Wolfgang Ortloff delivered six half pigs to Portland today. Two halves went to Clark Lewis, one half went to Ciao Vito Restaurant, two more were taken to Laurelhurst Market—where they will be butchered and then picked up by individuals for cooking at home—and the final half went to John Zenger of The Black Rabbit Restaurant in Troutdale, Oregon. The Black Rabbit, which is part of McMenamins Edgefield Hotel, is perhaps the most upscale of the whopping 60 McMenamins restaurants and pubs throughout Oregon and Washington.

Wolfgang and his wife Susan run 12 1/2-acre Worden Hill Farm in the Dundee Hills, where they raise Berkshire and Duroc pigs. This past summer, the Ortloffs fed their piglets a steady diet of peaches at the request of Portland restaurant Olympic Provisions, whose chefs were curious to see how “peach-finished pork” would taste when it became salami. Wolfgang was more than happy to oblige, especially because their neighbors Trevor and Susan Baird run Baird Family Orchards in Dayton. This was a perfect use for the peaches that don’t make the grade to be sold at farmers markets.

When fall arrives, the Ortloffs feed the drove fallen apples and hazelnuts from nearby orchards. Zenger spied Worden Hill’s listing for hazelnut-fed pastured pork in the FoodHub Marketplace, and wanted to see how his kitchen would handle a whole half pig, so to speak. He and the Ortloffs are excited to see how their relationship will unfold.

Among Worden Hill’s other restaurant customers, who buy pigs by the whole and half animal, are Paley’s Place, Trebol, and Clyde Common in Portland, and Farm to Fork in Dundee. Wolfgang jokes that the chefs use every single part – well, except a few. Several have insisted that they receive the feet, which they claim makes the best stock.

Recently, Briar Rose Creamery, which is building a creamery just above the Worden Hill property, has been bringing down buckets of the whey left over from making goat’s milk cheese. Offering the sounder (another name for a pig herd) leftover whey from cheese making follows in the tradition of Parma ham, a specialty of the Parma region of Italy, where the pigs eat the scraps from making Parmesan cheese.

The Ortloffs pigs are processed at Dayton Meat Co., just down the road.

Currently, a big portion of the Ortloff’s customer base are home cooks who want to know the provenance of the meat that they eat and have a freezer to accommodate dozens of chops and roasts.

Wolfgang, who grew up in Germany, recalls that his family purchased whole animals every year. “Like many families, we would buy a pig from a nearby farmer, and then hire a butcher for the day. I guess the direct translation would be ‘house slaughtering.’ ” He smiles shyly. “He would come to your house in the winter, break down the animal, make sausages and smoked ham.”

Wolfgang is glad that here in Oregon he and Susan are able to reconnect eaters to the farm and remind them that the meat they eat comes from animals.

Worden Hill Farm is looking for a few more restaurant customers who want a consistent supply of whole and half animals that they will break down themselves, and for private clients who can have their half custom-butchered. Learn more about Worden Hill on their FoodHub profile here. Do you live near Dundee and have food for the pigs? Let Wolfgang know! Are you looking to purchase very local animals—and explore your own curiosity about how a certain feed might influence meat flavor? Browse FoodHub members by distance or search by product to find farmers and ranchers near you. You might find the partner you’re looking for.

The recent passage of federal legislation and increased attention on local foods in schools has created more opportunities than ever for regional food producers. If you are looking to engage in, or deepen, your connections to the growing school food market, this is the one event not to miss! The event will be held at the Salem Conference Center, and 250 school food buyers will attend.  If you are ready to register, please download and complete the vendor application posted here.

Deadline to submit applications is February 28. All vendor booths are filled on a first come first serve basis, so if you’d like to be part of the Local Foods welcoming gallery, please submit your form as soon as possible to guarantee a spot. When you do, select booth options between 89-100 and make a special note that you’d like to be a part of the Local Foods main gallery.

If you have already registered for a booth and would like to make sure that you are part of the Local Foods gallery or have other questions, please feel free to call or email Michelle Markesteyn Ratcliffe, Oregon Department of Agriculture, Farm to School, 503.872.6620 or mmarkesteyn@oda.state.or.us.

Friday, March 11

1:00-5:30 pm – Exhibitor Move In Time

7:00-9:30 pm – Friday Fun Night with a live band

9:30 pm on – Free to have hosted broker/vendor rooms

SHOW HOURS:

Saturday, March 12

10:00-11:00 am – designated for Directors and Purchasing agents only

11:00 am-2:00 pm – All members will be welcome

5:00 pm – Closing ceremony

BOOTH RENTAL:                               Booths will be $650.00 each.

A booth consists of the following:

• Admittance to “Vendor Friday Fun Night”
• One ticket to the Saturday Night closing Ceremony, additional tickets are $35.00 each
• 1 – 8’ x 10’ Draped Booth
• Waste Basket with Liner
• 110 Volt outlet/500 Watt outlet per booth
• A sign for your booth

The program is called FoodCorps. Patterned after the public service model of AmeriCorps, FoodCorps leverages federal funds to help its service members build and tend school gardens, conduct nutrition education, and increase the quality of food served in the cafeteria. FoodCorps, described as a domestic Peace Corps, aims to serve vulnerable children, improve their access to healthy and affordable food, and train the next generation of farmers and food systems professionals through hands-on experience.

In a competitive selection process, the FoodCorps planning team reviewed 108 host site proposals submitted from 39 states and the District of Columbia. The ten selected host sites all have proven success in improving the quality of school food, capacity to grow with FoodCorps across their region, and compelling community need that service members will readily address. In Oregon, the program will be run through the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

The ODA is the only state department of agriculture or state agency selected to pilot the program. Most other sites include academic institutions and non-profit organizations.

“FoodCorps is one more tool for the Oregon Department of Agriculture to forward our work in procuring and promoting Oregon agricultural products in schools, supporting agricultural and environmental literacy, and cultivating agriprenuers,” says Michelle Markesteyn Ratcliffe, ODA’s Farm to School Program Manager.

The first crop of five FoodCorps members in Oregon are expected to be in place by September 2011. Placements and details will be determined this coming spring.

For more information, contact Michelle Markesteyn Ratcliffe at (503) 872-6600.

Good Agricultural Practices Workshops

“Many farmers are seeking information about Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) in response to recent produce outbreaks and the need to meet requirements for third-party GAPs certification. This course provides specific information regarding on-farm produce food safety. A multi-disciplinary group of WSU faculty and regulatory agency representatives will offer science-based information.

A two-series workshop will be conducted. Session 1 provides a GAPs overview and initial guidance on implementing on farm food safety practices. Session 2 offers participants the opportunity to discuss and work with speakers to address food safety issues specific to their farming system. Participants must attend a Session I workshop to attend Session II.

Participants interested in preparing for third-party GAPs certification that complete Sessions I and II and complete a series of assignments can qualify for a mock audit with WSU Extension faculty and staff.* Registration for both workshops is 75.00.

Visit the food safety website for registration and updated information. Workshop start times will vary slightly
between locations, specific information will be provided on the website:
http://foodsafety.wsu.edu

Session I
Full day workshop (approximately 8:00am – 4:00pm)

November 3, 2010
Yakima County Bldg
Basement Conference Room
104 N 1st St
Yakima, WA 98901

December 2, 2010
Fort Worden State Park
200 Battery Way
Commons Bldg Room B
Port Townsend, WA 98368

December 3, 2010
WSU Snohomish County Ext.
Cougar Auditorium
600 128th St SE
Everett, WA 98208-6353

January 13, 2011
Whatcom County Ext. Office
1000 N Forest St # 201
Bellingham, WA 98225-5594

January 14, 2011
Washington State Natural Resources Building
1111 Washington St. SE, Room 172
Olympia, WA 98501

Session II will be held the week of February 28 – March 3, 2011.
Locations to be announced at a later date.

Sponsored by: This material is based upon work supported by USDA/NIFA under Award Number 2010-49200-06203.
Funding for this project was provided by the Washington State University Western Center for Risk Management Education and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

*Participants completing Session I and II will receive a certificate of completion for an educational course in GAPs. Our WSU Extension GAPs team serves in an advisory capacity for growers on food safety issues. WSU is not an official GAPs third-party certification organization and cannot guarantee third party certification.

For more information contact:
GAPS: Karen Killinger, Ph.D.
WSU Assistant Professor
Phone: (509)335-2970
Email: karen_killinger@wsu.edu

Registration: Cathy Blood
Conference Coordinator
Phone: (509)335-2845
Email: blood@wsu.edu

The cart was created through the VOZ Worker’s Right’s Education Project. VOZ is a worker-led organization that empowers immigrants and day labors to gain control over their working conditions through leadership development, organizing, and community education. Tacos El Jornalero not only serves up delicious Mexican and Central American food, it also offers a safe place for workers to spend time, provides job training for those who work at the cart, and gives financial backing to the projects of VOZ. Everyone is encouraged to stop by during lunch hours, Monday to Friday, to get a tasty meal and support their efforts.

FoodHub is excited to have the VOZ food cart as a member. (Visit their FoodHub profile here.) They are currently seeking donations of a commercial sink, fireproof gloves, a picnic bench, cash register, local, sustainable produce, and any pro-bono advertising opportunities. Please contact development@portlandvoz.org if you would like to support this project.

Watch a video about the newly opened taco cart at http://www.kptv.com/news/25181466/detail.html. VOZ is also a resource for those looking to hire day laborers. Learn more at portlandvoz.org.

The project’s creators explain:

What can a well-meaning school do to help their students eat healthier? One way might be to raise the prices on the less healthy foods. Another way might be to eliminate unhealthy choices from the food service menu.

Another set of solutions has been largely overlooked. These are the lunchroom changes – the environmental changes – that can lead a student to unknowingly make healthier lunch choices without knowing they were “nudged” in that direction by the way the lunchroom was designed.

The Smarter Lunchrooms site provides robust research, real-life case studies and plenty of tips for how to change the lunchroom to “nudge” kids toward healthier choices, such as re-naming menu items to sound more appetizing, making vegetables and fruit the “default” sides to a main dish, and displaying healthy foods in appealing, well-lit ways.

Is your district employing any of these tactics? If so, we’d love to hear about it!

WSDA Farm-to-School Program will provide support to match up farms and schools and facilitate the purchasing process. Many school nutrition directors are off for part of the summer, so we’d like to start the process as soon as possible.

We will also help schools add educational activities to the day, whether that’s posters in the cafeteria, inviting a farmer to lunch, or visiting or lunching in a school garden.  We want Washington’s kids to spend that day considering the farmers who grow their food, and we want Washington farmers to help us bring that to life!

For more information, to be listed as a participating farm, or to get help linking to your local school districts, please contact Tricia Kovacs, WSDA Farm-to-School Program Manager, at tkovacs@agr.wa.gov or 206-256-6150.

Bob Neroni and Lenore Emery fell in love with Cannon Beach twenty years ago. In 2004, they left behind corporate careers in the food industry in Seattle, moved to Cannon Beach and opened EVOO (named for their favorite staple, Extra Virgin Olive Oil), where they have since taught hundreds of classes together on everything from handmade pasta to knife skills to Seafood 101.

Guests of EVOO are treated to fun, informal classes featuring fresh seasonal ingredients—right now, that means fiddlehead ferns, asparagus, morels, scallops and pea vines. Believers in the Slow Food movement, Neroni and Emery offer classes that focus not just on food, but also on the experience of preparing meals together. And thanks to FoodHub, Neroni and Emery can more easily fill their guests’ plates with Oregon’s finest ingredients, helping EVOO dish out fabulous meals on the Oregon Coast for many years to come.

Photo by Carole Topalian

One person to ask is Margot Wilcoxon, chef of Salvador Molly’s, who posted a request in the FoodHub marketplace for a local farm to grow 80+ bushels of habañero peppers. Salvador Molly’s has been serving up flavor-packed food for fourteen years on SW Sunset Boulevard. The restaurant also runs booths at three area farmers markets, selling handmade tamales.

How large then is a bushel of peppers? Others to ask include Anne and Rene Berblinger of Gales Meadow Farm, who were among the ten respondents to Wilcoxon’s post. Gales Meadow Farm sits in Washington County in the Gale Creek Valley. With over 250 varieties of vegetables and herbs—among them ancho, cayenne and jalapeño peppers—the farm had what Salvador Molly’s sought in terms of “variety, quantity and price,” Wilcoxon says. “They were personable and knowledgeable about their product and their growing capacity”

Wilcoxon made verbal contracts with Gales Meadow—which will grow jalapeños, tomatoes and cilantro—and two other local farms to provide her with not only peppers, but also other ingredients for salsas and tamale fillings.

“Hopefully we will enter into partnerships where we can let the grower know what we will buy next season, allowing them to plan, grow and get some stability in their business,” Wilcoxon continues.

A bushel is approximately 30 pounds. This year, with 80 bushels of hot peppers grown only one county away, Salvador Molly’s will receive some 2,400 pounds of local heat. Spicy!

Photo by Carole Topalian

Photo by Scott Trimble