Yamhill Valley Grown, Your Guide To Local Food | Page 11

Their bales are used every year to create a rustic
perimeter within the oak grove of Linfield College for
the annual International Pinot Noir Celebration in
July, which brings together dozens of producers of
Oregon’s favorite grape varietal from as far off as
France, New Zealand and Chile to mingle and sample
wines over a long, food-and-drink-filled weekend.

this area and now operates two Golden Valley
Brewery restaurants, in McMinnville and
Beaverton. When not overseeing the restaurant
business, Peter is busy raising beef cattle on his
farm and growing hundreds of tomatoes,
zucchini, peppers and onions, all of which
supply the restaurants. They are people like
Emily Howard, who returned to her native
McMinnville to open the acclaimed Thistle
restaurant that refocused attention on sourcing
local food products and developing close
relationships with area farmers. Bill Stoller
grew up on a turkey farm outside of Lafayette,
left to make his fortune by opening a string of
employment agencies, and then came back to
make fine wine at what is now Stoller Family
Estate, and invest in the revitalization of
downtown Dayton, with a food-enterprise center
as the hub of the renovation.
Ask a local to name his or her favorite farm

They are small farmers who lovingly tend their patches
of vegetables and orchards of peaches, apples, pears,
strawberries and hazelnuts, and sell them at roadside
stands and summer Farmers Markets. They are people
like Peter Kircher, a Midwesterner who fell in love with

siting, and they will rattle off a quick list: The
red clover fields on the back road between
McMinnville and Carlton that turn bright red in
the spring. The alpacas outside of Amity. The
sight of white cows grazing on endless fields
between Lafayette and Dundee, and the cheerful
tasting rooms of Carlton. And not least of all, a
basket of fresh produce from a local farm
arriving in your home, and providing the
sustenance for your own friends and family.
-- Jim Gullo
Photos: Top Left, IPNC Salmon Bake, Botton Left, Apples
on a Branch. Center Right, Helicopter view Yamhill Valley
Farmland. All photos courtesy of Charles Hillestad