Celebrate Oregon's Bounty This November

October 31, 2007

It's the perfect time of year to curl up in front of the fireplace with a glass of Pinot noir and a piping hot plate of Oregon cuisine. Treat your senses this season with a taste of Oregon Bounty's many events!

During the month of November, you will have the opportunity to meet local winemakers, attend an Oregon Bounty Winemaker Dinner, and participate in the fantastic lodging packages offered throughout the state.

And don't forget about our exciting Oregon Bounty getaway, and our Wine Country Thanksgiving in both Southern Oregon and the Willamette Valley. They are guaranteed to make your mouth water!

See you at the Oregon Bounty Celebration, where we’ll be clinking our wine glasses together and shouting, "Cheers!"

~ The Editors

P.S. Tell Us How We're Doing!

On the Road with Oregon Bounty- Day 7: A Passion For the Land, and A MySpace for Bovine

October 5, 2007

(Greg and Sean head to Eastern Oregon, to visit a ranch in North Powder).

When I was in my early 20s, fresh out of college and with no clue about what I would do with the rest of my life, I had this fantasy about being a rancher. Perhaps it was the lack of any discernible career direction, but the thought of living through the rhythms of land and livestock seemed grounded and real.

I’d grown up around farms and ranches in Oregon, and shared classrooms with the offspring of rugged men and women whose livelihoods were cyclical, based on weather, commodity prices, and their ability to survive tough times. As an early teenager, I’d labeled those farm kids as slow, simple, and on a dead-end path to repeat their parents’ existence. I couldn’t wait to leave rural Oregon, and had grand plans for a bright future somewhere far away from the pastures and pigs.

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On the Road With Oregon Bounty: Day 6 - Smells Like Home

October 4, 2007

(Greg and Sean head to Oregon's outdoor haven, Central Oregon, for a whiff of organic coffee and the Deschutes County Fair.)

The aromas of Central Oregon are branded on my brain. Born and raised there, I had a lot of time to follow my nose. It amazes me sometimes how many memories of Central Oregon I can recall by the odors, fragrances and pungencies of my childhood: a newly-mowed hayfield after a late spring rain: driving outside Madras in the summer and being assaulted by ripe peppermint -- as if the entire region was chewing green Dentyne and exhaling simultaneously; asparagus juice on my hands from picking the wild spears that grew in rock patches along the roads; sage when it’s in bloom; snow, just before a big storm; our pig farm.

Yes, a pig farm. And yes, it smelled. But I also learned what real bacon tasted like. From the huge garden my mother tended each summer, I discovered how minutes-old corn melts in your mouth. I realized that tomatoes actually have flavor.

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Day Five- On the Road With Oregon Bounty - A Degree in Organics and Torta-ology

October 3, 2007


Today, Greg visits Southern Oregon for a degree in organics and torta-ology.

In the early 80s I was a disc jockey on a country music station in Central Oregon. One of the songs on regular rotation back then was a Barbara Mandrell/George Jones number called “I was country when country wasn’t cool.” When it comes to organic foods, the same can be said for Elizabeth Fujas, and her company Rising Sun Farms.

Around the time that song was hitting the airwaves, Elizabeth and her husband, Richard, were moving onto a remote farm outside of Medford, in Southern Oregon. Fresh from a life at sea (she as a chef aboard racing yachts, he as a ship captain in the West Indies), this seemed like the ideal spot to retire into full-time parenthood.

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Day Four: On the Road with Oregon Bounty - A Big Fish Tale

October 2, 2007

Video: Today, Greg visits the Oregon Coast for a deep sea fishing expedition.

I caught my first salmon in July of 1974, off the Oregon coast near Florence. A full 33 years would pass before I would again be out on the open ocean, looking back at Oregon’s rugged coastline clinging to the horizon. This time, I was there to shoot a segment for “On the Road with Oregon Bounty” highlighting sport fishing in Oregon. What a perfect idea, I thought. Call it work, and go catch a big one.

My guide on this adventure was Lars Robison (we spell our name differently, but pronounce it the same), a second-generation fishing guide who has operated Dockside Charters out of Depoe Bay since 1983. The fish in Lars’ blood was passed from his father, who started the family business in the early 1930s, rowing clients around Siletz bay in search of lunkers and Dungeness crab. Cost of an outing back then, lunch not included: a nickel a day.

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Day Three: On the Road with Oregon Bounty: Cow horns and compost and Pisces, oh my

October 1, 2007

Video: Today, Greg visits a biodynamic winery in the famed Willamette Valley wine growing region of Oregon.

I remember the day as if it was, well, six years ago. In the summer of 2001, those attending the annual International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville, Oregon, were audience to an incident that would shake – if not gently nudge – the foundation of winemaking in Oregon. I wasn’t there for the presentation, but attended a tasting the next day. The place was abuzz.

Madame Lalou Bize-Leroy, considered the Grande Dame of wine in Burgundy, was a keynote speaker, presenting her philosophy of "biodynamie," or biodynamic practices for growing and making wine. Bize-Leroy is an icon, having built Domaine Leroy after years guiding Domaine de la Romanee-Conti – a.k.a. DRC, arguably the leading wine estate in Burgundy, if not the world. DRC wines are in a stratosphere all their own, commanding upwards of $1,000 a bottle…if you can even get your hands on some. Their stone wall-guarded vineyards outside of Beaune in central-eastern France are considered Mecca for those who want to make great Pinot noir.

Continue reading "Day Three: On the Road with Oregon Bounty: Cow horns and compost and Pisces, oh my"

Day Two - On the Road with Oregon Bounty: Hidden in plain view

September 28, 2007

Day Two of “On the Road with Oregon Bounty” has made its way to the Mt. Hood/Columbia River Gorge region. Today, Greg takes you to a secret spot in the forest to hunt for the elusive wild huckleberry.
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I have a secret place that I visit only once a year, if that. Somewhere on the south side of Mt. Hood, well off the highway, down a dirt road and through a thicket of brambles and fallen trees, is my huckleberry patch. A hollow surrounded on all sides by protective bushes and middle age timber, you enter by stooping under a decomposing Douglas fir that lies across a dry creek bed. I’m sorry I can’t tell you exactly where, because then you might try to find it. Actually, some years my secret place is so good at disguising itself that even I have a hard time locating the front door.

When it comes to huckleberries, timing is everything. They can appear anytime in August and hang on for just a few weeks. Some years they’re still clinging to their wistful branches as late as the middle of September. The berries can be as small as a currant or as plump as a blueberry. Their skins vary from deep red to near black. Depending on the year, they can be in clumps that require only a gentle tug to send dozens cascading into your pail, or as sparse as a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. That is what makes a successful huckleberry hunt so satisfying.

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Day One - On the Road with Oregon Bounty (A Wine Snob Re-educated, Part II)

September 27, 2007

Today we begin our “On the Road with Oregon Bounty” journey in Portland, a place well known for its food and wine. I’ve hung around a lot of chefs and winemakers in my time, and have a pretty good handle on food and wine pairing. There are the basics: you can go for a complement (the earthiness of Pinot noir goes great with mushrooms) or a contrast (a sweet wine to balance a salty dish), etc. Go a little deeper, and you realize the red-with-red-meat/white-with-fish dogma is rather constraining if not downright boring.

Food and beer pairing? Now that’s another story… one that requires me to digress. You see, beer and I go way back, to my teen years.

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We're Hitting the Road for Oregon Bounty tomorrow...

September 26, 2007


We’re running around, busily making last minute preparations for our annual Oregon Bounty Celebration that kicks off tomorrow! Oregon Bounty is a two-month (October 1 thru November 30) event that invites you to head out and meet local brewmasters, winemakers, innkeepers, farmers and chefs as you taste your way around the state. It’s going to be one big culinary party!

Check our blog for daily updates from the road as we embark on a tasty seven days road trip through Oregon’s seven different regions, meet interesting people in the culinary world, and produce a video diary of your adventures.

And if you're curious about the seriously appetizing food scene in Oregon, read today's New York Times article, In Portland, a Golden Age of Dining and Drinking that explains why chefs flock to a city where "food is the star, produce is stellar and real estate is cheap."

~Cheers!

On The Road With Oregon Bounty

September 6, 2007

By Greg Robeson

When is a job not a job? If you were to chart it out, I guess it would be somewhere near where the Y axis (what you love to do) and the X axis (what you’re paid to do) intersect. As one who loves food and travel, that intersection for me is an annual getaway called “On the Road with Oregon Bounty.” Here’s the assignment: go spend seven days in Oregon’s seven different regions, meet interesting people in the culinary world, and produce a video diary of your adventures. Rough duty.

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Behind the Music of Oregon Bounty

August 16, 2007

By Amy Nyberg



You know when you get a song stuck in your head. No matter what you do, it doesn’t seem to go away. Well, that is what happened to me when I heard the new Oregon Bounty songs. Except they’re not annoying, they bring a smile to my face every time I hear them and kind of make me want to do a little jig. Maybe I am so fond of the songs because I am partial to Oregon Bounty. Or maybe it is just fun music. About a month ago I met up with the crew from Wieden & Kennedy (Travel Oregon’s advertising agency), at the production studio Digital One and witnessed first-hand how the Oregon Bounty songs were recorded and produced.

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