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A stop in Warm Springs

Deschutes River, near Warm Springs

This year winter was three weeks long and started four weeks ago. On Feb. 24 there was four feet of snow in our front yard. Today that is down to about six inches. Not complaining. We enjoyed winter and three weeks was a nice amount.  But when you are looking for hiking opportunities, this amount of snow makes that difficult. So our weekly excursions kind of stopped.

Road trips started back up this week and the other day we headed up to Warm Springs to check out “The Museum at Warm Springs.” 

Located just over the Deschutes River on Highway 26, the Bureau of Indian Affairs established a reservation school in 1890, on the site of the Warm Springs Agency. The settlement that developed around this is an unincorporated city or census-designated place.  A 1855 treaty ceded 10 million acres of traditional Indian  lands to the United States, keeping only the portion we now call the Warm Springs Indian reservation. The Indian Reorganization act allowed the Warm Springs, Wasco and Paiute Indians to establish a tribal government and take over control of the reservation land.

Beaded Bag Courtesy of The Museum of Warm Springs Permanent Collection

To preserve the language and culture of these tribes, in 1993 the confederated tribes opened The Museum at Warm Springs. This beautiful rock and brick building serves as a central point in sharing not just the historical aspects, but also educational and artistic views.

The collection of baskets and bead work is worth the trip but there are also changing exhibits and on this visit we were treated to art from K to 12 students. The exhibit was great! These were class projects and most of them centered on native culture themes and made use of mostly recycled objects with a focus on traditional crafts and customs.

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Found a great Public House

Oregon has lots of places to find craft brews. So many, there is often little difference between one or the other. Faced with way too many Indian Pale Ale  and seasonal brews …sorry but pumpkin spice is really only palatable in scone form… we are always looking for something different coming out of the tap. This can be a brew style or even how the beer is being delivered to the glass.

The pints poured in your local establishment are likely moved by carbon dioxide, a practice that adds to the effervescence of the pint and sometimes, can be a bit too much. If you’re lucky your local watering spot offers nitro or nitrogen gas-powered lines. Nitro is less bitter and adds smaller bubbles to the drink.

A better way to have your pint without all the bubbles is to use a British style hand pump or beer engine.  A traditional British public house tap uses a lever’s energy to move beer from the keg to the glass. This style of beer delivery usually means the final fermentation was in the cask.

Hand pump pours are, in my mind, superior pints leaving just the cast conditioned character of the beer in the glass and a creamy froth on top.

We were really pleased to find Porter Brewing in Redmond, where they only serve cast conditioned beer hand pulled.

The Porter is pleasantly smoky, the stout chocolatey, and my favorite the Extra Special Bitter which was better than the nitro ESB at Red Hook.

In addition to the tap offerings, there is a BBQ food truck adjacent that offers great pub food. We’ll be passing Bend more often to hit this great little english pub on the north end of Redmond.

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Winter hiking

Chalk this up to cabin fever. Tired of walking neighborhood paths, we headed off to a “year around” trailhead. Rim Rock Springs wildlife area is listed as “open all season.” Because it is pretty much out in the open, there was hope the trail would be somewhat snow clear or at least passable. It wasn’t.

The trailhead is a few miles east of Madras on Highway 26 and the real draw for this mile plus loop trail is an abundance of wildlife.  Despite being located in basically a barren landscape, there is a marsh and with it lots of birds and critters in the area.  For now, we’ll move it to the ‘a bit later’ spring hiking list.

Heck…we’re in the car pointed east why not see if there is some snow cover on the Painted Hills? Forty minutes later we are in the John Day formation and yeah, there was a lot of snow.

The road had been plowed, so we did manage to get to the overlook and of course JQ shot a few frames.  We had a picnic lunch. Tip chased a ball and sniffed some sagebrush. The only thing we didn’t get in was some hiking mileage. Just have to double up on the neighborhood loop tomorrow.

Another sunny day road trip success!!!

 

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Sourdough Waffles

Mention sourdough and people think San Francisco. While that’s not wrong, the leavening of bread with “yesterday’s” dough is as old as grain cultivation, and with it the inevitable rise of bread making (see what I did there?).

While my bread making has been inconsistent the last few months, there is an active sourdough culture in our fridge. That means this starter is fed every two to three weeks.  It is pulled from the fridge, a portion is removed, and equal amounts of flour and water are added. Then it is allowed to start working before it’s return to the fridge.

The process of feeding a sourdough starter means there is some amount of perfectly good leavening agent that gets washed down the drain, if it’s not used for baking. When there’s no bread to bake, we make waffles. The recipe will work for pancakes if you are so inclined. “A waffle is just a more considerate pancake. It’s like, here, let me hold that syrup for you in these convenient boxes.”

If you are interested in sourdough, there are ways to start from scratch, but it is way easier to either find a baker and ask … they are usually looking for someone to take the cast off. But be ready to feed the beast regularly. That might be motivation to make a loaf of bread, or at least the more considerate breakfast food.

Print Recipe

Sourdough Waffles

Great way to make use of excess starter. 
Servings: 4 round waffles

Ingredients

Overnight sponge

  • 120 grams unfed sourdough starter
  • 120 grams unbleached flour can do 50% Whole Wheat
  • 14 grams sugar
  • 225 grams buttermilk

waffle batter

  • 1 large egg beaten
  • 25 grams butter melted
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Instructions

The night before:

  • To make the overnight sponge, stir down your refrigerated starter, and remove 1 cup. Note: This is a good opportunity to feed the remainder, if necessary.
  • In a large mixing bowl, stir together the 1 cup unfed starter, flour, sugar, and buttermilk. Cover and let rest at cool room temperature (about 65°F to 70°F) for about 12 hours, or overnight. 

The next morning:

  • In a small bowl or mixing cup, beat together the eggs, and oil or butter. Add to the overnight sponge. Add the salt and baking soda, stirring to combine. The batter will bubble.
  • Coat a 6 inch round waffle iron with cooking spray and heat. Pour ⅔ cup measures of batter onto a heated iron and bake until steam stops escaping from sides. Should make about 4 waffles
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Trip to the Museum

This late winter dump of snow put a stop to regular day trips. However, the La Pine Library has passes to local attractions so you don’t have to pay the entrance fee…cool.

Started in the early 80’s, the High Desert Museum serves as an educational center to “… explore the historic and contemporary relationship between people and landscape.”

Burrowing owls

The permanent exhibits are fine (but ‘been there, done that). So, we take a stroll by the Hollen Atrium to see the porcupine and bobcat. Then we head into the Desertarium, where the desert tortoise and burrowing owls reside. Depending on the time of day, there are also wildlife demonstrations, though we seem to keep missing the river otter feeding. That’s a priority for our next visit.

Nevada Bumble Bee by April Coppini

Once we’ve checked in on the critters, we can spend some time with the “changing exhibit.”  This week they just installed ‘The Beauty of Wild Things: Charcoal drawings by April Coppini.” Coppini is a Portland based artist that does exceptional gestural charcoal on paper. We really like the bumble bee series.

It’s called a museum, but they have more than a dozen sites along a meandering system of trails that take you into the environment. The Raptors presentation, Otter exhibit and Birds of Prey center are all really interesting, even encased in a layer of snow.