Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
Quick Take:
Looking to add some serious flair to your entertaining game? Skip the boring bottle opener and learn the art of champagne sabering at Sip Champagne and Dessert Bar this Saturday. Head to ColdFire Friday to submit your responses to a survey about fresh hop beer, visit (and say goodbye to) Food for Lane County’s Youth Farm Saturday, or swing by Camp Putt's mini golf food drive through the weekend.
Looking to add some serious flair to your entertaining game? Skip the boring bottle opener and learn the art of champagne sabering Saturday at Sip Champagne and Dessert Bar. Friday, head to ColdFire Brewing to give your take on fresh hop beers. Saturday, visit (and say goodbye to) Food for Lane County’s Youth Farm. Or, swing by Camp Putt’s mini golf food drive, which runs through Sunday.
Here is this week’s Food Scene:
Sept. 12 drink beer for science at Coldfire
Oregon State University’s Dr. Tom Shellhammer, a professor of fermentation science and an expert in hops chemistry, is inviting the public to provide their evaluations of fresh hop beers. ColdFire Brewing will have a beer called The Henry available for tasting Friday, Sept. 12. Other breweries in Bend, Corvallis and Portland are also participating.
Working with Oregon-based hop grower Coleman Agriculture, five breweries brewed two unique, yet identical versions of a beer: one using fresh hops and the other freshly dried hops picked from the same field. The Celebrate Oregon Beer website explains that the “Drink Beer for Science” effort will investigate how fresh hops add chemical and sensory elements to beer. The mechanics of this process are poorly understood because most brewers use dried hops.
Participants will receive a 4-ounce pour and a QR code to fill out a 15-question survey on their phones at participating breweries. The responses will provide insight into the different ways fresh hops taste and smell.
ColdFire Brewing
263 Mill St.
541-636-3889
Sip Champagne and Dessert Bar cocktail sabering class
A Sip Champagne and Dessert Bar class will teach how to use a saber to open a bottle of champagne. The class, according to the restaurant’s Instagram, will also teach how to make mango caviar garnish, along with its “super secret heavy handed mango coconut tequila sorbet recipe.” The class is for ages 21 and up and will start at 7 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 13. Tickets are $40.
Sip Champagne and Dessert Bar
488 Willamette St.
541-600-0556
Sept. 12-14 Camp Putt food drive to benefit Springfield
Willamalane Park and Recreation District is hosting a three-day food drive at Camp Putt Adventure Golf Park. Provide three canned food items per person for a round of mini golf, with all donations supporting the food pantry at Willamalane Adult Activity Center.
Whitney Hoshaw, marketing and communications manager for Willamalane Park and Recreation District, said in a statement the number of people visiting the food pantry has increased 20% this summer.
“Typically, the pantry gets a majority of its donations from various Willamalane events that encourage donations in lieu of admission fees, such as Children’s Celebration and Concerts in the Park,” Hoshaw said. “While those events collected nearly 3,000 pounds of food this summer, the number is fewer than last year. With the rising need in our community, Willamalane is seeking additional donations to help fill the gap.”
Willamalane’s food pantry, is open from noon to 1 p.m. every Wednesday at the Willamalane Adult Activity Center. There are no income verification or personal identification requirements.
Food donations also be made any time, during regular business hours, at Willamalane Adult Activity Center. The most in-demand items include non-perishable, high-protein foods, such as tuna, peanut butter and beans. A full list of high-demand items is available at willamalane.org/food.
Willamalane also operates Thurston Community Garden, where one plot set aside to grow fresh produce for the pantry yielded 843 pounds of food.
Other food programs at Willamalane Adult Activity Center include a monthly community breakfast and daily senior meals. Food for Lane County also hosts a mobile food pantry at Bob Keefer Center on the fourth Friday of each month. Call 541-736-4444 for information.
Camp Putt Adventure Golf Park
4006 Franklin Blvd.
541-852-4653
Food Pantry at Willamalane Adult Activity Center
Wednesdays, noon to 1 p.m.
541-736-4444
Celebrate the Food For Lane County Youth Farm Saturday
Food For Lane County’s Youth Farm is turning 30, and a birthday party is planned from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m, Saturday, Sept. 13 at the farm on Flamingo Avenue in Springfield. The free, family-friendly event will have live music and activities including a farm tour, shopping at the produce stand, apple cider pressing, flower picking and crafts.
This is the last year the 5-acre farm will be at the Flamingo Avenue site. In 2026, staff and volunteers will move to a 25-acre farm on Seavey Loop Road.
In October 2024, Food For Lane County announced the organization purchased a parcel of agricultural land near the base of Mt. Pisgah southeast of Eugene, and would relocate the Youth Farm. In 2023, Food for Lane County received a $1.15 million grant specifically to purchase farmland. The current farm is on land owned by the Springfield School District and not available to buy.
Youth Farm
705 Flamingo Ave., Springfield
https://www.foodforlanecounty.org
Oaktoberfest coming Sept. 13 at Oakshire Public House
Oktoberfest comes early to Oakshire’s Whiteaker location with “Oaktoberfest” taking place Saturday, Sept. 13. The one-day festival includes a beer release of Visit Bavaria Festbier, German-style beer flights from guest taps, along with German pretzels, brats and Polish sausages.
In August 2024, Oakshire released a small batch of a beer called Festbier, a crisp German-style lager featuring 100% German-grown malt hopped with Hallertau Mittelfruh and Spalter Select. Perhaps this year’s beer release will be a riff off last year’s version.
Why is Oktoberfest such a big deal? Every fall, Germans celebrate by drinking beer over multiple days. According to Brittanica, the first Oktoberfest was held in Munich in 1810 to celebrate a royal wedding. The following year, the celebration was paired with an agricultural fair and became more of a harvest celebration.
At Oakshire’s version, cornhole and other fun activities will fill the day, with live music, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Oakshire Public House
207 Madison St.
(541) 654-5520
Community gathers to envision resilient food future
Local food system advocates, farmers, farmers market representatives and community organizers met Sept. 9 for a Community Food System Visioning Opportunity focused on building resilience in the south Willamette Valley’s food networks during the next decade.
The meeting, hosted at Hummingbird Wholesale by CFO Charlie Tilt, brought together about 30 participants representing different aspects of the local food ecosystem.
The session was part of a broader Willamette Valley tour by Regenerate Cascadia, which plans to publish a 40-page booklet documenting food system stories and perspectives from across the region.
Top priorities coming out of the event were:
- Combining forces to share resources, including networks that enable storage, processing and distribution systems for local food;
- Land access and policy reform, including reducing barriers to farmland access, changing zoning laws to allow more agricultural activity and preventing conversion of working farmland to development;
- Community collaboration, including building “neighborhood nodes” for resource sharing;
- Building perennial food systems through such activities as planting fruit and nut trees in public spaces and residential areas.
Regenerate Cascadia’s presentation and discussion of the south Willamette Valley tour will take place from 5:30-9:30 p.m., Sept. 25, at 356 Horn Lane in Eugene. RSVP at swv@regeneratecascadia.org.
