Yamhill Valley Grown, Your Guide To Local Food | Page 10

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They begin arriving early on Easter Sundays, rain or shine, to the
farmstead outside of McMinnville, where a local winemaker hosts an
annual party for friends, family, colleagues and nearly anyone else who
likes to eat and drink well. They park in the stubbly field adjacent to the
old, white farmhouse and spill out of their cars in equal parts kids, balls,
cases of wine, growlers of beer, and platters heaped with the specialties
from their kitchens. Long tables have been set up under the farm’s
storage awnings, and by 10 a.m. they are laden with a heavenly bounty of
salads, stews, simmering pots of pozole and chile
verde alongside crocks of pulled pork and braised
beef, kales and cabbages and perfect roasted beets.
The air crackles with the sound of homemade
sausages being grilled, and twenty bottles of local
pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot gris are open and
ready for tasting alongside a dozen locally crafted
beers and ales.

Missoula floods of the Ice Age and a mild climate that
was ideal for food crops, dairy farms and grazing
livestock. This part of Oregon still grows more
hazelnuts, berries, crimson clover, ryegrass seed and
peppermint than anywhere else in the nation, and is
in the top five of dozens of other crops that range
from hops and blueberries to Christmas trees and
garlic.

In its sheer bounty and variety of foodstuffs, all
grown, sourced and prepared within a roughly 20mile radius of the county seat of McMinnville, not to
mention its generous spirit of neighbors and friends
sharing food, drink and rec \\