Field Notes Symposium

Date: Friday October 23, 2026

Time: 

• Morning Session:

  • Doors open for light breakfast at 9:00AM

  • Speakers start at 10:00AM

  • Lunch from 12:45PM - 1:30PM

• Afternoon Session:

  • Doors open at 1:15PM

  • Speakers start at 1:45PM

  • Happy Hour from 5:00 - 6:00PM

  • Dinner from 6:00 - 8:00PM

Location:

The Redd on Salmon Street

831 SE Salmon St, Portland, OR 97214

Cost:

• Morning Session $115

• Afternoon Session $165

• Full Day $250

This symposium exists to tell the stories that rarely make it onto the menu or the label—the behind-the-scenes work of the people who grow, study, breed, process, and cook the food that feeds us. Farmers, plant breeders, food scientists, chefs, makers, and everyone in between carry an enormous amount of skill, risk, and care. Their ideas & work shape flavor long before a dish reaches a table.

Portland is lucky: Culinary Breeding Network has a rare ability to bring extraordinary people into the same room. But CBN events are busy by design—celebratory, dynamic, and full of moving parts—which means the deeper stories and accumulated knowledge can be difficult to share in a single afternoon. This symposium, organized by OSU Food Innovation Center in collaboration with Culinary Breeding Network, is a companion gathering created for longer conversations, demonstrations, eating together, and space to dive deeper into the stories behind the people who feed our community.

Food work is demanding. What keeps many of us going is passion—and each other. This event is here to nurture that community: to learn from one another and to leave with new relationships, renewed energy, and a stronger sense that none of us are doing this alone.

This symposium takes place the day before the Sagra del Radicchio e Fagioli, produced by Culinary Breeding Network. This year is particularly special because the woman behind Culinary Breeding Network, Lane Selman, is releasing her book in September all about our beloved winter vegetable radicchio. More information on the book, including a link for pre-ordering, is available here: https://www.culinarybreedingnetwork.com/radicchio-book

What your ticket includes:

• Morning Session ($115)

  • Morning talks & demonstrations

  • Light breakfast and lunch

  Afternoon Session ($165)

  • Afternoon talks & demonstrations

  • Group dinner prepared by local chefs at The Redd

  Full Day ($250)

  • The complete symposium, morning through evening

  • Light breakfast, lunch, and a group dinner prepared by local chefs at The Redd

Morning guests join us from doors through lunch (9:00 AM–1:30 PM). Afternoon guests join us by 1:45 PM and stay through dinner. Each ticket includes the sessions and the meal within its time block—meal-only tickets are not being offered, and the full experience of talks, demos, and tastings lives in the sessions themselves.

Featured Speakers & Chefs:

Morning Session:

Hot or Not Panel

• Lane Selman, OSU, Culinary Breeding Network

• Jim Myers, OSU Vegetable Breeder

• Nikki Guerrero, Hot Mama Salsa

The origin of Culinary Breeding Network, role of chefs in the breeding process, breeding for flavor without the heat in peppers.

Bill Tracy — UW-Madison Sweet Corn Breeder
The creative power of selection & the complimentary relationship between plant breeding and organic agriculture.

Mara King — Director of Fermentation & Sustainability at Id Est Hospitality
Bringing heirloom corn to Colorado farms and restaurants, mold-based fermentations, & experimenting with corn

Andy Garrison — Tuff Talk Distilling
Applying historical distilling techniques to niche and surplus fruit in a modern market.

Christine Walter — Bauman's Cider
Cider starts with the fruit — stories from the orchard.

Lunch by Ikoi no Kai & Umi Organic— School Cafeteria-style lunch from Portland's longtime beloved Japanese American community meal program in collaboration with Lola Milholland, founder of Umi Organic, who designed her organic noodles from day one for school cafeterias to get kids more Oregon-grown whole grains.

Afternoon Session:

Dry Farming & Creating Novel Markets Panel

• John Boyle, Market of Choice

• Mike Neubeck, Organically Grown Co.

• Gabrielle Roesch, Dry Farming Institute

How growers, retailers, and nonprofits team up to build new markets for the food system's next crops — from dry-farmed produce to radicchio.

Mariah Pisha-Duffly, Owner, Gado Gado & Oma's Hideaway
Mariah will be sharing her personal journey with food — from the family table she grew up around, to the restaurant world that reshaped her relationship with it, to how she's passing that evolving story on to her own family today.

From Grain to Loaf Panel

• Andrew Ross, OSU Cereal Chemist & Baker

• Mel Darbyshire, Head Baker of Grand Central Bakery

• Brigid Meints, OSU Grains & Pulses Breeder, Extension Specialist

Grain diversity, impacts on baking, multi-use grains, breeding for organic systems, and collaborations with Culinary Breeding Network.

James Cassidy, OSU Soil Scientist & Rockstar
Why soil is at the root of everything you know & love.

CBN Reflections & Stories

• Tim Wastell, James Beard Best PNW Chef 2025

• Lane Selman, OSU, Culinary Breeding Network

More Speakers TBD

Dinner by Tournant

Jaret Foster & Mona Johnson along with the Tournant team will prepare a family-style dinner, along with hearing about their roots and their early connection to Culinary Breeding Network

Follow @culinarybreedingnetwork and @osu_foodinnovationcenter on instagram for updates

Want to be part of Field Notes behind the scenes?

We're looking for a small crew of volunteers to help the day run smoothly — folks with food, hospitality, or events experience especially encouraged. If you'd like to join us, sign up here and we'll be in touch with details.

About the Hosts:

OSU Food Innovation Center

The Oregon State University Food Innovation Center (FIC) is a leader in food ingredient research, culinary innovation, and product development, offering >25 years of experience in supporting the food industry across technical, creative, and educational initiatives. FIC has worked on many high-visibility projects and collaborated with a diverse range of food companies, agricultural producers, food processors, commodity commissions, and industry associations to develop food products, characterize ingredients and their applications for new markets, build scientific capacity, lead international culinary missions, produce educational materials and workshops, enhance market competitiveness, and establish international presence for its clients.

Culinary Breeding Network

The Culinary Breeding Network, founded in 2011 by Oregon State University Professor of Practice Lane Selman, brings together plant breeders, farmers, chefs, seed producers, millers, distributors, food businesses, and eaters to actively participate in the development and promotion of flavorful, resilient crops. Rooted in Lane’s lifelong connection to agriculture, food, and culture, CBN creates opportunities for stakeholders to taste new vegetable, grain, pulse, and fruit varieties; share feedback; and help ensure breeding priorities reflect real-world culinary, agricultural, and market needs. Through working groups, field days, public tastings, chef collaborations, educational workshops, and joyful events such as Variety Showcase, Sagra del Radicchio, and Tomato Fest, CBN makes plant breeding tangible, exciting, and community-centered. The organization also supports the success of new crops and varieties through creative storytelling, branding, educational materials, media outreach, and partnerships that highlight the culinary, agricultural, and cultural value of diverse crops while strengthening regional food systems and lasting community connections.

Any questions about the symposium?

They can be emailed to FIC.PD@oregonstate.edu