Climate change affects us all. It is destroying our farming and now our food industry. However there are those dedicated farmers and chefs who look this global issue in the face. They are fierce ., They will not back down despite droughts, floods and wildfires.it's never more evident in the Oregon town Ashland in the heart of the Rogue Valley.
Regular contributor Brett Anderson wrote this informnative piece for today's New York Times food section. Ashland Oregon is the home of the Oregon Shakespeare festival whose plays are the area's main draw. Yet' it is a produce rich area where there are good restaurants and wines. It's becoming a destination place to visit. and producing wines rivalling the famed Willmette Valley to its' north. All this in the face of the lingering effects of the infamous Almeda fire. It started in Ashland but spread and demolished the neighboring towns of Talent and Phoenix. Most towns and their residents would have shut down, Not Ashland. rogue Food Unite was created to help local chefs and restaurants , many shuttered by the pandemic to provide food to resdieitns now living in temporary housing. The organization's director Amber ferguson said that "It came together - a beautiful dream of lets find money, pay the restaurants buy from farms , feed the people.It's a resiliance program and feeding program all at once." She was not going to give up on t he town that welocmed her from Portland where she managed the restaurants Beast and Toro Bravo.
Many of her fellow Ashland residents feel the same way. Like her, they'rre transplants to this usually lush and fertile valley. Kelsey Jacques left her native Michigan to start Orange Marmalade farms last year. She's optimistic about moving beyond her quarter acre of farm and expanding . It will be hard because lingering smoke deters any plant cultivation and crops from flourishing. Stillshe manages to supply such local restaurants with her Siskiyou orange tomatoes, and sweet Walla Walla onions. Another transplant who is thriving despite the fire's after effects is baker Carla Guinmaries who moved from Santa Barbara California in 2020. She moved to Ashland during the worst time, in the middle of the pandemic and and just before the fires. She opened up Vida Baking Company , highlighting her specialty gluten free pao de quiejo, a popular cheese bread from her native Brazil.It was hard to maintain customers. People just vanished from the streets, she noticed. Yet there is a new era of vitality. Even former restauranteur Charlene Rollins rebuilt on what was left of her family restaurnat Sammy.'Her husband is buried near there,a fig tree on hsi grave.It symbolizes life.
Every town will be affected by climate change. They can learn from ashland to not bend, They have to face climate change head on, work with it and challenge it.
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