2A — THE OBSERVER
THuRSday, FEBRuaRy 25, 2021
LOCAL/REGION
Today in Baker City barley malter shines in competition
History Tom Hutchison
Today is Thursday, Feb.
25, the 56th day of 2021.
There are 309 days left in
the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN
HISTORY:
On Feb. 25, 1986, Presi-
dent Ferdinand Marcos fled
the Philippines after 20 years
of rule in the wake of a taint-
ed election; Corazon Aquino
assumed the presidency.
ON THIS DATE:
In 1793, President George
Washington held the first
Cabinet meeting on record
at his Mount Vernon home;
attending were Secretary of
State Thomas Jefferson, Trea-
sury Secretary Alexander
Hamilton, Secretary of War
Henry Knox and Attorney
General Edmund Randolph.
In 1913, the 16th Amend-
ment to the U.S. Constitu-
tion, giving Congress the
power to levy and collect in-
come taxes, was declared in
effect by Secretary of State
Philander Chase Knox.
In 1919, Oregon became
the first state to tax gasoline,
at one cent per gallon.
In 1964, Muhammad Ali
(then known as Cassius
Clay) became world heavy-
weight boxing champion as
he defeated Sonny Liston.
In 1983, playwright Ten-
nessee Williams was found
dead in a New York hotel; he
was 71.
In 1994, American-born
Jewish settler Baruch
Goldstein opened fire with
an automatic rifle inside the
Tomb of the Patriarchs in the
West Bank, killing 29 Mus-
lims before he was beaten to
death by worshippers.
In 2010, in Vancouver,
the Canadian women beat
the United States 2-0 for
their third straight Olympic
hockey title.
Ten years ago: The Obama
White House broke decades
of tradition, naming Jeremy
Bernard the first man to ever
serve as social secretary in
the East Wing.
Five years ago: Marco Ru-
bio went after Donald Trump
during their Republican de-
bate in Houston, lacerating
the front-runner’s position
on immigration.
buys his barley
from Cornerstone
Farms in Wallowa
County
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY —
Behind the glass of beer,
with its photogenic bub-
bles and foamy white head,
there are Tom Hutchison
and his bags of Eastern
Oregon barley.
Hutchison’s place in the
brewing business isn’t the
most prominent.
Yet aside from the typ-
ical odes to pure spring
water and to hops, the
dried flowers that infuse
beer with its mouth-puck-
ering bitter bite, the
building blocks for a pint
of ale or lager are stacked
in Hutchison’s building
near the railroad tracks
just off Broadway Street in
Baker City.
And when it comes to
malting barley, a key ingre-
dient in beer as well as
many distilled spirits such
as whiskey and vodka,
Hutchison occupies a lofty
place among his peers.
Hutchison, who started
Gold Rush Malt in 2016,
swept three awards at the
annual Craft Malt Confer-
ence put on by the Craft
Maltsters Guild Feb. 10-12.
He won gold medals for
his pilsner and pale malts
during the online awards
ceremony that took place
Feb. 12.
He also will be care-
taker of the traveling Malt
Cup Trophy for the next
year as recipient of the best
of show award.
Hutchison said he
knew he won at least one
award. Officials from the
Guild told him in advance
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
Tom Hutchison, who owns Gold Rush Malt in Baker City, checks the steel drum where
barley is dried. He won three awards at the annual Craft Malt Conference the Craft Malt-
sters Guild held Feb. 10-12, 2021.
to ensure he would be
watching the awards cere-
mony, which, like the rest
of the annual conference,
took place remotely due to
the COVID-19 pandemic.
But when he heard his
name called not once but
three times, he was, he
admits, “just stunned.”
“It was way more than I
expected,” Hutchison said
Tuesday, Feb. 16. “It’s the
first time I’ve entered.”
He was the first malter
to win two gold medals
in a single competition,
according to the Craft
Maltsters Guild.
Hutchison competed
against 27 other malters
from seven countries, 17
states and one Canadian
province. Each of the 46
samples of malted barley
was evaluated in multiple
ways.
Researchers at Mon-
tana State University’s
Barley, Malt & Brewing
Quality Lab tested each
sample. Then, judges at
Elgin School Board to consider
outdoor education options
By DICK MASON
The Observer
ELGIN — Fifth and
sixth graders at Stella May-
field School, Elgin, will not
be making an overnight trip
to the coast this spring.
However, the students
still could get the oppor-
tunity to have an outdoor
school experience.
Elgin
School District
Superintendent
Dianne Greif
told the school
board Monday,
Feb. 22, that
Greif
rules regarding
the use of Measure 99
funds for outdoor experi-
ence trips due to COVID-19
restrictions prohibit over-
night journeys. The district
has used Measure 99 funds
in recent years to pay for
annual overnight trips to
the Oregon coast for fifth
and sixth graders.
Measure 99, which
Oregon voters approved
in 2016, dedicates funding
from the Oregon Lottery
each year to give fifth and
sixth graders throughout
the state the opportunity to
receive a hands-on week of
science-based outdoor edu-
cation. The program is run
through the Oregon State
University Extension Ser-
vice. Guidelines on the
extension service’s webpage
on Oregon State Universi-
ty’s website indicate over-
night outdoor school is not
permitted at this time.
Greif said there still is
a possibility Measure 99
funds could provide an out-
door school experience for
fifth and sixth graders this
year.
“The board will be
looking at its options,”
Greif said.
Also on Monday, the
school board discussed the
success of the open campus
policy at Elgin High
School, which took effect in
November. EHS’s campus
had been closed since the
start of the 2020-21 school
year up to that point due to
the COVID-19 pandemic.
This meant EHS students
could not leave campus at
any time, including lunch
break.
The school board voted
to open campus after seeing
other high schools in Union
County were doing this suc-
cessfully. The board opened
EHS’s campus on the con-
dition it would review the
success of the step at its
monthly meetings.
Greif told the board on
Feb. 22 that giving EHS
open campus status con-
tinues to look like a good
move. She said the open
campus policy is not
sparking COVD-19 rule
violations.
“It is working well,”
Greif said. “Students are
respective of the process.”
RODEO
Continued from Page 1A
Jones said. “We are going
to have a Chief Joseph Days
rodeo. I’ve called all our
contractors and they’ve all
agreed to be here.”
That includes the live-
stock contractor Tim Bid-
well, who provides the
bucking horses, bulls and
calves that are essential
to the rodeo. Other con-
tractors and performers
who’ve committed to this
year’s CJD Rodeo include
long-time announcer Jody
Carper, rodeo bullfighters
Nathan Harp and Chuck
Swisher and specialty act
Magic in Motion Equine
Productions with Mad-
ison MacDonald. Her trick
riding and daring horse-
back leaps through flaming
hoops thrilled CJD rodeo
goers in 2018, and has
appeared at the National
Finals Rodeo nine years in
a row.
“The board wants to let
our supporters and fans to
Ellen Morris Bishop/Wallowa County Chieftain File
A saddle bronc rider shows good form on his bronc at the
2019 Chief Joseph Days Rodeo. After canceling the rodeo
in 2020 due to COVID-19, the rodeo’s board of directors
has confirmed the rodeo is a go for 2021 and is leaving
no room for doubt with the announcement, according to
board President Terry Jones.
know that we are having
the 75th CJD Rodeo, even
though it is the 76th year,”
Jones said. “Some of our
performers and contractors
have been asking, ‘What’s
Joseph going to do?’ Other
rodeos, including many in
Texas, the Midwest and the
Dakotas are planning to
hold their events in 2021.
So I called our contrac-
tors and said that we’re
having the CJD Rodeo and
we want you all here. And
they’re all going to come.
We have signed with them
all.”
That’s important because
this is the time of year when
advance ticket sales to the
permanent seat holders
17 sites around the U.S.
and Canada compared the
entries’ aroma and flavor,
including nibbling on the
kernels. Finally, in the last
round, additional judges
reviewed the lab results
and the other judges’ find-
ings to pick the winners.
In all, 83 judges par-
ticipated, according to the
Craft Maltsters Guild.
Hutchison said he was
pleased not only with
the recognition from his
industry but because the
awards validated his efforts
to improve every batch of
malted barley based on the
feedback he gets from the
brewers and distillers who
buy his product.
“I’m always tweaking
the process to make a
better quality malt,” he
said.
Hutchison buys his
barley from Cornerstone
Farms, operated by the
Melville family in Wallowa
County between Enterprise
and Joseph.
“It’s a variety of barley
that does really well in
these high mountain val-
leys,” Hutchison said.
“That’s the key.”
He said he’s a small-
scale malter, processing
55 to 60 tons of barley
per year. That equates to
about 20 acres of the grain,
Hutchison said.
He has about 10 reg-
ular customers, including
Barley Brown’s brewery
in Baker City, which uses
Hutchison’s malted barley
in its Pallet Jack India pale
ale.
Hutchison usually pro-
duces two or three batches
per month, each batch
yielding about 2 1/2 tons of
malted barley.
The bulk of his business
are the two types for which
he won gold medals — pil-
sner and pale malts.
He said those are a chief
ingredient in many types of
beers, both lagers and ales,
the latter being more pop-
ular among the hundreds of
craft brewers that have pro-
liferated in the U.S. over
the past few decades.
(The nomenclature is
potentially confusing, since
pilsner, in addition to being
a type of malt, also is a
style of lager beer.)
Hutchison said the prev-
alence of India pale ales,
such as Pallet Jack in the
Northwest, has cast atten-
tion on the role hops plays
in flavoring beer.
Most beer aficionados,
he said, are at least some-
what familiar with hops.
Malt, by contrast, is some-
thing of a forgotten ingre-
dient, he said.
He chuckled as he noted
that people, on learning
what he does for a living,
ask him, “How’s the hop
business?”
Hutchison has to
explain, “That’s not what
I do.”
Although the type of
malt affects the color of
beer — the shorter the
drying period, the light-
er-colored the kernels
and the resulting brew —
Hutchison said the malting
process can also affect the
flavor of the beer.
That’s particularly so
with beer styles such as pil-
sners, he said, which have
relatively small amounts
of hops, meaning the malt
contributes much more to
the beer’s flavor palette.
Hutchison said he can’t
predict whether his awards
will bring new customers
for Gold Rush Malt. For
now, the pandemic remains
a major factor.
With restaurants and
bars closed or severely
restricted for much of the
past year, demand for his
malted barley has dropped
by 60% to 70%.
“I can produce more
if the demand is there,”
Hutchison said. “We’ll wait
and see, I guess.”
Effort aims to help feral cats in Richland
By SAMANTHA
O’CONNER
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — A
group effort is underway to
help a colony of feral cats
in rural Baker County.
Best Friends of Baker
Inc. is working with other
organizations after a call
from a Richland resident
who lives next door to the
property where an esti-
mated 80 cats are living.
Phoenix Dawn wanted
to help her neighbors, so
she reached out to Best
Friends and created a Go
Fund Me account.
“There were about 30
cats inside and maybe 50
cats outside,” said Farrell
Riley-Hassmiller, the vol-
unteer cat coordinator with
Best Friends.
Groups working with
Best Friends to help the
cats and kittens are: New
Hope for Eastern Oregon
Animals, Blue Mountain
Humane Society in La
Grande, Pendleton Paws in
Pendleton, Fuzzball Rescue
start. Assurances that their
seats will have a rodeo
to watch are considered
critical.
“We try to have the per-
manent seats paid for in the
middle of March before the
court starts selling tickets
at spring break time in late
March,” Jones said.
This year’s CJD court
remains the same as last
year’s: Destiny Wecks,
Casidee Harrod and Bri-
anna Micka. In 2020, each
member of the court ranked
equally with the others as
an honor court. This year,
Jones said, that designation
will continue.
“We are going to keep
the honor court designa-
tion. They’ll sell tickets
and receive commission
as usual. But it will not be
competitive,” Jones said.
“And we’ll offer the court
members some incentives,
based on the number of
tickets they sell as a group.”
Jones and the board rec-
ognize that there might be
some COVID-19-driven
changes in an otherwise
and Cat Utopia in Herm-
iston, Humane Society in
Portland, and Cat Adoption
Team in Sherwood.
“It’s amazing,”
Riley-Hassmiller said.
In addition to providing
medical care to the cats
that need it, Best Friends is
seeking to spay and neuter
the animals as quickly as
possible to prevent further
breeding and an increase
in the colony’s population.
Baker County is at a
disadvantage because there
isn’t a local shelter for cats.
“That’s why most of
these cats are going else-
where,” Riley-Hassmiller
said. “We’re very fortunate
to have that network and to
be able to help.”
Riley-Hassmiller said
Best Friends is using
vouchers from the Mollie
Atwater Spay and Neuter
Fund to help Dawn.
New Hope had made
a donation to an account
in Dawn’s name at the
Animal Clinic of Baker.
Blue Mountain Humane
normal rodeo. But they
also anticipate being able to
adapt.
If there are some regula-
tions that, for example, for-
bade the Thunder Room’s
indoor dances and social-
izing, those kinds of activ-
ities could probably be
moved outdoors. Jones also
was upbeat about holding
the Back Country Bash, a
music event at the rodeo
arena the week following
CJD.
“Even if regulations are
what they are now,” he said,
“we could hold it because
it’s outside.”
The exception to holding
all the “normal” events
might be the Nez Perce
friendship gathering and
feast.
“The Nez Perce have
been hit hard by the corona-
virus,” Jones said. “Many
of the people who partici-
pate in that feast are elders.
We don’t want to create a
situation that would be bad
for them, or anyone who
attends.”
The CJD board will con-
Society was willing to take
on all indoor cats at its
facility as a holding space
before sending them to the
other rescue homes. The
organization will process
the cats, check them for
ringworm and pneumonia,
and assess how social the
cats are.
From there, a majority
of the kittens were sent to
Fuzzball Rescue, Herm-
iston. Several cats with
ringworm were sent to the
Pendleton Animal Welfare
Shelter and Cat Utopia,
also in Pendleton.
The Cat Adoption
Team in Sherwood, south
of Portland, agreed to
take the cats and kittens
who were positive for
Feline Leukemia Virus
and immunodeficiency,
Riley-Hassmiller said.
The Oregon Humane
Society agreed to take in
the senior cats that are
social, and the organiza-
tion sent a truckload of
donations, including food,
kennels and supplies.
sult with those who usu-
ally attend, including tribal
elders from Lapwai, Idaho;
the Umatilla Reservation;
and Nespelem, Washington,
before making a decision
about that event.
Jones credited the gen-
erosity of the community
for providing the financial
foundation to move forward
positively in planning this
year’s CJD Rodeo.
“We refunded a ton of
ticket money,” Jones said.
“But there were a lot of gen-
erous people who donated
their 2020 ticket purchase to
the rodeo rather than taking
refunds. That’s appreci-
ated more than anyone will
know.”
Many sponsors also
donated their 2020 spon-
sorships to CJD at a time
that was financially dif-
ficult for some of them.
Their donations totaled
more than $15,000 and pro-
vided funding for scholar-
ships, repairs to the arena
and other facilities and
helped the rodeo get set up
for this year, Jones said.