One Local Summer, Week 13

We've just returned from four days in Manzanita for the holiday weekend with friends and lots of local foods on the menu. So, I'll give a brief write up of what we had there. But, also, for my official Week 13 report, I want to refer you to an earlier post this week:

Curly Kale and Potato Soup

That one at least has a picture, although the soup was not particularly photogenic.

There were three families on our trip to the coast. We all have gardens and all three belong to CSA's. In addition, Jeff stopped at a farm stand on the way down and I went to the Manzanita Farmer's Market. So, there was a refrigerator full of wonderful local foods for us to choose from. At various times, we enjoyed:
red new potatoes with wilted chard
a saute of zucchini, onion and fresh corn
green salads with garden lettuce, cherry tomatoes, scallions, cucumbers
chicken ( from "Lance's Beef", a farm in Bay City)
pork chops (unknown origin - purchased at the little grocery store there)
frittata with peppers (some local, some not), cherry tomatoes, cilantro and Rogue River cheddar with jalapenos
french toast with local eggs and milk that I'm not sure about, made with challah made by a nearby bakery

We have been going to the coast for Labor Day weekend with these friends for many years. It has always been that last blast before school starts for three teachers, their kids and one guy who always has to put up with a lot of "school talk".

Although I don't have any picture of the food, I do have this showing a gorgeous bouquet that Grace (Jeff's neice) got for me at the Manzanita Farm Market:



Clearly a young woman of quality and taste. Grace is a soon-to-be sixth grader who will live here in Portland for the school year with Jeff and keep him honest by being a student in his class for his last year of teaching.

Sand, Yarn and Local Food

Another quick trip to the coast this week for beach-sitting, local eating, and knitting, not to mention 99 (actually got to 100 on Saturday) degree weather-avoiding. I left early Friday afternoon. I was inordinately happy driving to Manzanita - tuna sandwich, bag of fresh cherries and an iced latte for lunch en route, windows down and sun roof open. I was on my own this time. Grady had to stay behind to do his neighborhood civic duty on Saturday morning (innoculating elm trees in Ladd's Addition). And Molly was not invited. With guests coming to use the house Sunday morning, I didn't want to spend any extra time cleaning the house since we had already done a thorough cleaning the last time we left.It was actually HOT at the coast the past couple day - in the 80's. (This is unusual in case you are not familiar with the Oregon coast.) So, it was a great time to sit on the beach and read or nap, and I did plenty of both. On Friday, there was a pretty good breeze, so we had lots of kites and kite surfers. Today, it was completely calm.
Friday evening I went to the farmer's market in Manzanita to get dinner. Wow, talk about crowds! I got there about 20 minutes after it opened and it was already getting crazy. I got my dinner items and scooted on out.
So, I had a nice simple local meal for myself. Broiled ling cod, mixed salad greens with a bit of hothouse tomato, and roasted red fingerling potatoes, plus a sauvignon blanc from our neighbor state to the north.

I first started this blog to write about my experiences with learning to make local foods a regular part of our diet. This was one of the things I wanted to learn about and do in my retirement. Among the other "new tricks" on that retirement "to do" list is learning to knit. It just happened that a brand new yarn store opened up in Manzanita recently and they were offering a one-session introduction to knitting beginner class this morning. So, I signed myself up and drove down to attend. Lou, our incredibly patient teacher, got us started with two ways to cast on and the basic knit stitch. And, "TA DA.....", here is my first effort (well, actually second, but the first one looks pretty much the same, except even more uneven.)
The store is called T-Spot Yarns, Teas, and Chocolate. Doesn't have a website yet. But, if you like any of those three things and find yourself in Manzanita, I would encourage you to stop by and see Olga.

Strawberry Day

On our way down to Manzanita on Wednesday afternoon, we stopped to buy some strawberries from a farm in Canby. And, then, when Jeff drove down a little while later, he bought some as well - a whole flat. Plus, I'd brought from home a pint that I'd gotten at the farmer's market. We were knee deep in local strawberries. And no one was complaining. So, Thursday was a full-on strawberry day.

Breakfast:
sliced strawberries on the yogurt pancakes I'd made ( many thanks to Melinda at 'Elements in Time' for this great way to start the day. This link to her blog has the recipe and photos.)
Lunch:
a little sliced bread with cheese and whole strawberries on the side
Dinner:
grilled steak with leftovers from Father's day and another party, followed by strawberry shortcake that Jeff made for us - using the traditional recipe in my old copy of Joy of Cooking that I keep down at the beach.

Proud to say we're doing our best this week to support a couple of the local strawberry farms in our area.

Local Eating on the Coast

Boy, did we have some great meals over Memorial Day weekend while we were at the coast. On Sunday, we drove up to Astoria to go to the farmer's market. We brought home lettuce, asparagus, and yellow fin potatoes. On the way back to Manzanita, Ardie spotted a sign for fresh seafood. Following the signs down a back road, we came to Joe's Seafood Market and Smokehouse. We chose some fillets of fresh troll-caught Pacific salmon. Grady cooked the salmon on the charcoal grill, we roasted the potatoes, steamed the asparagus and made a salad with the greens. And I'm sure it wasn't just the influence of the champagne and pinot noir when we all declared the salmon to the best we'd had in a long time. So moist and delicious.

As good as it was, we didn't finish all the salmon. So, Monday morning Karla made omlettes for us with the leftover salmon, chunks of the potatoes, mushrooms, and a Willamette Valley farmstead cheddar. Plus, I had made a compote with the local rhubarb I had gotten the previous week at one of our Portland markets.

Earlier in the weekend, we'd had a salad with lettuce from our garden and some other local greens that Karla brought for a dinner. Grady and I had stopped at the new pie shop in Manzanita and brought home a marionberry pie for dessert. It was as tasty as it was pretty:
And, just so you don't think that all we did was eat, here are a few pictures from some of our other sight-seeing in Astoria. These next two are the famous Astoria column. It was built on the highest hill in the town and is about 125 feet tall with scenes from the Lewis and Clark expedition all around it. The artist used a technique called 'sgraffito' - a combination of painting and engraving in plaster. Here are Ardie and Grady in front of it - in the short view and the longer view:
Looks kind of like the leaning tower of Astoria here:
The bridge that crosses the Columbia River from Astoria to Washington:

So, there you have it - my latest report on local foods, a new vocabulary word for the day, and some goofy pictures of a phallic-looking landmark on the Oregon coast.

Signs of Spring in Manzanita

We were just treated to two beautiful days at the coast - sunny and warm. Beautiful walks on the beach, warm enough to sit on the front deck in short sleeves to read or nap. And, more signs of spring in our front garden.

Pieris Japonica.....

...and up close (note: these are new growth leaves, not the flowers, which will come later.)
Another favorite of mine in this garden - the contorted filbert with its new spring leaves

full view of the filbert

Of course, some members of the family preferred indoor activities much of the time.

like Miss Molly in her favorite corner and

the puzzlemaster

It was also a terrific seafood weekend - Oregon line-caught black rockfish that I cooked Friday night; then, Quinault, Washington razor clams and Columbia River salmon at Pirate's Cove restaurant on the way home today. All this great weather, food and relaxation helps make up for the return of the crappy weather forecast for the next several days. Already thinking ahead to our next trip to the beach.