Oregon Farms

We recently had the opportunity to travel to Portland, Oregon and its surrounding area. While we were there, we learned a lot about how Oregonians embrace growing there own food, sustainable farming, and farm to table restaurants. We also got to meet Jay from Laughing Worms Farm and she gave us a tour of her farm.

While driving outside of Portland, we saw field after field of red clover surrounded by fields of green. It was beautiful. Later, we found out it is Crimson Clover that blooms in May. It is a a cover crop that farmers plant to replenish the amount of nitrogen in their soil in order to prevent having to add extra fertilizers during the growing season. The state even has a Oregon Clover Commission to help farmers keep their soils healthy.

Another thing we saw while driving around Oregon was that there were greenhouses everywhere. They were located on large farms, small farms, and in many backyards. The growing season in Oregon is shorter than the growing season in St. Louis and therefore greenhouses help extend the growing season.


We also had the opportunity to eat at two restaurants that serve high quality food made from local and organic produce. We ate at Paley's Place in Portland, OR and Recipe in Newberg, OR.  Our meals were absolutely delicious and we give both restaurants our highest recommendations. Our server at Recipe turned out to be a farmer named Jay who owns Laughing Worms Farm. She invited us to come to her farm in the morning and we took her up on that offer.

Her farm is located in front of Roco Winery in the Willemette Wine Country. Jay and her partner have a small CSA, grow vegetables for restaurants, have chickens and ducks, and have a contract to grow organic roses that will be turned into rose brandy. We noticed a lot similarities between Laughing Worms and Leafy Greens and loved our time spent talking about farming.