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
What's for din din?
Writer's Forum
Farm & Garden
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

Coming Attractions

Farm Dinner
By popular demand, Honeyman Creek Farm will have a farm dinner in Portland once a month hosted by Uncommon Invites, Barclay Event Rentals and Vino 100. Our first dinner in town will be held on Sunday, June 22 at 6 p.m. More information to come.

Cooking Classes at In Good Taste in the Pearl District
With great honor I am pleased to announce that I will be teaching some cooking classes this summer at In Good Taste Cooking School in Portland. Now is the opportunity for those of you that have wanted to take classes but didn’t care to drive out to the farm to do so. As soon as the schedule is final I will follow up with the details.

May Cooking Classes at the Farm:

Soul of the South – African American Foodways
When Africans were forced into bondage and brought to the New World, they brought with them the knowledge of foodways that contributed significantly to what would become Southern cuisines. With a flair for seasoning and cooking simplicity, they turned the most humble of foods into memorable repasts.
Date: Saturday, May 24 at 12 noon | Fee: $100 | View Details

South by Southwest – A Journey to Tex-Mex Country
In “The Tex-Mex Cookbook” author Robb Walsh writes “Tex-Mex is the ugly duckling of American regional cuisines. Since it was called Mexican food for most of its history, nobody even thought of it as American…” This cooking style is a combination of Indian, Spanish and Southern cultures that came together to make a new distinct cuisine, deserving a rightful place in American food traditions.
Date: Saturday, May 24 at 12 noon | Fee: $100 | View Details

Wine Notes from Megan

2005 Atticus Williamette Valley Pinot Noir ($24)
Our Wine Pick for May is the 2005 Atticus Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. A first vintage for newcomer Atticus, this elegant Pinot was just awarded 89 points by Wine Enthusiast Magazine. With just 295 cases produced, this Pinot is hard to find but worth the search as it is a great value at $24 a bottle. Vino 100 is proud to be one of the few retailers carrying this wine by their winemaker, Scott Shull of Raptor Ridge. An approachable, feminine wine, this Pinot is highlighted with flavors of light cherry and soft vanilla notes. As you let the wine open up and breathe, slightly deeper, earthy tones evolve. A great pairing with grilled salmon fillets or pork chops.

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

What's for din din?
din din is a monthly dinner held at different public venues around Portland by up and coming chef Courtney Sproule. It’s like a dinner party, but with strangers! Courtney doesn’t believe that having a nice meal means you have to be on your nicest behavior, so expect some sort of game to get people talking and laughing with one another.

din din’s menus are typically left a surprise in order to allow her to feature as much of the weekly local harvest as possible. Although she will say that one summer din din will be dedicated to Southern foods, particularly those from North Carolina (which I know you all are fans of if you’re friends of Robert!).
To make a reservation for din din or to sign up for her mailing list, contact Courtney Sproule at dindinparty@yahoo.com or 971.544.1350.

Food Writer’s Forum
Share your thoughts and experiences regarding sustainable living, American food traditions or your own food heritage or memories

Hot Biscuits
“Take two and butter them while they’re hot” is a familiar table call in many a Southern household. Whether it's breakfast, dinner or supper, we have a long held love affair with hot bread, especially hot biscuits. Why, some folks feel a meal wouldn’t be a meal without hot bread.

Sometimes biscuits are thin and crisp with a fragile exterior that yields to a moist and melting interior at first bite. They can be as fat and fluffy as a soft feather pillow with a texture so light you’d think you were biting into a cloud. Some are rolled out and cut; some pinched off and patted out into biscuits the size of a “cat head”. Buttermilk biscuits, Sourdough biscuits, Angel biscuits – it’s hard to decide which ones are my favorite.

Slather with butter then stuff them with jam; sop them in sweet sorghum syrup or sourwood honey. Try them with a fat country sausage patty or thin slices of country ham fried to the color of an old copper penny tucked inside. Better yet, smothered with gravy or fresh creamed corn, biscuits become a meal in themselves, especially if accompanied by thick slices of juicy vine ripe tomato right out of the garden.

No matter how you eat your biscuits though, make sure you “take two and butter them while they’re hot”!

Book Report: Ralph Brennan’s New Orleans Seafood Cookbook by Ralph Brennan with Gene Bourg
(Vissi d’Arte Books; Copyright © 2008 by Ralph Brennan; ISBN 978-0-9709336-8-3)
A definitive guide to ingredient sourcing, terminology, preparation, cooking and serving seafood à la New Orleans, the Ralph Brennan’s New Orleans Seafood Cookbook features 432 pages with 170 classic and contemporary recipes from the Crescent City.

Don’t be daunted by the long list of ingredients in most of the recipes. They are quite approachable and include easy to follow, step-by-step instructions, notes, advanced preparation steps, special equipment needs, and suggested wine pairings. In addition to the tantalizing recipes, the seafood manual, along with numerous stories and anecdotes, makes for an enjoyable read. I am enticed to try every recipe in this book.

An absolutely stunning book, the vivid photographs by Kerri McCaffety bring the senses so alive that you can smell the gumbo simmering on the back of the stove. The Ralph Brennan’s New Orleans Seafood Cookbook is certain to become a veritable classic among cookbooks.

Farm and Garden

April 26th Spring Garden Fair
Preparations are well under way for the Columbia County Master Gardener™ Association’s 12th annual event. Master Gardeners will be offering over 5,000 tomato plants for only $1.00 each. There will be 25 heirloom varieties grown by Shaft’s Farm of Scappoose and 25 standard varieties grown by Nelson’s Nursery in Warren. Both nurserymen are members of the Association. During last year’s Spring Garden Fair more than 5,200 tomato plants were sold.

This year’s fair will be on Saturday, April 26, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Commons of St. Helens High School, 2375 Gable Road in St. Helens. There will also be vendors outside the Commons in the courtyard. Admission and parking for this event are free.

The Master Gardener™ plant clinic table will be stocked with information on many garden subjects and will have OSU certified Master Gardener™ volunteers to answer your gardening questions. On display will be our chapter's insect collection, a cold frame, a mason bee house and a compost maker.

As in years past, more than thirty local vendors will be offering garden-related items such as garden art, greeting cards, herbs, trellises, perennials, containers, books, shrubs, trees and more.

Dozens of raffle prizes will be given away throughout the day. This year’s prizes include a garden cart, handmade bird houses, gardening books, handmade bat houses, a park bench, several varieties of plant food, kangaroo pop-up bag, hanging planter baskets, a potting tray, many varieties of flowers and trees, a Leatherman hybrid garden tool, a scuffle hoe and much more to come!

Raffle tickets are on sale now and can be purchased for only $1 each from many Columbia County Master Gardeners, at the OSU Extension Service in St. Helens and will be available at the fair.

For more information, contact the Columbia County Extension Service at 503.397.3462 or visit our website www.columbiacountymastergardeners.org.

Recipe of the Month:

Warm Potato and Artichoke Salad with Bacon Dressing
As far as I am concerned, one can never have too many recipes for potato salad. This warm potato salad is a variation of an old Mennonite recipe using green beans. Try it with cooked green beans or asparagus in place of the artichoke hearts. It makes a satisfying accompaniment to grilled salmon, chicken or pork chops. 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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