local. sustainable. delicious.
Jan 14th, 2011 by michele
The ball is rolling for FCC 2011, and we hope you’ll join us! Details to follow, and registration to open soon, but mark off Monday, March 7th on your calendars for another great event in Oregon City at Clackamas Community College. Make sure that you get on our e-newsletter list so that you get our announcements!
In the meantime, registration for the Eugene Local Food Connection is open, with the event happening on Monday, February 7th at the Lane Community College.
Oct 18th, 2010 by michele
From the Press Advisory:
OCI interviewing Red Wattle piglettes
True to Oregon Culinary Institute’s (OCI) “hands-on” teaching philosophy,the school’s current generation of students is learning about food from the source through what has affectionately been dubbed “the pig project.” On Tuesday, November 9 and Wednesday, November 10, the project will culminate with five-course dinner fundraisers for Chef’s Collaborative and the Ecotrust “Farm to
School” program, respectively. Both events will be at 7 p.m. at OCI, located at 1701 SW Jefferson. Tickets are $75 per dinner – call 503-961-6205 or sign up online at oregonculinaryinstitute.com (look under “weekend classes”).
In May, OCI purchased three Red Wattle hogs from Heritage Farms Northwest in Dallas, Ore.
Two of the pigs are being pen raised at Sweetbriar Farms in Eugene, Ore., and the other is being pasture
raised at Heritage Farms Northwest. All OCI culinary students were invited to participate in the project.
“Students who are participating in this school project are doing so on a voluntary basis, but we are making it worth their while,” said OCI Executive Chef and Director of Education Brian Wilke. “From an educational perspective, we are covering issues of sustainability, farms and food production, food ethics, and, of course, flavor.” OCI Chef Instructor Josh Blythe and a crew of students will prepare four courses for each dinner, with each dish featuring side-by-side comparisons of the pasture and pen raised pork. OCI Baking and Pastry Chef Instructor Salvatore Hall and his students will prepare the dessert course.
Each menu item will be specifically tailored to the beverages being served that night. The “Suds & Swine” fundraiser for Chef’s Collaborative on November 9 is in collaboration with Upright Brewing, and the
November 10 “Swine & Wine” for Ecotrust’s “Farm to School” program is in collaboration with Chehalem Winery. Wealth Underground Farm, an organic CSA farm located on Newberry Rd. off Skyline Blvd. in Portland, is providing accompanying produce for both events.
“We are excited to give industry professionals and food enthusiasts the opportunity to taste various pork dishes, side-by-side, from pigs that are genetically almost identical, but raised and fed very differently,” “We believe our students approach food with much more respect when they understand what is involved in its production,” added Dan Brophy, OCI lead instructor. “Not only does it make sense to use fresher ingredients for better flavor, but it’s also important to preserve our agricultural heritage by supporting local farms.”
To view an article the pig project in depth, go here.
Thanks to OCI for thinking of us, and for breaking new ground with food sustainability exploration in the classroom!
Oct 11th, 2010 by michele
It’s that time of year again! If you would like to participate in helping to plan the next Farmer-Chef Connection (Save the Date: Monday, March 7, 2011), please right away. We’ll be setting a first meeting/orientation for the 3rd or 4th week in October. We can take additional volunteers at any point up until the event.
The FCC planning committee determines and coordinates the workshops and the keynote speaker, and helps with the logistics of spreading the word, encouraging sponsors to participate, and asking for raffle items. We also need volunteers for the day of the event to keep it running smoothly. We work hard, and we have a lot of fun doing it! We also are key to setting the tone for the event, and you’ll know if you attended last year that this is a fun and incredibly useful volunteer-driven day!
Aug 30th, 2010 by tbutler
The Portland Chef’s Collaborative will be hosting a butchery demo and barbeque on Sunday, September 12th. Join us for good food and friends at Salt, Fire, & Time (map) starting at 4PM. There are a few spots left, so if you are interested in attending.
There will be delicious local beer, pulled pork donated by Sweet Briar Farms and cooked by Sassafras Catering, a lamb butchery demonstration by local chef/butcher Berlin Reed, the “Ethical Butcher”, a BBQ sauce competition, and a great opportunity to hang out with other chefs, food buyers, farmers, and folks who love good food from our local food shed.
We will also have a short PCC meeting to talk about how to get involved and upcoming events.
The details:
What: September PCC Meeting & BBQ, with butchery demo
Where: Salt, Fire, & Time, Portland (map)
When: September 12th, 4-7pm
Bring: A side dish to share w/serving utensils and your best BBQ sauce!
RSVP: There are limited spots left, so if you can come
We look forward to seeing all of you there!
Jul 16th, 2010 by michele
Hello Portland Chefs Collaborative folks, hope you are having a wonderful summer! Can you join us for a PCC gathering in just over a week on Sunday July 25th? We have a wonderful opportunity to hold a meeting at Luscher Farm in Lake Oswego (thanks, Laura), AND to have the author Temra Costas as a guest speaker. She just published the book Farmer Jane, profiling women in the local food movement, and has offered to speak to us and sign books.
Yes, it’s last minute notice. Yes, it’s the middle of summer, busy farming & wedding season, right when people are taking vacations. But we’d love it if you can make the event and help us plan the rest of 2010. Portland Chefs Collaborative is looking to set up a planning committee with great ideas on how to engage chefs and others in the local, sustainable food scene around Portland in meetings and events that are educational and entertaining, and that involve some great food. Farmers, food buyers, food lovers, bakers, ranchers, fishers, caterers, processors, and of course chefs are all welcome. Please bring a picnic lunch and friends/family.
What: July PCC Meeting & Picnic, with Guest Speaker Temra Costa
Where: Luscher Farm, Lake Oswego (map)
When: 7/25, Noon-2pm
How: please carpool, there is limited parking
Who: Temra Costa is author of Farmer Jane; PCC meeting run by Sarah Curtis-Fowler of Pacific Pie Company and David Yudkin of HotLips Pizza
Picnic! Bring everything you need to set up a picnic while listening to Temra, including a blanket and/or chairs and drinks. If you want to bring extra to share, we’ll set up a table for extra bounty.
RSVP - it would be great if you could and let us know that you can join us, just so that we have a general idea of numbers. It’s not necessary, though, if you forget to email, you should still come!
Want to stay in touch with the latest PCC updates? There are several ways to do so.
There is a PCC Google Groups listserv where folks can post information they think PCC members and supporters would be interested in, or ask questions of the PCC community. There is also the PCC e-News announcement list strictly used for PCC event announcements and invitations.
PCC Google Group>>
PCC Announcement List>>
Questions? Just email .
Mar 12th, 2010 by michele
A local food writer describes her experience at FCC in her blog here. Warning, her food photography from the breakfast, lunch, and dessert spread is enough to make you very hungry…
Mar 11th, 2010 by michele
There is a great story about Grand Central Baking in this month’s Edible Portland that highlights the Farmer-Chef Connection and how Piper and her crew at the bakery have utilized local sourcing and our networking event to maker her bakery the local buying force that it is today. You can pick up a copy around town for free, or you can read about it online (page 38) here.
Mar 10th, 2010 by michele
Erin Meeker is the chef at Sassafras Catering, and she wrote this about her experiences at the Farmer Chef Connection:
Site Map
On Monday I had the great pleasure of attending the Farmer/Chef connection for the first time. To say that I had a fantastic time would be an understatement. Anne Berblinger had asked me to sit on one of her discussion panels for Farmer/Chef 101 and although I was a bit nervous about being on a panel for the first time, I ended up learning so much about how farmers decide what to grow each year and then how to price it that I wish the class had gone on all afternoon. It was nice that I was able to discuss the ordering needs of a caterer as we are generally planning our menus months in advance so instead of being able to use whatever is fresh at the time, I have to consult planned grow lists from farmers and build my menus around what they project will be ready. It’s a great game of produce roulette.
The other amazing aspect to the day was the personal access to so many farmers. Sassafras produces a line of artisan preserved goods, and we have been having a difficult time sourcing a few of our ingredients directly from Oregon, particularly watermelons. On Sunday, I was able to talk to at least a dozen farmers and quite a few expressed interest in growing heirloom watermelons for us this summer. I am so excited about the idea of pickling watermelons that have interesting skin patterns or purple flesh to add a new color palette in our jars!
When you add the amazing lunch and delicious teas, coffees, and pastries into the whole mix, I can’t imagine a better day for a food geek like myself. The hardest part about this whole experience is that now I have to wait 364 days to attend the next one!
If you attended the Farmer-Chef Connection and would like to write about an aspect of your day, .
Mar 9th, 2010 by michele
Thanks to everyone for a successful Farmer-Chef Connection 2010. Keep checking back here for posts about the event, more details about the workshops, and the next fun thing that the Portland Chefs Collaborative is going to tackle! Make sure that you sign up for our e-newsletter here to be kept informed.
Feb 26th, 2010 by michele
Wow, thanks to the hard work of Farmer-Chef Connection volunteers (especially Ericka Carlson!), and the generosity of many, many people, there are some wonderful raffle items that you’ll have a chance of winning just by registering and attending FCC 2010! Check out the list here!
