HOMEGROWN Road Trip Part 4: Portland, OR
Portlandia, indeed. We are smitten with this town. Locally-sourced ingredients seem to be the assumed standard everywhere, small independent businesses are thriving here, and, yes, hot girls DO wear glasses (and knit caps) here!
The highlight of our time in Portland was by far the couple of hours I spent at Harriet Fasenfest’s dining room table. Any member of the Food Preservation group knows Harriet, but many of us know Harriet because of her critically important book “The Householder’s Guide To The Universe”. After making corn cakes (from corn she ground earlier that morning) and real, thick, heritage-breed bacon to die for, we sat and talked about the “good food movement”, Jim Hightower populism and HOMEGROWN.org (“what is it all about?” she asked. “What is the objective of what you’re doing? Tell us more about who is behind it!” I’m excited to act on some of the ideas we bandied about, and to engage Harriet and all who are interested in the journey. Stay tuned for more!
Before leaving, we toured through her gardens and canning kitchen / classroom – quite the lovely setup, indeed. More photos from Portland will be up on Flickr as soon as I can get a less-than glacial internet connection.
The number of truly cool things that we withnessed here is large, so I’m just going to give y’all a list with links. We’ll be back, beloved Portland! Don’t go changin’!
Foodz
Sizzle Pie – good pizza, but, even better, they are all named after heavy metal bands!
Grand Central Baking Company – biscuits and baked goods like heaven on Earth. Check out their cookbook, too.
Screen Door – Yup, Southern Cuisine in the Pacific Northwest. Their fried chicken is boneless and juicy, with just the right kick of spice. They also do bourbon flights!
Por Que No? – fresh and righteous Mexican taqueria.
Grain and Gristle – in-house pickled stuff (mushrooms, celery, apples, sausage), all-local beers, and the velvetiest chicken liver pate evarrr.
Pine State Biscuits – Hungover hipster heaven.
Places we wish we had in our town:
The Rebuilding Center – “Founded by volunteers in 1998, The ReBuilding Center carries the region’s largest volume of used building and remodeling materials. It provides resources that make home repairs affordable to everyone, with the goal of promoting the reuse of salvaged and reclaimed materials.”
SCRAP (School and Community Reuse Action Project) – Basically, anything that could have ended up in a school dumpster ends up here instead. Inspiring scrounged art projects across the Pacific Northwest.
For the vinyl geek (because I’m married to one)
Next stop: Seattle, WA.
Tags: harriet fasenfest, oregon, Portland, reviews, travel
