Tough Stuff

It's actually pretty easy to find local seasonal produce, beef, pork, poultry, and eggs. Cheese and milk, in this area, are harder.

The kind of wheat that you need for bread (hard winter wheat, either red or white) grows beautifully in the colder and dryer climates east of the Cascades. It's apparently not successful on a large scale west of the Cascades. Soft wheat (the kind used in pastry flour, pancakes, biscuits, pie crusts) can be grown here, and I'm going to try it myself this summer.

So wheat flour for bread is regional (WA/OR) rather than local.

Olive oil: As far as I know, the closest source is California. I'm looking for a regional or local source for grapeseed oil, which shares olive oil's reputation as a "good" oil. I have found a couple of farms that make it, but haven't found out yet how to buy it without a long drive or paying a lot for shipping. Other oils, such as corn, safflower, sunflower, walnut, and hazelnut should be possible, but I haven't found them yet.

Dry beans: Who'da thunk it? This standby staple, this old dependable, old reliable protein source has suddenly become problematic. I'll give you details of my search for organic (local if possible) cannelloni beans another time. I'm still hunting. For that matter, try finding ANY cannelloni beans that aren't already in a soup can. Neither Fred Meyer nor Safeway have them on their rather limited shelves of beans.

Rice: It should be possible, but I don't think anyone is doing it. Wild rice, on the other hand, is not only grown in Oregon, but within 100 miles of us. So far, I'm stocked up on organic rice from Lundberg farms, in California . . . will I buy more when I run out?

Pasta (the problem is the same as wheat, with manufacturing added in).

Oatmeal and . . . in fact, almost any product made from almost any grain, bean or legume.