Photos of Alderspring Ranch by Melanie and Caryl Elzinga

As a lad raised in a coal mining village in northern England, I was addicted to cowboy movies and, later, western novels. In my desire to cowboy up after immigrating to the U.S., I hightailed it out of New York City after high school and eventually hired on at ranches in Colorado, eastern Washington, even as far south as Belize. My last paid gig was skiploading grub to feedlot cattle outside Fort Collins, Co.. This is where I had the realization that cowboy work was really about growing beef, a plot point missing from the Gary Cooper and Hopalong Cassidy movies that got me in the saddle in the first place. Read on… »

This political season has brought some pretty great tees. (I also kind of want this one, just because…wow.) But, really, the shirt in this photo (sent by a reader in Portland, OR, where it appeared in one of their alt weeklies) says it all. Spooning ‘08!

There was a little story last week in the New York Times about Added Value, one of my favorite food nonprofits in the city. It’s a too-short piece for the subject matter (neighborhood-level agriculture, teaching the yoot the value of veggies, and of entrepreneurship). And I’m 99.9% sure it’s the Red Hook-based Sixpoint brewery that’s donating grain for mulch (not “Six Forks” brewery–what could “six forks” even mean?). But, it’s a good shout-out nonetheless. I encourage everyone to check out Added Value’s website and be inspired to take a jackhammer to some pavement in your hood.

Not to beat a dying horse here (and with all due credit to Stephen Colbert) but it’s kind of interesting how often food has come up as a featured topic during this financial meltdown. (Grilled-cheese puns galore, for instance.) There was the turnip tale from the UK, and now it’s widespread news that Campbell’s soup was the only stock that went up during Monday’s historic sell-off. As Colbert noted, it’s not really that surprising that investors see a future in 89-cent dinners. The reported spike in sales of cheap “comfort foods” also comes as no surprise—damn it all, I need to drown my sorrows in instant buttery spuds! Lean times call for fatty foods.

Photo by Jim Lommasson

Pine and fir essences are typically harnessed for their olfactory properties rather than for their taste. But for more than a decade, Stephen McCarthy, proprietor of Portland’s renowned Clear Creek Distillery, has been tinkering with the sweet, earthy flavors of the Doug fir. His Eau de Vie of Douglas Fir was unveiled in 2005 and now lines liquor store shelves throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

McCarthy first came across eau de vie de bourgeons de sapins d’Alsace in an early book, among a list of exotic eaux de vie. He adds, “At that time the distillery and eau de vie in general were only a glimmer in my eye and it got filed away somewhere in my mind.  When I worked my way through most of the obvious eau de vie—pear, kirsch, etc.—I started to think about slightly crazier stuff.  There was no reason to try to duplicate the sapin d’Alsace—the spruce tree that covers the hills of the Voges Mountains. Our iconic conifer is Douglas Fir.  So, why not?” Read on… »