Fall 2015
For a region as relatively small as the Gorge, we’re enviably resource rich. Whenever something rises in the collective conscience, we always seem to have the means to become a player. Outdoor recreation of every sort? Yep. Wine? Check. Craft beer? Uh-huh. Farm to table cuisine? Super. The latest trend sweeping the (beverage) world is hard cider, and it turns out we’ve got that, too. In fact, with all the fruit trees in our own back yard, we’ve so got that.
Hard cider, which took a few hundred year-hiatus after its last heyday as the preferred beverage of our colonial forebears, is back. Big time. According to the Washington, D.C.-based Beer Institute, production of hard cider in the U.S. more than tripled in three years, rising from 9.4 million gallons in 2011 to 32 million gallons in 2013. And the apple-centric Northwest has become the de facto Cider Central. So here we are once again, poised to be a little guy playing in the big game. It’s not a new phenomenon for us, but it’s exciting just the same. Writer Don Campbell explores all things cider, including a few of the cideries that have sprung up in the Gorge of late (page 46). This is surely a story that will continue to be written.
This brings me to a paradox that plays out in the pages of this issue. In our seeming land of plenty, there are some—probably more than we think we know—who don’t have enough. We take a look at two Gorge endeavors—the FISH food bank and its new Hood River facility (page 56), and a program called “Veggie Rx” spearheaded by the Gorge Grown Food Network (page 72)—that are aiming to reduce “food insecurity” in our communities. The programs are not only trying to alleviate hunger for those most in need, they’re trying to do it with healthy food choices—including helping to fulfill food needs by providing garden fresh produce and food from local farmers’ markets. Seems like a win-win.
This issue brings some style changes to the magazine. We thought it was time for a little freshening. There are still the same wide variety of stories you’ve come to expect inside these pages, with just a little different look. We think you’ll like it.
May autumn bring all the bounties of the harvest season to you. And maybe a little rain to our beautiful, though parched, Gorge. (But not before the wine grapes are off the vines, please.) Cheers!
—Janet Cook, editor
