Our production of john & jen is getting rave reviews! Check out these comments from the Grants Pass Daily Courier:

"...the sort of fun, thoughtful and poignant musical you'd expect from the pros at Oregon Cabaret Theatre in Ashland."

"It's time for a different musical theater experience in Grants Pass. This is it."

Come see the show!

Shane Skinner Theater Director

The callus at the base of my finger is just now going away.
It formed last week because of the close–to-120 bottles of wines we opened for the judges of the World of Wine event.
Not that I have any reason to complain, because comparatively, my performance went smoothly. We showed up, yanked some corks, poured some vino, polished (and broke) some glasses, ate some food, and hauled some bottles to the waiting pickup.
The real heroes of the day were the three judges. There is no getting around the fact of the serious burden these three men bore. At this, our area's most prestigious and influential wine event of the year, every winery and winemaker's reputation and bragging rights were in the balance. I have seen, in previous years, where the minute the winners were announced, the winery's phone started ringing. Our local wine fans pay attention, and a best-in-show wine can become a local cult classic, with demand driving up the price. It can be quite financially rewarding for the winners.
The judges started the day at about 10:00am, with a pen, a pitcher of water, and a spit bucket in front of them. They were handed a sheet of paper for scoring the wines based on a 20-point system. They started by tasting whites, which were grouped into flights by varietal. They were told the varietal and vintage, but the winery name was kept, quite literally, under wraps, with brown paper bags sealed with masking tape.
After several minutes spent sniffing, slurping, and spitting each sample, the judges scored the wines. I was fascinated by the way Karl would do his spitting. He would shoot the wine between his teeth, like we used to do in swim class. After that, they discussed each entry and gave their scores.
Then it was time for the reds. By this time, Andy and I could have earned our own medal in the synchronized pouring event. It went on for HOURS! During this time, the judges battled palate fatigue and struggled to keep that delicate balance between objectivity and personal preferences.
Despite the responsibility, they succeeded in keeping the mood light by joking with each other and with us. Dick Erath, who is a true Oregon wine legend and pioneer, told the story about how he decided to leave the Willamette Valley for that other famous wine region: Wilcox, Arizona. Wayne, who is a true Master Sommelier, kept lamenting that there was no bronze medal awarded because of his overall regard for the wines from our area. It was encouraging to me that Southern Oregon is becoming a bigger, darker blip on the wine radar, as evidenced by Wayne's familiarity with the wines and the region's 45 wineries.
For my part, I was quite humbled by the sheer scope of vocabulary and descriptors that the judges used and how it was like listening to people holding a conversation in a language that I could only partially speak, yet still could kind of understand. It made me want to jump in and immerse myself so as to catch all the nuances of the dialog. It was a wonderfully educational experience, and I would love to be involved in next year's edition. And which of the 120 wines was my favorite? I don't know yet -- I was too busy breaking wine glasses to taste anything.

Thomas King, Summer Jo's Wine Curator

In "The Soul of a Chef" by Michael Ruhlman, Chef Thomas Keller of the French Laundry tells his rabbit story. The story is about the pursuit of perfection and a moment of epiphany that defines Keller's philosophy of working with food. Here is the rabbit story:
In his desire to work with the freshest ingredients possible, Keller asked his rabbit purveyor to bring his next batch of rabbits live. So there he was, with a cage full of cute little rabbits, dinner service only hours away, and as he grabbed a rabbit, the rabbit screamed and struggled, breaking its leg. It kept screaming louder and louder and only after some effort did Keller manage to kill it. There were ten more rabbits to go. Keller stunned, killed, skinned, gutted, and butchered all ten rabbits that week and in doing so came to revere the lives of those rabbits. Their lives would not be meaningless. Their parts would not go to waste. And it was Keller's responsibility to make the best rabbit dish EVER. This philosophy, with its honoring of the gift of life and its deep respect for ingredients, nourishes and invigorates Keller today and is reflected in his cooking.
I was thinking of the rabbit story as I picked blackberries the other day. It isn't easy work: you get scratched and poked and only one out of every ten you touch is ready to be picked: only the ones that come off easily will be the perfect sweetness. If you have to tug too hard, the berry will be sour, not quite ready, save for the following day. So it took me awhile to get a bowlful. But as I picked, I imagined the perfect blackberry jelly, oozing in its blackberryness.

Nancy Groth

Thursday. The heat is on. Time to take a break from the 100+ temps this afternoon, saving energy for tomorrow, our busy harvest day. All day Friday we are picking for the restaurant and Saturday Growers Market. This week brings raspberries, blackberries, haricots vert (french filet green beans), summer squash, basil, colored carrots, and of course our famous salad greens. There are a few broccoli shoots, some melons starting to ripen, and the tomatoes are slowly turning red. The cherry toms have been weighing down the vines for a few weeks now.

Our salad mix was absent from the market last week due to a dip in production and increased demand at the restaurant, where they had a couple near-record nights for the number of diners. I know our regular market customers were sad, but they understood and we're back on line this week.

Our mix contains only the best baby lettuce greens, arugula, tat-soi, mizuna, shungiku, purple orach, a 3-mustard mix, with various other greens when available. This gives us a good balance of crunchy, peppery greens with mild baby lettuce.

It is grown in hand-turned beds in our 100-foot-long greenhouse. A large shade cloth covers the entire greenhouse during the summer months to keep the greens cool and allow the seeds to germinate. Often it is difficult to grow quality lettuce in the heat of summer.

Once harvested by hand, it is soaked immediately in water, where we wash it and remove any weeds. Then it is loaded intol a 5- gallon salad spinner to remove excess water. Next it is put into bins, often segregating the different types of greens so I can mix them proportionally. After mixing and removing any yellow leaves or "off" greens, it is weighed and bagged for the market.

This process happens March through December, ensuring a steady supply. We rotate between each of the 5 beds, planting a new crop every 10-14 days. Whew, a lot of work to get it done, but we know how much it's appreciated and why it stands out above the rest.

The wheat harvest was finished a few weeks ago, with help from Pacific Botanicals just outside of Grants Pass. Owner Mark Wheeler was kind enough to let us use his combine to remove the grain from the stalks. Our HUGE pile of cut wheat plants was reduced to just the grain in only a few hours. As we invest in equipment, our grain growing side of the farm will produce more with less effort. We are in contact with wheat researchers at WSU (Washington State University) to obtain higher yielding varieties in our organic fields of the Rogue Valley.

Thanks for reading... and stay cool.

Matt Molyneaux
Farm Manager

"Wander this pretty farm in Oregon's Rogue Valley before sitting down to a plate of its fruits, vegetables, and herbs grown to the specifications of Chef Joy Cyr for her seasonal menu. Wheat from the fields becomes artisanal bread, and the tables are prettied up with flowers from the grounds. Whether you eat on the porch, in the garden, or in the wine room, it's hard to better than dishes like nicoise salad with just-picked lettuces, tomatoes, and haricots verts."

First trip this year off the farm and where do we go?

Sauvie Island, near Portland, where every acre is either fertile farmland or protected wilderness. Acre upon acre of amber wheat waving in the wind. Husky cornstalks standing tall. We saw berrypickers picking raspberries and blackberries and women hand-picking bouquets. We ate juicy peaches paired with Willamette Valley artisan cheese on a beach looking at Washington from the middle of the Columbia river.

Lying on the beach we let the day's experiences wash over us, hoping to gain insights on how to make the Summer Jo farm and restaurant experience better.

As evening arrives we arrive at Higgins, a Portland restaurant known for its support of local artisans, to nosh on vine-ripened tomatoes with balsamic vinegar, burrata (buffalo mozzarella), and basil. Sauvie Island supplies many of the higher end Portland restaurants with super-fresh produce and we were super-happy to experience the field-to-plate connection.

Back on the Farm: We've opened a farmstand and giftshop now, across from the restaurant and, while our real harvesting (corn, tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers) is just around the corner, we've set up a U-pick bouquet and U-pick picnic area.

Chef Joy is in her element now, busy working on the summer menu, which will feature our own version of ratatouille (did you see the movie?); organic field green salad with smoked chicken, raspberries, candied walnuts, and Rogue Valley bleu cheese; fresh fruit tarts; and weekly farm-inspired specials. We just love summer, the long lingering days so full of promise and possibility -- it is, by the way, also the perfect time to visit Summer Jo's, to ramble through the fields and gardens before sitting down to what we hope is a transcending meal experience.


Cheers,

Nancy

Hi. I'm Shane, the Theatre Director at Summer Jo's. I've had such a great time putting on shows here. So far, I've been involved with every show we've done here -- The Fantasticks, Songs for a New Season, You're Good Man Charlie Brown, Working the musical, and Wait Until Dark. Currently, we're in rehearsal for the next great show at Summer Jo's: John & Jen, playing every Sunday for lunch and dinner performances from August 17 to September 28.

I love this show! It's so sweet and intelligent, with great music. Just two of us on stage, myself and Kate Skudstad, and 22 musical numbers with a three-piece band! The story follows Jen from 1952 to 1990, focusing on her relationship with her brother John and then her son ... John.

Not only do I love this show but I love all the people involved with putting it on. Michele Kyle and Meagan Iverson (the directors) have been my partners in crime for many years now, and whom I couldn't imagine producing theatre without. Then there's Kate Skudstad, who was my very first drama instructor and the person who got me involved with theatre in the first place. I feel blessed and honored to be doing this show with her.

Rehearsal is going very well. It's showing promise of becoming one of the best shows I've ever done. Check out our video on the rehearsal process and see for yourself. And don't you dare miss this production! If you do, I'm sure you'll regret it!

Shane Skinner, Theater Director

Back in January, us wine fans here at the restaurant put together a belated Christmas list that catalogued what we thought would be the best wine list in town. We wanted it to be a list that was interesting, regionally comprehensive, affordable, and complementary to our cuisine.

What we ended up with was an eight-page mini opus that we truly believed was the best in town. From Chilean Carmenere to Greek Makedonikos to just a nice Merlot, we thought that we had made it easy to find the perfect wine for the occasion. While putting this thing together, it was of equal importance to us that there be a high quality-to-price ratio. It's easy to find an exceptional wine for $100. We were much more interested in finding wines that exhibited the quality of a Charles Heidsieck with the price of a Charles Shaw.

So even though it's a dirty job, we strive to taste every wine we put on our list. Between the two of us, that can add up to some 30 new wines in a good week. But before I start seeing e-clamourings to let you’all ease our burden by getting in on these tasteathons, I'll outline the procedures that you’ll be adhering to.

First and foremost, you must spit! It can be a pretty challenging rule to follow, especially when sampling an exceptional $100 wine, but in order to maintain a degree of continuity, you always spit.

Second, take copious notes. Describe the nose, the flavors, the mid-palate sensation, and the finish. Then, decide if it’s good!

Keep in mind the difference between quality and personal preference. While it’s true that we dislike being shackled to the whims of the wine press, we have to trust their judgments (for the most part) when it comes to evaluating wine quality. But, we still use the various entities’ scores as a starting point rather than an absolute, and make our own call. So it’s really the two-edged sword love/non-love relationship with these magazines.

What I'm really getting at is that along with thousands of other restaurants worldwide, we submitted our list to Wine Spectator Magazine, and for the seventh consecutive year, we’ve been awarded the Award of Excellence, showing that our Christmas wish list has matured into a year-round gift to all of you.

Cheers!

Thomas King, Summer Jo's Wine Curator

This reluctant baker-blogger would rather have his hands in bread dough than a keyboard, but here goes:

With the warm weather of late, we have been using ice in the mixing stage. This is to keep the temperature of the dough on the cool side (low 70s) so it doesn't become overactive in the benching and shaping process.

New products on the Summer Jo testing track include flavored pizza crusts. We're thinking along the lines of natural flavors such as roasted garlic, chipotle pepper, fresh farm herbs, whole wheat, sesame seed, poppy seed, and parmesan cheese (and any other ones that call out to you).

Signing off now ... but just for thought: The next time you eat bread and notice an air pocket, remember that's where the baker sleeps. So watch your bites.

-Chester Smigielski

The heat is returning. We should hit 100 degrees next week, which will end our below-average June weather. This means the plants will start catching up, as the days are longer and nights warmer. A few early veggies being harvested -- broccoli, field greens, summer squash, fava beans, basil, and loads of flowers. We are looking forward to raspberries, strawberries, beans, onions, and melons later this month. Our wheat harvest begins next week, and we are gearing up for literally thousands of pounds of grain. I will post again as the processing continues.

Weeds anyone? The cooler spring has brought back the plants we love to hate, and there is no shortage here. Many weeds are edible and some can tell us things about our soil. Our helpers on the farm are getting to know them very well. Most summer annuals like pigweed (Amaranth sp.), purslane, nut sedge, crabgrass, and bindweed are making their annual invasion. Weeds continue to be the #1 issue for organic farmers everywhere, as the increased labor time necessary to deal with them by hand or with tools adds greatly to the cost of each crop. So when you pay a bit more for organic produce, remember that it's not just because it's "better" for you. There is more energy devoted to growing these crops by hand. Only the best from the fields at Summer Jo's will make it to the table or the market, ensuring quality, healthful produce for our local customers. And we know they enjoy, because they keep coming back!

During this busy time at the restaurant, the chefs are scooping up all the salad mix, squash, herbs, and other greens I can grow. Our booth at the Saturday growers market also gets bought out within the first few hours, which is great for us, but is delaying the farm-stand opening. The inevitable overproduction of our favorite summer produce is still a few weeks off, but stay tuned for our upcoming availability of tomatoes, melons, herbs, flower bouquets, corn, potatoes, and so on....

Matt Molyneaux, Farm Manager
P.S. We got the house!!!