4 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tsp Dijon mustard

Pinch sugar

1 small garlic clove, crushed

Salt and pepper to taste

Salad:

2 small to medium green zucchini

2 small to medium yellow summer squash

1 large carrot

4 oz. fresh radishes, thinly sliced

4-6 scallions, chopped

2-3 Tbsp shredded fresh basil leaves

Parmesan cheese shavings to garnish

Directions:

1. Make the dressing: Put the olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, sugar, garlic and salt & pepper in a small bowl and whisk together until thoroughly mixed (alternatively, pulse for ten seconds in a food processor till mixed and lightly emulsified). Set aside

Make the Salad: using a vegetable peeler, cut the green and yellow zucchini into long, thin ribbons, including the skin, and down through the meat of the squash, but avoiding the seeds in the center (discard the core).

2. Put into a salad bowl. Repeat with the carrot to make long, thin ribbons, then add these to the zucchini ribbons, together with the radishes, scallions and shredded basil.  Toss gently to mix. Briefly which the dressing, then drizzle it over the salad and toss gently to coat.  Serve immediately, garnishing each portion with a sprinkling of Parmesan shaving.

This recipe was a hit in our first preserving class on jam making.

Raspberry Blackberry Jam Recipe

from Sunset Magazine July 2009

Makes 8 half pints or 4 pints

This sweet tart spread has the bright flavor of raspberries with just enough blackberries for a rich undertone.

3 cups (12 oz.) blackberries

2½ qts. (2 2/3 lbs.) raspberries

5 cups sugar, divided

1 pkg (1.75 0z.) Sure-Jell pectin labeled “for less or no-sugar needed recipes”

½ tsp. butter* (optional)

First Time Tip: Add sugar to the boiling berry mixture (step 4) all at once; this helps the mixture gel properly.

1. Sterilize 8 regular jars or wide mouthed half-pint jars, plus matching rings and lids.

2. Meanwhile, puree blackberries in a food processor. Rub through a fine strainer over a bowl to extract as much juice as you can. Discard seeds and scrape juice into an 8 to 10 qt. pot. Add raspberries and mash very coarsely with a potato masher.

3. Measure 4 ¾ cups sugar into a bowl; set aside. Put remaining ¼ cup sugar in another bowl and stir in pectin. Stir pectin mixture into pot with berries and add butter if you like.

4. Over high heat, bring berry mixture to a full boil that you can’t stir down, stirring constantly with a long-handled spoon and protecting hands from splatters. Add reserved sugar and return to full boil, continuing to stir, Boil, stirring for exactly 1 minute.

5. Fill jars and boil for 5 minutes.

6. Cool, check the seals and store as directed.

Farm Feast Recipes

The first Annual French Prairie Farm Feast was such a delicious success that we’ve had many requests for the recipes.

Summer Succotash

This is one of the best types of recipes – the just do recipe! There are no set quantities - the only requirement is to use the very freshest local ingredients.

• 6 ears (or so) of fresh corn – stripped from the cob
• 1# green beans (preferably Romano) cut into 1” pieces
• And/or 1# zucchini - cubed
• 1 purple or Walla Walls style onion diced
• 1 clove of garlic minced
• Ribbons of fresh basil to taste
• Garnish with halved cherry tomatoes.

1. Blanch the green beans and set aside
2. Sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft
3. Add the green beans and/or zucchini and sauté until they begin to soften
4. Add the corn and continue sautéing until all dente
5. Add the basil, salt & pepper to taste and serve.

Reading Date:   August 15, 2009, 3:30 – 5:00 PM

Location:  Butteville Store

Author:  Richard Engeman

Title(s):  Eating It Up In Eden:  The Oregon Century Farm and Ranch Cookbook

The Oregon Companion:  An Historical Gazetteer of the Useful, the Curious and the Arcane

Review for Eating It Up In Eden:

On a long Sunday drive in Oregon farm country, aren’t you tempted to stop at a Century farm and ask them how the last 100 years have been? Oregon can proudly identify 19 farms that have been in continuous operation for over 150 years! In a clear, succinct, amusing style, Richard Engeman opens that Century farmhouse door and peaks into the kitchen, finding scads of pictures, recipes, tips, and practical solutions that have exemplified Oregon farm and ranch life over the last 150 years. This beautifully published book is a welcome addition to a cookbook collection as well as a car companion.

Today urbanites are turning to farm families for tips on growing, harvesting, and preserving the bounty of Oregon’s Eden. Appealing to every beer-swilling snail trapper is the liquor-laden instruction from an 1860’s cookbook “To Catch Wild Ducks”:

….soak wheat in strong alcohol and scatter where they eat and

take them when they are drunk

Engeman sorts through it all and produces a wonderful historical retrospective of farm family recipes and household solutions that can be used today. The book has an eclectic choice of historic photos, quotations, and the definitive county listing of Century family farms. Celebrate Oregon’s bounty with Eating It Up in Eden.

PIQUANT PLUM-FIG SAUCE

(for meat accompaniment)

• 12 ripe plums
• 6 ripe honey figs
• ½ chopped onion
• ½ tsp garlic
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2Tbsp red wine
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• Pinch of salt
• Juice of ½ lime
• Sprig of thyme
• ¼ tsp ground Chipotle pepper
• ¼ tsp smoked paprika

Crush and pit plums; crush figs and pulse pulp together in a food processor for 15 sec. until liquefied and fine chop.

Sauté chopped onion and garlic till onion is translucent. Add rest of ingredients, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove and discard thyme sprig.  Allow to cool.

Return to food processor and process another 15 seconds. Strain through a coarse strainer. Then strain again through a sifter, using a ladle or the back of a spoon to push the pulp through. (This removes all the bigger pulp and the fig seeds).

Result should be a moderately thick sauce. If too runny, simmer slowly to thicken further. Adjust chipotle and smoked paprika to taste (carefully!), and salt and sugar if needed.

Serve at room temperature. Goes wonderfully with roast pork and chicken.

Wednesday July 29th, 2009

French Prairie is on the front line of the Portland metro area’s
ongoing debate over rural and urban land reserves.

Over the years, grass roots organization Friends of French Prairie has
led the opposition to urban development south of the Willamette River
in rural Marion County.

Now, the group, led by president Ben Williams, is expanding its reach
with the introduction of a new branding program aimed at touting the
area’s agricultural riches.

Dubbed the French Prairie Branding Initiative, Williams envisions the
effort bringing together local farms, nurseries and retailers under
the French Prairie banner. If it works, he says, the name will become
synonymous with quality produce, flowers and nursery products.

“We started over three years ago, principally as a land use
organization, because there is so much development pressure on various
parts of French Prairie,” Williams said. “It’s Oregon’s historic
breadbasket, it’s where the state was founded. It’s the richest soil,
not just in the state, but in the world. There’s all this agricultural
heritage.”

Changing the public’s perception of his group also is important, he added.

“Having spent a couple of years doing that as an organization, we
realized you can only be an active populace with pitchforks shouting
‘no’ for so long. You need at least as much positive contribution to
the subject as you have negative opposition. So, we needed to find the
best way to move forward.”

As Williams suggests, French Prairie is located on some of the
Willamette Valley’s finest farmland. The area’s farmers and nurseries
produce a veritable smorgasbord of fruits, hops, vegetables, nursery
stock, grass seed and other sustainable, local products.

The name French Prairie dates back to the 1820s, and now is used to
describe the area of the Willamette Valley bounded on the west and
north by the Willamette River, on the east by Canby and the Molalla
River, and extending south toward Keizer. It includes Champoeg State
Park and historic district, as well as the towns of Aurora, Donald,
Butteville, Gervais, Hubbard, St. Louis, St. Paul and Woodburn. It
also includes a small slice of Clackamas County that includes the
Charbonneau development.

At least 13 farms and nurseries have signed up to the idea to date, as
well as retail outlets Wilsonville Lamb’s Thriftway and Fir Point
Farms in Aurora.

For Dan Sands, produce manager at the Wilsonville Lamb’s Thriftway,
the branding initiative makes perfect sense for the family-owned
Lamb’s chain.

“We really embrace the living local idea,” Sands said. “We’ve done
this for a long, long time.”

Lamb’s already has working partnerships with over a dozen local farms
to supply the chain with fresh produce. Already, signs with the names
of local farms supplying the supermarket adorn the produce section,
while a display case features French Prairie produce. Right now, leafy
greens, including lettuce, are the staple of the day.

“It’s right in our back yard,” he said. “It’s dealing with your
neighbors and you see how things are going.”

Sands said he still has concerns over how the French Prairie name will
be marketed and protected from outside misuse. But he remains
enthusiastic.

“We’ve got to feel this out and coordinate everyone,” he said. “But
really, the product tends to speak for itself.”

The initiative consists formally of three parts: French Prairie Fresh,
French Prairie Grown and French Prairie Organic. The first covers
locally-grown fruits and vegetables, the second identifies non-food
products and the last singles out products certified as organic by
Oregon Tilth or the Stellar Certification Service.

“You don’t need to buy lettuce from California and you don’t need to
buy pork from Nebraska,” Williams said. “You can get all these things
from local suppliers.”

Sands agrees. He added that he hopes the initiative helps build a
strong agricultural community throughout the area.

“It will increase what we’re doing,” he said. “It gives us a baseline
for building relationships. I think it’ll continue to grow as people
recognize the quality in the store. They’ll go, ‘Hey, I recognize that
name.’”

To learn more about the campaign visit: www.friendsoffrenchpriaire.org.

- 3 tablespoons half-and-half

- Salt and black pepper, taste

- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

- 2 small leeks, white and light green parts halved lengthwise, washed and sliced thinly

- 4 cups morel mushrooms, cleaned and torn into bite-size pieces

- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

- 4 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled

(1) Whisk eggs, half-and-half, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a bowl until well combined and set aside.

(2) Heat butter in 12-inch nonstick oven-safe skillet over medium heat until foaming subsides. Add leeks, morals and 1/4 teaspoon salt; reduce heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally (8-10 minutes). Stir thyme and half of goat cheese into eggs; add egg mixture to skillet and cook, using spatula to stir and scrape bottom of skillet, until large curds form and spatula begins to leave wake but eggs are still very wet (about 2 minutes). Shake skillet to distribute eggs evenly; cook without stirring for 30 seconds to let bottom set.

(3) Distribute remaining goat cheese evenly over frittata. Slide skillet under broiler and broil until frittata has risen and surface is puffed and spotty brown (3-4 minutes). Remove skillet from oven and let stand 5 minutes to finish cooking.

- adapted from americastestkichen.com

The Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway website is live!  The website supplies the cyclist with all the information needed including detailed printable maps, a photo of the bikeway signs, places to camp, ride descriptions and points of interest along the route. 

The site can be reached at: http://www.oregon.gov/OPRD/PARKS/BIKE/

Oregon Bikeways are routes chosen with cyclists in mind that showcase the
scenic wonders of Oregon from the viewpoint of a bicycle seat. The idea started with a Cycle Oregon ride in 2005 and has now grown into an information packed website and fully marked route with signs at every turn for both south and northbound riders.

The Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway is Oregon’s first, and currently only, designated bikeway. The 127-mile route showcases sites important to Oregon’s history as it travels through some of the most diverse agricultural regions on earth where hops, wine grapes, hazelnuts, marionberries and are grown.

The northern end of the bikeway is at Champoeg State Heritage Area, the site
of Oregon’s first provisional government in 1843, travels through Oregon’s capitol city of Salem, following the east side of the Willamette River all the way to Armitage county Park, north of Eugene.