Writing
Favorite Feature Articles
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Raising the Hoof: Vineyard owners toast natural horsepower and livestock to improve fruit and earthOregon Wine Press, September 2010
Winston Churchill once said: “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” A new generation of vintners and winegrowers across the state of Oregon are taking this sentiment to heart; integrating hoof power in the vineyard and discovering a new world of possibilities from reveling in the old.
One of the first vignerons in the region to practice horse power for vineyard cultivation is the winsome Frenchman and acclaimed winemaker Christophe Baron of Cayuse Vineyards in the Walla Walla Valley. Baron hails from the Marne Valley in Champagne and a family of French vignerons that used horses to plow their vineyards as recently as 1957.
Inspired by his past, Baron welcomed Zeppo, a three-year old Belgian draft horse to work the rocky Horsepower Vineyard in 2008, at that point eliminating all powered machinery from the two-acre plot of Syrah and Grenache. Farming Biodynamically since 2002, Baron believes the horse power completes the circle by integrating animals into the farm while showing respect for the old ways.
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Escape to the Country: Farm Vacations Take Root in OregonEdible Portland, Spring 2011
A strutting show queen of a peacock was the first to appear. Then the largest and most flamboyantly good looking white Holland turkey I’ve ever seen. “Look at his wattle,” I say with awe – my eyes fixed on the bright, cherry-red flesh, dangling like an ornate holiday tie. I’m fresh from the city for my country farm stay about 25 miles southwest of Corvallis, in the coastal mountain range.
The turkey parades closer, puffing out his chest with each step, the sound like the deep beat of a drum. I wonder if this magnificent fowl is a new form of farm guard dog or if he’s just saying ‘hello.”
“He’s showing off,” says Leaping Lamb Farm owner Scottie Jones, eyeing the Turkey Tom, her eyebrows raised knowingly. “He also loves the color pink.” I looked down at my glitzy pink galoshes and the turkey now fixated on the bright boots, his tail feathers fanned. I later learn that his strutting and thumping is turkey courtship (or fowl flattery). It worked. I immediately fell for him, although I had to wonder if he was wooing me or just my boots.
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Buffalo Return to Yakama NationEdible Portland, Spring 2011
The stark western sky of Toppenish ripples, no end in sight. The blue-gray hues enchant like a stormy sea. Tucked into the eastern slopes of the Cascades, Toppenish sits in a remote area of south-central Washington, about twenty miles south of Yakima. The town is located entirely within the bounds of the Yakama Reservation, an area that covers 2,152 square miles.
Just outside of town, tufts of sagebrush, chokeberry and golden currant dot the amber fields. Bluebunch, wheatgrass, squirreltail and needle-and-thread, all recently planted native grasses, dig their roots into the arid ground. Native bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope and the Greater-Sage-Grouse, threatened by overgrazing but reintroduced by the tribe in 2006, live in this shrub-steppe habitat. Slowly, native terrain and wildlife that had disappeared years ago due to habitat loss and forced cultural assimilation are being restored through tribal efforts. As the landscape breathes back to life, Yakama Nation is awakening another iconic animal from their past.
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Agriculture’s Bright Future: In addition to farming, FFA members study Business, Science and Technology of AgricultureEdible Portland, Winter 2010
Four dainty feet prance in front of me. The rear end waddles back and forth like a lounge singer in a jazz club. This is not a night out on the town – it is a night at the state fair. The pig does not yet know it is cavorting its way to a cold shower. Squeals of protest soon follow, echoing in the barn like a soulful song. Pageantry for farm animals here is not unusual. All of the animals at the state fair are washed, blow-dried and primped before their debut in the arena. A student wearing a black skirt, black nylons, black heels and a crisp, white button-down shirt under her bright blue jacket sweeps a walkway. Just above her a banner reads: “Dayton FFS – Success is Our Direction.
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The Wine Route: Kevin Chambers didn’t have any plans to become a vintner — but his insatiable curiosity and love of adventure led him down the path to cutting-edge winemakingEdible Portland, Fall 2009
Chambers, his dogs, and I stand basking in the summer glow, soaking up a jungle of colors stretching between us and High Heaven Ridge, the dividing line between earth and sky straight ahead. His story began in Eugene.
When Chambers arrived at the University of Oregon in the 1970’s, he studied journalism and radio broadcasting because he wanted to be the next Walter Cronkite. He has the voice.
“I have the voice,” he laughs. When he wasn’t studying, Chambers honed his debating skills with his roommate well into the twilight hours. The topic: wine. “Grenache Rosé or Malbec Rosé, the matters we’d banter always gravitated to wine,” explains Chambers.