Bob's Red Mill - Breakfast & Tour

We all know Bob's Red Mill great products from the grocery store. As it turns out the are based in Portland!

Rose found some tickets for breakfast and I felt like skylarking (West Indian for playing hookie from work) so we made the Thursday morning out of it.

The breakfast was good, and the store was really amazing. I had know idea they made so many products. When we lived on the east coast, you would see maybe 10 of their products, but there are so many. The pictures below cover just a small part of the store.

After breakfast we headed to the mill for a 1.5 hour tour. It was a bit different that other factory tours I have been on. We first saw a short film mainly about Bob and his wife Charlie's life and how they got into the milling business, and how they lost everything they owned at age 60 and rebuilt their lives. I thought their business philosophy was great.

The short story is Bob is an engineer, loves tinkering with things, loved the old stone mill stones and it when on from there. All of the grain is ground on old stone mill stones. This is not a high production plant. The grain is ground slow and "cold" as we found out if very important in keeping the nutrition in the food.

We had a great tour guide that talked us around part of the plant and was full of information. I really learned a lot about the different ways they grind, cut, roll, etc.. grain. I also learned more about gluten free that I ever needed to know, but fascinating stuff. Also, what types of flower to use for bread, pastry, muffins, I have been doing this all wrong - now I know why.

Bob and his wife are great people. He is more concerned about making a good product than making a fortune. In fact, when he was ready to retire, he turned down the offers from the mega food companies and - "Gave the company to his employees". Cool Dude!

Restaurant and Store

 Some of the old Mill Stones, but this is what they still use today. They are produced from quartz from a quarry outside of Paris, France.

Sunday at Home

We were planning on going to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm today for the Tulip Fest, but the weather is a bit dreary. The myth is that it rains in Portland all the time, but this is actually the first time we have changed plans because of it. We will have to blog about the Wooden Shoe Tulip farm later. It is supposed to be a bit of Holland with acres and acres if tulips. Oh, and Mexican food trucks for some reason?

So instead we worked more on our little apartment farm. We have strawberries, herbs, and eventually four earth pots for lettuce, tomatoes, and vegetables. We plan to put three of the earth boxes out it the front under the window where they will get better sun. Rose just has to grow stuff, and I like it, too.

 

When we lived in Aldie, Virginia we had a huge garden and small orchard. There were a few organic farms in the area, so we also enjoyed organic beef, lamb, and chickens. Nice to know your nearby farmer!

Here are a few pictures of our old garden in Virginia. 

 We built the whole thing. 24 ft by 36 ft.

We grew a shit load of vegetables!

Here is the build out of the raised beds. They are dug down 24 inches.

Here is the garden in full works with all the plants around the fence!

Corn is getting tall!

Our 5-in-1 Apple Tree.

Lots of Cherries

Asian Pears

Lots of Lettuce!

Rose planting one of the 16 ft by 4 ft raised beds.

 

E.E. Schenck Open House

E.E. Schenck is a large wholesale supplier of fabric, notions, thread, books, etc... right at the port of Portland. They carry some of the products Rose has on her two Internet stores. Nice to be able to just drive over and pick up stuff. 

They had a big open house on Saturday, so we checked it out, and picked up some supplies.

True to Portland, it was heavy rain and wind, but the place was full of people.

I know it doesn't look like it, they were all listening to a speaker at the time. We figured we would get the drop of the goods, while they were distracted - you got to have a strategy to survive being in a warehouse full of women shopping sales!

They have quilts all over this huge warehouse.

 

Hillsdale Food Trucks

In town at the highschool is a nice "Pod" of food trucks. I guess they do well from the kids and people working in town. Now if you know Duniden, or Safety Harbor that is like the two towns we live inbetween, with hills like San Franciso!

Friday night they were having a little "To Do" at the Pod, don't know why it is just Portland I guess. They had free music, free wine, and free samples from the food trucks. Nice group of people all hanging around and chatting to each other. Portlandiers are really social and easy to chat with. There are a lot of young people, students and hippies of young and old. The usual Portland topics of beer, wine, food, and pot are the norm.

We tried the samples and settled on the Phat Cart Food Truck. It was run by a bunch of young girls and the food was really nice! I had the Crispy Fried Chicken Sandwich - No not the  green salad.

There is also a Mac n Cheese Truck that really caught Rose's eye. There samples were good, and we may wonder up there for some lunch.

Oregon is the Hazelnut capitol of the world and there are so many around that people us the shells as mulch, driveways, everywhere.

Food trucks are a big deal out hear and so far, the food we have had has been great.

French Quarter

Rose and I went for one of our long Sunday walks through the park, woods, gardens with the idea we would end up at the French Quarter.
The French Quarter is in Multnomah Village a little over a mile from our place. This french man Yevs bought an old car service station and is making an indoor area for shops, restaurant and food trucks.  Lots of outdoor space to hangout and have events and beer - well it is Portland.

Rose found a really cool chair and had tomhave it.  We got to talking to one of the shop owners and she kindly took our money, gave us a recipt, and held the chair until we could walk home and get Ms. Bean. She also mentioned the food cart serving Lao food was really great, so we decided to have a bit. Need some hot curry to help us get home, as it is all uphill from there!

I've been to Laos, so got right to chatting with the lady in the food cart. She was really nice - well it is Portland and everyone is nice. Rose had the yellow curry and I the red. Very good , we'll be back!

By the time we were done eating Yves, the owner of the chair, turned up and gave us a ride all the home to our doorstep - well it is Portland and you know the rest...