Discover Southwest Portland

Your at-home cocktails gardens are resting prettily in the windowsill. There are no major holidays for which to prepare grog. And, your infusions are happily marinating on the shelves. So, what’s the next step in your home mixology program? Let’s try homemade bitters. With your new bitters brewed, you’ll be able to round out some of your homemade cocktails, make some much-loved, classic cocktails, more...

Let’s imagine that it’s already Halloween, you have your patio lights up and a few carved gourds on the porch, and the important question lingering in the fall air is: what on earth are you going to be serving to your thirsty, be-costumed guests? Grog, fellow drinkers. Go with grog. Because there is no better complement to a night dripping with zombie anythings and sexy everythings than a drink whose more...

We know you haven’t had enough of old-school drinks and cocktails yet, so here’s the next in line we’d suggest for your go-to winter list: sherry. That’s right. Sherry. There’s a dry, complex quality to this Spanish wine that makes a lovely pair with the crisp (erm, soggy) autumn breeze starting to blow around Portland. It’s a great drink to offer guests arriving at your dinner more...

When Kristl Bridge opened Portland Homestead Supply Co. in Sellwood in June, a visitor asked her why anyone would take tasks such as canning, pickling, and soap-making into their own hands when it’s often easier to pay someone else to do the work. “It was our first day open, so my first response to it ... was to sort of panic,” Bridge recalls. “I thought, ‘Wow maybe nobody will [do more...

Four weeks of summer in and it’s nearly autumn again, at least according to the calendar. In other words, this is the perfect time to start infusing everything from olive oil to brandy! Because in four weeks when you are cold again, and have spent all of your money on patio beers in the sunshine, life will be better when you look around and see all kinds of home infusions that have turned your little counter more...

When the New York Times published a story in November 2008 about a renewed national interest in root cellars, the featured root cellarist was someone from Portland. It stands to reason. Here in grow-your-own, do-it-yourself central, we Portlanders would naturally be on top of a revived, time-honored trend that relates to homegrown food. Okay, so almost three years later, it’s exposé time. Harriet more...

It used to be that a collection of seeds was a vital possession, and that protecting seeds from one’s own garden meant protecting a family’s food source and livelihood. “Seeds were smuggled from Russia, from places in Europe,” says Corina Reynolds, a Portland-based permaculturist who grew up with victory-gardening grandparents. “People would sew them into their skirts or their suitcase more...

If you want a definition of optimism, find someone in Portland who’s installing solar panels—especially with the summer we’ve been having. Oh, and it doesn’t help when experts say that Portland gets the same amount of sunshine as an average American city. We live here. We’ve earned the right to question that. Still the promise of solar energy is intriguing. Who doesn’t dream of more...

To have a windowsill cocktail garden of one’s own is a beautiful, summery thing. Sure, the fresh herbs (and fruit) catapult your average homemade libation into craft cocktail territory. But more importantly, the delicious factor—how fresh everything will taste—is getting turned up to 11. Then there’s the added appeal of bragging rights when you entertain and the certain satisfaction of simply more...

With farm-fresh produce overflowing baskets at the farmers’ market and berries ripening on the vine in backyards, it’s hard to imagine Portland without locally grown green (or red, or purple) goodness. However, while the wealth of summer’s bounty is upon us, the wise will find ways to prolong having locally grown vegetables and fruits grace our tables. Freezing, drying and canning are all great more...