Exploring the Back Roads of Oregon's Willamette Valley

We're living in Willamette Valley, Oregon, and we've already seen that this is a great place for growing flowers and waterfalls. But as we travel the back-roads, we are finding that this valley is famous for growing other crops.

One of the most obvious is all the Christmas tree farms. There are evenly-spaced rows of evergreens flooding over many hills. We saw everything from this year's seedlings to towering trees ready to stretch to the tallest living room ceiling.

We also saw mile-upon-mile of lush grassland. The grass was a foot-tall, but there was no livestock enjoying this bounty. In fact, we noticed that there were no fences to keep the cattle in these grassy pastures.

That's when we finally realized that this wasn't grass for grazing. Oregon is the world's main producer of cool-season grass seed. In fact, Willamette Valley is the grass seed capitol of the world. This state has 1500 grass seed farms and 390 seed conditioning plants that prepare the seed for market. Their mild wet winters and dry summers are best for growing grass seed like rye and fescue. Who knew?

We also noticed another beautiful crop growing throughout the valley. Even though those crimson tops are lovely, we couldn't think of a food crop that looked like this. A little research found that this is crimson clover and 95% of the clover seed in the U.S. is grown here in western Oregon. This field in Willamette Valley is grown for its seed. Farmers in the midwest will plant those seeds for the best cover crop to add nitrogen and improve soil quality of their fields. They plant clover after they harvest the corn and soybeans in order to suppress weeds and build up the soil for the next year. Who knew?

The next interesting crop of the valley isn't showing up yet. But we did see the ten foot poles, holding up a net-like woven trellis. Later this summer, there will be green plants twining their way up that trellis. We've seen pictures of workers walking between these ten-foot walls of green tending to the hops that are growing on them. Hops are one of the ingredients needed for brewing beer, and many of them come from Oregon.

We are also seeing miles and miles of berry plants and orchards. We seem to have arrived during the in-between stage for these fruits. We've missed the beautiful blooming orchards, but it will be another month or so before any of the fruit is ripe for harvest. We went by a farm stand that has learned how to deal with this lull in their season. Using frozen fruit that they harvested last year, they sell all kinds of baked and frozen pies. We bought a slice of artisan peach-raspberry and apricot crunch pie as some solace for missing the fresh fruit. When we paired that with Tillamook ice cream, we had a dessert fit for an Oregonian king (and queen).

Besides the acres of berries and grapes, we also found one other beautiful crop on this hill in Silverton. The golden fields look like they are about ready for harvest.

That's canola, looking particularly beautiful against a brilliant blue sky.

Because we love buying fresh local produce, we are sure wishing we were here in a month or two when all those crops will be ripe. It looks like this rich soil can grown anything, and we're not surprised to also find this purple field of lavender.

We had those same lovely blue skies for a trip around our new home county. That included a trip into the nearby town of Mt. Angel. We had heard there was an abbey on one of the hills outside of town, and it was a nice place for a walk. Mt. Angel Abbey is home to the Benedictine Monastery and also trains Catholic priests.

We arrived on campus just as the 5:15 bells were ringing, signalling evening vesper service. So we couldn't go inside the church, but we had the grounds to ourselves. It's a lovely place to walk, and their website encouraged visitors to see the oldest building on campus--the 1882 chapel in the cemetery.

From the top of that hill we got our first glimpse of Mount Hood. Often shrouded by clouds, this blue sky day we could see all of its snow-covered glory in the distance.

We're hoping to get a closer look at Mount Hood before we leave this state, but even the locals were exclaiming over the clear view today.

The town of Mt. Angel is famous for its German-Swiss influence. We bought smoked German sausage that was made at the local sausage store. We also went to see the local German restaurant in town--the Glockenspiel.

Known for its German food, we were here for the 4-minute Glockenspiel show. Four times each day, the doors of the 49-foot German clock open to herald the new hour. There is appropriate music played, and the hand-carved wooden statues rotate and spin. Each statue represents a group that has influenced the town of Mt. Angel--from the Native Americans, to the priests and nuns, to the German Catholic pioneers, and the Bavarian tuba player.

We are enjoying the weather and the country-side around our new home in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. But the weatherman says that things are about to change, so we're heading to the city tomorrow.