All across the state, hotels, restaurants, farms and makers are pushing for a more sustainable Oregon. That means you can eat a meal in the Willamette Valley knowing that the ingredients are sourced from local farms, attend a concert in Bend where your waste won’t end up in a landfill, and choose a place to rest your head that gives dollars from your stay back to locally led conservation efforts. Here are several ways to choose stewardship while immersing yourself in your Oregon destination.
Food Waste Prevention
In the heart of the Willamette Valley, eateries like Grazing Oregon in Albany are making local ingredients the main event. With unique Oregon harvests like morels and fiddlehead ferns sourced from local foragers, you can taste the region in every bite. Grazing Oregon champions food waste prevention, composting much of it and using the rest in their stocks, sauces and infusions like their fruit sodas and wild celery root puree.
In the outskirts of Ashland, nestled in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, Willow-Witt Ranch offers a new perspective on what it means to get connected with your food. Whether you come for a ranch tour, a farm stay or a hike you can leave feeling closer to the land, the animals and your food. Round out a visit with a stop at their farm store for locally raised certified organic eggs, goat milk and produce. Talk to the farmers about their regenerative agricultural practices as you pet and feed the goats and visit the happy pigs and chickens each morning.
Innovative Practices
Situated along the Deschutes River in Bend, Hayden Homes Amphitheater is changing the waste-reduction game through its sustainability program, launched in 2017. When you attend a summer concert at the outdoor event space you’ll be asked to bring a reusable water bottle to fill at water stations. Only compostable plates and utensils are used on site, and all beverages are served in reusable aluminum cups. Crowd-favorite food vendors like Dump City Dumplings and farm-fresh Bonta Gelato will fill you up, and on your way out a friendly face can help you sort your food waste. Elsewhere in the state, venues like the Rose Quarter and Providence Park are also making big moves to reduce waste and their carbon footprint in partnership with The Wave Foundation.
Along Oregon’s South Coast, 7 Devils Brewery in Coos Bay has baked sustainability into its identity through a partnership with the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation in their Ocean Friendly Restaurant program. The brewpub uses no plastic bags, Styrofoam or plastic bottles as a commitment to uplifting local foods, goods and creativity. Visitors to the Coast can enjoy oysters, clam chowder or fresh local halibut, rockfish or steelhead all while knowing that these dollars are sustaining local fisheries, growers and practices that support and celebrate the longevity of the community.
Ways to Give Back
In Central Oregon, visitors can find an eco-friendly place to dine at Terra Kitchen, the restaurant at SCP Redmond, one of Oregon’s three SCP or Soul Community Planet hotels (also located in Gleneden Beach and Depoe Bay.) These properties give back to the land through tree plantings, clean-ups and community investments. Also at Terra Kitchen, you’ll find plant-forward meals that prioritize locally sourced ingredients and emphasize sustainability through water conservation and energy-efficient retrofitting. It’s one of Surfrider’s Ocean Friendly Restaurants and a dedicated sourcing partner to Central Oregon’s farms and artisans, including Well Rooted Farms and Unity Breads. Fuel up for your next adventure with a local bounty salad highlighting local root veggies with beets and carrots or an entree like the high-desert ribeye to support local farmers and ranchers.
When you travel it’s good to know that your dollars are feeding not only you, but also the soil. Three Oregon restaurants partner with the nonprofit Zero Foodprints, where 1% of sales go to regenerative farming. Award-winning vegan Chef Arron Adams Astera champions a delicious way to experience Oregon bounty in Portland with innovative fermentation and culturing practices like a dish featuring a glaze of “lacto-fermented squash guts” for pure squash flavor. At Portland’s Coquine, award-winning Chef Kay Millard reflects her commitment to the land with seasonal dishes like pappardelle with pork-fennel ragu, chanterelles, peaches and marjoram — or lamb with charred onion-eggplant soubise, leeks, sweet peppers and plums. For another standout culinary experience, travel southwest to Hayward in Carlton, situated in the heart of Willamette Valley wine country where James Beard Award-winning Chef Kari Shaughnessy serves her housemade pickles and ferments along with her sesame focaccia with koji butter, made fresh daily.
All along the Oregon Coast, about a dozen Oregon hotels also make it easy for you to make a difference with the Every Stay Gives Back program through the organization Kind Traveler. From excellent properties like The Wildflower Inn in Gold Beach to the Bowline Hotel in Astoria, visitors can book a room knowing that a portion of their dollars go directly to local nonprofits. With partnering organizations like Friends of Otter Rock and the Wildlife Center of the North Coast, visitor dollars go to wildlife rehabilitation, marine education and conservation.
