One of my favorite things about this place is the food. I can't afford to eat out like I want to every day, but that still means I am cooking with ingredients that are top-notch. Oregonians like their cows, chickens and pigs happy, because happy animals make tasty meat. The vegans and vegetarians like happy veggies and fruits so that those creations will also be in peak flavor. Between the numerous farmer's markets and small grocery co-ops in the area, it is almost harder to get something factory-grown and pesticide-ridden than it is to get the real stuff.
And when that isn't enough, there are opportunities to go get it yourself.
BUT FIRST
I was going to save this until you got here, but it's too neat so I'm afraid I'll have to spoil it. There's this fancy food place on the corner of Hawthorne and something here that is way too expensive for me to eat there. But! On the weekends, they open a waffle window out the back.
I had a blueberry number with a lime curd on top. It was divine.
SECOND
Drove on some new bridges to get to the farm, to pick some strawberries.
See those people? Waaay over there? That was the first patch. Farmer Don himself told me that those were a treasure hunt, but there would be more further out, which is where I was headed.
On the way there. Isn't it nice and farmy? Different plots lay fallow and have things that will ripen later in the season, so there isn't a real map of where you're going, you just kind of have to follow where the other people are. It should go without saying (except apparently it doesn't) that they do not use any pesticides, no sprays, nothing. Just the bugs, dirt, and food.
This makes it look slightly better than it was -- many of these berries were white on the back side. It's still very early in the season (cold weather has pushed the ripeness back) so as you can see there are plenty of berries to come. Kind of slim pickings, especially if you wanted them ripe ripe, like I did. But! I didn't mind! I squatted up and down those little rows for a long time.
Towards the edge of the patch, there was a small flock of some gorgeous little birds, that turned out to be waxwings. (Really, this time.)
Of course, there were farm-like animals too.
Near the chicken hutch, I also so some small grey rats rooting around in the hay, which made me weirdly excited. There were two pigs in the barn, and between there somewhere there was a mop-haired kid who was talking to me about the chickens, pigs, and so on. I walked on to try and find the turtle pond, and instead found the bee houses.
I didn't get this close, this was using my zoom. There were tons of little Richards, buzzing around and pollinating the little blossoms on the strawberry plants. They were good at sharing -- they would skip a plant and then come back to it if you were there.
On my way back, there was one that hitched a ride on the windshield wiper.
Not sure what she was on about, maybe she wanted to warm up? She rode all the way over the bridge, and then hopped off as soon as I turned west.
THIRD
Oh. It was just too pretty to go back after that -- it was only noonish, and there was only 76 miles separating me from some seaside towns and turn upon turn of highway.
I didn't actually make it to the sea, I spent too much time ogling the river. I turned off at Astoria and poked around their Sunday Market. It was a bit cold anyway, and I was getting sleepy. I found a coffee and got back to the helm. It was mostly the driving for me, today. The driving and the strawberries.
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