Southern Oregon—Pies In A Prairie Window

In the heat of 1967, when the rest of the country was deep into the Summer of Love, I made my last trek to the home of my Oregon roots. It was my great grandparents' 80-acre ranch east of Klamath Falls, outside the little town of Bonanza (it's true, there's a tiny Oregon town called Bonanza…as a child, I wondered if Loren Green, Hoss and Little Joe lived there, too).

We had gone to the ranch one last time to salvage a few wagon wheels that would become landscape focal points at our Central Oregon home, and a few other turn-of-the-century relics. I still have the wooden crank telephone hanging on a wall in my home, and an old butter churn in the kitchen. My son was soothed into his afternoon naps on my great grandfather's craftsman-style rocker

The ranch house was built way before plumbing, and my mother still remembers the celebration shortly after World War II that accompanied an indoor flushing toilet. There was heat from a wood stove, a tarnished spittoon, and a narrow window ledge in the kitchen where my great grandmother would cool her pies. Out back was a smokehouse and barn, where the hay was stored. They grew mostly hay and alfalfa, and did well selling potatoes during the war. They raised their own meat, and went to town occasionally for the staples they couldn't craft.

While their self-sustaining approach to life was born out of necessity, it would decades later become culinary fashion. My great grandparents spuds may have been shipped to markets well beyond their small circle of reality, but food to them meant products that were local, simple and pure.

That philosophy is still alive today throughout Southern Oregon.

In the early 1980s, Richard and Elizabeth Fujas moved onto a farm outside Medford to raise a family in a healthy environment. There, they built Rising Sun Farms, nestled in mountains of Southern Oregon between Ashland and Medford. What began as a small sideline making pesto sauces with organic basil has grown into a full line of sauces, dried tomatoes, cheese tortas, vinaigrettes, oils and vinegars and sold throughout the country. It's a passion for getting people to understand that food isn't just what's on your plate; it's the people who grew it, how they grew it, and where it came from.

At Summer Jo's Farm, Garden and Restaurant outside Grants Pass, Nancy Groth follows the same simple approach: her menus are based on what's picked that day.

Of course, Harry and David helped put the place on the map by satisfying the demand for the region's fresh pears and apples. And at Rogue Creamery, David Gremmels is focusing the attention of the cheese world by turning his bleu into gold.

The state's first vineyards were actually planted here, in the Applegate Valley, in the mid-1800s, well before my great great grandparents' wagon arrived. Today, a growing number of wineries are making waves with their warmer-climate varietals like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah.

The house on those 80 acres of heaven outside Bonanza still stands well off the road amid the rolling fields. Throughout Southern Oregon you’ll find small inns and quaint hotels from this era that, thankfully, have also been preserved. Today, they serve as home base for travelers who come here for a bit of world-class Shakespeare in Ashland, and a taste of local bounty being created by a whole new generation of culinary pioneers.

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