NWestern Oregon

[Oregonclan]

Hi new in from NW Oregon. Hmmm....where to start. Well, mother of three, youthful grandmother of 2 (still raising two teens). Moved out of the "city" and now in the countryside with a couple of acres. We have 26 egg layers, 6 red broilers (pullet sized yet) an two breeding rabbits (yes, for meat). Getting ready for a very large garden, however, our spring has been cold and wet so far. Looking to learn some new things, especially about canning vegetables (needing to buy a pressure canner). I feel lucky to have been brought up out where we now live and in a family that did a lot of "old-fashioned" things (apple picking in the orchards, canning fruits and jams, picking wild berries, etc..). I also hope to learn much from our new neighbors. Elderly couple have lived on their property since 1958, and he grew up on a farm (he was just out breaking up two tree's he had taken down, for firewood). They have a large garden and he seems so knowledgable. I can bet she does can her own vegetables.

Never hunted, never held a gun, but have fished. Have had little taste for fish, growing up here, salmon used to be a commodity, and we got fed a lot of it as kids (salmon sandwiches for lunch...). Smking it might make it more desirable to me. Ate a LOT of trout (dad took us fishing and if you caught it, you ate it, after a bit I would have "bad luck" so I would not have to eat it...

 

[savingdogs]

Heh, I must be near you, I'm in Clark County, WA. Our weather has been terrible this year!

 

[JRmom]

I understand about the fish thing. I love it now, but I ate so much of it as a kid (my dad was an avid fisherman) that I wouldn't touch it for years. I hated our family fishing outings! I'm still kind of picky about eating it - don't like bass any more - but love eating most salt water fish.

 

[Denim Deb]

Ate a ton of pan fish growing up, as well as flounder, weakfish and I don't recall what all else. (Helped that we didn't live too far from the shore.)

 

[FarmerJamie]

Hello and from NE Ohio!

One regret I have from living near an elderly couple like you describe - bring a small notepad with you when talking to them, or do a brain-dump of your conversations afterwards. I have forgotten so many little words of wisdom 'cause I didn't try to write them down until after they were gone.

 

[Oregonclan]

savingdogs, the weather has been horrible, plus, we never really had much of a summer, so it has felt like one long winter, for about a year or more.

I am hoping to convince my tastebuds that they will like fish again. From a large family growing up here, salmon was in heavy abundance (then, now there is a problem with the numbers), and it was actually a commodity (to my knowledge the government gave it out in abundance), and my relatives and friends of my dads all fished salmon, smoked salmon, plus sturgeon (that was my great-great uncle who caught sturgeon, eighty some years old and use his old towing winch to haul them up out of the river).

I love cod, and should make a trip to the coast and see if we can get some cod, but will NOT go out on a fishing boat, on the Pacific no less. We would go to the coast, on one of the jetty's and watch the Vietnamese immigrants catching fish (anything that swam was good to them, but they caught lots of cod), but I think you are not supposed to fish from the jetty's?...

Well we live close to a river (where there is a prolific fall salmon run), plus close to the Columbia, so if I decide fish is going to be on our menu, then our choices are ok.

 

[savingdogs]

I agree we had no summer last year. I could not get any crops to grow in the garden. I'm really hoping for better luck this year and improved my technique to maximize our minimal amount of sunshine!

We also had snow in both November and March, which has never happened since we lived here. I'm SICK of winter and now of MUD.

I LOVES me some sturgeon, I wish I could get Hubby to fish for that again. That was delish. I also love salmon, but grew up in Californina, not here, so it is a luxury for me still and not something I grew up with. My mom never really used to cook fish when we were kids, I think my dad didn't care for it. Now my husband won't eat it except deep fried and my kids won't eat fish except canned tuna. So I just get fish for myself as a treat now and then.

We have had some friends who would just give us their salmon a few times because they loved to fish but didn't like to eat it. I said, Bring it on!

 

[Oregonclan]

Since you are "new" to the area, I will let you in on a little secret (that is, if you don't already know about it). Huckleberries, no not the red ones that grow in moderate elevations, the blue ones. These grow in the sub-alpine climate. Around here it is up from Government Camp, up to just below Timberline. As well, one of my favorite areas is the Hood River "Fruit Loop" on highway 35 as you head towards White River pass, just beyond Parkdale. Best time is mid, to late August, but this last year it was not as good.

You are allowed up to five pounds of it, but honestly, I have never weighed it myself, and no one is up there asking, as well, so few actually take advantage of it and so most go to waste (so if you wind up with more than 5 pounds, and feel guilty you overpicked, maybe tell yourself many will never take that opportunity and so you have made sure their share did not go to waste....lol).

These are phenomenol in pancakes, jam, syrup and of course muffins.

Not sure how long you all have been here, but if you get behind someone who appears to have grown up here, in the grocery store, and they mock blackberries for sale, don't think we are snotty, it is just, well, as you have seen, blackberries are in overabundance on every open spot west of the Cascades. To buy them is massively funny to us. Simply stock up when they ripen, and trust me, NO ONE will tell you there is a poundage limit!!

Then, of course going to Hood River to get cull apples and pears. About $1.00 cheaper per pound. My dad was friends with a guy who used to have an orchard in Parkdale (from when I was about 6 to 10, so this was about 37 to 33 years ago), and when he was done with his pears, and then his apples, each time we would go up and get loads of cull, and my mother, my sister and I and our grandma would spend about two weekends peeling, coring and canning pears, then apples. My parents had a Chevy Suburban, and the back, plus the back seat, would be filled to the windows, only my dad and one of my brothers could ride home in it, and the rest of us would cram into their smaller car (can't remember what it was).

Then he passed away from cancer, and his wife decided to sell it all since none of their kids lived nearby. I sure miss that all, it was great.

 

[savingdogs]

Well our place at the farm is new, but we have been up here for awhile now. We have collected huckleberries in the Mt. Adams wilderness area and at Indian Heaven near here, are you familiar with the Wind river area? We are in Clark but very close to Skamania, almost on the border by Lake Merwin. We actually get some huckleberries growing here, but they are that wrong variety, the tart ones?

We also have a lot of salmon berries (yuck) and of course blackberries. Too many blackberries of course. I much prefer the huckleberries!

 

[Oregonclan]

Yeah, I am a fifth generation Pacific Northwesterner, have spent a lot of time all around (my dad liked to wander every backroad on vacations). The red huckleberries actually make incredible jam and because they are tart, require less pectin, but just a bit more sugar then some berries might require. The wild rasperries (what people sometimes call "thimble berries" that are nothing more than a short wild raspberry, are so fragile and hard to get a large quantity of, but really good. Salmon berries (are you referring to the yellow ones?) are really not that good, but be up there in spring when they flower out, lord those blooms are beautiful.

Then there is salal and Oregon Grape berries, both edible, but strong flavors, some just do not like them. These mainly should be made into jam.

The blue hucks are something so many people just do not realize how great they are.

Besides huckleberry picking, our favorite outings are rock hounding. Eastern Oregon/Washington are best for this. Eastern Oregon has a much more rugged and volcanic landscape than Washington. It is really strange how just crossing the river in a place like Biggs Junction (highway 97) and go up towards Goldendale, and it becomes rolling grasslands. On Oregons side, we have a little of the Palouse above the Columbia, but then that gives way to places like John Day Fossil Beds area (and all the surrounding areas).

The kids are getting older, and less interested in the rocks and berries now, and my husband is a born and bred Chicagoan (RIGHT in Chicago) and he is not fond of berry picking, though he likes the outdoors when we go.

Well, here's to this spring and summer in the NW, knock on wood, get out your lucky charms, cross fingers and pray for the ideal weather so we all up here can get some produce from our efforts this time (no more green tomatoes)!