Green Tourism Corvallis!

Looking for those perfect treats for parties or hostess gifts? Tyee Wine Cellars, Bursts Chocolates and Hazelnut Hill are all decadent (and local!) options for you to choose from.

Tyee Wine Cellars

Tyee Wine Cellars, located near Corvallis, specializes in well-balanced food wines such as Pinot noir, Chardonnay, Pinot gris and Gewurztraminer. Their prices start at around $14 and they also offer special discounts and online ordering. To see where they are located and to find out more information, visit their website.

Burst’s Chocolates, located in downtown Corvallis, has been around since 1938 and makes small-batch gourmet chocolates that come in a wide variety of mouth watering flavors. From truffles to ganaches and honey caramels, they also take custom orders. Can’t decide what to choose? Try their 24-piece variety box! Click here to visit their website.

Burst's Chocolates

Last, but most definitely not least, is Hazelnut Hill. This working family farm offers crunchy delights such as flavored hazelnuts, chocolates and candies, dried fruits. andother varieties of nuts to choose from. They also have hazelnut pancake and waffle mix! In their gift shop, Hazelnut Hill offers visitors views of their candy-making/hazelnut-roasting facilities through windows in the shop. Check out their website here.

With Thanksgiving literally right around the corner and Christmas advertisments already popping up in between your favorite TV shows, the time has come to start thinking about what to get friends and loved ones this holiday season. However, just because you need a wide variety of gifts doesn’t mean that you can’t go local! Corvallis is full of local shopping opportunities, just check out our Cheep and Chic blog post about crafty events going on. Also, Winter’s Eve Corvallis is a great chance for you to scour Downtown Corvallis for gifts while getting dicounts and getting to taste some awesome food! Check out their website for more information and to find out where you can buy your ticket, but hurry, December 4th will come up faster than you think!

Teal Artist Co-op, another great local shopping opportunity

Not only has the time come to start thinking about gifts, but you also need a great Christmas tree for those gifts to go under! A great, local place to go to grab a tree (and some cool pottery) is Donovan’s Christmas Tree Farm. The farm is located in Corvallis, is family owned and operated and carries a generous selection of pre-cut trees, kept fresh in water. They also have a selection of discount trees, $10.00 and up. While you are on the farm, be sure to visit the pottery studio as well! It is open through the holiday season and stocked with Donovan’s hand made bowls, plates, vases and crystalline work.

Looking to meet environmentally-minded people? Green Drinks is a global organization that links together a mixture of people from government, academia, business, and anyone who is interested in going green or green issues. Every month,  people  meet up at these informal sessions.

The Green Drinks idea started in a pub in Northern London in 1989. Green minded individuals meeting together noticed another friend and his eco-conscious mates sitting nearby, so they pulled the tables together and the movement began. Now it is a global movement.
During each meeting (according to their website)  everyone invites someone else along, so there’s always a different crowd, making Green Drinks an organic, self-organizing network. It’s a great way to network with other professionals, meet new people, do deals and just have a good time.  The spirit of Green Drinks is that anyone can come, and this makes for interesting interactions.
There is now a Green Drinks group in Corvallis. Their next meeting is going to be on Tuesday, Nov. 17th from 6 to 8 pm at Squirrel’s Tavern on 2nd St. in downtown  Corvallis. For more information, contact Debra Hascall at d_hascall@yahoo.com.

This one’s too small, this one’s too big, this one is juuusst right! When it comes to hunting for halloween pumpkins, picking out a perfect pumpkin is often a daunting task. Do you want one that’s tall and skinny, or fat and squat? Whatever your pumpkin-preferences are, there are a variety of pumpkin patches in the Corvallis area to choose from.

Muddy Creek Pumpkin Patch, photo courtesy of www.muddycreekmaze.com

Muddy Creek Maze, located on Hwy 99W, which is known for his gigantic corn maze, boasts a gorgeous 2-acre pumpkin patch. They don’t take cards, however, so make sure to bring cash. Click here  for directions and more information.

Davis Family Farm, located on 4380 NE Hwy 20, is open daily from 9 am to 6pm. Hot beverages are offered to pumpkin-seeking visitors before they are taken out on a tractor to the pumpkin patch, Davis Family Farm accepts cards, checks, and cash and can be reached at 541-752-0697.

Heavenly Harvest Farm, photo courtesy of www.heavenlyharvestfarm.com

Heavenly Harvest Farm, located on 5757 NE Hwy 20, runs a Harvest Festival from Oct.1^st-31^st.  They also have a corn maze along with hayrides for pumpkin-seekers, corn cannons, apple launchers, and all other sorts of fun and entertainment. Heavenly Harvest is currently in the process of becoming a Certified Organic farm and accepts cards, cash and checks.  For hours and directions, click here.

Need more choices? If you want to expand your horizons and take your search to  patches outside of Corvallis, click here.

Midway Farms

Autumn has “fallen” upon us, whether you like it or not. Instead of mourning the loss of summer, why not take advantage of the seasonal bounty that comes with this season of multi-colored trees, funky gourds, and cool temperatures? For those looking to take advantage of the unique produce that comes with fall, head over to Midway Farms located on Hwy 20 between Corvallis and Albany.

 Midway Farms is a small, organic farm that is open year-round. According to the website, owner Cynthia Kapple started the farm in 1998, originally working 2.7 acres to supply her family and farm stand with fresh produce, cut flowers, and eggs. Now, Kapple works the farm with her husband and children and offers a place for others to sell their produce and homemade goods as well, so there are a wide variety of products (besides produce) to choose from such as soaps and jellies, crafts, garden art, and gluten-free baked treats. There are also a ton of different organic, free range eggs to choose from, sometimes including duck, turkey, or goose eggs.

Being a small, local farm that is open year-round, Midway Farms needs the support of its community members. So now that you know about it, go visit! Resist the urge to zip to Freddie’s next week and, instead, turn your weekly grocery-shopping trip into a fun excursion. Concord grapes, apples, Swiss chard, kale and collards are all in season right now along with potatoes, winter squash and herbs. For directions and more information, visit the Midway Farms website at www.midwayfarmsoregon.com.

I will leave Corvallis Tourism in a couple of days, which means I have to say goodbye to you guys, but our blog will be still continued. Please keep checking this wonderful site as it provides so many valuable information about the funs you can enjoy in local settings.

At last, I will especially thank Melinda Claire Stewart, the Public Relations Manager of Corvallis Tourism. She helped me a lot with blog ideas and corrections for English grammars and sentences. Without her help, my blog would not appear as nice as right now.

I am also very grateful for John Hope-johnstone, the President of Corvallis Tourism. It’s him who brought me to the Corvallis Tourism and let me have chance to make contributions to the blog. John is a very intelligent and experienced tourism communication expert. Corvallis Tourism would not have today’s achievements without his efforts.

So good-bye, my friends! Please continue to support Corvallis Tourism Industries, and I may also see you some time in the future!

Being the top rated Green Power Community by the EPA is a hard reputation to live up to.  The answer that Corvallis has mounted, is being designated a “Bike Friendly City” by Bike USA, and ranking ninth nationally by proportion of people who cycle to work. 

With over 60 miles of bike path to chose from, visitors and residents enjoy cycling through parks and within city limits.  The paths are so popular that it’s not uncommon for local vineyards to offer wine tasting to bicyclists.  In hopes that this “green” trend catches on, Corvallis Tourism is  offering wine biking tours in the summer.  This event is called ”Bicyclettes De Vin” and literally translates into “wine cycling”.   The tours can be found on the tourism bicycling website.

A more tailored approach is also being offered by using a new interactive bicycle map.  This allows people to select their distance and level of difficulty, which produces a personalized tour path.  There are also 27 route suggestions that can be found on the website.