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03/27/10 - Long Beach, Astoria and Environs

We recently took a trip to Long Beach in southern Washington, not far from the Oregon border. We took some pictures, ate some good food and learned a lot about the Columbia River, the Coast Guard and the Lewis and Clark expedition. Follow some of the links to the right to see some of our photos.

A glimpse of the beach

The long beach at Long Beach

A wilder day

Leadbetter Point State Park - a forest walk

Astoria, Oregon, from a pier

The lightship Columbia at the Columbia River Maritime Museum

The river inlets near Fort Clatsop

Trilliums at Fort Clatsop

The barbequed oysters of South Bend

Keywords: oregon, oysters, restaurants, beaches, trillium

01/10/10 - The Winter Market

We missed the Korean garlic lady last week, but she was back again with her excellent garlic, scallions and Korean goodies including fish soup and kim chi pancakes. Korea gets pretty cold in the winter, so they have lots of good dishes for cold weather, and you can try some at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market.

Another newcomer was the Mystery Bay Oyster guy who sells oysters and clams with lots of garlic and butter. He's usually at the Port Townsend market, but they are closed right now, so he's offering his wares to us Port Angelenos. We had a plate of his oysters, and they were wonderful. We'll miss him when the PT market reopens.

The Korean garlic lady

The Mystery Bay Oyster guy

The Johnston Farm lady

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, oysters, winter, garlic lady

06/15/09 - QuilBay Oysters

We are always warned not to eat oysters in months without an "r" in them. We have never taken this rule too seriously, so we tried out a dozen QuilBay oysters. They were spectacular. They smelled of the sea and had a sweetness and a mineral note. QuilBay also sells other seafood at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market.

Keywords: farmers' market, food, oysters

05/10/09 - Farmers' Market Update

The Port Angeles Farmers' Market is really gearing up with more and more vendors arriving each weekend. The stalwarts, Westwind, Johnston and Nash Huber, were there along with a lot of others including Red Dog, Bob's, Black Sheep, Lazy J farms. (We apologize if we missed a few.)

The big news this week is that Westwind Farms has their amazing asparagus, but do come early.

Tuna Dan was the first regular at the market selling seafood, right now halibut and ling cod; he has been joined by at least two others include Wild West and Quil Bay. The latter two are selling clams and oysters, as well as fish. This has been a great new addition to the market.

There were also two bakeries at the market. Bell Street Bakery had their own booth from Sequim and Joy's mom was selling her own from another booth. Joy runs Joy's Wine Bistro in Port Angeles, in case you were wondering.

The Kim Chi lady was selling her Korean pickled cabbage and other Korean goodies. There is nothing like good strong Korean garlic. We also found out that it was Dynasty Restaurant selling dim sun. This time they had a nice sign.

We also saw Harley of Dry Creek Farm, though we didn't get a change to talk to him. We're hoping his chickens will be laying in June, and he'll be back with his Dry Creek stand.

Local produce is what it is all about.

Clams, oysters and fish - free nettles, what an incentive

More clams, oysters and seafood

Bell Street Bakery

Joy's Mom's bread

Vegetables and ...

... more vegetables

Dim sun from Dynasty

Kim Chi and other Korean goodies

Keywords: dry creek farm, farmers' market, farms, nash huber, port angeles, oysters, westwind farm


Dim Sun at the market.

05/02/09 - At The Farmers' Market

We were at the farmers' market today, and the place was bustling. Nash Huber, Johnston Farms, Lazy J and Red Dog were among the regulars along with the honey people at Elwha Apiary. We also noticed that the Wild West oyster people were here, and this week they were selling shucked oysters as well as oysters and clams in the shell. (We have to get a picture of their stand). There was also a dim sun stand. We didn't get to try any of their dumplings, having eaten right before heading down to the market, but we might plan differently next week.

Keywords: farmers' market, farms, johnston farm, nash huber, oysters


Red Dog Farm from Chimacum is a market newcomer.

04/19/09 - Farmers' Market Update

The Port Angeles Farmers' Market seems to grow a bit every week as new produce, new farmers and new vendors show up every week. We don't remember seeing Red Dog Farms last week, nor the Wild West Seafood folks who were selling oysters and ling cod. The QuilBay oyster and clam people were back too.

Keywords: farmers' market, oysters

04/12/09 - More Signs of Spring at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

The Port Angeles Farmers' Market has been ramping up. The usual winter stalwarts are still here, but more of the seasonal folk have been returning. Quilbay wasn't selling its Quilcene oysters, but G&R was there instead. Gossip has it the Westwind asparagus are coming along, but slowly. Otherwise, all sorts of things are flowering and ready to eat. This has been a slow spring, but the season is starting to shape up.



Keywords: farmers' market, port angeles, spring, oysters

04/05/09 - Spring Comes to the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

To start with, Westwind Farm is offering nettles. You have to cook these carefully, but once blanched, they are delicious. We had ours in a soup with shitake mushrooms from Sunny Farms and miso from McFee's bodega. We also spotted fresh arugula and kale raab which is young kale with flowers, so spring cannot be far behind. As for the QuilBay oysters, we tried some. They were wonderful on the half shell. Finally, Johnston Farms is back for the season. It is good to see the market gearing up after a long winter.

Keywords: farms, johnston farm, spring, farmers' market, oysters, westwind farm, kale

03/22/09 - QuilBay Oysters

There's a new stand at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. The folks from the QuilBay Oyster Company have been selling good looking oysters and clams. They're in the shell, so you have to shuck or steam your own, but they are the second seafood sellers at the market, after Tuna Dan who has been selling halibut, steelhead and salmon right across the aisle.

Keywords: farmers' market, port angeles, oysters, salmon

Three Turkeys in Port Angeles

11/22/05 - Too Many Turkeys

You may remember our quandary last year with regard to a surfeit of oysters closely followed by a surfeit of poultry. Well, it's that time of year again. We now officially have a surfeit of turkeys.

We innocently ordered one, make a note of that, one, large heritage breed turkey from Heritage Food USA. We were eagerly waiting in our doorway when the Federal Express truck arrived. We accepted our turkey in its white shipping carton and thanked the delivery man for getting us our bird. We were all set to sign off, but he told us that he wasn't done yet. We had three boxes.

Indeed, we had three turkeys, each in its own white shipping carton. There was a 21 pounder and two 18 pounders. That's 57 pounds of turkey for two people. Even we have to draw the line somewhere. We officially declared a surfeit, and scrambled madly for freezer space. One bird is for Thanksgiving, but, as you might expect, we have plans for the other two.

 

Keywords: birds, food, port angeles, oysters

04/16/05 - Lacinato Kale Obsession

Our report on our April journey to New York City is still  in the works.  Luckily, our web site ran on without us, and elicited some comment during our absence. We are not the only kale lovers on the internet. There is at least one serious lacinato kale fan out at a Somewhat Raucus Kitchen in Iowa!

While we may seem a bit kale obsessed here, in fact we have only commented seriously on kale a couple of times:
We have yet to find a really serious kale site, so perhaps we shall have to create one.

Keywords: food, new york city, port angeles, farmers' market, oysters, kale

12/21/04 - Too Much Poultry

Well, it has happened again. You may remember our special Kaleberg report, Too Many Oysters. We had too many oysters. Our challenge now is that we have too much poultry. How did we get into this predicament?  It wasn't easy, but it seems that like calls to like. To understand how this principle applies to our current fowl state, read our new special Kaleberg report, Too Much Poultry.

Keywords: food, birds, oysters, kale

12/03/04 - Hurricane Ridge in the Winter

Hurricane Ridge is once again open for cross country skiing and snow shoeing. This morning the road was open and there were five inches of snow at the "snow post" so we headed up to the ridge and checked things out.  The road was open and well plowed. The scenery was spectacular with an amazing lemon sky. We had to blaze our own trail, but with so little snow it wasn't much of a problem.  It was the true glory of the Northwest with white mountains and green trees. A great start for the winter season.

NOTE (for disbelievers): No, we did not Photoshop in that yellow. That is what you see. That is what our camera recorded. The sky really is yellow with notes of pink. This is a lemon sky. A buttermilk sky is similar, but the yellow is tinged with blue.

 Hurricane Ridge View 1
Hurricane Ridge View 3
 Hurricane Ridge View 2

Keywords: high country, atmosphere, food, hurricane ridge, winter, oysters

Too Many Oysters?


11/23/04 - Too Many Oysters?

Is it possible to have too many oysters? Kaleberg Labs tries to find out. Read our special report.

Keywords: food, special report, oysters, kale

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