Tempo readers were either intrigued or completely put off by the concept of eating as a meditation, mentioned in my Friday dining review. I knew before writing it that some would entirely dismiss the notion that mindful eaters can happily consume smaller portions and find greater pleasure in their food, as many health experts recommend.
Now that I’m about to suggest a similar theory, here’s a disclaimer: Read no further if you find meditation as odd as a restaurant that serves no animal protein (like one meat-head exclaimed on the Mail Tribune’s reader forum).
In this age of busy households and convenience foods, the simple tasks associated with preparing food can actually be a means to relaxation. You don’t need to follow a Rachael Ray 30-minute recipe to find cooking stress-free. It’s all about the approach.
Visualize how you’re going to prepare your next meal. How will the heft of your chef’s knife feel in your hand? How will the freshly chopped parsley smell? What is the exact hue of the bell peppers you purchased?
Such sensory details associated with cooking seem mundane when the cook assigns them no importance. Yet when they represent a means to unwind at the end of a busy day, they somehow seem infinitely significant, able to sustain all good cooks through life’s stressors.
I realize many households multi-task through their meals, as I did last week preparing a much-anticipated dinner. After talking on the phone throughout my stint in the kitchen, I emerged after dinner with a full stomach but unsatisfied. Because I wasn’t concentrating on the process, I couldn’t enjoy my food as much as usual.
If weeknights just won’t allow you to devote your attention to cooking, try meditating on your food in much shorter intervals. When preparing a snack, listen closely to the snap of that fresh apple when you remove the core. Try to hold that fresh whiff of feta cheese in your nostrils.
Do these small observations boost enjoyment of your food? Let me know.

Two new Haikus in praise of two events sacred to The Fish Hack: Opening Day of trout season at Howard Prairie Lake and the return of North America’s least appreciated migratory birds.

I know, what does rythmic Japanese poetry and the Dead Indian Plateau have in common? Well, they both have The Fish Hack’s attention and get propped in The Fish Wrap more than just the fourth Saturday in April.

Trout jumps skyward
Teeth chattering. Snowflakes fall.
It’s Opening Day.

Everybody knows it snows on Opening Day at Howard Prairie, even when it doesn’t. At least, it makes for a better story.

And, last week at Emigrant Lake, I spied the first spring return of my favorite migratory bird. We have a lot in common…not pretty and rarely invited over for dinner. Yet we both serve a legit purpose in a society.

We make you people look good.

Bald head combats germs,
Pees down own legs to keep cool:
A turkey vulture.

With Michael Harthun at the helm for his senior season, the South Medford boys basketball team had to be considered one of the favorites to claim the 2008 Class 6A title.

Given the recent news that the Harthun family is uprooting and moving north this summer, that definitely puts a crimp in the Panthers’ prospects. But what does it really mean for South Medford, and for the landscape in the 6A ranks overall?

First of all, Harthun’s loss (or gain for another team) cannot be understated. The 6-foot-3 point guard ranked sixth in the state at 20 points per game and can typically be counted on for about five assists per game. Harthun’s ability to take over a game at any time has been well-documented, most notably the state championship game against Lake Oswego one month ago. Working with the Panther coaches, Harthun went from a set shooter on the perimeter to one of the state’s deadliest at pulling up from anywhere on the court to drain a pure jump shot. Always fearless, Harthun also made great strides this past season in his ability to take the ball to the basket and finish with either hand.

So, to say the Panthers won’t miss Harthun would be a major injustice. His name most definitely will be in the mix for 6A player of the year next spring, along with the likes of Oregon City’s Brad Tinsley and Sunset’s Garrett Sim.

But, the world still keeps on spinning in Panther-land even without Harthun. Juniors-to-be E.J. Singler and Mitch Singler were already in line for major roles next season, so that won’t change. They’ll both be charged with providing a little more offense, but both are capable of doing just that. At point guard, Gonzalo Duran-Chaparro proved in limited minutes last year that he can compete at the varsity level, and you can bet he’ll be asked to have a basketball in his hand from sunup to sundown throughout the summer. Griff Boyd was a standout on the JV team until a late call-up to the varsity, but he also showed tremendous poise when he got into the game. And prior to his injury, Conner Egan was one of South’s top players off the bench. That group alone makes the Panthers a contender for the Southwest Conference title. If Harthun were in the mix, who knows?

What will be most interesting to see is who steps up among the next wave of Panthers. If history has shown anything, it’s that there will be a player or two willing to put in the hours to develop into something special. Last year’s JV team certainly has candidates, but it will be up to them to take the next step.

And while it never hurts to have a major star leading your team, there’s no reason to think a team that plays together, works hard and commits to defense can’t come home with a state trophy.

While the Panthers must replace Harthun, he’ll be leaving a one-of-a-kind atmosphere he had at South Medford. That level of pandemonium can’t be found just anywhere.

The landing spot for the Harthuns is expected to be in father Steve Harthun’s territory as an insurance adjuster, from just north of Salem to the southern end of Portland. There aren’t too many 6A schools that fit in that landscape, but possibilities include Canby, Tualatin, Tigard and West Linn. Anyone familiar with the Portland area knows traffic concerns also are likely to eliminate some sites — sorry Beaverton-area schools — but anything is possible.

A dream scenario (nightmare for others) would be if Michael Harthun wound up at Oregon City to team with Tinsley, 6-9 post Sam Schafer and a host of talented young Pioneers. Oregon City would be my favorite to claim the 6A title next year even without Harthun. With him, forget about it. Of course, there’s only so many shots to go around, and it’s doubtful either premiere player would want to share the spotlight in their senior campaign.

Rumor-mill talk has Michael Harthun favoring Sam Barlow High School, partially because he knows a couple of their players, but given the distance from the Harthuns’ target area, that also seems unlikely. Barlow does, however, return three juniors-to-be who earned all-league recognition this past season.

A more likely scenario may be found at Canby, where the Cougars return 6-5 junior-to-be Cody Hickey (a first-team all-league pick) and second-team all-league senior-to-be Jake Fowler (6-4). Canby has been to two of the past three state tournaments under coach Dane Walker, and the Cougars have had no qualms over the years letting their guards dictate the action in spite of the presence of former Medford residents, centers Alex and Clint Chapman. Canby has also shown a knack for supporting its basketball team in recent years, with fans flocking to Mac Court in droves despite not having much to show for it. The Cougars went a combined 0-4 at the state tourney in 2007 and 2005. Something tells me that might change with Harthun at the helm, especially since he’s always saved his best for last.

Regardless of where Harthun ends up, that school will instantly become a challenger for the state title.

The Mail Tribune’s editorial advisory board will make its print debut this Sunday with the seven members’ views of the upcoming library levy. This advisory panel was created to give us some broader perspectives on issues from the community and our first couple of meetings suggest that we will indeed get that.

The library levy may not have been the best of topics to get opinions on, since there seems to be a heavy majority that agrees with the MT’s support of the libraries. But it’s interesting to see the different ways they approach the same subject.

Check it out on Sunday’s opinion pages.

(And, by the way, get ready for some big changes on our Web site — Wednesday is D-Day for a full-scale remake.)

While editing one of the newspaper’s columns last week, I did a little independent investigation on behalf of our recipe devotees.

Today’s piece by Corvallis writer Jan Roberts-Dominguez mentions green garlic, a bit of produce likely unfamiliar to those who don’t have home gardens like Jan. But non-gardeners should be able to find green garlic at farmers markets, Jan promised.

Indeed, I located this young garlic reminiscent of green onions at last week’s Medford gathering of the Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Market. Runnymede Farm of Rogue River sells bunches for $1.

On Jan’s suggestion, I chopped white and tender green portions in a food processor and blended the green garlic with several tablespoons of Best Foods mayonnaise. But, deviating from the composed salad recipe that accompanied her column in today’s A la Carte section, I added about 1⁄4 teaspoon of wasabi paste to my mayonnaise. Instead of folding the mayonnaise around grilled chicken, I simply used it as a condiment on my homemade tuna burger.

I never met a mayonnaise concoction I didn’t like, but the flavors were so compelling that I scraped the food processor bowl for that last bit after finishing my burger.

Tomorrow’s growers market offers shoppers their last chance to enjoy green garlic, for this year, at least. Because green garlic stalks are remnants of Runnymede’s efforts to thin its primary crop of mature garlic, they’re available in small quantities for only about three weeks in spring, said farmer Teri White.

The growers market assembles Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Medford Armory, 1701 S. Pacific Highway.

It’s time again for Fish Heads to join The Fish Hack in putting a little poetry in this here Fish Wrap:
It’s Haiku Monday, Week II. Last week had some pretty good come-back from you Fish Heads. LeAnn and her fish-chowing bear won top prize — a set of used Post-It notes off The Fish Hack’s desk.
This week, we ought to see some Easter fishing themes.

An Easter steelhead
And Fish Hack’s intelligence —
Not bright, but OK.

You remember Haikus. Three stanzas. Five syllables, then seven syllables and finally five syllables. All one theme, no rhyming required.

Here’s a blog-ender in deference to e-mails I see but never open…
Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam:
Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam
Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam.

We might not have libraries here anymore, but you Salmon Trolls are prepped for one storied salmon-fishing season in the oceans off the Southern Oregon and northern California coasts.

Federal Fish Heads at the Pacific Fishery Management Council today adopted the most liberal season possible for recreational chinook and coho fishing in the ocean here this year.

So liberal, in fact, that you can plan a trolling trip out of Brookings to fish for chinook on Mother’s Day.

Now, what better way to say, “I Love You, Mom” than getting your former Host Organism into a couple bright ‘nooks before she launches that morning’s Continental Breakfast over the charterboat’s transom.

The season breakdown is in The Fish Wrap on Sunday, then regurgitated in the Spring Fishing Guide that stinks up the regular rag on April 14.

But you web-heads get the skinny here first on the season in the Klamath Management Zone, which runs from Port Orford south into California’s Horse Mountain. A.K.A.: our main ports.

The chinook season begins May 5 and runs through Sept. 4, with a daily limit of up to two chinook 24 inches or longer.

Southern Oregon’s recreational coho fishing is lumped in with the Oregon coastal coho season. That opens June 23 and runs until Sept. 4 in the Oregon part of the Klamath Management Zone. However, coho fishing will close earlier if Oregon anglers catch the entire 50,000-coho quota before that date.

NoCal can be called NoCoho. Again, they have no fin-clipped coho season.

Trolling in mid-summer out of Brookings is the best way to add fresh ocean salmon to your Bio-Mass Footprint — That’s the amount of critters you kill and eat in your outdoor lifetime.

That’s true. Go look it up at the library.

Oh, never mind.

Just save a filet for The Fish Hack.