list of tour guidelines is available online. And I think that they're still looking for volunteers if you're interested in lending a hand.

Following the event from 4-6 p.m. tour participants are encouraged to head to the Lucky Lab on Southeast Hawthorne to continue the conversation. For more information, contact Sydney Mead at sydney@ecotrust.org, or visit the Tour de Hives website.

About Zenger Farm

Founded in 1999, Zenger Farm is a working urban farm that models, promotes and educates about sustainable food systems, environmental stewardship, community development and access to good food for all. It now consists of 9.7 acres of farmland and wetland in outer southeast Portland. For more information visit www.zengerfarm.org.

Tour de Hives 2012 www.tourdehives.com Organized by Zenger Farm Saturday, August 18 Self-Guided Apiary Tours: 1-4 p.m. Post Event Gathering: 4-6 p.m. at Lucky Lab (915 SE Hawthorne Blvd.) Tickets can be purchased online at a sliding scale of $5-15. Children are free with an adult.

Hard cider bottling of the Newton pippin cider that I pressed with Nat West last winter. Really good this year -- much better than last's. The dandelion wine is bottled on the left...

Homemade Fermented Food and Drink

July 25, 2011 in Food Fermentation, Food Gifts, Food Preservation, Hard Cider, Homemade Food, Oregon Wine, Portland DIY, Portland Gardening, Uncategorized

Ever since I bought a copy of Sandor Ellix Katz's Wild Fermentation shortly after moving to Portland I've been a food fermentation freak.

I love everything about home food fermentation. I love the DIY aspect of crafting foods that I love such as sauerkraut, wine, and miso. I love the time and patience involved in creating these foods and drinks -- most ferments I make take anywhere from a few days to a year. I love the full flavor of food ferments -- from pungent and sour to salty and spicy to sweet and effervescent. I love that fermented foods and drinks are inherently good for me because of the live micro-nutrients they contain. I love that I'm carrying on food traditions born well before refrigeration, artificial preservatives, and pasteurization. The list goes on and on.

In January 2009, I got to travel to Nashville to meet one of my heroes -- Sandor Ellix Katz -- and interview him for The Sun Magazine. In October of 2009, we got him to come out for the inaugural Portland Fermentation Festival that David Barber, George Winborn and I organized and continue to organize every year. The date is still TBD for this year's and I'll let you know soon when/where it will be.

For now, I've got a bunch of home food and drink ferments that I've been checking on, bottling and eating up lately to share with you here. This weekend I started a sour cherry wine with fruit collected from a neighbor's tree. I'll post about that soon.

I've got two batches of miso going right now that I started in November -- soybean miso and red bean miso. Here's what they're looking like now after several months of fermenting...

I scraped the salt off the top of this red bean miso and it's looking pretty and already tasting DELICIOUS. Going to be patient though and let it ferment until fall. At least.

The soybean miso is looking and tasting great too. Did the same and scraped off the salt and mold, repacked with a nice layer of sea salt, covered and put back in the utility room till fall.

Yes, you have to be very generous with the salt so you don't get too much mold.

This year's three gallons of Brooks plum wine has finished fermenting and is now bottled. It's so good. It's tart and off-dry and tastes like a perfect plum. The alcoholic kind.

These petals and more went into this year's gallon of dandelion wine. We bottled last year's and it's delicious as always, a little more flowery this year too which is nice.

If you've never done any home food/drink fermentation I recommend starting with saurkraut or kimchi. They're both quick and easy ferments that pack a lot of flavor. I can't recommend Sandor Ellix Katz's book Wild Fermentation enough. I use it all the time. Happy fermenting! Let me know what you make.

Baked this Saveur Magazine strawberry pie with Hood strawberries from the front yard, lemon zest and juice.

Yard Fresh Pt. 13

July 18, 2011 in Foraged Food, Homemade Food, Portland DIY, Uncategorized

I always like these blog posts but when the garden is kicking in they're even more fun. Lately we've been eating a lot of spinach, arugula, Hood strawberries, honeyberries, blueberries, sugar snap peas, nettles and fresh herbs from the front and back yard. In my front yard herb garden I have rosemary, thyme, lavender, sage, bay, mint, lemon balm, peppermint, fennel, chives, thyme, valerian and chamomile. I use the first five year-round and the remaining from spring through early to mid winter.

Coming in now we've got tomato plants searching out the sun, all kinds of beans and pickling cucumbers gaining ground, garlic curing, asparagus going uneaten so the root system gets bigger and better for next year, rhubarb thickening, blueberries ripening and seedlings trying to scare up some more sunshine. So there's a lot more good food to come.

If you have a garden, how's it growing? Any new edibles you've got in the ground or are planning to cultivate this year? If you don't have a garden what early season eats have you been enjoying?

Pickled this asparagus that a neighbor gave us for my boyfriend's Grizzly Tattoo shop opening party in early June. It went fast.

Everything in this arugula, ribboned fresh herbs (including oregano, mint, lemon balm, fennel, chives) and chive blossom salad was from the front yard except the toasted hazelnuts. Dressed it with a Jorinji Miso, lemon vinaigrette. Look forward to t… — Everything in this arugula, ribboned fresh herbs (including oregano, mint, lemon balm, fennel, chives) and chive blossom salad was from the front yard except the toasted hazelnuts. Dressed it with a Jorinji Miso, lemon vinaigrette. Look forward to this every year.

Made potato tacos in the evening and the next morn used the filling for this tostada topped with a sunny side up egg.

Look forward to making this every year too -- hazelnuty arugula pesto with lots of lemon juice, parm, garlic and olive oil.

Pesto and tapenade spaghetti topped with parm.

Straight up Hood strawberries and honeyberries from the garden.

Mustardy tuna salad sandwich with homemade cornichons.

Yard Fresh Pt. 12 Yard Fresh Pt. 11 Yard Fresh Pt. 10 Yard Fresh Pt. 9 Yard Fresh Pt. 8 Yard Fresh Pt. 7 Yard Fresh Pt. 6 Yard Fresh Pt. 5 Yard Fresh Pt. 4 Yard Fresh Pt. 3 Yard Fresh Pt. 2 Yard Fresh Pt. 1

Last year's Vegan Iron Chef in Portland. Photo by Lucas DeShazer.

Vegan Iron Chef Ticket Giveaway!

June 27, 2011 in Foraged Food, Portland Chefs, Portland Food Competition, Portland Food/Drink Event, Uncategorized, Vegan Iron Chef Compet...

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be here for the second annual Vegan Iron Chef Competition this year -- but if you are I've got a pair of tickets for one lucky commenter. Since last year's event sold out quickly I'm doing this giveaway early so those who don't win can go ahead and purchase tickets ($12 advance/$15 at door/$100 VIP tasting seats).

Comment below on the best vegan dish you've eaten out in Portland recently (or a vegan dish you've made at home recently if no restaurant dishes stand out) for a chance to win a pair of tickets.

From the press release:

Three chefs from the community’s favorite establishments will prepare dishes inspired by an unveiled secret ingredient for a panel of esteemed judges and a live audience, while the event is live-streamed to anticipated thousands.

The event will be co-hosted by bestselling cooking author Isa Chandra Moskowitz of The Post Punk Kitchen and local artist and zinester Nicole J. Georges.

Our chefs are Kitchen Dances’ Piper Dixon, Homegrown Smoker’s Jeff Ridabock, and Dovetail Bakery’s Morgan Grundstein-Helvey.

This year’s judges include Julie Hasson from Native Bowl and Everyday Dish, Aaron Adams from Portobello Vegan Trattoria, Grant Butler from The Oregonian, John Janulis from The Bye & Bye, and last year’s crowned Vegan Iron Chef, Quasu Asaase Yaa.

Live music, exhibitors, sampling, trivia, and raffle prizes round out this can’t-miss event.

Tickets ($12 in advance/$15 door; $100 VIP tasting seats) are available at VeganIronChef.org. Sponsorship opportunities available now.

Vegan Iron Chef is a nonprofit organization based in Portland, OR, with a mission of spreading the message of veganism by showcasing the art of vegan cuisine and celebrating community. Other cities are encouraged to join the Vegan Iron Chef network, hold their own competitions, and unite for regionals and finals in upcoming years.

Vegan Iron Chef Competition Sunday, July 10th, Competition 5-7:30pm; after party until late Event @ Refuge PDX

Our friend Amanda Myers of Infinity Tattoo keeps bees and we got some of their spoils -- two jars of liquid gold honey.

Friend Food Pt. 2

June 06, 2011 in Food Gifts, Homemade Food, Portland DIY, Portland Food Products, Portland Gardening, Specialty Foods, Uncategorized

So many good things have come our way food-wise from friends in the last few weeks. We're so lucky. Here are some of the yummy things we've been gifted lately...