Fourth of July 2024

Our annual Fourth of July to-do was really just an excuse this year to fire up the pizza oven and continue to perfect my recipe and techniques. I think we're getting close. Ann had invited Rob and Dyce to come over for pizza and as luck would have it, Dyce's parents are back stateside from their home in Tuscany. We are going to visit with them in September and haven't seen them since they came to a Christmas dinner at our house couple years back, a dinner of gnocchi and pork ragù.

Pesto Pizza Topped with Arugula and Mortadella

Despite the high temperature for the day in the low 90s, it was pleasant enough for us to sit out in the courtyard of our house, situated on the cooler east side. I didn't think it was going to happen, but we were cool enough until I fired up the pizza oven, that fire-breathing dragon pointed right in my direction.

Rob, Dyce, and Queen Ann

Neil and Lynne

The Queen and Her Rosé

Patty Green Helen Duschee Tempranillo Rosé
Our Go-To Patio Wine for 2024

To go with our rosé, red wine never being a thought this time of year, I put together a small antipasto board of tomatoes, pesto-marinated bocconcini, giardiniera, olives, Calabrese salame, finocchiona, rosemary crackers, and two spectacular washed rind cheeses, one from Vermont, the other from Switzerland. From Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont, we got a whole Willoughby, a small washed rind cow's milk cheese that has a soft buttery paste. From Switzerland, we got a piece of Aarewasser (literally Aare water) raw milk washed rind cheese that was phenomenal.

Antipasto Board

For pizzas, I set up to do a couple of different base pies and then provided extra toppings for people to add to their slices after the pies came out of the oven. For the pie bases, I had some fresh mozzarella, 'nduja, olive oil, pesto, and a can of San Marzano tomatoes. For additional toppings, we had arugula which Ann and I dearly love on pizza, fresh basil, extra pepperoncini, a block of pecorino romano, several slices of really fine mortadella, and a batch of honey with crushed Calabrian chili for those of us who like a bit of spice with our pizza.

My favorite pie was probably 'nduja and mozzarella topped with arugula and drizzled with Calabrian chili-honey.

Toppings: Arugula, Basil, Pepperoncini, Pecorino,
Mortadella, and Calabrian Chili Honey

First Pie: Margherita, the Classic
Hand-Crushed San Marzanos and Fresh Mozz
Torn Basil and a Drizzle of Olive Oil After Cooking

Pesto with Black Olives and Pepperoncini

After pizzas, we finished with an espresso sorbet that I made from espresso, sugar, salt, and a touch of vodka to help minimize crystallization. It was far too dark when I served it to take photos.

As I mentioned earlier, I think we are narrowing in on the ideal pizza recipe. This batch of dough, I made with King Arthur all-purpose flour, the retail equivalent of the Sir Gallahad flour we used to use at the restaurant, instead of Caputo 00. I like the flavor of this dough better than the more traditional Neapolitan dough made with the stronger Caputo 00. King Arthur AP has 11.7% protein versus 13.5% in Caputo's 00. Given that at retail here in the middle of nowhere Oregon I can only find King Arthur, I'm going to stick with it.

This batch was 65% hydration, 3% salt, and 2% yeast. Pizza recipes, like many doughs, are expressed as baker's formulas. So when I say 65% hydration, the water would weigh 65% of the amount that the flour weighs. So if I were starting with 1000 grams of flour, I would add 650 grams of water (and 30 grams of salt and 20 grams of yeast).

Given that I wanted to make a batch of eight 250-gram dough balls (a total of two  kilograms), using my baker's formula, simple algebra told me how much flour, water, salt, and yeast would yield two kilos of dough. And by the way, bakers and pastry chefs use metric amounts almost exclusively and they weigh everything. The math is way simpler when compared to using arbitrary English amounts and there is no mixing of volumetric amounts such as cups of flour and weights such as a half an ounce of salt.

Over the last series of experiments, we determined that we like 65% hydration versus the easier-to-handle 60%. 65% water to 100% flour is about as wet a dough as I feel comfortable handling right now, but I also think that the results are fantastic, so I am not sure that I will try to push the hydration further.

Another factor is the length of proofing, that is, the time that the yeast takes to cause the dough to rise. To a point, the longer the yeast works, the more flavor it gives the dough. We know empirically from previous tests that we like a dough that has taken 24-48 hours to sit and come together. I started this dough at 3pm on July 3, let it have its first rise on the counter over about three hours, and then balled it and refrigerated it overnight. I removed it from the refrigerator at 3pm the next day, and let it rise unrefrigerated until I fired the first pie at about 7:30pm.

Also critical is managing the heat of the pizza oven. Heretofore, I had cooked pies on max blast and at 7/8 max blast. Neither was really optimal, cooking the top way faster than the bottom and leaving the interior of the crust just slightly undercooked. I'm picking nits here, trying to make professional quality pizzas, not merely good enough pizzas.

This time, I tried a different technique. While I heated the stone in the oven on max blast, when I went to fire a pie, I turned the flame all the way down. This increased the cook time by at least half, from 60 seconds to about 90 seconds. This yielded a much more cooked bottom crust and a fully cooked interior.

I thought the next to last pie had too cooked a bottom (I was the only one who thought this) so the final pie, I turned the flame back to a quarter rather than all the way down. Consensus was that this pie was undercooked. So all the way down in the future it is.

Spring on Tumalo Mountain

I last climbed Tumalo Mountain (elev. 7700 feet) in September after it cooled off last year. At the very tail end of the season, it was just the rabbitbrushes in bloom. I wanted to climb it again in the spring just to see what the differences in seasons are. And it has just finally warmed enough for most of the snow to melt, leaving a passable trail. The window to hike it between snowmelt and it becoming ungodly hot on the exposed upper half of the mountain is narrow. And so yesterday, I headed out and up before the temperatures headed for near 100 degrees at week's end.

Last September, I was just regaining some fitness after spending mid-February through early June in a cast following surgery on my broken foot. It was a struggle up the mountain, which gains 1400 feet of elevation in two miles, and maybe even a bigger struggle back down in my less than fit state. I stopped probably once every five minutes on the ascent to catch my wind and towards the end of the descent, I stopped here and there to rest my aching right knee.

This trip up, I climbed for a solid 30 minutes before pausing to take a breather. Including rest breaks, I climbed the two miles in 50 minutes. I am much more fit this year than last for which I am happy and for which I have also worked hard. Given that the snow has just melted (or nearly so), there are very few wildflowers in bloom especially down low below the tree line.

Mt. Bachelor from the Tumalo Mountain Trail

Below 7000 Feet, The Most Common Flower
Alpine False Dandelion, Nothocalais alpestris

Above 7500 Feet, Ubiquitous Patches of
Drummond's Anemone, Anemone drummondii

Drummond's Anemone Foliage

Drummond's Anemone Under Whitebark Pine, Pinus albicaulis

California Jacob's Ladder, Polemonium californicum

Tips of South Sister and Broken Top Emerging Over Snowfield

South Sister Through Whitebark Pines
Drummond's Anemones on Ground

South, Middle, and North Sisters; Broken Top

Middle and North Sisters, Broken Top

Collapsed Crater of Broken Top

South Sister

Mt. Bachelor

On the way down, I took advantage of the clearish day (southern sky is hazy from the Darlene 3 fire in La Pine) to shoot the skyline to help me learn the peaks south of us.

Peaks South of Us (Click Through to Read Labels)

After a quick and uneventful 40-minute trip down to the Dutchman Sno-Park parking lot, I decided to go poke around in Dutchman Flat now that the snow is melted to see what if anything was blooming. After slogging a half a mile through loose sand in the now warming day, I called it quits, the flat barren of any interesting flowers. I was, however, impressed at how high the ski area signs are. I placed a leaf on the post at 6 feet off the ground so that I could estimate how high the pole is. I'm going to guess 15 or 16 feet. That's a lot of snow.

Skiers to the Left, Snowshoers to the Right

I noticed all along the roadside leading up to the parking lot just opposite the entrance to Mt. Bachelor lots of flowers in bloom, including big stands of bright red scarlet gilia and big patches of low-growing purple blooms which I assumed to be penstemons. Along the parking lot, I found out that some of the low-growing patches are penstemons while others are lupines.

Dwarf or Pacific Lupine, Lupinus lepidus

Small-Flower Penstemon, Penstemon procerus

Now that I have done Tumalo this year, I want to go climb Paulina to witness the large bloom of both paintbrushes and mat-forming penstemons at the top. I know from experience that I need to wait a few more weeks for that. At the summit at 8000 feet, 300 feet above Tumalo, the snow is just melting and the plants are just starting to grow.

Deschutes River Trail: Riley Ranch to Tumalo

I haven't done much exploring along the Deschutes on the north side of Bend, which makes some sense as we live on the south side of town. I was going to walk from Sunriver to Bend, but that's a point-to-point walk requiring a ride and, unfortunately, Ann had come down with a June cold and wasn't up to driving me. So, I decided to tick Riley Ranch off my list and while I was at it, walk to the town of Tumalo and back. Riley Ranch sits on the east bank of the Deschutes just at the northern end of Awbrey Butte.

Bend Parks and Recreation acquired the 184-acre Riley Ranch Nature Reserve in 2017. Once known as Gopher Gulch, it was renamed Riley Ranch Nature Reserve in honor of O.B. Riley, who made an original homestead claim on a portion of the property and after whom nearby O.B. Riley road is named. As a nature reserve, the park is largely undeveloped saved for a few improved paths. Unlike most Bend parks, dogs are not allowed here to protect the local wildlife.

While I did not see any wildlife, a few birds excepted, parts of the river trail were littered with big mule deer tracks. The canyon wrens were singing up a storm and I did see a jay harassing the hell out of a Red Tail Hawk, but that's about it. To be fair, I did not arrive until 8:30am, so I am sure that there is more wildlife to be seen closer to sun-up. It's light enough to see outside this time of year from 4:30am on. 

From the parking lot, I walked the park clockwise by staying left at each path, ultimately descending into the Deschutes River canyon. I followed the river north through the park, across private property, into Tumalo State Park, and then across O.B. Riley Road to Oregon Route 20 at the town of Tumalo where I turned around. On the way back, I continued to stay left once in Riley Ranch and so I walked almost all of the trails in the park, save for one short connector trail. All in all, I walked around 10 miles.

Based on my experience, I would not walk beyond the southern edge of the developed part of Tumalo Park. The park itself was wall-to-wall screaming kids at summer camp and there is really nothing much of interest from the park to Tumalo. I just wanted to experience that section of river for myself once, but I would not do it again.

The following photos are roughly in the order that I shot them. Unfortunately, I was trying out a new photography technique that resulted in super-grainy photos, but they serve their purpose in documenting this stretch of the river.

Just off the parking lot, you find yourself in pretty typical terrain, a large flat ringed by both junipers and pines, populated mainly by silvery sagebrush with a smattering of bright green rabbitbrush thrown in for seasoning. Working west to the river canyon, you find yourself about 100 feet above the river for a ways before descending into the canyon and circling to the far south of the property before heading north again along the river.

First View: Mt. Bachelor

A Non-Native Weed, Spiny Sow Thistle, Sonchus asper
But Handsome Nonetheless

Moon and Juniper

Cones at the Base of a Large Ponderosa

Broken Top and the Three Sisters Over Sagebrush Flat

Juniper Snag Atop Basalt Lava Flow

Oregon Sunshine, Eriophyllum lanatum

Once halfway down the canyon to the river, I started seeing lots of campions. In fact, in one section of trail, I saw more campions in a single field of view than I have seen in all my life put together. Thousands upon thousands of these pretty white flowers graced both sides of the trail. Our local campion is commonly called Douglas' Catchfly.

Douglas' Catchfly, Silene douglasii

Unlike elsewhere along the river that I have visited in recent weeks, the balsamroots are still in bloom, though getting near to their end. Generally they do not grow so close to water as you see in the photo below.

Carey's Balsamroot, Balsamorhiza careyana

Close Up of Carey's Balsamroot

First Ripening Wax Currants of the Year, Ribes cereum

The Deschutes Here is More Like a Creek
After Irrigation Diversions

Cushion Wild Buckwheat, Eriogonum ovalifolium

Bird's-foot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus

More Trefoil and Domestic Clover

Lewis' Mock-Orange, Philadelphus lewisii

Douglas' Dustymaiden, Chaenactis douglasii

First Scarlet Gilia of the Year, Ipomopsis aggregata

One of My Favorite Summer Wildflowers
Large-Flowered Collomia, Collomia grandiflora

Stunning Woods' Rose, Rosa woodsii

Unusual Flower Form, a Packera or Senecio

First Blooming Ocean Spray of the Summer, Holodiscus discolor

Around Here, Ocean Spray Likes Rocky Areas
Such as This Talus Slope and Lava Fields

Steel "Boardwalk" in Tumalo State Park

Starting in Tumalo State Park, I started seeing yellow ray flowers with highly serrated leaves, a type of flower that I did not know before this hike. While the leaves are similar to the ultra-common Spearleaf Agoseris, Agoseris retrorsa, the bloom habit is highly variable and very different to the agoserises. In some plants, the blooms somewhat resemble the rabbitbrushes.

Tapertip Hawksbeard, Crepis acuminata

Another Tapertip Hawksbeard

First Western Spirea Blooms of the Year, Spirea douglasii

Odd to Find Multiflora Roses Along the Deschutes

Nearly Blue Western Blue Flag, Iris missouriensis

Western Swallowtail on a More Typically Colored Iris

Hawkweeds, Hieracium sp., Are Everywhere

Dramatic Common Mullein Foliage and Buds, Verbascum thapsus 

Bushy Blazing-Star, Mentzelia dispersa

Female Black-Headed Grosbeak

As the calendar moves on towards July, the lavender ray flowers start to open, the asters, the Erigerons, and the Townsendias. I saw plenty on the day, but I have a hard time telling one from another.

Showy Townsendia, Townsendia florifera

A Tall Fleabane, Erigeron sp.

A Short Fleabane, Erigeron sp.

One Final View of Canyon Floor, Ponderosas and Sagebrush

Riley Ranch is really another gem in the portfolio of Bend Parks and Recreation. I am really looking forward to showing it to Ann.