Live From Yakima!
March 5, 2010 by Heather Caro
By Heather Caro
Yakima’s array of downtown venues has brought with it a new mix to the local music scene. From bluegrass to blues, opera to oldies, there is a tune for every taste. Here are a few that we think are definitely worth the cover charge.
A Taste for Wine – and Adventure
March 5, 2010 by Heather Caro
A Taste for Wine – and Adventure
By Heather Caro
Interested in savoring local sage-steppe scenery with wineglass in hand? Intrepid wine lovers might enjoy a visit to TRY – Tasting Room Yakima in Naches.
From wildlife viewing and a picnic lunch to mountain biking and rock climbing, visitors here have much to choose from to satisfy a taste for adventure as well as fine wine. The sweetest treats from TRY – aside from vintages featured from Wilridge Winery, Naches Heights Vineyard, Harlequin Wine Cellars and Mountain Dome – are the many outdoor delights available on site.
A Calming Color Palette
March 5, 2010 by Melissa Labberton
A Calming Color Palette
By Melissa S. Labberton
Color can set the mood, evoke emotion and bring back memories. (In fact, House Beautiful devoted its entire March 2010 issue to the color blue.) That’s why Sue Fenich and her design consultant and friend, Judy Ausink, felt that choosing the perfect color palette for Sue’s 1907 mock Tudor home on West Yakima Avenue was so important to the overall interior design.
Dine Out: A Look Behind the Kitchen Doors
March 5, 2010 by Heather Caro
Dine Out: A Look Behind the Kitchen Doors
Have you ever heard, “There’s no place to eat around here?” If that were the case, we wouldn’t have had such a challenge trying to choose five restaurants to feature in our Food and Wine edition. Rest assured Yakima, there are plenty of terrific restaurants all over the city…but here are five we wanted to get to know.
Start Your Own “Salad” Garden…Easily
March 5, 2010 by Heather Caro
Start Your Own “Salad” Garden…Easily
By Jim McLain
Start Your Own “Salad” Garden…Easily
Over the last several years, vegetable gardens have been popping up like dandelions in backyards across America. One reason for the renaissance of vegetable gardening has been the recession.
But there is also another reason: a desire for fresh produce that has been grown without chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Not so long ago, organic farmers and gardeners were thought to be sort of, well, wacko. But organic gardening — gardening without chemicals — has now gained mainstream acceptance.
If you are considering starting your first vegetable garden this year, whether you decide to jump on the organic gardening bandwagon or not, heed these two words of advice: start small.
Steppe Outside: Wildflower Hikes in the Yakima Valley
March 5, 2010 by Heather Caro
By Heather Caro
The Umtanum Creek Recreation Area Trail begins by crossing the Yakima River on a suspension footbridge.
With blankets of wildflowers beginning to bloom and the smell of sage perfuming the air, spring is a good time to enjoy Yakima’s shrub-steppe landscape. This season why not pull out your hiking boots and go for a stomp? Here are a couple of hikes to help get you started.
Sip into Spring
March 5, 2010 by Robin Salts Beckett
By Robin Beckett
Photos by Sara Gettys
Roll out the barrels, Yakima…it’s time for some wine-tasting fun.
Around here, we don’t often need a good excuse to taste good wine. There are plenty of those: our proximity to some of the finest wines in the region if not the nation; the friendliness of local tasting-room staffs; the fact that it’s Friday.
But if you need a better excuse, Spring Barrel Tasting is mere weeks away. Come April 23-25, Valley wineries will offer samples of their newest vintages — sometimes straight from the barrel.
Signature: Bouquets aren’t just for flowers
March 5, 2010 by Heather Caro
Signature: Bouquets aren’t just for flowers
Bouquets aren’t just for flowers…Melia Younker of Melia’s Floral created this arrangement using produce you can find in your grocery store or even your backyard.
Arrangement includes roses, hydrangea, cymbidium orchids, yarrow, mini callas, star of Bethlehem, fern curls, grapes, seeded eucalyptus, squash and a pinch of mint for greens.
Melia’s Floral
509-965-4055
meliasfloral.com
Notes From Heather: Confessions of an Inconsistent Cook
March 5, 2010 by Heather Caro
Yakima Magazine writer Heather Caro shows off her culinary skills.
As it turns out, the way to a man’s heart is not always through his stomach. If this were the case, I would probably still be a single woman. Very, very single.
I’d like to think it’s not so much that I’m a bad cook, just easily distracted. There are just so many interesting things to do besides stirring cheese sauce — just about anything, really.
When I recently asked my husband what he thought about my cooking, he looked at me with wide, wary eyes — the same look he gives when asked if a pair of jeans makes me look fat — and responded, “Well, I don’t really care for your experiments.”
I didn’t question him directly, but my husband could have been referring to any number of my culinary “adventures” before he very sweetly took over dinner preparation.
Food for the Next Generation: An Inside Look at YV Tech’s Culinary Program
March 5, 2010 by admin
By Sean Fitzgerald
Nestled comfortably just east of State Fair Park is a young and quickly growing culinary arts school. Even in the sleepy winter weather, the main dining hall at Yakima Valley Technical Skills Center is bright and spacious. Lit up by a towering glass wall, the new building highlights the dining area, just to the right of the main entrance. A beautiful view is in every direction.
In its first year at the new location, YV Tech’s Culinary Program is already home to more than 50 high school students. As tourism in the Yakima Valley grows, YV Tech is quietly filling a need by educating young people in culinary arts.
Behind the dining area, the learning begins. Commanding a kitchen full of youthful, exubarant and easily distracted students is no cakewalk, but Ned Walsh, head chef and owner of Yakima’s 901 Pasta, has complete control.