The CSA Cookbook Road Trip: Bainbridge Island, Portland, and Willamette Valley!

Above: Chatting with a passionate group of edible gardeners and urban homesteaders at cluck! urban farm supply in Providence, Rhode Island.

This post is bittersweet for me. It’s the last leg of The CSA Cookbook Road Trip, but marks a drive I’ve always wanted to do since moving to California — Highway 101 down the coast of Oregon and Northern California. I’m over the moon to be visiting three places on the west coast that are completely new to me: Bainbridge Island, Portland, and Willamette Valley.

June 24 is my last official book tour stop, and the week remaining will be spent exploring the Redwood Coast before we finale in Lake Tahoe, and then home to Los Angeles. But all of that still feels worlds away!

This past weekend in Vermont, we reached the Hump Day point of our road trip, exactly three weeks in with three weeks left to go. I haven’t calculated the total mileage thus far, but I’m guessing we’ve logged at least 5,000 miles on our Kia Sedona MPV (which, by the way, we’re loving more and more as we wander on dozens of scenic byways).

We’ve also reached a milestone in the trip where all the signs are starting to point west… and I’m looking forward to meeting my Midwest readers in Chicagoland and the Wisconsin River Valley this week!

Saturday, June 20 at 1 pm – Bainbridge Island, WA
Eagle Harbor Book Co.
Following the Saturday morning farmers’ market, I’ll be giving a talk, answering questions, and signing books at Eagle Harbor Book Co. This will be a fun and informative event to learn how to use all those fresh vegetables you just picked up, with as little waste as possible! (And you might be surprised by all the unconventional parts you can actually eat.) Books will be available for purchase.

Monday, June 22 at 7 pm – Portland, OR
Broadway Books
I know there are plenty of kindred spirits in Portland, and I can’t wait to meet you all! Join us for a book talk, Q&A, and signing. I’ll be discussing common food myths and the surprising parts of plants you might not have known were edible. Books will be available for purchase.

Wednesday, June 24 at 7 pm – Corvallis, OR
Grass Roots Books and Music
The only reason I’m looking forward to the final stop on The CSA Cookbook Road Trip is my visit to one of the most passionate food and farming communities on the west coast! Come out for a conversation on CSAs and local food, and learn how you can make the most of vegetables you buy or grow. Books will be available for purchase.

To see where else I’ve been on my book tour this spring, check the Events page. And if you want to follow along on The CSA Cookbook Road Trip, I made a fun interactive map on Roadtrippers of our tentative route. I imagine we’ll be making plenty of turns off the beaten track, but if there’s a particular place I should stop and see along the way, or a detour you think I’d like of some scenic, strange, or beautiful sight near you, please share!

The CSA Cookbook Road Trip on Roadtrippers!

I am especially excited to team up with Kia Motors USA on this adventure! They have generously offered to loan me a vehicle for the tour and I am thankful, thrilled, seriously stoked. For the journey, I’ll be putting the 2015 Kia Sedona MPV to the ultimate driving test. I’m talking national scenic byways, back roads, and farm roads… hundreds of hours on asphalt and gravel and probably a little dirt, too. I’ve never taken a Sedona on an adventure before (which Kia bills as a multi-purpose vehicle, mind you, not a minivan), so by the end of this book tour, we’ll see how it stacks up against an SUV.

Be sure to follow @gardenbetty on Instagram for daily updates and inspiration as I make my way across the country!