In your own backyard: The
Rogue Flavor Showcase
Written by:
Alison Sexauer
Finding my foodshed—and an invitation to find yours
When I moved to the Applegate Valley, I arrived from a place already famous for the abundance of its local food—a region where I’d spent 15 years working on farms and running farmers’ markets. I thought I understood what a foodshed could offer: the way a plate of food can be a map of soil, water, and the people who tend them. I came to southern Oregon looking for that kind of connection to place. I found it, and then some.
One of the first surprises was cheese and meat, abundant here in ways I hadn’t experienced before. I lived down the road from the old By George farmstand: duck eggs, bread from Rise Up!, locally raised beef, fresh cheese, all there for the taking and a few dollars left behind. A quick stop at the farmers’ market and I had a week’s menu. Within months I’d met the local salmon fisherman who travels once a year to fish one of the most sustainable fisheries in Alaska. There were milk shares, from both goat and cow, just up the road. I had come seeking a foodshed, and the Applegate provided.
Then I found the Rogue Flavor Guide, at the time just a few years old and now in its 23rd year. It didn’t just list farms and makers; it connected me to them: the growers, the cheesemakers, the bakers, the people whose hands are in the soil and the ovens. Something happens when you’re connected, through the food you eat, to the actual soil and water of a place. Whether you find it by hunting, foraging in the wild, or foraging your local farmers’ market and grocery aisles for something that still has its full flavor, its full nutrition, and, maybe most important, its story, it is an old and human thing. It roots you.
That’s the spirit behind the inaugural Rogue Flavor Showcase, coming to the historic Bigham Knoll campus in Jacksonville on September 5, from 2-7 pm. Organized by the Rogue Valley Food System Network, it brings together a fusion of people who make this region delicious: growers, winemakers, brewers, fermenters, bakers, chocolatiers, herbalists, chefs, and artisan food makers, all gathered in one beautiful place on one glorious late summer afternoon.
The lineup reads like a tour of what makes this valley worth tasting. Rogue Creamery, whose blue cheese has won world championships, will offer samples alongside Troon Vineyards, pouring wine grown with biodynamic methods on Applegate soils. Circadian Cellars and Terrene Winery and Cidery represent the valley’s beverage scene. Wylde Kraut, Southern Oregon Sourdough, Falkways Bakery, and Boogie’s Hatchery bring the craft of fermentation and bread to the festivities. Satori Farms, Naturespirit Herbs, and Della Rose Pasta Co. round things out.
Throughout the afternoon, the culinary stage will host chef demos using all-local ingredients, featuring our very own Chef Kristen of Jefferson Farm Kitchen and Carl Krause of Wilder Cooking, plus family-friendly cooking demos for the kids. Two panel discussions dig deeper: one brings chefs and farmers together for storytelling about the relationships behind a dish, and the other tackles the practical question of how, where, and why to buy local.
Food trucks Pistola’s, Grip N Grub, Farm Bus Bistro, and Jacksonville’s own Black Barn Kitchen round out the afternoon, providing a full meal option.
You may have driven past these orchards, fields, and farmstands a hundred times. Picked up a local wine on the way home from work. Grabbed a loaf of sourdough at the Saturday market without a thought for the hands that made it. Living here, we can let that bounty fade into scenery—familiar and easy to take for granted.
September 5 is a chance to look again— to meet the people behind what grows and what’s made here, and to remember that the flavors of this valley have been in your backyard all along.
Come hungry. Leave connected.
Come hungry. Leave connected. Rogue Flavor Showcase is September 5 from 2–7 pm at Bigham Knoll Campus, Jacksonville. Tickets are $20 and include a commemorative glass. More details and tickets can be found at rvfoodsystem.org/rogue flavor-showcase.
Alison Sexauer