Portland, OR

I have noticed that an inordinate amount of people my age and younger in Portland do not either own a TV or subscribe to cable.

WTF?

Seriously, I understand that most, if not all television pretty much sucks, but come on, television is one of those things that we all watch and rely on as a common denominator. I mean, sometimes I will watch a show just to see what it is in case I come across a trivia question about it in the future. It’s called Pop Culture, people! Hell, I even watched an episode of Grey’s Anatomy just to how much it sucked, and boy, did it.

I am one of those people that loves TV. And I don’t mean that I love what is on TV for the most part, but just the whole idea, process and culture of TV. For goodness sake, I majored in film and television studies, so I think I had better find some sort of enjoyment in television, even if only on an academic level.

So, to the young people of Portland, television can be a wonderful thing. Have you watched Science Channel? SciFi channel? Cartoon Network?! What about PBS? Even if you think you are too good to watch the usual television shows, you have to tune in for an occasional Frontline or Nature or Charlie Rose.

I tend to like to talk TV as well, and it is so frustrating to me when I bring up last night’s Project Runway (SOOO HAPPY that ever-whiny Keith is gone, btw), and the person I am trying to talk to says, “Oh, I don’t watch TV.” It’s like them saying I don’t care about the collective experience of living in the age of mass media. I think that some people see it as a badge of “coolness” to not watch TV. Those people are lame, if you ask me. How can you not be curious about commerical entertainment, even as an exercise in studying the medium?

Also, I do suspect that some of those non-TV-watchers are lying to me. Trying to appear as though they are “above” it. You know the type…they only listen to obscure bands, and try to make you feel like a soccer mom if you admit you have never heard of that band that only has an EP out anyway. I am sure that those hipsters (god, I hate that term as much as I hate the uniform of tight jeans and graphic faux-80’s t-shirts they all wear) have watched American Idol, but are too worried about admitting it and losing their street cred.

Disclaimer: I do know some people that simply cannot afford to get cable, and therefore they are excluded from my rant. They at least watch TV via the web or get the DVDs through Netflix.

TV, television, Portland, cable, pop culture, Science Channel, SciFi, Cartoon Network, PBS, Frontline, Nature, Charlie Rose, Project Runway, American Idol, Netflix, Grey’s Anatomy

Ok, so when I moved in to my house, I noticed these white tuber-like things growing just below the surface of some areas of my back yard, areas under some trees. I thought, huh?, at the time, and really thought nothing else of it.

Until this summer, that is, when I was cleaning out an area of rocks that line my driveway. I found quite a few of these little whitish orbs under the earth. They were growing in colonies, it seemed, and erupting through the surface of the soil.

Here is a picture of a group growing in the back yard, by the mountain ash and birch tree. I guess the truffles really like birch trees, as well as maple, elm and doug firs.

Well, who knew, but we have truffles that grow in Oregon.

So I cut one open, and woo-ee, did it stink. Not quite like the truffles of the French variety of which I am accustomed, but I guess that the truffle may take a couple of days out of the ground before they are ready to consume. It takes that long for the flavor and aroma to develop properly. My truffles were still young at the time as well, so the stink may mellow with maturity. I guess that the color also changes with age, moving from fleshy white to orange-y brown. Some people do indeed cook with the Oregon white and black truffles, and you can find some more information about Oregon truffles at the Trufflezone by clicking here.

Some say the Oregon truffles are fine truffles, much like the famed Italian and French truffles without the famed price tag. Oregon truffles can be found at farmers’ markets around town when the truffles are in season, but it is more fun to find them yourself. However, like all fungi, be careful what you eat. Although there are no known poisonous truffles, you never really know when you are stumbling upon a relatively unknown species, so never eat something unless you know what it is. You can find help in identifying truffles from professional fungi-hunters, known as mycologists.

I have not tried the truffles I found. One, when I first started looking into the Oregon truffles it didn’t seem as though the particular variety I found was the edible variety. I am however more and more curious about trying my “yard truffles.” I am awaiting the new season, which starts around November.

Oregon truffles, Oregon, trees, fungi, fungus, white truffle, black truffle, birch, elm, maple, douglas firs, mycologists

I was trying to find out what percentage of Oregon farmland is organic, and I stumbled across the recent report from the Oregon Department of Agriculture. It’s law in Oregon to report commercial use of pesticides, and Oregon is trying a new system for reporting. More than 5,000 reporters submitted counts of almost 300,000 pesticide use.

Hmm, I wonder what the most popular pesticide is? Metam-sodium takes number one with 42 percent of all pounds used. The next two came in with nine percent and seven percent, glyphosate and copper naphthenate respectively.

Applying Metam-sodium.

Metam-sodium is a soil fumigant, which means that the chemical creates a gas that kills pests living in the soil. That’s right, a gas, like a bug bomb. The last time I checked gas doesn’t usually stay in one spot, so that leads to a fumigant being dangerous to those applying the pesticide or anyone working in that field, as well as anyone living nearby.

Checking on the toxicity of Metam-sodium, the Pesticide Action Network lists Metam-sodium as highly toxic. In fact, the PAN uses a skull to categorize Metam-sodium. The Environmental Protection Agency lists Metam-Sodium as a B2, probable cancer agent. Oh, and Metam-sodium is volatile enough to completely dissipate into the air and soil, which means no residue on your food, but that stuff is going somewhere. Metam-sodium has been in use since 1975, so I assume it is safe, right?

The weeds are fighting back!

Glyphosate is RoundUp, from our good friends at Monsanto. The patent has expired, so the glyphosate is the generic name for it. It is mostly used in forestry management. The problem is that glyphosate is non-selective (same with metam-sodium), which means that it is not selective about what it is killing. And we are using this stuff in the forest?!

This is what copper naphthenate looks like. Good thing we don't eat it, just breathe it.

Copper Naphthenate has been used since the late 1800’s as a wood preservative, in that it kills off fungi and bacteria that can destroy lumber. So again, it’s got to be safe, right? If you check out Scorecard for copper naphthenate, it is listed that four or eight basic tests have not been conducted on the chemical in order to determine safety. Also, there are gaps in coverage and data in studies on copper naphthenate. It’s moderately toxicity to humans, and very toxic to aquatic creatures, and it does contribute to indoor air pollution, as wood treated with it can release it into your home.

Just wanted to brighten everyone’s day!

Oregon, farms, organic, pesticide use, metam-sodium, glyphosate, copper naphthenate, toxicity, EPA, PAN, Scorecard, indoor air pollution, cancer agent, RoundUp, Monsanto, fumigant

I heart Mexican food. But when it comes right down to it, most Mexican restaurants disappoint me. I believe the problem lies in the years I lived in Chicago, where good, real Mexican food was fairly plentiful. So far, my forays into the Mexican restaurant scene in Portland have been a mixed bag.

I did try San Felipe Taqueria today in Sellwood (6221 SE Milwaukie), and I am happy to say the food was quite good. I am a big fan of places that have a salsa bar with the pickled jalapenos and carrots. But more than that, I tried the fish tacos, and I liked them. I haven’t had a decent fish taco since living in Southern California, so it was such a delight to have some good fish tacos today. I would have preferred the fish to not be deep-fried, but with everything else on the tortilla, the fry-ness worked. The menu said something about the recipe being Marta’s(?) recipe from I forget. San Felipe, maybe, I guess I should have taken notes.

The small storefront reveals a much larger place inside. I had noticed the San Felipe Taqueria when I first moved here. I liked the sign. It’s a really happy fish flipping a pepper in its open mouth. Inside I noticed the same image but with an upturned Corona instead of the pepper. Cute. Unfortunately, presently the SFT is awaiting its liquor license, but once in hand, the place serves beer and margheritas.

I tried the tamale verde, and usually I don’t understand the attraction to tamales, this one was really good. There is also a “red” tamale, but didn’t try it. Maybe next time.

It’s one of those order at the counter, find a table and they bring you the food kind of place. Bus your own tables, too.

Cheap prices. Lots of old spanish-language film posters, and chipper music. I will definitely return.

Portland, Chicago, Mexican, Mexican restaurants, Sellwood, San Felipe Taqueria

Oh, heavens to Murgatroyd, I have found some ants in my metaphorical pants. I refuse to use poisons around my place, as I have cats and another person to worry about. Also, I tend a small vegetable garden so the idea of spraying something out of New Jersey around my peaceful and organic Oregon garden and yard fills me with abject fear.

So, I have done a little digging and this is what I found.

Did you know that Queen Elizabeth I used borax to bleach her skin to she could be/stay so virgin-ly white? I learned that on Jeopardy years ago.

There is a good reason that no plants are growing here.

But also and more to the point today, borax can be used as an ant killer, or deterrent. However, please note that too much borax can be just as dangerous as any other pesticide, so use wisely.

Borax is the salt of boric acid, and boric acid is known as a great way to kill things like roaches. Borax and boric acid does kill plants, so this borax trick shouldn’t be used directly in the garden.

If you mix equal parts borax powder (20 Mule Team brand borax is 99.5% straight borax and thus a good choice) with sugar, you can make a clever little drink for ants that will kill them and drive them from your house. This is the basis of the Terro ant bait/killer that is available commercially.

You can also sprinkle a little borax around the door frame to be even more uninviting to ants, but obviously, if you have kids or pets, this may not be a good idea.

There are other variations on this Sugar and Borax recipe. I found some of these tweaks on the Garden Web forum here.

Obviously, if you take care, you can avoid having to go so far as to kill ants. Keeping your kitchen clean is the best way to avoid an ant problem. Also, when you do clean around your house, use white vinegar and borax. Both options are great little cleaning agents, so this is an easy way to “go green,” per se, but also, ants don’t like the acid in vinegar and the borax will kill them. So, you see how this works. Use cleaning products that ants hate and the ants won’t hang out at your house.

Ants in the actual garden? Remember borax is technically an herbicide (that’s what makes it such a kickass cleaner, kind of like bleach — also technically an herbicide). You can try my coffee ground trick. Or go with diatomaceous earth (which is just crushed up seashells) which will kill the ants by dehydrating them from the inside. Gruesome, I know. Don’t they say that most serial killers start out by killing insects or small animals?

Ants are also adverse to other smelly things like cloves, cayenne, mint, lemon or orange oil, so you can always experiment and discover your own recipe for keeping those ants at bay.

Or plant herbs like mint or tansy to further make your garden and home uninviting.

Whatever you do, don’t buy and use products like Raid or any other pesticide that clearly states that whatever is inside the bottle is extremely dangerous to your health, your child’s health, your pet’s health, your soil’s health, the water’s health, the air’s health…

Ants, Oregon, house, borax, boric acid, organic, natural, deterrent, pesticide, herbicide, sugar, diatomaceous earth, mint, cayenne, tansy, 20 Mule Team, Terro, Raid, health

Portland is slug city, I swear. Not only am I surprised by the sheer number of the slimy, gooey spotted creatures, I am constantly shocked by the size.

Here’s one I found last week. The little pea seedling in the picture is about a week old and maybe three inches high.

Slugs are not necessarily bad, but they can be damaging to your garden plants. If you have a natural setting in your yard, or if you don’t care if the slugs consume your tender green leafy vegetables, then just ignore the slugs.

Personally, I am not suffering from a huge amount of slug damage, but I do notice some ragged leaves, even on such wildflowers as Foxglove. Usually, I notice the damage as “spots” or holes in the leaves. And I also see the trail of the slugs: Translucent, web-like trails across the fence, the soil, the leaves, and even through the grass. The damn things were eating away a small group of Foxglove that I had to finally move to another spot in the garden in order to combat the slugs.

I do not believe in using poisons to get rid of pests, so I just wanted to throw that out there, for the three people reading this.

I had pretty good results from coffee grounds. I read that slugs do not jive to caffeine, so if you lay out a three-inch wide layer of coffee grounds around plants you want to protect, the coffee strip is a deterrent for those hungry slugs. This helped really well in my strawberry patch, because I put a caffeine strip around the entire patch.

You can also make slug traps. Take a small tub-like container (I used a yogurt cup, and it was a bit small for the size of my slugs), and cut some rectangular holes horizontally along the top, maybe an inch from the top. Bury the body of the container up to an inch from the holes in the dirt. Pour some beer in the container, because who doesn’t like beer? No, seriously, slugs really like beer and the smell attracts them to the death in the beery depths of your homemade slug trap.

slugs, garden, pests, Portland, foxglove, vegetables, coffee grounds, slug trap, beer

Yesterday, I wrote about spiders and the tremendous number of spiders here in Portland. After I finished that post, I ran across more information about spiders in the area, and now, I am more freaked out than ever.

**Warning: Do not read further if you get freaked out pretty easily. However, do read further if you want to learn more about a dangerous little critter that you may run across living here in Portland, Oregon.

A young female hobo spider.

The Hobo Spider is scientifically known as Tegenaria agrestis. It does have family members that look similar, and luckily one of those cousins is the Giant House Spider, which is credited with keeping Hobo spiders at bay. The Hobo got it’s name from how it spread across the US and Canada. The spider arrived from Europe in the 1930’s and made their way across the continent by hitching rides on steamer trunks and shipping crates via the railroad networks, like a “hobo.”

A distribution map of venomous spiders in the US.

In this map, the entire US is outlined with yellow and purple, which means that Yellow Sac and Black Widow spiders, respectively, are found across the country. The green area is home to the Brown Recluse. The blue area signifies the home range of other Recluses, and the red area is home to the Hobo.

The Centers for Disease Control and JAMA list the Hobo as poisonous, and though it is widely accepted that the Hobo is dangerous, there is some debate as to just how dangerous the Hobo’s bite can be. In the 80’s, a researcher found that the bite/venom produced necrotic lesions in rabbits, which backed up the ideas that similar lesions in humans could be caused by that pesky hobo. Necrotic means “dead flesh” so if this sounds similar to the much-feared Brown Recluse spider, the two spiders are pretty similar.

I did mention that there is some debate over how dangerous the Hobo bite can be. Researchers here at Lewis and Clark (as well as from University of Michigan, my alma mater) found that one) they could not replicate the same results (those necrotic lesions), and two) Hobo spiders will also inflict “dry bites” with no venom — kind of just a way to scare people and animals off without wasting precious poison. Also, over the years, no incident of necrotic lesions has been conclusively attributed to a Hobo.

The Hobo is not known to be overly aggressive toward humans, so that is a relief, sort of.

Like I mentioned earlier, the harmless but still scary looking Giant House Spider is known to prey on Hobo spiders. How ironic that a scarier and bigger spider can protect us from a smaller but more dangerous spider. Giant House spiders also came from Europe, and they are gaining ground here in the US. As there has never been a case of human fatality attributed to the Hobo spider in Europe, many scientists feel that the Giant House has always kept them in check across the pond.

Identifying the Hobo can be tricky as it looks like a lot of other spiders. First, it is a “funnel-web” spider, so if you find a bunch of funnel webs that look like silken sheets laid out horizontally in the lower bushes around your house, you could have hobo spiders, but you can also have any number of other spiders, so don’t use the web as an indicator. Here is a great article on identifying the Hobo.

Portland, Oregon, spiders, Hobo, Brown Recluse, Giant House, Black Widow, Yellow Sac, necrotic lesions, dead flesh, funnel web, Centers for Disease Control, JAMA, Lewis and Clark College, University of Michigan, venomous spiders, poisonous spiders, US

This is one of those little things that maybe would have been nice to know before moving to Portland.

There are a LOT of spiders here.

I cannot get close enough to get a good picture of the myriad spiders in my yard/house, but I found this picture as a representation of the spider that lives out my my pumpkin patch.

Hi, scary.

Now, I have come to terms with my own mild arachnophobia, so the spider population here does not bother me so much, per se. I still don’t especially like spiders, but I appreciate the little guys and girls. I mean, come on, Charlotte’s Web taught us that spiders are beneficial and great at PR work, so what’s not to love?

This spider thing was a bit off-putting when I first settled here. And it wasn’t even so much seeing the spiders everywhere, it was the constant walking through spider webs. Seriously, it drives me crazy. I hate the icky way it feels, but then you have the issue of whether or not that spider, whose home you just destroyed, is now on your person and looking for vengeance.

For those of you reading this that are starting to get the willies, it does get easier as you and your new spider friends find each other’s comfort zones. You see, I cannot kill a spider. Okay, that is a lie, I killed a small, pure white spider that came in on some hydrangeas, but only because I had never seen a pure white spider and frankly, it scared the shit out of me. I panicked. And my mom wasn’t here to save me. True story: I spent my childhood (and into my 20’s, I won’t kid myself) waking my mother up in the middle of the night to rescue me from spiders in the downstairs bathroom of our walk-out ranch style house. That’s the real downfall of the walk-out ranch. Bugs find it that much easier to enter the lower portion of the house as they have doors and windows through which to enter rather than finding some crack to sneak in through.

Portland, Oregon, spiders, arachnophobia, Charlotte’s Web

Sunday my boyfriend gave me a challenge. Find something “outside-y” to do that day. The weekend before, we had checked out the Oregon Brewfest, so I had a clue as to what he was thinking. Other than a baseball game, I knew that anything that involved BBQ and beer would be a winner.

Power of County. The best thing about Bones and Brew during the hour I was there.

Rogue Brewery hosted a benefit BBQ for the Oregon Zoo this last Saturday and Sunday. Learning from the week before, Chris and I knew better than to show up the few hours before the event closes down (less chance for good beer). I don’t think that the Bones and Brew suffers that problem, and that is a good thing. However, having a lot of beer doesn’t necessarily make up for the food.

Let me start at the very beginning, and give a shout out to the extremely nice and pleasant women that ran the gate. One was wearing the cutest elephant earrings, and boy, was she sweet. There was a suggested donation of three dollars, that’s right, $3. While we were standing in line, two women came up behind us and inquired as to whether they had to pay just to come in and eat. It’s a benefit, ladies, of course you pay the suggested donation to enter the event, even if you are just coming in to eat, and sit at a table, and enjoy the entertainment. Jeez, where do these people come from? Not only that, but it is a SUGGESTED donation, so if you are really that cheap and lame, then yes, you can go in and eat.

Some people are so dumb. But I digress…

Upon entering, I saw that “Portland’s biggest backyard BBQ” — per the Rogue Brewery press release — which equates to three blocks, and half-blocks at that, was not quite what I expected. Not that I was expecting anything at all like the big Brewfest, but I did expect more food. There were I think three BBQ tents, with an ice cream stand and a shaved ice stand. The menus I checked out included the standard BBQ fare of chicken, pork, or beef sandwiches, ribs, cheddar fries, red beans and rice (the lone vegetarian option as far as I saw). I had read in the press release that there would be seafood, asian and vegetarian options. Other than the beans and rice, I didn’t see much for our non-carnivorous cousins, so I am glad that my friend, Danielle, was not able to join us. She is super picky about what meat she does eat, and even then she is pretty reluctant about it.

The press release also mentioned a farmer’s market. I saw a few booths for dog stuff, and then a wax candle stand (which featured some Rogue candles, how cute), and then oddly, an Indian food stand, but not anything to eat on premises, rather just jars of chutney and some roti in bags. No fresh veggies or stuff that I associate with a farmers’ market, but hey, it is a loosely defined term here, like most things in Portland.

So I had a pork sandwich from the My Brother’s stand. The reason we chose that stand over the others — the fifteen or so trophies that they had on display, oddly, in the middle of the street, about ten feet in front of the stand, but off to the side a bit. At first, when I walked in, I wasn’t sure why there was a table all by itself in the middle of the street with a bunch of trophies on it. Then we noticed the trophies had pigs and cows on them, and it dawned on us that the trophies were for fantastic BBQ. Which of course meant the bigger the disappointment when I tried the pork sandwich. It wasn’t bad, per se, just average. Chris got the ribs and they were better, but still nothing to write about. Oh, wait — I just did.

One impression that I left the Bones and Brew fest with was that of how these outdoor events are especially planned for dogs. I mean, I LOVE dogs, but having a gazillion of them in a two block radius, well, I am nervous around that many leashes.

Oh, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the best part of the Bones and Brew fest, other than the proceeds going to the Zoo (by the way, I am not a huge zoo fan, any zoo, not just the Oregon Zoo, but hey, if we have to have them, let’s keep them well-funded). There were some bands that were part of the festivities. I was only there for about an hour, actually, not even that long, and the band playing was Power of County. Funny thing is that I had spied a long-haired rocker type wearing a black leather vest the week before at the Brewfest. It had white letters on the back of the vest that said Power of County. Of course, the editor in me wondered if that were a typo, which would have been genius. And whoa, here was the same long-hair playing on the stage.

I didn’t want to like Power of County, but I have to say, they are pretty good. Kind of that seventies southern rock thing going on. I wanted to go up to them afterward and buy a CD, but I was feeling a little shy. Next time, gentleman.

All in all, I don’t see a reason to return next year. I did speak to a very nice guy sitting at the same table (oh, yeah, not enough tables, or maybe they should go with long tables rather than circles), and he said that in years past, the BBQ was more of a contest, so it was fun to try them all and vote for the winner. Also, he mentioned that the beer had been served as “tasters” before, but now, it’s all these lame maybe ten ounce paper cups for $4. I have to agree that the BBQ contest sounds like a fun idea, and a way to create a “theme” to the festival.

Oh, yeah, is it weird to anyone but me that a zoo benefit would focus on eating animal flesh? Is it to make us more like animals or does the Zoo discriminate against domesticated animals? Let them eat bones.

Portland, Rogue Brewery, Oregon zoo, BBQ, benefit, Oregon Brewfest, Power of County