Port Orford, OR

The misadventures of Nana Jan,

Nana Jan was inspired by her cooking muse and was carefully crafting a gourmet burger from some locally grown organic beef. She added garlic, basil, and goat cheese to the beef and methodically worked the ingredients until they were evenly blended. She carefully pressed these gourmet fixings into 3 thick patties while she seasoned the foreman grill with olive oil spray and sliced sweet onions. Nana removed the onions when they were golden brown and then placed the burgers evenly across the foreman grill. As the burgers cooked Nana sliced 2 vine ripened tomatoes and moved the aromatic brown rice to a cool burner for finishing. As the rice perfected its nutty flavor Nana lovingly flipped the burgers to ensure that they were evenly cooked.

Nana called to Papa: “Dinner is ready.” Papa knew from the excitement in her voice and the aroma’s coming from the kitchen that she had made something good for dinner. Nana opened the foreman grill just as Papa walked into the kitchen. Papa noticed that 1 of the burgers was stuck to the top of the foreman an exclaimed: “I’ve never seen a burger cooked on the top of a grill.” In the moments that followed our emotions went from lip smacking anticipation to “OH NO-O-o-o!” Nana, distracted by Papa and distressed by her perceived risk to the burger used the spatula in her hand to pry the burger from the top of the grill. Before Papa could warn her, the burger fell from the top of the grill, bounced off the counter top, and fell into the sink full of soapy water where a pan was soaking.

Nana’s reactions were as fast as Bruce Lee’s as she snatched the burger from the soapy water but her lightening fast reflexes were not fast enough. The richly flavored juices from the beef, the garlic, and the goat cheese were lost in the soapy waters. Our eyes were wide with amazement and then cast down in despair as we acknowledged the sinking appeal of the gourmet burger. Fortunately, there were 2 burgers left to enjoy.

These occurences are not uncommon in our home. The stories of the misadventures of Nana Jan are told often at family gatherings.

We had a spectacularly weatherful day here in Port Orford. Mother Nature appeared to be conflicted by Winter and Spring atmospherics. Consequently, we received intermittent rain, hail, and blue skies with beautiful long arching rainbows, loud surf, and greening pastures.

The air was clean and enlivening, the baby lambs would run and play chase then rest beside their mothers and baby calves would stray then go chasing after their mothers trying to stay close as they grazed on the newly grown grasses.

It was a joyful day that my wife and I shared with each other. Then later, during the early evening, we celebrated with friends, while dining on locally grown food, and afterwards, in conversations filled with laughter at their home atop one of our coastal hills overlooking a green valley and a meandering creek that carried your eyes to the ocean and beyond.

Remember to make time to celebrate these moments with family and friends.

Every winter these adorable critters come around scavaging for food in our neighborhood in the coastal forest. This photo was taken only moments after these two masked bandits made a raid on our cats' Whiskas bowl. I don't know who was more startled, these hungry adolescent critters or my wife who went out to take the bowl inside. We don't make a practice of feeding them and we don't encourage others to feed them but we do enjoy their visits. Racoons are playful and rolly-polly. We love to watch them play and listen to their churring sounds. If you haven't heard their growls - it is amazing. My wife and I heard a mama growling at her kits. It almost sounds like a mountain lion.

According to Linda Tarr, when the rare opportunity to apply for a full-power FM radio construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission arose, North Curry Families' and Children's Center agreed to be the 501C3 organization to respond. This was the beginning of North Curry Community Radio.

While working through the FCC's permitting process, North Curry Community Radio partnered with the Rural Design Collective, a remote mentoring program with a local focus, designed to help motivated, creative people begin a career on the Internet. This partnership resulted in the website www.nccradio.org.

By visiting their website, one can get a clear sense of what community radio in North Curry County will be about, including sound pieces produced by local people, available through streaming audio. The latest sound piece is by Ann Vileisis, a local author, whose book, "Kitchen Literacy: how we lost knowledge of where food comes from and why we need to get it back," encourages a shopper to support local farmers and sustainable agriculture. The subject of this piece is the Valley Flora Family Farm operated by Betsy Harrison and Abby and Zoë Bradbury, a mom and two sisters, who grow delicious organic fruits and vegetables. The sisters talk about their work, their inspirations, and their motivations to grow great food.

This is an example of the kind of media that North Curry Community radio hopes to bring to our communities on a regular basis, but quality content requires time and money. To that end, we are applying for funding to provide equipment, training, and payment for local people who wish to become radio producers. In applying for grants, North Curry Families' and Children's Center is the organization which provides administrative support through their director, Ollie Jones. And, in the event that the grants are awarded, NCFCC will be the fiscal agent which administers those funds.

Check out their site, www.nccradio.org, you can learn more about North Curry County and find ways to get involved and contribute to this exciting project.

‘Kitchen Witches,’ written by Caroline Smith, is a comedy in which two culinary divas unfold the story of their 30 year rivalry over the man they both loved while preparing recipes that are seasoned with insults, mixed with laughs and served with a twist of love. Kitchen Witches creates some hilarious situations and memorable moments between two women who used to be friends and now have to share a cable network cooking show that could rival the TV shows of Jerry Springer and Maury Povich. Their thespian cookery is made to order for a night of unforgettable comedic theatre performed by the cast of Theatre 101 in Port Orford.

When you are in town check the schedule for Theatre 101 performances at the Seaside Plaza - http://www.theatre101portorford.com/

When you attend a performance don't miss the opportunity during intermission to enjoy some hand made chocolates and gourmet coffees at Sirens Coffee Shop adjacent to the playhouse.