Discover Astoria » Columbia River

The Seafood School Rocks!

jmohill — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:09:11 +0000

The “All About Albacore” class is this Saturday. I want to go. I’ve been waiting for this course. I am severely challenged in the fish cooking department. Besides, cooking courses are a great way to dirty up someone else’s kitchen and have a little fun with friends.

Astoria has two options for cooking classes. I’ve had appetizers with Chris at the Baked Alaska in his kitchen inside Mise en Place and attended a party where Eric at the OSU Seafood Center put on a demo course of what was soon to be our main course! If I could celebrate all my birthdays with a cooking class I would! According to my family, this is just one more sign of getting older and…geeky. This from the same folks who won’t let me get a ham radio. What do they know?

The OSU Seafood Center is really wonderful for lots of reasons. The Seafood School is but one of it’s many contributions to the community. The school is relatively new and very popular. I first became acquainted with their facility when I attended a class on canning. I’ve always been interested in canning my own tuna- it’s so tasty! Once you’ve tasted home-canned tuna it’s very hard to buy store bought again. Their website offers an online database of recipes searchable by type of seafood. If any of you are lucky enough to attend the Albacore course this weekend I’d love to hear how the Cherry Cola Grill was!

Here’s the synopsis of the tuna class:

Saturday, June 7th

All About Albacore

Try out summer barbecue dishes that we have put together to compliment the local bounty of troll-caught Pacific Albacore tuna. Bursting with Omega-3’s, Albacore is both nutritious and delicious!

Cherry Cola Grilled Albacore

Baked Beans

Corn on the Cob

Potato Salad

Grilled Flatbread

To view the entire course schedule click here and download the PDF file.

Living on the edge or living off the grid during Astoria’s first hurricane?

jmohill — Tue, 06 May 2008 06:24:18 +0000

A random series of events has awakend my inner green self. All disconnected events really. But the sum of all has changed how I think of my daily routine . When I first heard the phrase living off the grid I thought it was some new hip expression that my teenager had for a dangerous/crazy lifestyle. It was around that time that I saw the documentary Kilowatt Ours ( the documentary channel is my current PVR addiction) all about energy consumption. Enter the Advent Storm (really a hurricane but don’t tell the rest of the world that). Seven days with no power, no phones and all roads closed off allows for a lot of thinking without the normal everyday distraction. Thinking about power or the lack thereof for sure! We have a generator but its not large enough to run heat, lights, fridge, TV, computers, etc. We found ourselves making decisions on what was necessary. It got me to really thinking about reducing our consumption of energy. I have challenged my family to reduce our power bills by 50% over the coming months. If you want to see what the energy vampires are in your house go to an online energy audit site. Here’s a good one. A friend recently told me about geothermal heatpumps. I think this may be my first step into un-gridlike living. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, in an attempt at reducing our landfill contributions, I’ll go back to potty-training my son. Talk about living on the edge!

New Urbanism at work in Historic Mill Pond Village

jmohill — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:09:54 +0000

2855 Mill Pond Lane, Astoria, Oregon

What is New Urbanism?

”Giving people many choices for living in sustainable, convenient and enjoyable places, while providing the solutions to global warming, climate change, and peak oil”

Astoria is lucky to have such a project in our midst. Award-winning Mill Pond Village was the brain child of Developer Art Demuro and Lennerz, Coyle & Associates. Mill Pond Village showcases many of the brightest designers and builders in our area as well as offering the best riverfront living in Astoria! Creative planning has encouraged a true community spirit here. Residents can walk to shopping, congregate on their covered front porches, stroll the riverwalk or catch the historic trolley.

Pilots work behind the scenes to keep Astoria safe, economy moving

Jeremy Linder — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:39:27 +0000

An interesting article in the Coast River Business Journal highlights many of the benefits the Columbia River Bar & Columbia River pilots contribute to Astoria, Warrenton, Hammond and surrounding areas. As a native Astorian, watching ships go by the Astoria’s waterfront is a daily occurance, one that doesn’t phase most of the locals. We don’t think about the many dangers the pilots face, the trickle down effect to local small businesses and the safety they provide on our waterways.

A rich history dating back to what many consider the original Columbia River Pilot Capt. Flavel, the pilots have maintained the extremely high standard set before them. The duty of the pilots includes many things, first among them is safety. The Columbia River Pilots represent the State Of Oregon on the Columbia, and maintaining flow of goods while preventing mishaps is no easy task.

What started as brave men in row boats navigating without GPS or even computer generated charts has become an organization on the edge of technology. These cowboys of the Columbia ride in to battle not on horseback, but by helicopter or a highly specialized boat capable of rolling over without any ill effects. Keeping our rivers safe and Clatsop county’s piece of the $16 Billion in goods imported/exported on the Columbia is no easy task, but the Pilots make it happen each and every day.

Chopper lowering a pilot onto a ship for piloteage on the Columbia

The pilot vessel Chinook