A Little Country Secret

Our day trip today included a visit to the town of Harrisburg, a small community of 3630 residents, located on the banks of the Willamette River about 15 miles from Eugene.  Harrisburg has seen better days and most of the town consists of second-hand shops, a few tired restaurants, and the usual churches, schools, and residential areas.







Someone took a lot of time to make a stone fence with the card suits embedded in the stone.  The theme was repeated in the rest of the fence that ran in front of the house.  What Harrisburg does have is a very nice river front park, complete with gazebo. 

Can you imagine a neighborhood band playing some old tunes here on a warm summer evening, while kids run around playing and mom and dad sit on a nice soft blanket in the grass?



This is not a park where you want to take your eyes off the kiddos though. That bank is VERY steep and the park is just a wide strip that runs alongside. A slip here could prove disastrous.


Many places in our area are covered with daffodils right now.  There is even a daffodil festival going on this weekend.  Along the bank of the river, there were plenty of these yellow beauties, heralding the news that spring is just around the corner.










But this is NOT the country secret!

Just at the north end of Harrisburg, is Riverbend RV resort, with an included small hotel and restaurant.  Although this resort is only a few years old, it appears they have had some trouble with the ground settling.  They are right on the river and the ground no doubt is affected by ground water.  Some of the slabs are still nice but many are buckled and even have holes in them.  It’s a shame because it’s a beautiful location.  You can read about it by clicking on the link above.

But that’s not the secret either!  We drove on through the country side, just because it was a beautiful and day and because we could!  How’s this for an inventive mail and paper box?


We had read sometime ago in our local paper about a small bakery run by a Mennonite woman.  We didn’t know quite where is was but all of a sudden, along our drive, we spied it.  Just sitting there…waiting for us…and it was OPEN!!


This is our Country Secret!  Loretta Birky runs this bakery from her home and she is only open on Friday and Saturday – lucky us – today is Friday!  She does not have a web site, no telephone, and no advertising…just word of mouth. 
In her kitchen she has racks of home baked goodies and they all looked simply wonderful.  Of course we had to make a few purchases…












The maple nut twist is to die for.  Made with cinnamon roll dough, she adds walnuts and just the right amount of maple frosting on top.  Soft, gooey, delicious.  We also couldn’t pass up a loaf of lemon blueberry bread and a pan of bread pudding.  Now, I feel about bread pudding the way Rick does about white gravy on biscuits!  Don’t see how bread can be a pudding, but Russ loves the stuff and she had some sugar free!!  This bakery is about 10 minutes up the road from the RV resort so you could easily spend a couple of nights at Riverbend and make a visit to the bakery.
In another room, there are all kinds of handmade quilts, aprons, woodworkings, Mennonite cookbooks, and other handmade crafts.  I couldn’t pass up this spice pad.  It is stuffed with spice and when a hot pot is placed on it, the aroma of the spice is released.



Just a couple of shots of the grounds of the bakery.  You can sit and enjoy your treats right there or take them with you.  A visit to this bakery is WELL worth it, but let’s keep it our little secret. Wouldn’t want Loretta to sell out of all the good stuff!