the KITCHEN
at Honeyman Creek Farm
a cooking school
54986 Leberg Road
Warren, OR 97053
503.543.5610

Chef's Corner
Chef Robert's
Food Blog

This Month:
Sunday Dinner at The Farm
Coming Attractions
Cooking Classes
Wine Notes
Book Report
Renewing America's Food Traditions
From Garden to Table
Recipe of the Month

Celebrating Our Southern Food Traditions

Culinary traditions of the American South are as rich as they are varied. An amalgam of regional styles and variations on similar themes, these traditional cooking styles represent several of the oldest, most established regional cuisines in the nation. This region called the South has little unity whether in terms of geography, historical development, linguistic or cultural traditions. Yet, people from the area are Southerners first with a universal love of family, fellowship and good food. Celebrate and share with us the food traditions of our Southern heritage at Honeyman Creek Farm through our hands on cooking classes and Sunday Dinners.

Where is Honeyman Creek Farm?
Honeyman Creek Farm is located in Warren, Oregon, an easy 25 to 30 minute drive north of Portland along US 30 between Scappoose and St. Helens. It’s not at the end of the earth as some people might think and the beautiful drive into the country is well worth the trip.

Sunday Dinner at the Farm
Sunday Dinner in the South is traditionally a large and ritualistic affair. Join us on the first Sunday of each month for a home cooked traditional Southern family style Sunday Dinner based on local and seasonal ingredients. Loosen your belt and y’all come!

Reservations are required and space is limited. Don’t wait too long as the dinners fill up mighty fast. No hard libations are included, but you are welcome to bring your own. Contact us for more information.
View upcoming events

Menu for July 6th, 2008
Deviled Crab | Mesquite Smoked Chicken
Butter Lettuce with Egg Dressing
Roasted Beets with Bleu Cheese and Walnuts
Carrot Pudding with Creamed Peas
Warm Potato and Artichoke Salad
Edna’s Onion Pie
Assorted Homemade Pickles and Relishes
Granny Rolls
Raspberry Shortcake, Whipped Cream | Chocolate Cream Pie
Ice Tea | Lemonade | Coffee
4 pm | $40 per person

Coming Attractions
Summer Cooking Classes at In Good Taste, Portland, OR
We are bringing the farm to the city with three hands-on cooking classes to be held at In Good Taste in Portland this summer: Creole Feast, Creole Classics from Louisiana (July 25th, 6 pm), South by Southwest, A Journey to Tex-Mex Country (August 28th, 6 pm), and Soul of the South, African American Foodways (September 14th, 2 pm). More information about classes can be found at www.ingoodtastestore.com. From our garden to your table - Y’all come!

July Cooking Classes at the Farm:
Tidewater Cuisine – Virginia and North Carolina Traditions
Food traditions of the coastal plains and piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia hail from the time of planters and plantations. Strong English and Southern overtones, the French influences of Monticello and the delft hands of Africans is still evident in the elegant tables of the Tidewater.
Date: Saturday, July 12th at 12 noon | Fee: $95 | View Menu & Details

Back by Popular Demand:
Barbeque is a Noun – The Art of the Southern Barbeque
Throughout the South, Barbeque is the result of the act of slow smoking meat and the gathering together to consume these vittles. Variations in style and sauces from North Carolina to Texas will be covered as well as all the fixins’ to go along with it. The class will prepare the dinner and each student can invite a guest to join us.
Date: Saturday, August 9th at 12 noon | Fee: $95 | View Menu & Details

Wine Notes from Megan
2005 Grand Pacific Starliner Red ($11.50 - California)
Looking for a red wine that pairs well with spicy food? A unique blend of Petite Sirah, Grenache, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from California offers rich cherry, raspberry, strawberry jam and cranberry flavors. This wine will work well with the spicy flavors of Mexican cuisine: tacos, burritos, tostadas, tamales, etc. For spicy cuisine, picking a red wine can be a bit tricky. You need to make sure that the wine will not overpower the spice (big tannins are a no-no), but you also want to make sure that the flavors of the wine will not be washed out and overpowered by the spice of the meal.

Megan Markel is co-owner of Vino 100, a charming wine shop boasting 100 great wines for $25 or less. Vino 100 is located at 2092 NW Stucki Ave., Hillsboro, Oregon. For more information visit www.vino100portland.com or call 503.466.1606

Book Report
The Berry Bible by Janie Hibler (HarperCollins Publishers Inc.; Copyright © 2004 by Janie Hibler; ISBN 0-06-008548-7)

Upon first glance at Janie Hibler’s The Berry Bible, I couldn’t put it down. Appealing to my passion for gardening and cooking, the A-Z encyclopedia details 41 varieties of both well known and obscure berry cultivars followed by 68 full-color identification photographs. Lots of great information here – habitat and distribution, history and “How To” sections on picking, buying, and storing, as well as Hibler’s personal notes for the cook. The only thing it doesn’t tell you is how to grow and care for the plants. But, after all, this isn’t a gardening book, it’s a cookbook.

Following the encyclopedia are 175 tantalizing recipes using fresh and frozen berries, both wild and cultivated, each brought to life by the warm, personal musings of the author. Now that berry season is upon us, I can’t wait to try some of them. The Berry Bible is a must have for gardeners and cooks alike.

Renewing America's Food Traditions
The United States is an immigrant nation whose rich and diverse culinary heritage evolved from local seasonal ingredients influenced by the numerous cultural influences of the peoples that inhabit it. Each group of immigrants adopted, more or less, the culture of their new homeland while adding contributions of their own. Since certain resources that were common in their homeland but not readily available in the new world, they adapted. There was a time when diversity of foods on the farm and on the table – plants and animals, fresh or preserved – was the norm across most of North America.

Today, nearly two thirds of the distinctive seeds and breeds that fed America have vanished. Sixty three percent of Native American food crop varieties have disappeared from cultivation since European arrival on this continent. Commercial agriculture in the hands of large corporate enterprises creates a monoculture of available plant and animal species.

Food and cooking across America becomes more and more homogeneous, succumbing to fast, mass manufactured, pre-prepared foods or the ever prevalent media food porn. Traditional foods from indigenous cultures and regional place-based immigrant cultures are in danger of disappearing into oblivion.

As our rural lands dwindle there are fewer and fewer family farms. These farms provide a more sustainable lifestyle as well as sometimes producing a limited income to help with family expenses. The central stewards of American food traditions are those in America that still raise much of their own food – for fresh use or preserved – cook their own meals and save their own seeds. This means saving the past of our common tables for future generations.

There is a silver lining to this dark cloud brought about by the grass root efforts of those driven by the desire to preserve our precious food traditions. Founded in fall of 2003, the RAFT Coalition (Renewing America’s Food Traditions) represents seven of the most prominent non-profit food, agriculture, conservation, and educational organizations dedicated to rescuing America’s diverse foods and food traditions. These organizations include: American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University, Chefs Collaborative, Cultural Conservancy, Native Seed/SEARCH, Seed Savers Exchange, and Slow Food USA.

The words of RAFT ring out loud and clear. “With these losses has come a decline in traditional ecological and culinary knowledge, and declines in the food rituals which link communities to place and cultural heritage. If these culinary delights persist only in our history books we will have lost an important cultural legacy and future generations will be deprived of the exquisite flavors found in these heritage foods.”

The regional and ethnic culinary traditions that have shaped cooking in America need to be preserved for future generations. Sharing our food heritage – its culture and traditions – can help overcome intolerance by nurturing a broader respect and understanding of different peoples. Author and authority of the African Diaspora to the New World put it quite eloquently: “…the knowledge of the foods and tastes of the past is of the utmost importance. In this world of increasing lack of connectiveness, the past is perhaps the savior of the future and sorely needed in the present…”

From Garden to Table – Stalking the Marshall Strawberry
Once upon a time in the land called Oregon, the Marshall strawberry reigned supreme as the crowning jewel among jewels of Northwest berries. Does anyone remember the Marshall strawberry for which Oregon was once so well known? Ask any old timer about Marshall and their eyes will glisten as if recollecting the memory of a departed loved one. A memory is almost all that remains of this deep crimson berry described as exceedingly handsome, splendidly flavored, pleasantly sprightly, aromatic and juicy with rich, dark red flesh to its very center.

Once the backbone of the northwestern berry industry from northern California to Washington, Marshall was the standard by which all other varieties were judged. Today, the Marshall strawberry is listed on the top 10 most endangered food plants in North America by the RAFT Coalition. This remarkable strawberry only exists now at the USDA/Agricultural Research Service National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, Oregon, in the form of three verified clones. The Repository is a gene bank that preserves invaluable plant genetic resources of temperate fruit, nut and cultivated crops. Cultivars are stored either as growing plants or as seeds.

Although having originated in New England in 1890, Marshall found a favorable home in the milder climates of western Washington, Oregon and California, becoming the dominant variety just after the turn of the 20th century. In Oregon as well as Washington, Marshall remained commercially important until the 1960’s due to its exquisite flavor, color and suitability for freezing and preserving. By the late 20th century it essentially disappeared, being replaced by Northwest and Hood in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Totem replaced these in the 1970’s, remaining the commercial variety of importance in Oregon and Washington today.

Marshall was not without its limitations – soft flesh, average productiveness and less-hardy virus-susceptible plants. Just after World War II, berry farmers unknowingly imported plant stocks infected with Red Stele virus from other countries. Being of a delicate nature, Marshall was susceptible to the virus, resulting in disastrous crop reduction for farmers. As new, more virus resistant strawberries were developed, Marshall began to be phased out of production, eventually disappearing almost into oblivion.

A variety of Marshall, currently known as the Bainbridge-Marshall, has been diligently maintained since the turn of the century by the unheralded heroes of the Bainbridge Island Historical Society at their museum on Bainbridge Island, WA. Led by museum docent Carol McCarthy, the museum cultivates a small number of plants that are sold at their Harvest Fair the first Sunday in October. They currently have more than 20 home gardeners now growing the strawberries.

According to McCarthy, the plants were a gift from former Bainbridge Island native Frank Koba, now of North Bend, WA. Koba’s family grew the berries during the berry boom prior to WWII. Genetic testing is currently underway at The Repository to determine if the Bainbridge-Marshall is indeed the same as the Marshall once grown in Oregon or a different cultivar.

Despite its limitations, Marshall is an important part of Oregon’s food heritage that deserves to be preserved as a living element of that heritage for future generations. With a passion for preserving food plants, I started a grass roots crusade to bring Marshall back into existence. Through networking with the Chef’s Collaborative, word has been spread to local growers and chefs. The interest and support has been overwhelmingly positive.

Spearheaded by Chip Bubl, Oregon State Extension Agent for Columbia County, every effort is being made to secure enough plants to provide growers interested in participating in the Marshall recovery. Clones will be acquired from The Repository then sent to a lab to be propagated by a system know as tissue culture (think plant cuttings on a microscopic scale). The greatest challenge so far is finding a lab willing to propagate less than 10,000 plants. Once a lab has been contracted, it would be two to three years before we see the fruits of our labor. So far, Bubl has acquired four Marshall strawberry plants from the Repository which will be grown to produce additional starts by Master Gardener Dennis Snyder of Warren, OR. Snyder’s family grew the Marshall commercially during its heyday before this exquisite berry fell from grace.

I’ve been fortunate enough to score a few runners, courtesy of the generous support of The Repository. Once they arrive this summer, this precious cultivar will be given a place of honor in my garden. We all look forward to the arrival of fresh, sweet Oregon strawberries in June. Perhaps some day the Marshall strawberry will take a place of honor among our fresh market berries. The verdict is still out but every effort is being made to resurrect an important and succulent part of Oregon’s heritage.

Recipe of the Month: Braised Swiss Chard with Lemon and Pine Nuts
This is a simple and traditional Italian way of cooking leafy greens as taught to me by my dear friend Aurora Valentinetti of Seattle, Washington. Any leafy green such as kale, mustard or escarole may be prepared in this manner. Some greens such as kale benefit from the addition of a little extra moisture so add up to _ cup chicken or vegetable stock as needed. If you do not like pine nuts then don’t use them. The greens will be just as delicious. View Complete Recipe

More Information
For more information on Honeyman Creek Farm, cooking classes, farm dinners, recipes or to read Chef Robert’s blog on food and gardening visit www.honeymancreekfarm.com. Feel free to contact us at info@honeymancreekfarm.com or 503.543.5610.

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