This afternoon found me bent over in my yard in a light drizzle picking dandelions.  I was not weeding, but rather gathering up some of my favorite springtime greens.  Now, I do realize that one of my previous posts was also about a wildcrafted springtime plant.  I am not some crazy lady who spends all day trying to find free food, storing nuts away in a tree with the squirrels.  But when I saw dandelion greens for sale at a local organic grocery store for a hefty price, I smiled to myself.   I can get those for FREE in my yard!

As tour leaders of culinary walking tours in Portland, we get asked all the time about our favorite places to eat and drink in Rose City.   Where do we go for Thai?  What about farm-to-table, or tapas or food carts? Or how about a great bar with a view/extensive beer list/craft cocktails?  

Forktown Food Tours had a lovely walking tour of the Alphabet District in Northwest Portland last Friday.  The sun was shining, so many trees were in bloom, and we were delighted to find nettles on the menu.   Emory at Wildwood Restaurant (one of favorite Portland restaurants) served our group a fantastic seasonal pizza featuring manila clams, applewood bacon, roasted garlic, grana padano, wild nettles, and chile flakes.  Many people had never eaten nettles before so it was really fun that we could chat about this delicious and unusual food.

Food Cart Tours!!! Forktown has partnered with WW’s Eat Mobile  to offer tours of Portland’s most awesome food carts! We will take you cart hopping all over town to try tasty samples from 8-10 different carts. We’ll share the stories and inspiration from cart owners and test your cart-savvy with food cart trivia.

Lila Martin of Travel Portland has this to say about Forktown…

“Twice a week, Jessica invites you to her “Forktown,” leading tours to the Northwest and North Portland areas where you can taste for yourself why Portlanders find their city so delicious. She’ll take you to restaurants, sandwich shops, food carts, bakeries, gardens and surprise places that make this city so unique. What you’ll find is that people who greet you are so happy to be making a living making the food that they love that they are proud to share it with you.”

Check out the Portland Spoke blog! Its a fantastic resource for finding the best of the best in our beautiful region.

We’ve been super lucky to have two great pieces of press lately. The first is from a local Portland paper, the NW Examiner. (click on ‘August 2010′ and go to page 26).

And an interview with Jessica was posted on the Readymade Magazine blog for their “f*&%ing awesome jobs” feature. Read the interview here.

Zenger Farm in Portland is having their 2nd annual picnic on Saturday August 14th. I went to this event last year and it was fantastic! We toured the property and got a close look at their cool Egg Co-op project, turkey pens, row crop fields and adjacent wetlands. The food was prepared by Bon Appetit Chef Joe McGarry featuring produce grown right there at Zenger. I vividly remember the brownies. A pulled pork dish and cucumber salad was also delicious. Later we settled down on blankets and watched Food, Inc. projected on the side of the barn. This year’s picnic features the same chef and the local food documentary, Ingredients (which I have also see, its great!). No reservations necessary, just show up on the 14th at 6pm. Admission is sliding scale $15-$35. Children under 12 free. Cash or checks preferred. For details visit Zenger Farm.

Roland Bello’s images have an incredibly rich, moody, theatrical quality.

If you love food and pinot noir and are looking for some of both this weekend, get your tickets to the International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville, July 23-25th. Festivities are numerous and include huge food and wine pairing seminar, vineyard and winery tours, chats with winemakers and chefs, grand dinners and outdoor tastings, and lots of opportunities to eat amazing food.  Tickets are spendy ($975 for the whole shebang) but entry to individual events can be had for under $150. For details, visit the IPNC site.

I love beans, especially the colorful and tasty heirloom types. And while I usually buy dry beans from Rancho Gordo (an heirloom bean dealer that ships from Napa, Ca) I was looking for a bean a little closer to home. My search lead me to the tiny Red Truck Farm on Sauvie’s Island. I contacted them, asking where I might be able to buy their dried beans in Portland. Farmer Jason Karnezis got back to me right away, telling me he had long sold out of his last crop of beans, and the next crop is due in October. He also invited me to visit the farm, an opportunity I jumped on, never missing a chance to nerd out with a fellow bean lover. Out on Red Truck’s pretty little slice of Sauvie Island, Jason showed me several varieties of bush beans: Maine yellow eye, black calypso, blue tepary, Jacobs Cattle, Carioka, Tiger’s Eye. His collection of beans is limited to bush varieties because his small farm is rented year-to-year, so creating the infrastructure to support vine-like pole beans doesn’t make good business sense.