Small, compact cooking stoves are nothing new, but most of the designs don’t look great in a kitchen or garden. Todd Albi’s SilverFire cook stoves, with stands designed by local metal sculptor Ian Beyer, certainly do.
Many people know that berry crops grow well here in the Northwest thanks to our warm, dry summer days and cool nights. But this is not only a hospitable climate for berries, it’s also the center of berry cultivating research. Dr. Bernadine Strik is Professor of Horticulture at Oregon State University, Extension Berry Crops Specialist, and lead researcher with Northwest Willamette Research and Extension Center at OSU. Strik researches production and physiology of berries and participates in the USDA-OSU cooperative breeding program to develop new varieties, one of which is a thornless blackberry known as ‘Black Diamond.’