Global Greenie

This weekend is the return of the North American Organic Brewers Festival.  You’ll recall that I attended two days last year.  It’s free to get in, but if you want to buy the compostable tasting glass, you can take $1 off the $6 fee by either showing your validated Max ticket or by donating three canned goods (organic please).  This is the stop you’ll want to use for the Max.  If you’re in Portland and you’d like to meet up with me and some other friends, check my Facebook page over the next couple of days.  I’ll post my cell number in my status when I’m at the fest.  Give me a call — I’d love to meet you.

North American Organic Brewers Festival, 2008 from Alison Grayson on Vimeo.

I was chatting with Andy from Rooftop Brew the other morning and told him my hop plant was covered with aphids this year. Turns out he had just released some ladybugs on his plant. Mine is swarming with larvae that arrived by themselves (well, probably with help from a mom who laid the eggs). If you’ve never known what ladybug babies look like, I got a few good shots. Andy describes them as alligator-like.

This morning I popped outside to check on their progress as they devour the aphids and noticed two unusual ones. I think they’re albino.  Here’s one of ‘em, along with a “larva of color” in the background.

We harvested our garlics!  These pungent friends have been in our raised bed since last fall.  We finally got to lift them.  It’s our second year growing garlic and I’m still not entirely clear when they’re done.  Most sites recommend a few dead leaves on the stalk.  One person scared me, saying that you have a 3-5 day window to harvest.  We have three or four different varieties and not enough patience to figure out what’s what, so we just gently dug below them and lifted.  Some are fairly small, but I’m telling myself they’ll make up for it with flava!

K cut the tops and beardlike-roots from each bulb and I tied a dried bamboo leaf around each cluster of three or four.  An hour later we were sipping Oregon wine and eating pasta with olive oil, and homegrown basil and garlic.  Lots of garlic.

We stringed the clusters up in our basement to cure.  Hopefully they’ll last us through most of the year.  I believe we planted about four times as much, so we’ll see.

Coming soon, we’re lifting our eight elephant garlics, but first I’ll let the hummingbirds drink from the flowers for awhile longer.

I believe that it’s possible to visit a farmers’ market every day of the week during summer in the Portland area.  And despite the fact I’m not working right now, we still seem to be in a go-only-on-the-weekend rut.  So far we’ve been to the Hollywood Market a few times, Beaverton once, and Hillsdale once.  The Beaverton is my favorite, but it’s a bit of a drive to get there.  Still, it has tons of vendors, kettlekorn, plants, artisan cheeses, and enough free samples to make a breakfast or lunch.

One of the dilemmas is always whether to exclusively patronize the organic growers or not.  It’s difficult to find cherries, for example, which are grown without pesticides.  So we sometimes cave, wash them a lot, and hope we’re not poisoning our bods.  In almost all cases, we end up spending more for organic.  It seems safer and tastier, and I don’t think I’m imagining it.

Another problem is trying to count on finding certain things at any given time.  Most of the markets around here have a table set up with maps of the vendors and what produce is available.  Recently a number of farmers brought theit fava beans.  I’ve grown them myself.  They look good growing, have pretty white and black flowers, but they take up a lot of space for small numbers.  The giant pods have to be peeled and then the beans themselves inside have to be boiled and peeled as well.  Now I just buy them.

Within the next few weeks, I’m purchasing some organic mushroom kits from a vendor who sells at the market.  He told me to call ahead or send an email so that he’d bring the kits I want.  It’s amazing to me that I can special order what I want to grow and eat.

If you don’t already, I encourage you to patronize the farmers wherever you live.

Did you miss part 1?

For $5, you get a cup, which is plastic-like and reusable for all of your tastes.  The cup’s made of cornstarch and as you can see in the photo, it’s 100% compostible.

NAOBF takes place in Overlook Park on the Willamette.  I don’t know if it’s because of the location, or the fact that all of the 70+ beers are organic, but this festival attracts a different crowd than the ones in downtown Portland.  Think giant frat party downtown.  Think mellow families for organic.

Tony C., Hsin-Yi, and I watched an (all white?) hip hop band on Friday and the highlight was a 12-year old rapper they brought up for a song.  She’s got a future.  To be polite, I’ll avoid mention of the bands that played on Sunday.

Eventually we located my coworker and friend, Erin, and her partner, Jade*, and we called some other friends floating around the fest to divulge the sweet location we’d scoped on the lawn.  Andy* joined us, as did Joe**, Lindsay, and random friends and coworkers who’d float in and out of the circle.

The highlight on Friday, beerwise, was Alameda’s IPA.  Not only were the pours generous (above the green line on the cup), but the beer had a perfectly refreshing hoppiness.  I confess that I sampled that one several times.  I also tasted an organic malt liquor and some other light beers.

On Sunday, my wife and I returned to the festival.  I’m ashamed to say I’d already composted my first cup, so  I had to buy a second.  The nice thing is that I got a dollar off because I showed my MAX ticket — evidence we’d arrived by public transit.  Anyway, supporting the festival helps a number of good causes.

This time we ran into coworker, Mike, and our friend Laurie, who always has an entourage of other friends.  We ended up with a table near the stage and about nine people sipping.  This time I snagged an Alameda again, but sampled a few heavier tastes as well: porters, stouts, and a Belgian.

It sprinkled a little, but since Portland had hit 100, it was pretty refreshing, just like the organic beers.  I’ll see you at the festival next year!

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*homebrewer

**professional brewer