Oregon’s Berry Seasons: Nirvana

Sisters Josie Lomax & Marissa Recht, new grad from St. Mary's Academy.

After enjoying daughter Marissa’s graduation from St. Mary’s Academy Saturday, husband John and I drove her sister Josie to a farm in the Tualatin River valley of Washington County.

It was the first sunny day that the PDX has enjoyed in a couple of weeks. PDX is not for rainfall sissies.

The sun was glorious after the almost relentless rains, and the valley looked picture-postcard perfect. Josie’s aunt was having an outdoor birthday party, on a nut farm overlooking the fields and hills.

Nonetheless, for me the highlight of our excursion was buying our first Oregon strawberries of the season. I like to say that I eat my way through the berry seasons in Oregon. In a couple of weeks, even as I mourn the end of our strawberry season, the raspberries will be on the horizon. And so on.

We usually buy our berries at a farmer’s market, or on Sauvie Island near our St. Johns home. But, on the only sunny day in what seems like forever, there was no time to waste.

The PDX local-strawberries clock is ticking. With so much rain, strawberries won’t be here for very long. Field berries quickly turn into mush in the rain.

So we stopped at the Hoffmann Farms roadside stand in North Scholls for a half-flat (~$2 per overflowing basket of ruby jewels). My kitchen is fragrant with the scent of strawberries this morning. Mmmm.

In Oregon, the early-season strawberry varieties really do taste the best, in my opinion. So I advise everyone to snag some quickly, whether from the farmer, from a buy-local grocer like Sheridan Market, or from a farmers market. You’ll never look at an out-of-state strawberry in the same way again!

Mildew & Aphids on Roses–Oh, My!

If you want to be an environmentally friendly rose grower, you can avoid the most common diseases of PDX roses by finding varieties that resist mildew and fungi, and by planting your rose bushes in sunny spots.

But that might not be enough prevention when the weather is as wet has it has been in Portland lately. A friend emailed recently to say:

…I have two red roses that are the long-stem kind, but one of them hasn’t started blooming yet and the blooms on the other one look deformed.

As a serial gardener (4 PDX gardens, all with different growing conditions), I volunteered some advice.

Is Mildew/Fungus to Blame?

If there are leaves with black spots or yellowish blotches areas on them or if you see dryish leaves with patches of whitish dust on them, that’s fungus/mold/mildew from too much moisture.

Peninsula Park Rose Garden (by Ren Thompson)

I’ve never tried the homestyle, organic remedies (which Google will help you find–e.g., spray the leaves with diluted milk), so I can’t vouch for them. But they’re certainly worth a try.

If you must resort to a chemical remedy, try to keep its impact local to the plant itself. Buy the tiniest bottle of spray-on mildewcide/fungicide that you can, because you won’t use much per year.

I prefer this to sprinkling fungicide around the plant’s roots. This “systemic” treatment is taken up by the roots, making it work for a long time. But it also wipes out all the “good” fungi in the surrounding soil ecosystem–not a good idea, in my opinion.

Hungry Aphids

The other affliction that I’ve seen deform rosebuds like that is aphids. So look for those suckers (literally, that’s what they do to the plant). They like tender new leaves and the flower buds.

Aphids line up along the bud or new leaf, spilling onto the stem below. If they’ve been eating well they get really fat and orangish in color. If you’re patient, you can buy ladybugs at the garden center and let them loose to eat the aphids.

Or you can wipe away the aphids with your gloved fingertips and smash them into oblivion. Then rinse the buds & leaf tips with water or spritz them with water that has a little dish soap in it. Stores sell “insecticidal soap” for this, but regular dishwashing detergent (like Dawn, etc.) is handy and effective.

I use the smash-then-soap method several times before resorting, very rarely, to chemical warfare. Again, I keep the treatment as local as possible, and use a homemade insecticide.

The recipe: Soak a small piece of a cigar (with a tobacco leaf wrapper, not artificial) in ½ cup or less of water overnight. In the morning, strain the brown liquid into a small spray bottle and lightly spritz the new growth at branch tips.

***Store leftovers where kids and pets can’t reach.***

The tobacco juice is a neurotoxin that stays around on the new growth long enough to keep a new bunch of aphids away. It’s nasty stuff and should be handled with care. (Wear gloves. Don’t put the wet tobacco in your compost pile. Wash hands carefully after using. Keep it away from children and pets.)

And enjoy your beautiful roses!

Confession: I’m a Sunny-Day Gardener

The worms in the garden ate well over the winter.

This spring, I must admit to myself that I’m a sunny-day gardener.

Even when there wasn’t a downpour during the last 2 weeks, the transplants I’ve been wanting to get into my St. Johns garden have languished unattended. I try, try, try to get out the door between rain squalls. But the ol’ gardening juices just don’t start flowing for me until I can do the work without all my clothes getting soggy.

This explains why my plants often are a week or two, or more, behind everyone else’s. They get even further behind if a sunny weekend is full of events like the St. Johns Parade two weeks ago, or “Condo Millennium” in Seattle last week.

A Jackie Uh-Oh prediction

Our rains in the last several years have resembled the pelting downpours of the U.S. Southwest more than they have the gentle, misty rain that was characteristic in Portland 25+ years ago.

A favorite way to describe those rains was, “It’s spitting outside.” A waterproof jacket and hat would keep you dry most of the time–hence the bias among longtime Portlanders against umbrellas.

Jackie Uh-Oh predicts: If the shift in rain pattern persists, even the natives will begin carrying umbrellas.

Today, with a backlog of vegetable starts, native plants and color spots piling up, I went outside to garden anyway. And about 45 minutes later fled back indoors, after trying vainly to outlast a cloudburst.

My KEY “Imperial” overalls (“The Aristocrat of Overalls”) are  just on the dry side of “wet washcloth”–and will just have to stay that way, because I plan to try again when the raindrops on the skylight cease. My plants & I hope it’s soon!

Money Can Talk For You

You can learn more about how your money is talking for you on Saturday (May 22), during an event that runs from 1 to 4 p.m. at Pioneer Square in downtown Portland.

“Think globally, act locally.” When that slogan was coined years ago, it was referring to issues like environmental protection. Every day we see the effects of this slogan in the ways that cities, counties and the state do business.

Then, a few years ago (earlier than that in PDX, of course) an “eat local” movement began. And so we now see local fruit and vegetables at farmers markets throughout the Metro area.

And now there are those who want us to think twice before handing over our paychecks to a bank that owes its allegiance to another city in another state. The idea behind the nationwide Move Your Money campaign is to change the way we bank in order to strengthen our local economies and local communities. (Add a certain amount of anger in there over the federal bank bailouts.)

Representatives of local banks and credit unions will be on hand to provide the info, and the Lions of Batucada will provide the infectious Brazilian rhythms.

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A Good Day for a Parade in St. Johns

The St. Johns Parade in North Portland had its 48th annual iteration Saturday (May 8, 2010), followed by an afternoon at the 4th annual St. Johns Bizarre of crafts, music and food/drink. It was a warm, sunny PDX day, the kind that makes Portlanders burst forth from their cocoons in relief as the Rose Festival season of parades and events begins.

Beyond those basic facts: Narrative? We don’t need no stinkin’ narrative! Enjoy W&W in PDX‘s “snapshots” of the fun.

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An improvised sign lets the crowd know that two students from St. Johns’ Roosevelt High are state theatre champions: Ashlee Zell and Eleanor Siebert. (Congratulations on the achievement, and on taking the PR into your own hands!)

The “Citizen of the Year” in the parade was Steve Duin, the longtime Metro columnist (and former colleague of mine) at The Oregonian.  Former Oregon Rep. Mike Burton was the parade announcer.

An alt-bike for an alt-Queen on her throne

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For "Mother Nature," a barebones float

Gordon Russell Middle School Thunderbirds marching band, of Gresham.

The St. Johns Farmer’s Market “float” wins the Jackie Uh-Oh prize for least effort expended on decor. It consisted of a truck wrapped in burlap, with some folks dressed like Mother Nature & her vegetative bounty waving cheerily from the back.

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There were marching bands aplenty, most of them from middle schools and at least one from an elementary school in the Sylvan Hills. The most inventive children’s musical group was the Astor Elementary School “Marching Eagles” group from North Portland. Its drummers beat time using white plastic buckets and big, black plastic garden pots, turned upside down and suspended by rope from their waists.

Puppets anyone? Mudeye doesn't think small!

Conehead?

Every now and then, I take a big bag of paper towel & t.p. tubes, egg cartons, small boxes and other would-be detritus to the house of my S.J. neighbor, Bruce Orr, the creative brains behind the Mudeye Puppet Company.

He stashes the stuff away, to use later in school puppet-making workshops around the Portland area. I had heard from others about how creative his puppets are, but never been to a show.

Wow! The colorful, over-the-top Mudeye puppets that a group of adults & children from my neighborhood paraded through town on Saturday were beyond what I could have imagined. (They were the lead-in for the Mayor.)

They get the Jackie Uh-Oh Grand Prize!

N. Kellogg Street on parade

Mayor Sam Adams

Bike-friendly Rep. Earl Blumenauer was the politico on parade who sparked the most cheering.

Despite the white wool suits, the Royal Rosarians looked cool.

Most distinctive police car: a 1948 Ford, driven by Wasco County's Bill Kelvin

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Columbia County's pooper scoopers showed style as they followed rodeo princesses & their horses.

Belly dancing for poodles too

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Assumption Village representatives

N. Portland Tool Library entry

St. Johns branch librarians made a giant-sized point.

A grassroots gardening club for kids, Village Gardens, urged everyone to eat their vegies.

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Rose City Steampunks: They stood out, but somehow also blended well with the general zaniness.

The Rose City Steampunks were colorful in their Alice in Wonderland themed costumes. Both they and and the Pirates of Portlandia were greeted enthusiastically, and not with the surprise/shock that some seemed to have anticipated.

But that’s how it is in an already Weird & Wonderful neighborhood, one that has a little bit of every demographic and socioeconomic group in it.

Pirates of Portlandia (who will be in the Rose Festival Starlight Parade too, in downtown PDX on June 5th)

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Some St. Johns Background

Are Cathedral Park & the St. Johns Bridge the only things you know about the St. Johns Neighborhood?

I didn’t know much about St. Johns either, when I  moved here to be with my abiding sweetheart. At first glance, I found it difficult to look past the modest, even rundown, structures in the small “town center”– remnants of a bustling hub of river trade that began here in 1847.

But there’s a lovely, New England-style town hall and an Andrew Carnegie-funded library  to prove the area’s past glory. Since 1915, when it joined the city of Portland, the area’s trajectory mostly has been downward.

However, in the last decade a slow Renaissance has come to this neighborhood. Credit the young people who moved in seeking cheap housing prices for their blooming families. When they aren’t nurturing children, or tending their frontyard garden plots or their backyard chickens, they work to make the spot they call home better. Thank you to all of them!

The Folksy St. Johns Parade & “Bizarre”

The North Portland neighborhood of St. Johns remains one of those Metro area outposts that don’t get no respect, in the words of a guy who would have fit in here well, comic Rodney Dangerfield.

St. Johns Bridge (by Ren Thompson)

The only thing that most residents of “better” PDX neighborhoods know about it is the glorious gothic St. Johns Bridge, and Cathedral Park underneath. But this sweet, homey neighborhood is much more than that.

Tomorrow (Saturday, May 8th) you can see for yourself as the St. Johns Parade traverses the town center portion of Lombard Street, from noon to 2 p.m. (Directions: If you can get to the east end of the St. Johns Bridge, you’ll see the center of everything. For you sticklers, here’s a Google map.)

In this parade, you’ll not only see the Royal Rosarians and the Rose Festival princesses, but also anyone who wants to strut down the street. Two of my favorite entries of years past: a middle school chess club, in matching T-shirts,

and a guy who always decorates his pickup to protest something. This year, a Steampunk contingent also has promised to fall into the NoPo rabbithole.

Before and after, the St. Johns Bizarre happens — sort of a Saturday Market, with local crafts, food, music and a beer garden. (I think it runs 10am-6pm, but can’t be sure, since the event’s promoters forgot about this detail in much of their publicity.)

If you’re really feeling weird, and are near Lombard & Richmond streets, you can join a Facebook guy who calls himself Danger Man in a  “freeze” Flash Mob. He explains: “You will hear an air horn at precisely 1:45 pm. When you hear this sound, freeze. Freezing in mid-motion is best. A supervillain will cackle maniacally, freeze ray in hand, and issue his proclamation against order and decency.”

See you there! (Look for my purple SJ sweatshirt and a big hat, probably red.)

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Yaka-wow! A New Word is Born

Today I learned how the world got a new word!  Blame it on bad typing.

Susan Greenfield, a neuroscientist who will be giving the Linus Pauling Memorial Lecture in Portland Thursday, spoke first to about 100 Oregon Mensans at the group’s “Regional Gathering” in Vancouver, Wash. The R.G., as they call it, is a social event for this Top 2% IQ crowd. But they also seek out other brainy people to tell them about interesting stuff.

Baroness Greenfield ended her very engaging and thought-provoking speech by admitting that she inadvertently coined the word “yaka-wow” two weeks ago. It’s also spelled “yackawow” sometimes.

Yaka-wow was what The Times of London used on April 15th, in a feature article about Greenfield’s gender discrimination complaint against the University of Oxford, which laid her off in January. [Weblinks are below.]

In an interview, Greenfield intended for the reporter to hear her say that computer games might be creating a generation of kids who grow up only able to say “yuck!” and “wow!” a lot. But that’s not what the transcriber of the taped interview heard. (Doesn’t the newspaper have copy editors any more?)

What The Times of London published:

“She is concerned that those who live only in the present, online, don’t allow their malleable brains to develop properly. ‘It’s not going to destroy the planet but is it going to be a planet worth living in if you have a load of breezy people who go around saying yaka-wow. Is that the society we want?’ ”

The result was viral. It only took 24 hours for the Web to record the use of yaka-wow more than 75,000 times! A week later, The Times even published a definition for it.

Remember, you heard it from Weird & Wonderful in PDX first!

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The mea culpa by the newspaper: Click here
The original Times article: Click here