Where Does Food Come From? Dill Pickle Club's Latest Urban Field Trip Ventures to Find Out

The answer to the titled query is probably quite easily answered by your friends and neighbors. New Seasons. Portland Farmers Market. My front yard. While Portlanders seem more concerned with what they put on their dinner tables and quite aware of where that food is from more than people in any other place I've lived, the prompt made for a fun urban bike quest with the Dill Pickle Club.

The weather thankfully and beautifully cooperated on Friday, October 16, for the Dill Pickle Club's bike tour of some key Portland food suppliers. Threats of showers didn't thwart the 35+ riders who set off at 9 a.m. from Old Town Chinatown towards Milwaukie and Bob's Red Mill and Nature Bake (home of Dave's Killer Bread) for factory tours and, of course, lunch.

Bob's Red Mill

Powered by caffeine and homemade cookies, we ambled across town, through traffic and over bridges, through some great hoods and onto the southeastern bike path that skirts Johnson Creek. Our slow but steady pace brought us to Bob's Red Mill factory first. A fast and fun tour of a few main rooms with a very peppy guide, Christine, and Trey, the finance guy, taught us quite a few things about Bob's Red Mill and its particular line of food production.

Bob's has been in business for well over 30 years, with three different factory locations; the company has been installed at the one we toured for two years and spans 7.5 acres. Of the 210 employees, 18% don't drive to work, and there's a nice incentive for them ($5 to not drive two days a week). Needless to say, the Bob's crew was thrilled to see our troops arrive on bikes. Bob's specializes in stone milling using over 100-year-old mills. They produce over 400 products, and count gluten free and organics as part of their popular line-ups. The largest sellers are: flax seed, hot cereals, flours, pancake mixes. On the day of our tour, employees were still buzzing from the recent title of 2009 Golden Spurtle Champion which, if you don't realize, means that Bob's has the best steel cut oats in the entire universe—even by British Isles standards. That's apparently a big deal in the world of grains.

So, where do Bob's ingredients come from? "We get products primarily from Oregon and Washington, whenever we can," Trey tells our group. "Wheat comes from the Dakotas and Kansas." Beans, from the Moses Lake area. Flax, Canada. "And quinoa can only be grown in the Andes. They've tried to grow it in Colorado, unsuccessfully." About 20% of Bob's ingredients are organic (in mixes, for flours, soups). "Organics are A LOT more expensive for manufacturers," and consumers feel this at the marketplace.

Christine happily chimed in that the outcome of a recent inspection deemed Bob's to be the cleanest food manufacturing facility on the west coast. I have to admit that it felt quite sterile—faintly reminiscent of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory candy production scenes with white-lab coat clad Oompa Loompas packaging treats. As soon as this thought came to me, the sound of piano keys plunked through Christine's presentation on the history of Bob's. Alas, no Oompa Loompas in sight—but it was Bob, the Bob, our cheery host who, in his 80s, is still busy as ever. He addressed our group with song and smiles, and told us about his weekend plans to drive his old Model T for some such benefit event. His business story is interesting (and, can be found online, but you could just head out there and take the tour to learn more; it's way more fun with Christine at the helm), but the key point that was highlighted for us was this: "Bob's is committed to product accountability from the farmers' fields to the grocery store shelf." Content with this pledge, we eagerly grabbed samples of muesli and award-winning oats wrapped in three-ply wood cellulose packages, jumped on our wheels, and headed off in search of killer bread.

Dave's Killer Bread

If you don't know the gossip column story about Dave, I suggest you watch the video and read his tales of woe that are posted on his web site. The neat thing about this venture that I didn't know is that it's a true family business rooted in nutrition and honest commerce. Nature Bake is the current version of the neighborhood bakery that Dave's parents—Jim and Wanene Dahl—founded in the mid 1950s, called Midway Bakery, located near SE 123nd and Division. Jim was raised as a Seventh Day Adventist, and always had a commitment to healthy eating, so the bakery items reflected his keen interest in nutrition. Pretty neat—and probably weird—back in the 50s. Glenn Dahl, Dave's brother who bought the biz from his folks in 1988 and has worked there since he was nine years old, tells us that the health food stores in Portland in the 1960s approached the company for delivery options, and this "saved us." There were plenty of other rough periods in the bakery's history, and, because Jim was "too stubborn to quit", the bakery moved a few times, to a few blocks south of 63rd and Halsey where "that entire bakery could fit in this warehouse." Apparently, not all processes could happen simultaneously so equipment was constantly being shifted around like "the greasy squares game," chuckled Glenn.

The business grew roughly 8 to 12% a year, which Glenn calls "small, manageable growth." Then there was an explosion with double that growth during some years. "It's exciting, terrifying, whatever you want to call it. It's fun." The reason for that explosion, that growth, Glenn tells us, is "not the hype." In fact, they all try to downplay the story behind Dave's Killer Bread, and focus on the business that has now employed three generations of Dahls. (Both Glenn and Dave have kids who work there.) "It's honesty. We won't say it if it isn't true, and we're not in your face, like it or not."

Our motley crew stands in this warehouse, surrounded by product, wearing our chic hairnets, and hamming it up with the brothers. Glenn and Dave divide our group and take us on a tour through storage and production rooms. All the cardboard, plastic, and paper packaging are recycled, and a "vast majority of all waste ends up as agricultural charity...very little goes to the waste stream," Glenn tells us. Many of the food materials are organic, and some come from Bob's Red Mill up the street, where another Dahl brother works. We see the labels on packages from Bob's that fill the shelves. (Apparently smart packaging choices have hit Milwaukie food suppliers. Check out: http://www.daveskillerbread.com/newbags.shtml for info on oxo-biodegradable bread bags.)

It was quite interesting to see an industrial bakery at work—we were able to view the entire process from stock to sprouting to mixing to baking to packaging in a matter of minutes. Where will the business be in five years? we ask Glenn as we munch down fresh slices of Good Seed, my fave bread of the product line. "We'd like to be 1.5 times bigger next year than we are today, and three to five times bigger in five years." They currently crank out 2400 to 2500 loaves an hour, and apparently could do 3000 to 3400, "but there's no reason to go that hard." The brothers have had plenty of offers to buy the business but aren't interested. "We are excited to be here. My son is excited to be here. We're not going anywhere."

Fun fact: one girl in our gang tells the bread brothers that her mom sent her Peace Bombs while she was deployed in Iraq, and that she shared these offerings with the locals. The brothers love this story. We do, too. While I'm not sure how much we learned about where the Good Seed ingredients actually come from, we learned who makes it, how, and why. It's a labor love, honoring family and honesty. Right on. We stroll across the street to Bob's Red Mill Whole Grain Store and Restaurant for lunch.

Community Gardens

After the sun appears for what will become a lovely storm free afternoon, and, quite a few hills later, we cruised to the Brentwood Community Gardens in SE Portland, one of 33 gardens in the Portland Parks and Recreation program that has become wildly popular in the past four years. Portlanders are interested in ‘grow your own' edibles, as the six-year waiting list for a plot at Colonel Summers Community Gardens attests. "Four years ago, there was no waiting list, and people thought that what I did was strange," states John, our garden tour guide and one of the two program employees. There are volunteer managers at each of the 33 sites to help maintain common areas and pay attention to what community members are growing (or, not, since securing space is so popular).

One to four new community garden spaces open up each year in existing parks, schools and churches, with the next one appearing at Madison High School in a few months. Not all the gardens offer spacious 20x20 plots—on average, gardens have 18 or 19 plots with some raised beds. (Brentwood's got 78 plots, five beds, and communal rare fruit trees like kiwi). In 1975, the largest gardens were formed—St. John's, Fulton (100 plots!) and Seawallcrest among them. Because of the long waiting list (1300 strong, to date), and not much turnover, there's been talk of a potential lottery system, five-year leases, and membership. "People obviously want usable garden space." It's a clear case of garden fever.

The Community Gardens program offers all sorts of free classes like pruning and composting sessions, and the entire program donated 10,000lbs of produce last year to local emergency food agencies. Brentwood Gardens is closing down for the season, with compost piles heaped high, the last tomatoes and berries hanging on, and fall fruit emerging. It's a peaceful spot in the middle of an interesting SE residential hood (one that also boasts an apostolic church campground and Nancy's Eat n Browse).

Widmer Brothers Brewery

Now that we're well rested, we're ready to trudge off across town to Widmer Brothers Brewery, our last happy stop of the day. There our group takes a video tour of the brewery. Widmer Brewery is a Portland institution, and a helluva fun place to hang out. After years of hobby brewing, the Brothers Widmer finally quit their real jobs to bring European style brewing methods to Portland in 1984, which helped launch the craft brewing movement. Their brews use fresh ingredients, and have become popular around the world. If you can't get to the brewery for a real tour, their virtual tour is kinda fun. 

After our tour, and with brew in hand, Steve Cohen from the City of Portland's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability addresses some critical food policy issues that are reaching the public with volition. Steve also staffs and creates programming for the Multnomah County Food Policy Council, a citizen-advocacy group that advises the City of Portland and Multnomah County on issues about "food access, land use planning issues, local food purchasing plans and many other policy initiatives in the current regional food system." What's clear is that Portland wants to become a leader in food and health issues, and the Food Policy Council has been spearheading that effort since it formed in 2002. The group engages in planning and programming that: support a stable agricultural land base; reduce barriers that people have to getting good food and provide information on how to grow their own, use CSAs, and attend farmers markets. "It's an exciting time for food," notes Steve. Four years ago, when he started with his role in the City, "food systems issues didn't seem to exist. Now we want to help people have informed thinking about their choices as consumers." The City will be revamping its web site in the spring, and will also start up its next series of classes—with everything from beekeeping to chicken raising to cheese making—in February 2010. It will also be very involved with the Portland Comprehensive Plan and how health and food play out in that plan over the next few years.

After having seen two factories, a major community gardening effort, and a large-scale brewery at work, we are filled with big ideas (and bread, beer). What a great way to learn about food production, a few cool local companies, and some key community programs. We learned the difference between gluten free and conventional factories. We were bombarded with interesting information on grains and millstones. We overcame flat tires with tools from our fearless leader, Marc Moscato. We now know what we are allowed to grow in our 10x10 community garden spaces, if we can get ‘em. We discovered that Widmer Hefeweizen rules the wheat beer world (we actually already knew this). We learned that sustainable food systems and policy is critical to urban development. We enjoyed Lucy's homemade cookies. Can't wait for the next ride.

View the slideshow for more images of The Dill Pickle Club's Local Food Ride or visit our Flickr gallery: