Hood River
2011 Bite of the Gorge
Spring is on it’s way and that means, blue skies, daffodils and The Bite of the Gorge! Celebrate the coming of sunny days and a community proud to support arts in the schools at The Bite, Saturday, April 9th, 6 -9pm at WAAAM, Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum, in Hood River.
Spend the evening with the Gorge’s best restaurants, wineries and breweries under one roof, each offering a sample of its very best fare. The Bite is our way to say THANK YOU to the community for supporting us in our efforts to bring arts education to schools throughout the Mid-Columbia Gorge.
WAAAM is the place! You will be surrounded by the art of flight, antique cars and more at Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum, located off of Tucker Road just 2 miles from downtown Hood River.
Tags: bite of the gorge, Hood River, restaurants, the bite
Columbia Gorge Community College
The Dalles Campus (541) 506-6047
Hood River Center (541) 386-3510
400 East Scenic Drive The Dalles, OR.
Columbia Gorge is your community college. Our goal is to help you be successful in whatever educational program or activity you choose.
At Columbia Gorge Community College (CGCC) you can complete your first two years of college and then transfer to a four-year institution. Or you can take a professional/technical program to qualify for a job. You can finish your high school education, explore career ideas, retrain or add to your job skills, or get professional help on how to run a business. CGCC also provides you with opportunities to pursue special interests or to broaden your education. You may fit as much of this as you want into your life. You can go to school full-time to finish a program in one or two years, or you can attend part-time and just take a class or two.
Classes are held at a variety of locations convenient to you, including our campus in The Dalles, Hood River, and other locations in communities throughout the district. You may even stay home and take a class by modem or television. We schedule classes during the day, evenings, and on weekends for your convenience.
Whatever your educational goals and interests, we will do all we can to help you, whether it’s enrolling you in our courses or referring you to other resources.
Tags: college, gorge, Hood River, school, The Dalles
Columbia Gorge Events
http://columbiagorge.com/events/
Check the link above to view the Columbia Gorge Events Calendar or pick up the latest issue of Columbia Gorge Magazine today! Every issue of Columbia Gorge Magazine features compelling stories and stunning photographs that capture the spirit and style of the Columbia Gorge.
Tags: Hood River, print, The Dalles, the gorge, web
Hood River Fashion Show
The Hood River County Gala Fashion Show is a Fashion Show Extraordinaire. The Gala continues to be a huge success! For all ages. The proceeds are donated to The Hood River County Christmas Project. (Winter and Holiday assistance for low income families and seniors)
To watch the 14th Annual Gala Fashion Show broadcast click here
Tags: cathy carter, fashion show, gorge network, Hood River, hood river inn, the gorge
Mt. Hood Cycling Classic
PO Box 1432, Hood River, OR.
www.mthoodcyclingclassic.com
mhcc@gorge.net
The Mt. Hood Cycling Classic is one of most difficult stage races in the U.S., with tough climbing and beautiful scenery. The popular event always delivers a top-notch field.
Tags: Hood River, mt hood, mt. hood cycling classic, portland, the gorge
The Blessed Life, The Written Word
I grew up in a small town in Northeast Ohio. I’ve come to love the Columbia Gorge and to call it my home, but I can’t consider myself a native. I’m not exactly old yet, but my memories of my youth are limited to a few shining moments, some showing more brightly than others. After the announcement in late May that Hood River County would be closing three libraries, thoughts of the early days of my life began to come back to me.
I was raised by two loving and ever-attentive parents who knew that in order to maintain sanity and foster their relationship for decades, they’d need a date night. Friday nights were a time for them to leave the day-to-day parenting troubles for awhile and to just be together, alone, away from everything. Luckily, my grandmother lived just around the corner. She was always so excited to see us late on Friday afternoons. I remember the way she’d be waiting at the screen door as if she could intuit the exact seconds we’d arrive. My sister and I would bounce out of the car and run to her embrace.
We would each have one of two things with us, either a large Pizza Hut button decorated with a star for each book we’d read that week, or a sheet of paper cataloging our summer reading list for the Morley Library summer program. Each title and author listed was another work devoured—another seed of knowledge or insight gained.
Grandma didn’t like pizza, but she would grin from ear to ear as we piled into her Pontiac and headed off for the small, free pizza we earned each and every week through a reading program that far too few of our schoolmates took advantage of. I remember clearly, sitting in a mostly empty restaurant just off the main drag outside of downtown. We’d wait anxiously for our prize to arrive while Grandma asked us about what we’d read, what we’d learned and what we would be checking-out from the library after dinner.
When the Pizza Hut program ended, not much would change. We’d sit over a dinner of spaghetti and fresh-picked vegetables at her kitchen table and recount our reading adventures as we made our way through the library’s summer reading program. We often found ourselves well into the lead by early June. We’d count the number of green construction-paper leaves with our names on them, each one placed onto the bare brown branches that took-up what must have been 30 feet on the interior wall of the library. By the end of each summer, with the help of hundreds of Lake County kids, the summer reading tree would be bursting with life—thousands of books read.
In my grandmother’s living room sat a brown leather chair where the three of us would squeeze-in to read away our Friday evenings. My sister and I would each take an armrest and Grandma would ease into the middle. We took turns reading aloud. I remember the way my younger sister would laugh at the jokes she didn’t get just because Grandma and I were laughing, and then we’d laugh with her, enjoying that frivolous, warm chuckle she still has to this day. It only took a few years to wear two small holes into those armrests. Grandma would tape-over them in hopes of stretching the life of the chair—maybe in some way it was a thank you for the way that chair brought the three of us together.
As we grew older there were quieter nights, but we’d still only occupy the space in and around that chair as we each dove into our young adult novels—Grandma reading the newspaper or a gardening magazine at our side. Whether we were 3-years old or well into our teens, we’d finish a stack of books that would make any parent proud and we’d head off to the library again the next week to exchange them for more knowledge, more enjoyment, more access into that world that only reading can open.
I’ve grown-up to make a living by reading and writing. It’s a gift I silently thank Grandma for each and every day of my lucky little life. I understand the bias I have toward the written word, and given my life experience, it’s easy to see why I get so nostalgic over the loss of a building filled with books. There are a host of reasons that these libraries are closing, but none is simpler than the fact that the money isn’t there. As many of us see the signs that this recession is lessening its grip on the nation, these closings serve as a reminder that we’re far from profitable, far from wealthy. I can’t blame a hard-working family for not wanting a raise in their property taxes, but it doesn’t make it any less of a sad story.
My office here in is just a block from the State Street branch that will soon shut its doors. Each time I walk by—every time I see someone tug at the locked front doors and look down at their watch—I’ll think of the worn spots on that old leather chair. I’ll think of the feeling of taping up another paper leaf on the library wall, and the weight of those stacks of books as we left that Hood River cavernous brick-building in Northeast Ohio. I may be far from the place I was born, but I’m home, and every time I look at the State Street Library I’ll feel a tinge of sadness at the fact that each hour that building remains closed, another child is missing out on the blessed life of the written word.
Tags: books, gorge, Hood River, library, matt werbach, Pizza, read
The Local Flavor is Sustainability
matt werbach
It is hard to have missed the turn American food culture has taken in the last few years. Whether it’s the escalating gas prices of the last couple summers or the popularity of books like The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, many in the country have taken a more responsible role in what they put into their bodies. Here in the Columbia Gorge, the idea of buying local, sustainable and organic is nothing new. It has been the backbone of our much celebrated food culture for decades.
According to a study by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, 39 percent of the fruit and 78 percent of fish and shellfish consumed in the United State are purchased from other countries. These numbers, and many others like them, have led to a wide range of reactions from Americans.
Environmentalists concerned with rising CO2 levels are revolted by the distance food travels to reach the plate. Millions of gallons of gasoline are used to ship food around the country. Those concerned with their local economy fear the impact importing food has on nearby farms, seed producers and markets. Even those simply concerned with saving money have taken notice of the spike in food prices when gas becomes more expensive.
People concerned with their health have found much to fear in recent studies. The inclusion of corn in so many of the foods Americans eat was exposed in Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis’ hit documentary King Corn and Michael Pollan’s bestselling book The Omnivore’s Dilemma. These works highlighted the homogeneous nature of the modern diet and its inherent health risks. Barbara Kingsolver’s bestselling book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle chronicled her family’s attempts to grow and raise all the food they needed over the course of a year.
Here in the Columbia Gorge, these battles are easy to win. The adjacent communities have utilized conditions ideal for growing some of the country’s best fruits, raising livestock and producing a wide variety of wines. These cities and towns don’t simply produce great foods, they celebrate them.
This summer visitors and residents alike will join together in commemoration of the local fruits. In July, Hood River celebrated the cherry and in September it will celebrate, the pear. Early estimates hinted at as many as 16 to 18 million boxes of cherries to be picked this season. Gravenstein apples will have their time in the sun in August. Even the lesser known and often overlooked fruits get in on the party. Apple Valley Country Store will celebrate the Huckleberry August 15 and 16.
These fruits are as local as can be. The celebrations often take place right in the fields and orchards where the produce grows. The popularity of selecting your own apple or pear right off the tree has led to U-pick orchards blossoming all over the region.
The stores and markets from Goldendale to Troutdale never miss a chance to tout their local products. Jellies, jams, syrups and sauces are made from almost every regional fruit.
Locally raised or caught meats, from lamb to salmon, can be found at area markets and grocers. Being a resident of the Columbia Gorge means there’s little challenge to putting together a meal that is 100% local, and there is no lack of variety to this diet either.
Don’t have the time or desire to cook? Many of the restaurants that dot both sides of the Columbia River feature fresh local ingredients. Area chefs pride themselves on utilizing indigenous flavors in unique and consistent ways. Menus have to be more adaptable in order to embrace these neighborhood ingredients. Chefs like Matt McGowan of The Glass Onion in Goldendale are constantly changing menus to offer ripe vegetables and fruits, and to take advantage of seasonal events like salmon runs. As Riverside Grill chef Mark DeResta recently said in our Summer issue, “if it’s not fresh, we won’t use it.”
There is no better pairing to the fare of the region than Columbia Gorge wines. Red or white, dry or robust, simple or complex, they are second to none. A visitor to the area could spend the whole summer exploring the different wineries. Even residents who have lived their entire lives here haven’t run out of new wines to taste. Whether you find yourself at Erin Glenn Vineyards sampling any number of local varieties, at McMenamins Edgefield enjoying great music with your wine or you’re just purchasing an award winning bottle from Cathedral Ridge to share with that special someone, there is a neighborhood wine for you.
Those who live in the Columbia Gorge display great pride for the products they bring to the table. There is a feeling of satisfaction and delight when you can locate the farm that raised the beef you are serving. Grandma can dish out cherry pie filled with the cherries her grandkids picked earlier that day. From seed to tree, from calf to cow, so many of the foods eaten in the Columbia Gorge come from farms and orchards just down the road.
If you’re visiting this summer, or just passing through, don’t forget to ask a nearby business, grocery or shop owner what’s good this time of year or where to grab a great meal. Tasting the perfect filet of salmon caught right outside the front door, prepared in exquisite fashion and paired with a wine from just a few miles away is an experience unique to the Columbia Gorge.
There is a feeling of satisfaction—a sweeter taste—when you know you’ve helped out the environment, done something healthy and boosted the local economy while simply eating your lunch.
Tags: animal, apple, cherries, cherry, columbia gorge, columbia river, corn, economy, food, glass onion, Goldendale, gravenstein, Hood River, miracle, orchard, oregon, pear, riverside, salmon, sustainability, Troutdale, vegetable, washington
The Man Behind The Magic
by jamie hartford
When Ben Stenn, chef and managing partner at Celilo Restaurant and Bar in Hood River, gets hold of local figs, he’s very careful with them. A prime example of food best eaten where it’s grown, fresh figs are extremely delicate and don’t travel well, he shares. Even refrigerating or moving them too much can affect the fruit’s exterior. So when they arrive at his restaurant during a small two to three week window in midsummer, they lay on a cloth in the kitchen, practically untouched until they are served with just a mild soft-cheese, a salty cured-meat and a bit of oil and balsamic vinegar.
“A fresh fig is soft and supple, sweet and fragrant,” Stenn explains. “It’s a texture experience that has no equivalent. What can you do with that? You slice it and put it on a plate.”
Despite being lauded in The Oregonian in 2008 as “easily the most sophisticated restaurant in town,” Celilo, in Stenn’s mind at least, is built on a philosophy as simple as that fresh fig appetizer.
“We take the best of what comes from this region and just deliver it,” he says…
Tags: best of the gorge, celilo restaurant, chef ben stenn, columbia gorge, Dining, food growers, fresh produce, gorge grown, Hood River, local farmers, organic
Where the Asphalt Ends
by hoot ramsey
Travelling along the asphalt highways and byways that crisscross the fertile Columbia Gorge, one need only to glance in either direction to view myriad shades of green, covering soil that is black as asphalt and rich as gold in its suitability for cultivating crops. At the many nurseries throughout the area, environmentally conscious tree and native flower growers are making it possible for individuals and landscaping companies to responsibly incorporate native species in every aspect of yard and garden design.
Many have said, “It takes a lifetime to grow a tree.” Undaunted by the challenge, budding botanists and seasoned old-timers throughout the Columbia Gorge stand ready to embark on the venture one tree, one plant or one shrub at a time…
Tags: columbia gorge, good news gardening, Hood River, hood river ornamentals, humble roots farm, the gorge, wind river nursery
