Farmer-Owned North Fork 53 Agritourism Opens on Coast

While some chefs design their plates after the natural settings in which their ingredients are found, North Fork 53 is that natural setting: It is a new food-focused bed and breakfast and farm located on Oregon's north coast near Nehalem, where every meal is made with produce grown on the farm or from a neighboring farm. This past Saturday, October 10, was its grand opening, and now its doors are open to those who want to learn about harvesting and cooking—and spend the night, too.

In a time when Afar magazine will dedicate a feature to foraging on the Oregon coast with Holdfast chefs Will Preisch and Joel Stocks, North Fork 53 promises to actually take you foraging on the coast. Through tours and workshops, North Fork 53 teaches where food comes from and how to prepare it. In its words, it lets you be a "homesteader." You can grab eggs from the coop for breakfast; drink afternoon tea among the crops; milk cows and learn to make cheese; go foraging and fishing on the coast; and learn things like basic butchery and how to cook over an open fire.

Ginger Edwards founded North Fork 53 to connect people curious about food with the local farmers, fishers, foragers, and chefs of the Oregon coast, such as Nehalem River Ranch and Community Supported Fishery. She's the head of the local farmers market and founder of R-Evolution Gardens, a 62-member CSA farm.

North Fork 53 has four bedrooms and accepts reservations through its website.