Hood River Harvest Festival -- Rob, Tory, Dawn & I

t’s been months since I wrote a full sized entry in this blog. I’ve had different priorities lately and it hasn’t been to update this area. This morning, however, I was updating my Facebook page and the entry for yesterday’s adventure was just too many darn characters for the format no matter how much I paraphrased. So here I am returning to the format that lets me tell the tale in full and share just how much FUN we had yesterday in North Central Oregon.

5 AM. Breakfast

Tory & Dawn (hard fast fabulous friend duo) arrived at the house at O’dark early. Tory had worked til well after midnight the night before and here he was with his best gal after only half a night of sleep. My Man-O got right on pouring a couple cups of strong rich dark coffee all around while I prepared a hearty bit of breakfast. While we ate and loaded up on caffeine, we that days trip was discussed in general, with very few specifics named, only that as a group we were going up to the Gorge, explore, eat, laugh and have fun. The guys planned a trip to the Brewery, the gals planned a walk up and down Oak St to see the shops, the group planned to visit a few orchards for some fruit to bring home and to stop in at the Harvest Festival on the waterfront to see even more farm fresh goods and artisan products.

7 AM. Leaving Central Oregon

We were off, the sky was overcast and the day called for some pretty good rain showers, but not a drop fell from the dawn sky. The drive from Bend through Madras is something we’ve all done so very often that I can’t claim the scenery was much paid attention too – the sky was amazing and the mountains painted in white, pink and blue were a sight to behold - - but good conversation took over the majority of our attention. Our chosen route was to go up thru Madras, up to Government Camp (on Hood) and hook a right on to Highway 35 and go up through Odell. I hadn’t been this way in more years than I care to recall, if ever, and the country-side was attention grabbing. It seems to me that there is a distinct line between the high desert and the green lush land that you cross into when you head up to Odell, from the sage & bitterbrush to ferns & bramble thorn, High Desert Sage Rat that I am, the dive into a green world is a geo-shock that I particularly enjoy. I love my desert. There is truly no place like home, but to dip into that lush greenery is a treat that just can’t be described by me into words that would sound as sensorially sensuous as it really is.

9 AM. Rasmussen Farms

Rasmussen Farms in Odell is back off the main highway a few miles and is deep-deep-deep back into orchards of so many varieties that I lost count just a mile in. The rain had started to fall in a soft mist, and the pumpkins were brilliant spots of color against the grey-green orchards. A pair of Newfoundland’s, the size of small ponies, thought briefly about trying to eat the truck as we made our way first past the farm entrance and then again on our way back when we finally figure out that yes, that one little hand painted sign really was the only hint on how to enter the farm proper.

The farm was a fun place, filled with more harvested produce than I regularly see at the local grocery store. 15 apple varietals, 6 or 8 pear varietals, cauliflower, cabbages, kale, Brussels sprouts, pumpkins, acorn squash, butternut squash, gourds and mini pumpkins of all shapes and sizes (ever seen grown men make faces that indicate they remember what it was to be evil 10 yr old boys with a big fat desire to make obscene suggestions with vegetables???); filberts by the hundred weight, chestnuts, walnuts, almonds – onions, garlic, corn . . . oh honey the list just goes on and on. It was a FUN place to wander and touch and taste and smell and see.

I loaded up on Apples and Pears oh my! I’ll be making apple chutney and pear chutney and spiced fried apples and apply pie very very soon!

10 AM. Oak St. Harvest Fest on Frontage. Full Sail Brewery on Columbia

Hood River and the sun was shining down on Oak Street. The Harvest Festival also included a 10k run, The Providence Harvest Dash, and we were dodging many tired sweaty runners as we got another cuppa coffee. As a group we are people watchers. It’s a nifty pastime, easy to practice and frequently yields something interesting about humanity that you hadn’t considered in quite that light before. Be it how someone dresses, walks, speaks, interacts with the world around them. We had talked about walking around town and indulging in good conversation and a observing our fellow inhabitants & tourists. With a couple of exceptions, I can state honestly I didn’t pay much attention to people yesterday. I was seeing a LOT of dogs. More newfies, mastiffs, malamutes, bull dogs, pugs, boxers, golden retrievers, schnauzers, terriers, labs, poodles and more. It was a day for canine companionship. We moseyed and meandered and wandered down to the waterfront. Several runners in rather nifty costumes provided Halloween preview – everything from Bumblebees to a Violent Purple Pimped-out Joker. There is a good sized park right down on the river and there were pavilions spread across a few acres of grass holding perhaps 200 artisan and food vendors hawking their wares. More orchard farms were represented at the festival and we saw even more varieties of fruit and vegetables that made us stop and scratch our heads in wonder. Apples as large as a toddlers head. I held a single apple in my hand that weighed in at 5 lbs and could have been a pie all on its own. There were apples and pears of extreme size and pumpkins too. There were garlic vendors that make so many different types of pickled garlic that I wondered at the imagination that came up with some these recipes. I saw sweet peppers in a rainbow of colors and fat poblanos that begged to be tomorrow night’s supper.

It was a bit of a climb from Frontage back up to Columbia Street. Hood River is a very hilly place. Not as steep as Astoria by-gory, but the residents do all have wonderfully strong calves, today as I walk to and from the coffee pot I can tell you by way of the ache in my calves just how steep a climb those streets near the river are. Columbia Street is the home of the Full Sail Brewery, our lunch destination. We started out on the patio to eat but the clouds came rolling in swiftly, black and heavy with fat, cold rain. The populated and popular patio emptied out 10 minutes before the rain started and there was a dining room wide sigh when the water started pelting the windows while we watched.

The food was fabulous. I had the Cuban Panini – the guys went for the Rogue River Blue Cheese burgers and Dawn had Chicken Skewers, we at largely and enjoyed it very much. Another walk back to the truck, up a few more steep streets and we split off into pairs, the guys to head back to the brewery for the tour and we gals to window shop.

12 PM. Oak St.

The rain wasn’t pouring down as hard as it had during our lunch but the water still falling from the sky and the air was warm pretty soon there was a blonde and a red-head from drier climes complaining about hair frizzies. I made Knot Another Hat my priority first stop and fell in love. The shop is on the second floor of an old building at #16 Oak St. the shopkeeper has a large picture glass window looking out at the Columbia with a couple of couches and overstuffed chairs positioned for yarnsters to sit and watch the water and ply our fingers at our craft. She also has very nice selection of fibers. It’s not as large a selection as say, Juniper Fiberworks & Gossamer, here in Bend, but it definitely rivals Bend shops prices, in many cases by up to 2 dollars a skein. That is significant in yarn. I’ll make another quick plug for this shop, she has a website and orders over $50 are free shipping. I do believe I have a new source for fiber. (insert blissful sigh here) I picked up a few more skeins for my stash and also was finally and happily able to purchase the Brittany Birch cable needles that I’ve wanted since I first found out about them this summer up in Sisters.

I also purchased another nifty wood crochet hook (size H) for my growing collection of artisan wood hooks. I had taught Dawn to crochet a year or two ago but she had found it not to her liking, the nature of the hand motions exacerbating a not fun bit of tendonitis, but knitting, with large needles, and the scrumptious variety of yarns called to her and she found a nifty fiber to make a scarf from. We planned to do a spot of knitting on the drive up to Multnomah Falls. We headed back out into the rain and crowded sidewalks, (‘Rain? What rain?) into the presses of people with wet dogs and umbrellas or rain slickers or shirt sleeves. I couldn’t tell you which were the locals and which were day trippers like us. We poked into a Doggie Shop, browsed through my favorite little bead shop and yakked a bit with the owner, talked about gelato but finally decided on hitting the candy shoppe when we met back up with the guys.

Tory & I bought licorice and found a new variety in that heavenly genre to enjoy and Dawn and Rob found peanut butter fudge w/ double chocolate is indeed worth writing home about. Back into the pickup we all loaded to head on down I-84 to see even more water falling out of the sky – the 3 waterfalls along the scenic highway.

2:30 PM Horsetail Falls

The rain got heavier and came down harder as we made our way west down the interstate, the traffic was racing, way to close for my comfort, so I ignored it utterly and turned to Dawn and we got down to the business of casting on. I had my current project in my basket and relaxed into it while she practiced this first skill. In nearly no time at all we were off the freeway and onto the scenic highway and it’s treasury of natural wonders. Dawn got out her camera rig and oohh baby is that some?! Woman is serious about her pictures and set off to snap about a zillion. The guys strolled around the base of Horsetail falls, being good and impressed by the rushing weight of water from a 150 ft drop and I looked at the leaves, and moss and lichen and ferns and the people I love having a great time. I brought home a significant lump of moss that was lying in the road --- I have to believe that the winds and heavy rains knocked this bit loose from a tree, much of the bark it had anchored itself to is still attached to the root system --- and I plan to make a terrarium or two from this fun find.

3:00 PM – Multnomah Falls

On down the road just a couple of miles are Multnomah Falls. Of all the waterfalls in the northwest this is probably the most iconic. Neither Tory nor Dawn had ever been and while Rob and I had been, many times, it was fun to experience it again through eyes that had never stood in the mist of that most wonderful double fall of cascading water. Out came Dawn’s camera and Rob and I exchanged a look, knowing full well that those two would make the hike up to bridge that spans the cleft right at the bottom of the larger, more impressive Upper Falls. We looked back at the lodge, and looked up at the rain falling down and felt the chill in the air that had finally come to make the rain more autumnal and less Indian summer and found that the best way to spend such an afternoon is indoors, before a nice fire in a 90 yr old lodge, sipping cream heavy dark coffee and sharing a huckleberry topped buttery shortbread. We had a very lovely, quiet visit, my best friend and I, drying our jackets by the fire, looking up 2 foot thick solid beams and thinking of the time when the lodge was built . . . daydreaming away the afternoon.

4:30 PM – Vista House Observatory

The last stop on the Scenic highway was the Observatory @ Crown Point. That too is a unique site that affords views of the Columbia that, no matter the weather, make awesome postcard fodder. Vista House was open for visitors and Rob was tickled pink, he’d never been inside as the first and last time we had ventured up the Observatory had been close for renovation. Inside the rotunda around each section of the observatory is a bust of a different native face. There are 12 of them in gold gilt, each a different man, looking out on days long gone. Grave faces. It’s a melancholy thing to look on for me. The stained glass sections above the window panes are in greens and golds and seemed to me to be the perfect colours for a autumn afternoon. The sun had come back out and was shining through the remaining shreds of black clouds and I was warm again. Rob and I perched upon the stone wall and watched the river and looked out across to Washington, and the farms on the high tops of the gorge, their leaves turning in rich reds and cheery oranges and yellows. Sadly we did not get to mount to the second story and appreciate the views from the heights, the Gallery was closed again however as the fall storms had exposed a nasty leak that needed repair. We may just have to venture back up there next weekend for another look.

6 PM -- Dinner 3 Rivers Grill

Back to Hood River as the sun sank down behind us – the rain was gone and the stars could be spotted in cloud breaks – and we as a whole were quite ready for a good meal and a little more good conversation before the trip home. We had initially planned to head over to Brian’s Pourhouse for dinner. On arrival, we found that Saturday nights really do recommend a reservation but the hostess was sure she could seat us in an half hour if we would care to wait down stairs in the bar and have a drink first. I really don’t know how the other three felt but I have to tell you that when I looked around that very crowded dark little dining room I wasn’t thrilled. Downstairs in the ‘Bar’ wasn’t much better. There was a crowd of perhaps 15 women pushing the only three tables in the place together and also pulling out all the chairs to seat around the tables . . . we did manage find 4 chairs to push back to the bar a but as we were sitting down the bartender let us know it would be quite a while as he had the ladies party to tend to first. Yup. I was done. Small renovated basement room-cum-bar loaded with 20-somethings being very loud before they had even been served their first round and a bartender that looks like he’d rather be home than there serving said gaggle of women much less our small party and I was ready to find another place to dine.

We left.

Across the street and on the corner sits a tall mosaic retaining wall. Atop that wall is a very nice outdoor patio with fairy lights strung to and fro across the outdoor dining area and inside was the lovely soft light of many candles. That is the place of scrumptious dining known as 3 Rivers Grill. Rob and I had eaten a wonderful lunch there last spring and as a group we were going to enjoy that lovely ambience and great food for dinner. We again had a great meal, they guys choosing their Rib Eye and we gals choosing tuna & bourbon chicken respectively. We talked, we laughed, we shared bites of this and that, we looked at the night and listened to the hum of the dining room full of people enjoying a very good dinner and we laughed and ate and drank some more. 3 Rivers Grill is cozy tables but plenty of room between you and your neighbors that you have your own conversations without hearing theirs. I deeply appreciate that. The tables are covered in white linen clothes with a big square of butcher paper across the top, as white and crisp as the linens. The beer was Deschutes, our fella’s favorite go-to beer, especially with good steak, and the pinot gris was cold and crisp on my tongue; perfect with grilled chicken and summer squash and zucchini. Rosemary bread and a fat merry little pot of butter made its way around the table a few times and very well cleaned plates met our waitress when she brought our check. Excellent price for the meal. Excellent.

8 PM – Headed home

A two hour drive back home, being quiet, being talkative, watching Dawn sleep, her head lolling gently with the bumps in the road, Rob leaning back against my hand when I touched his curls, thick and riled from the humid Gorge weather, Tory driving fast and sure down the road, as ready to be home as he was eager to head out 15 hours ago. Me, watching the stars and feeling how heavy my eye lids were and counting back over all the fun we had and we had seen and tasted and touched . . . it was a damn good day.

Hobo Taters w/ Country Ham

12 baby red potatoes, sliced ¼ thick

1 red onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

2 thick ham steaks cubed

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon rubbed sage

Salt & Pepper to taste

Heat oil in large (12 inch) skillet and add potatoes. Season. After four or so minutes turn potatoes for first time and toss in onions. Another 4-5 minutes and the next turn of skillet contents, toss in peppers, and on the next turn (also 4-5 minutes in) add the ham. An addition 2-3 turns (again of 4 or so minutes each) and your taters are done! Serve with eggs over-easy and caraway rye toast and good dark Sumatra roast coffee with lots of fresh cream.