Time’s ripe for a box of apples
It’s hard to believe with all the recent hot, summerlike weather, but apple season is upon us.
Green Bluff growers begin celebrating the annual harvest this weekend. The festival continues through the last weekend in October.
There’s a huge variety of apples available, and growers will gladly recommend the types they like best for baking, cooking and eating out of hand.
Pick the apples or grab a box of already picked fruit. Drink fresh-pressed cider while wandering the rows of trees. If you don’t have the time or the inkling to do some preserving yourself, there are plenty of jams, jellies, apple butter, pies and other goodies.
Fall produce also will be available, along with other fun for families, such as music, food, craft booths, and corn and straw mazes.
For more information, go to www.greenbluffgrowers.com. Maps of Green Bluff farms can be found at Yoke’s Fresh Market stores, local library branches or at any of the participating farms.
Tailgaters needed
On Saturday afternoons this fall, tailgates across the Inland Northwest will spill open, turning football stadium parking lots into giant, open-air smorgasbords. We’re looking for a few intrepid tailgaters — folks who go beyond dogs, burgers and brews — to share tips, recipes, strategies and lessons for an upcoming story on tailgating. Do you fit that profile? Do you know someone who does? If so, send the details to freelance writer Carolyn Lamberson at clamberson@ adelphia.net.
Sara Joe’s closes
Organic pork producer Sara-Joe’s has closed.
The business, based in St. John, Wash., sold its organic pork and sausages to some of the best restaurants in Washington and Oregon. In a letter to customers late last month, owners Sara and Joe DeLong said after struggling for years to meet the USDA’s organic regulations, the newest crop of requirements would be too difficult for them to reach.
“Some of the new rules and regulations are going to make it too costly for the small-business farmer or processor to continue to operate,” they wrote in the letter.
They also said they each have health problems that prevent them from doing some of the everyday chores required on the farm. “This has been very difficult and sad for us to make this decision,” they wrote.
Among their customers were Huckleberry’s Natural Market and Latah Bistro in Spokane, Lovitt Restaurant in Colville and the Moscow Food Co-op in Idaho.