1 Spring 2022 Applegater
Photo by Ali Mramor • applegater.org
SPRING 2022
Applegate Valley Community Newsmagazine
Volume 15, No. 1
Serving Jackson and Josephine Counties — Circulation: 13,000
Celebrating
~28~
Years
Bakers, bakeries, and
baked goods in the Applegate
BY DIANA COOGLE
A south-looking view from the proposed Upper Applegate Trail route. Photo: Luke Ruediger.
New hiking trail
design under way in
the upper Applegate
BY SUZIE SAVOIE
Hiking trails that use the easy contours
and established routes of historic water
and mine ditches are popular in southwest
Oregon, such as the Sterling Mine Ditch
Trail in Little Applegate, Layton Ditch
Trail in Williams, and Gin Lin Trail in
Upper Applegate, along with many local
trails that use portions of historic ditches.
Currently, the design of a new 9.3-mile,
nonmotorized hiking trail in the Upper
Applegate is under way that would use a
combination of existing mine ditches and
new trail construction.
The Upper Applegate Trail was
proposed by residents and collaborative
partners during planning for the Upper
Applegate Watershed (UAW) Restoration
Project through the Siskiyou Mountains
Ranger District. Luke Ruediger, executive
director of Applegate Neighborhood
Network and author of The Siskiyou
Crest: Hikes, History & Ecology, has been
designing, mapping, and flagging the trail.
The proposed trail would link existing
recreation areas at Applegate Reservoir
to Flumet Flat Campground and the
Gin Lin Trail with a 9.3-mile hiking trail
through portions of the Collings-Kinney
Inventoried Roadless Area.
See TRAIL DESIGN, page 16.
Grateful to live in
the Applegate Valley
BY SANDY SHAFFER
With the COVID-19 pandemic
forcing us to pretty much stay at home
for close to two years, I’ve come to realize
just how much I appreciate living in the
forested Applegate Valley, with very few
neighbors near.
No traffic, no horns blaring, no
solicitors knocking on the door at least
every week. But we’ve had plenty of time
to read a new book and lots of places to
take long walks with the dog and watch
the wildlife. I started keeping a diary of
which birds and four-footed critters come
back each spring or summer probably
20 years ago. After 23 years of living out
Whether you are looking
for the staff of life or a meal
or a sweet-tooth treat, you
can start and end your day
with great baked goods
from Applegate bakeries.
If you get to the Provolt
Country Store and Deli (see
page 24 for location) early
enough, you can munch on
a breakfast sandwich (egg
and bacon on an English
muffin) or treat yourself
Stoking the fire that bakes the bread in the Rise Up! oven.
to a fresh croissant or
Danish. “We are sold out
However, on this day of sampling
by 8:00!” says baker and sandwich-maker
Jennifer Crandall. “If you want something, Applegate bakers’ baked goods, maybe
you postpone dessert because you are
call ahead!”
Later, on your way to Grants Pass on your way to the Grants Pass Farmers
to do some shopping, you might stop Market, where you can pick up a small
at Pennington Farms for one of their package of Curly Top Bakery’s delicious
chicken pot pies for lunch. Longtime shortbread. Michelle Bernardi, Curly Top’s
Applegate resident Joan Peterson raves co-owner (along with her mother, Lonnie
about Pennington Farms’ chicken pot Kurth) learned baking in culinary school
pies: “Something about their sauce—the in Portland. When the owner of the Annie
most delicious creamy flavor—their crust Mac bakery retired, Michelle bought that
is outstanding. I could eat those pies from business and turned it into Curly Top
Bakery, next to the Applegate Store.
now till Doomsday.”
Michelle couldn’t tell me how many
Cathy Pennington and her daughter
Jackie started making baked goods cookies and baked goods she and the other
“to do something with the surplus of five bakers do in a day. “I just keep making
berries from the farm” after the day’s things until my arms fall off, and then I go
sales at the farm stand. Now Cathy and home,” she said.
Okay, but let’s say Curly Top’s goodies
Jackie, “along with dear family friends,”
try to keep up with the demand for their don’t fit your diet. No worries! Paulazzo
fruit pies, turnovers, and, of course, Pasticceria (pronounced “pasti-CHEER-ia”
chicken pot pie.
See BAKED GOODS, page 11.
Living out here gives us tasks to
do after winter is over, but before
fire season starts (historically:
anywhere from April through
June). So, it’s about time to get to
work with the chainsaw and then
the wood splitter. Hubby and I will
here, Hubby and I have
look for any dead fir trees, cut them
figured out who’s going to
down, and get them ready to split
show up when.
and stack for the woodstove next
Can you even imagine
fall. Our wood supply is pretty
having to stay at home
low, and we usually go through
all this time while living
over a cord of wood every winter.
in an apartment or house
But that’s the kind of work that
in Medford or Ashland? I
makes you feel good afterwards.
can’t! Fortunately, things
Sort of like when you were a kid
Keep spaces under decks and exterior staircases clean and free
are slowly coming back to
and learned how to make a batch
of dry vegetation. Sparks from a nearby fire could ignite leaves
normal, and the weather
of your father’s favorite cookies for
and the deck itself. Photo: Sandy Shaffer.
is looking a little bit like
Father’s Day—proud!
spring might be early this year. (And give us some more snow—right?! No
My least favorite task is cleaning out the
because I just put that in print, we’ll have problem for me. I’ll take snow and rain gutters. Hubby knows I don’t like ladders,
another winter storm come through and over heat any day of the week.)
See GRATEFUL, page 24.
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