Portland Live Cam

Some of the country's most creative chefs are calling Oregon their home while winning awards internationally. They're drawn to the Pacific Northwest because of the natural market of fresh produce, seafood, nuts, wines, beers and berries.

Mushrooms: Rare trumpet-shaped chanterelles grow in foggy forests. Also found are shiitake, enoki, lobster and oyster mushrooms and gourmet morels. Falls City hosts a Mushroom Festival each year in celebration of local mushroom gathering. The United States Forest Service issues thousands of permits for the rare matsutake on the eastern slope of the Cascade Range.

Apples, Pears & Cherries: From along the Columbia Gorge in Hood River and Southwest Oregon apples and pears are shipped around the world. Oregon specializes in green Granny Smith, Gravenstein, Red Rome Beauty and Golden Delicious apples. Bosc, Red Blushed Comice, Nelis and Seckel pears contribute to Oregon's ranking as the third largest producer of pears nationally. Bing cherries, (named for a Chinese gardener who cultivated a large experimental fruit tree estate outside of Portland), can be found throughout western Oregon in the early summer.