Rossi Farms Barn Bash always a great time
The Memo was represented in full strength at the 10th annual Rossi Farms Barn Bash. Executive Editor Rich Riegel, Publisher Tim Curran and reporter Lee Perlman were all present and accounted for at the event.
Annually held at Rossi Farms on Northeast 122nd Avenue and Shaver Street the 10th Annual had an announced attendance of 2,000 and raised nearly $20,000 for the Parkrose Youth Activities Fund, a new Mid-county non-profit corporation.
Even Editor Darlene Vinson was on hand, working hard, covering the ongoing story that is Major League Baseball Parkrose phenom Eddie Kunz.
Well, just like visiting downtown Portland’s Saturday Market, for Memo Executive Editor Rich Riegel, it’s all about the food. This year, the fare at the Barn Bash was better than ever. The Parkrose Lions sure outdid themselves in the barbecue chicken department. Of course excellent spud salad, decent beans, good dinner roll, green salad.
One the highlights for the executive editor was visiting with some of the venerable names of Mid-Multnomah County, those remaining farmers represent the generations of immigrant Italians with last names like Garre and Spada.
I especially enjoyed running into my former landlady, Mary Pence, who I hadn’t seen in a decade. After striking up a conversation with Mary, I found out she also had roots in the Italian farming community of Portland, going back to her father, Gaetano Brunengo, who farmed in the former Sellwood Gardens area in days past. Brunengo was a member of the Gardeners and Ranchers Association, a group of Italian farmers who created their own way to sell their produce wholesale.
In fact, Gaetano Brunengo earned the distinction of being the last association member to transport produce to the Gardeners and Ranchers Association market in inner South Portland by horse-drawn wagon in the early 1930s.
Speaking of farming, I wonder for how many people at the event was it a case of the elephant in the middle of the living room: Here’s an event being held at Rossi Farms, but as readers of the Memo know, Rossi Farms is no more. Fourth-generation Italian farmer Joe Rossi decided to “throw in the trowel” and at this time, neighbor Albert Garre is farming Rossi’s land. And of course that brings up the matter of the nearby Garre land, some of which apparently will be turned into a park in the near future.
Marie and Albert Garre, left, chat with Barn Bash Host Aldo Rossi at the 10th annual event in Parkrose.
Joe Rossi said other events that the farm used to sponsor, like the Easter Egg Hunt and the Barn Bash, will continue at Northeast 122nd Avenue and Shaver Street.
The face of Mid-Multnomah County is changing, slowly. With annexation into the city of Portland in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the land in Northeast Portland west of the Gresham city line is becoming urbanized. It’s a natural evolution of the city’s Urban Growth Boundary plan, which means to conserve wild and farm land outside that boundary. So the farmland inside the Urban Growth Boundary is being squeezed out, ever so slowly, to make room for business and residential building. The whole affair has a sort of natural feel to it, like the pole bean climbing assuredly toward the sun. But it’s sad, in a way, to say goodbye to something some folks grew up with.
Having dinner are, from left, retired Portland firefighter Gerry Ahlstrom, J.P. Pierce representing Cleary’s Restaurant & Spirits and Menlo Park Florist’s Lynne Pohrman.
Can anyone remember when Portland International Airport was farmland?
Later on, at the Memo table, sitting next to Rex and Debbie Hollingsworth and their good-humored gang, I enjoyed the delicious homemade strawberry shortcake.
Having a good time in the new V.I.P. Section at the Rex Heating & Air Conditioning table are, from left, Debbie Hillingsworth, Rex Hollingsworth and Darlene Bond.
Got to mention another group in the same vicinity, the Stoll ensemble, including patriarch and matriarch of the Hollywood District Norm and Helen Stoll, along with son Wayne and daughter-in-law Alison Stoll, exec director of the neighborhood association umbrella group Central Northeast Neighbors.
So, did you enjoy yourself at the Barn Bash?
