On October 24^th, in celebration of the first annual national Food Day, the East Linn County Chapter of Ten Rivers Food Web hosted a food education fair at the Lebanon Public Library. Over 200 people attended the 2-hour event that featured numerous samplings of local, seasonal food, along with information about gardening, health, gleaning and farm to school programs in and around Lebanon.

At 5pm the event kicked-off, with patron’s lining up outside the door (see video), excited to taste all the delicious samples and interested in learning more about food in their community. Guests made their way in a circle, stopping at each of the 14 tables, committed to learning about all the vendors.

The crowds lines up to stop at each table at the Lebanon Food Day Food Education Fair on October 24, 2011.

First up was Sarah Kleeger, from Adaptive Seeds and Open Oak Farm in Crawfordsville. Sarah talked about her farms’ practice of biodiversity supported agriculture and how important biodiversity is to our food system. A sample CSA share, of salad greens, carrots, onion, butternut squash, tomatoes, kholrabi and massive chard was on display. Sarah explained what Community Supported Agriculture is all about (see here). She also sampled carrots and talked about her and her partners seed company, Adaptive Seeds – a local seed company which grows mostly all of their own seeds.

Willamette Seed & Grain – a unique growing, processing and marketing partnership between Linn and Benton County bean and grain farmers – offered samples of muffins and scones featuring their own locally grown and locally processed flour. They also shared information about why it is important to support local grain growers and where to buy their flour, most notably the November 12^th Fill Your Pantry Market – make sure to send in your pre-order by Friday November 4th!

From OSU Family and Community Health, Janice Gregg and Lynn Sjoberg sampled two delicious soups featuring local and seasonal ingredients: Sausage and Kale Soup and Autumn Squash Bisque with Ginger. Also featured was the OSU Extension’s Master Food Preservers program, which offers participants training in safe food preserving. After training, these Master Food Preservers then share their knowledge with community members through a variety of volunteer community service activities such as teaching, testing equipment and staffing exhibit booths.

The Linn County Master Gardeners were paired with the Lebanon Community Garden to talk to residents about gardening resources in and around Lebanon. Master Gardeners, like the Master Food Preservers, share their training and expertise with their community through volunteer projects. The Lebanon Community Garden, or “Garden of Eatin”, is a Master Gardener sponsored community garden located at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Lebanon.

Food as preventative medicine was the focus for Dr. Kyle Homertgen, DO, and Barbara Geoge, RD from Albany Heartspring Wellness Center. They talked to residents about how eating healthy, locally sourced foods help to prevent numerous illnesses, diet-related and others.

Linn and Benton County have a strong network of highly organized gleaning groups who help to save food that would otherwise go to waste. The Lebanon Gleaners represented the Lebanon area gleaners and offered salsa samples, while recruiting eligible members.

Jan Boucot, of Sunflower Hill Farm in Lebanon, set up a mini farmers’ market booth selling knit items featuring hand spun wool from her goats (who play a major role in their food production), tomatoes, apples, and tomatillos. Samples of her delicious tomatillo salsa, offered an alternative to the more commonly known tomato salsa.

Chantrelle season is upon us and Lebanon based The Mushroomery, offered samples of  this in-season delight. They also shared the step-by-step process of culturing mushrooms, showcased their grow-your-own mushroom kits and explained about the many health benefits of mushrooms.

Fraga Farm Goat Cheese from Sweet Home also set up a mini farmers’ market booth offering samples of their organic goat cheese. Owner Jan Neilson was able to talk about the health benefits of goat’s milk and also about their farming practices.

Scottie Hurley, Ten Rivers Food Web Food Literacy committee chair, shared information about TRFW to a community mostly unaware of this work. As one of the lead organizers of TRFW’s main Food Literacy event, Chefs’ Show Off, Scottie talked about TRFW’s efforts towards increasing food literacy. Scottie also asked participants for comments, suggestions and recommendations about potential food literacy events. Generally, people were very excited to have this event happening in Lebanon and were asking for more.

Planting Seeds of Change, the Lebanon based Farm to School program, runs 5 teaching/demonstration gardens in Lebanon and 4 in Sweet Home. They also have a 2-acre production garden at Cascades Elementary School. Volunteer Yvonne Castillo shared information about the program along with providing farm to school resources.

Attendees enjoy some delicious delicata squash.

As mentioned, Cascades Elementary School in Lebanon is home to a 2-acre production garden as part of Planting Seeds of Change. Produce from this garden is sold to the Lebanon School District and served to students in the cafeteria. Barbara Rowe, volunteer with PSOC, sampled microwaved delicata squash harvested from the garden.  Sharing the table with Barbara was Joe and Karen Schuler from Rainshadow El Rancho and Scio Poultry Processing in Scio. At Rainshadow, they sell naturally raised bison, poultry, rabbit and pork. Scio Poulty Processing offers poultry processing – chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, pheasant, game birds and rabbits –for the small grower.

Kate Geller, OSU Nutrition student and volunteer with PSOC, demonstrated a simple, healthy, stovetop granola recipe. Oats came from Horse Creek Farm in Halsey, honey from Fairweather Farm in Lebanon, dried organic blueberries from Berkey’s Blueberries in Lebanon and hazelnuts from Nuts for Jesus in Sweet Home. Kate and Barbara hosted a youth cooking class last spring through PSOC. Joining Kate was Cheryl Berkey of Berkey’s Blueberries. Cheryl sampled frozen organic blueberries.

Queener Fruit Farm in Scio donated six different apple varieties – Honeycrisp, Empire, Belle de Boskoop, Bramley, Pinova and Stayman Winesap (see descriptions here) – for an apple tasting.  Lisa Almarode, from Fairweather Farm, hosted the apple tasting while Linda Ziedrich, from the Linn County League of Women Voters, gave out samples of Queener’s Apple Cider and fresh (non-fermented) Pinot Noir Grape Juice from Jim and Irina Just of La Ferme Noir in Scio.

The East Linn County chapter also put together a map, indicating direct-market farmers in Linn County (and a few in Benton). In total, 45 farms were identified along with their products, method of sale, and general location. This allowed attendees to identify what is available from local farmers, and how to find these farmers .

All participants (over the age of 15) received raffle tickets, entering them into a free prize drawing every 20 minutes. Children received free Ag in the Classroom prizes such as postcards, pencils, erasers and bookmarks. For the raffle, prizes included grow-your-own mushroom bags from The Mushroomery, jam from Campagna Distinctive Flavors and Kris’ Kitchen, honey from Fairweather Farm, flour from Willamette Seed and Grain, cheese from Fraga Farm, gift certificates to Vinny’s Natural Living (a Lebanon natural food store), beef strips from Sweet Home Farms and numerous food/garden/farming related books. Prizes were sponsored by a generous donation from Samaritan Health Services.

Participants, planners and vendors all agreed the event was an incredible success. Numerous attendees commented how they were glad to not have to drive to another town to talk about community food issues like local farming, home gardening, community gardens, nutritional health, gleaning, seasonal home cooking and more. There were also requests for more events. Stay tuned to the East Linn County chapter for future food literacy events in the Lebanon/Sweet Home area.