Craig and I toured a couple of wineries with chef Jenn Louis in preparation for The NW Farm Collaborative  that Jenn and her husband, David Welch, will be hosting at Lincoln Restaurant. Jenn and David are co-owners of Lincoln Restaurant, Sunshine Tavern and Culinary Artistry. We were visiting two wineries both of which will be pouring wine at the dinner.  The first was Elk Cove Vineyards where Adam Campbell, the winemaker, took us on a tour of the vineyards. The second winery was Lemelson Vineyards where winemaker Anthony King took us through the cellar and treated us to a short barrel tasting. Jenn and I are set to visit the rabbit farm where she will be sourcing the rabbit for the dinner. Look for some photos of the rabbit farm next week.  The dinner is on Sunday August 7th, contact Lincoln Restaurant to reserve your seats. More shots from our day are in the Farm Collaborative gallery.

Growing Gardens kicked off its summer fundraising dinner series, Chef in My Garden, last week with a wonderful dinner in the West Hills.  Cathy Whims of Nostrana prepared a fantastic dinner, highlighted for me by a wonderful fried squash blossom to start and a amazing boccone dolce to finish the meal.  An excellent flight of wines was provided by Christom Vineyards.  This summer’s dinners are sold out so reserve your tickets for next year early.

Spent a fabluous afternoon doing some shots of the Sportin’ Lifers, a jump blues band from Portland, OR. If you want to check them out you can find show dates on their website.

The first NW Farm Collborative Dinner was hosted at Ciao Vito earlier this month. Craig Hedstrom from Elk Cove vineyards has been organizing these dinners and he asked me to help him document the source of the food and wine for a slideshow to be shown at the dinners while the farmers, winemakers and chef talk about their part in the dinner. Craig, Vito and myself had a excellent day touring the valley to meet all of the people who would be involved with the dinner. Vito and his staff prepared an fantastic dinner with the pork from Worden Hills Farm.  The Elk Cove and Adelsheim wines were paired perfectly with the meal.  Thanks to all those involved for a wonderful time.  Check out some of the shots from our trip to the valley in the Farm Collaborative gallery. Check back to find the dates for future NW Farm Collaborative dinners.

Spent an excellent day at the beach with Michael and Greg from semi-automatic. The day was beautiful, sunny and warm. The highlight was nice sandwiches on the beach for lunch.