Scene from a blooming Willamette Valley
Local fruit, veggie & poultry sales
|SATURDAY, JUNE 20: First Springfield Saturday Market, 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. at Along Came Trudy Events & Cafe, 1488 18th St. Springfield. Hosted every Saturday through Aug. 22. More info: 541-206-4608
|SUNDAY, JUNE 21: Creswell Community Market. 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. in the Tractor Supply parking lot at 190 Emerald Parkway. Every Sunday through October.
|THURSDAY, JUNE 25: South Valley Farmers Market, 4-7 p.m. in downtown Cottage Grove.
|SATURDAY, JUNE 27: Poultry and agriculture sale, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Variety of live poultry and livestock, along with other farm goods, hatching eggs, and artisan crockery. Located at Madsen Tree Farm, 28107 Clear Lake Road, Eugene. Tickets: lane-county-chicken-lovers.ticketleap.com
Bite-sized advice: Edible wildflowers
It took us awhile to find the best place to settle down after we moved from southern Oregon to Creswell. We finally found our “forever home” in 2012, moved in in May and dived into many projects including gardening to beautify our place. We had this box of wildflower seeds in our possession for a while and it was time to find out what would appear. We weren’t even sure what the seed mix contained, and isn’t part of moving to a new home the surprises in the garden those first seasons?
I cleared a bed that had “decorative rocks” bordering the front of our small yard. I then wildly scattered the seeds, and a few short weeks later we were inundated with beauty.
There were evening primrose, comfrey, daisies, borage and of course, everyone’s favorite (drum roll please) … dandelions. All of these flowers attract important pollinators — bees, and butterflies, and many are even edible.
Dandelion leaves are a wonderful addition to salads, especially the sweet-tasting spring leaves. While I haven’t tried it, I’ve heard great reports about dandelion flower wine … but I prefer mine in fritters. One of the best parts of this wild flower is the price.
Quick Oregon ag stats
Winter wheat production in the Northwest Region up 1% from May. Oregon winter wheat production is expected to total 42.3 million bushels, down 15 percent from last year. Area harvested is expected to total 730,000 acres, unchanged from the previous year. Yield is forecast at 58.0 bushels per acre, down 4.0 bushels from the May 1 forecast and down 10.0 bushels from last year.
United States sweet cherry total production for 2020 is forecast at 334,000 tons, down 6 percent from 2019. In Oregon, severe cold snaps in February and mid-March had varying impacts across the region. The later blooming varieties were well behind the rest of the crop, leading to lower expected yields. Info: NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS SERVICE
