PNW Cuisine (Myrtle Creek: allergies, live, to eat)

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by Dogmama50

I miss many things about Oregon, but blackberries are very high on my list. I developed a major "problem" while living in Hood River and had gallons of them in the freezer to get me through the winter. One of my dogs would even pick the ripe ones off the low branches, the other dog simply expected you to pick them for her.

One of my dogs was crazy for salmonberries...used to toss them to her and she'd always catch them.

[Hawk J]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

This vileness is exactly why the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute developed a program to work directly with restaurants and their chefs; hopefully it's had an impact.

Vogets Meat...used to drive out there to get bacon when I lived in Salem (and when I still ate bacon).

Bacon is good crawdad bait...

[TravelingSilvers]

Wow it sounds great up there. I'd love to be able to hunt/fish/gather my own food.
I'm not a hunter, but wouldn't mind trying if it's to feed my family (and a few neighbors).
I would fish and gather our own food though, that just sounds like a nice way to spend an evening or whole day. Anything to be outdoors up there. I also love blackberries (well almost any berry really).
We used to catch small crawfish here in a dirty stream just for fun, so that would be incredible to catch beautiful ones you could eat.

[hamellr]

Hunting is not that easy these days. You have to put in for a tag, then hopefully you'll get one through the lottery. It's not like it was 15 years ago when it was first come first served. Duck, geese, turkey and boar tags are still pretty easy to get.

A lot of the venison you see around these days is actually farmed, and your price per a pound is pretty obscene.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by hamellr

Hunting is not that easy these days. You have to put in for a tag, then hopefully you'll get one through the lottery. It's not like it was 15 years ago when it was first come first served. Duck, geese, turkey and boar tags are still pretty easy to get.

A lot of the venison you see around these days is actually farmed, and your price per a pound is pretty obscene.

No boar in Oregon, though bear and cougar tags are $10 each. You just have to buy your deer tags before the season opener. Elk tags are allocated by drawing, but if you don't get one three years running you are guaranteed a tag in the 4th year.

There are also no venison farms in Oregon. Game farms spread disease among the wild population, so game farms are illegal. Even non-native species like red deer are strictly regulated. There are no fenced hunt operations in Oregon, though some large ranches along the Columbia release several thousand pheasants a year and charge to hunt there.

Geese are immensely destructive, and farmers will gladly give you permission to hunt. Six million geese winter in the Willamette Valley, but one species is threatened, so you have to go through a species identification course and check out at ODFW checkpoints. If anybody shoots three Duskies, that's it, season closed. Otherwise, the Western Oregon goose season runs from November through March. Last fall some out of state transplants got really upset when hunters set up on the Bayou Golf Course.

News-Register.com

Story notwithstanding, it is not legal to hunt geese with a rifle. The people apparently mistook shotguns for rifles. It's really a cautionary tale for people moving into the country: you have to expect others to do country things.

[TravelingSilvers]

That's fine. I'd start of with some duck, geese, turkey first if anything. I'd probably be out gathering berries and nuts alot though and maybe get a book and find alot of information on mushrooms and try hunting some while trying my luck at catching crawdads and clams.

That just sounds like a great time.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by TravelingSilvers

That's fine. I'd start of with some duck, geese, turkey first if anything. I'd probably be out gathering berries and nuts alot though and maybe get a book and find alot of information on mushrooms and try hunting some while trying my luck at catching crawdads and clams.

That just sounds like a great time.

Western Oregon culinary mushrooms include Chanterelles (above 3000 feet starting in August), shiitake, matsutake, boletus edulis (under shore pine), morels (early spring in forest fire areas), agaricus campestris (meadow mushrooms, sometimes abundant in the fall and spring) and a host of lesser but often delicous species. There are some deadly mushrooms, so stick to the ones you know you can identify for sure.

Crawdads are abundant and will flock to any bait. They love road kill. You can pick up a cheap wire crawdad trap at any outdoor store, or just pick them by hand. On family camping trips, it is up to the kids to catch crawdads for dinner. Great fun.

You can use a rake or hoe at minus tide to harvest cockles and butter clams on the mud flats. Netarts Bay is a federal estuary that doesn't even require a fishing license. Razor clams require some fast shovel work, or skill with a clam gun. They can dig almost as fast as you can.

[hamellr]

There are boar in Oregon, although there are no official tags for them. (My mistake above,) As long as you have permission from the land owner, it's legal to take them.

Wildlife Division - Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

I do not know about the legality of Venison farms, but there are several in Oregon:

Venison (http://www.kookoolanfarms.com/venison.html - broken link)
portland imc - 2010.10.19 - A.L.F. Raids Oregon Deer Farm
Oregon Deer Farms
Rosse Posse Acres, Inc. -- Elk Ranch

[Smiled]

"Hunting is not that easy these days. You have to put in for a tag, then hopefully you'll get one through the lottery. It's not like it was 15 years ago when it was first come first served. Duck, geese, turkey and boar tags are still pretty easy to get."

On the other hand, the number of fishing licences is declining.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Chanterelles, Steelhead, Shad, Razor Clams, Salmon, Tuna!, Deer, Elk, Blackberries, Apples, Cherries, Cowlitiz Smelt, Strawberries, Huckleberries, Dungeness Crab, Halibut, Cascade Kush, Hazelnuts, Sturgeon, Tillamook Cheese, Umpqua Vanilla Ice Cream, Trout, Fried Spotted Owl, and snacking on Roll Mop Herring and crackers while waiting with baited breath for that keeper gator to bite all mean Oregon to this 55+ Portland native.

Oh Yeah, I almost forgot..............................THE BEER.