The Other Side of the Family: The Farmers

I've explained my attachments to the restaurant business, now I should explain where my love of agriculture comes from.

Some of my earliest memories are of Red Gate Farm, the three-hundred seventy acre parcel of land that my mother and all of her siblings grew up on. Simply put, it was a wonderland. More to the point, it was a giant chunk of farmland, encompassing pasture, sugar beet and alfalfa fields, myriad rows of hazelnut and fruit trees, dozens of acres of thick forest, and a half-mile of Willamette River frontage. My Grampa Jim was the quintessential farmer, Gramma Glo was the consummate preservationist.

I spent far more time with Jim and Glo, than I did with my other grandparents, they simply lived much closer. Riding on the tractor with Grampa was an experience, my ears would ring for hours afterwards. I remember the farm always having the greatest "toys", and by toys I mean giant Harvesters, Lifts, Sprayers, Tractors, and Processors. Huge barns of farm equipment. Huge barns of alfalfa and grass hay, bales stacked to the rafter. My cousins and I, with the help of my favorite uncle, Johnny, would build giant forts and tunnels out of the bales. We would lose ourselves for hours in these giant hay "castles".

The Farmhouse was another matter entirely, and also a huge influence on my culinary leanings. Glo would spend months of every summer and fall, canning, pickling, and drying. She would make the most flavorful jams and jellies, some of which I still haven't found an equal to. The Canning House was a separate building from the main farmhouse. It was a dark, spider-infested house of horrors. The only redeeming part of it, it was where to find the jam and pickles when the house ran out. Very scary, and very delicious.

She could fill the canning house with more food than five families could eat, and because of their involvement with Calvary Mennonite Church outside Canby, OR, she often did feed those extra families. They never had much money, but no one ever went hungry. If you brought extra people for Sunday dinner, there were always extra seats for them, even with no notice. Glo was always a "the-more-the-merrier" type of person. I still have no idea how she did it. Some have said, jokingly,(Lyndsey Palmer-Day)that I could take pickles, cheese, mayonnaise, and lettuce, and cook a four-course meal out of it. They're not far off, and I learned how to do it from Glo.
They always made a lot from a little.

They communal dining experience is also something that has stayed with me over the years. Family Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas were HUGE. My mother had three sisters and two brothers, so I had a lot of cousins. My Gramma's identical twin, Gloria, had eight children, and between those eight children, I had more than 20 second-cousins. Things got crowded very fast.

Sitting at a boisterous table, crowded with all your friends and relatives is a wonderful thing. Seeing that ideal take hold in fantastic Portland restaurants like Beast, Clyde Common, and The Montage(the originator, of course)gives me hope for the whole dining scene. Sharing the experience of food is so important in a country like ours, in a time like this. Eating food "on-the-go" is destroying the importance of dinner time. I believe (strongly) that we build stronger friendships and families by sharing the time and the nourishment. A few good friends, a few glasses of wine, some great food and stimulating conversation is a foundation that can support a very fulfilling life.

I hope that most of you can take the time to sit back tonight, relax, and focus on your families and friends. Cook your dinner with the knowledge that prepared right, served properly, and given the proper respect, your food can be so much more than a dollar burger and a overly sweet soda. It can be an authentic experience.

I am an advocate of Farm to Table eating, and I hope to explain the importance of this more over the coming articles. This is only the beginning, I hope all of you are here to enjoy it with me. This is the meaning of Family.