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I've taken so many pictures of Wy'east from the corner of NE 122nd and Shaver and have name-checked Rossi Farms more times than I can count and even featured it in a picture or two but I've never really taken a picture that makes the main buildings the star of the show. Well, for that, this:
This is one of the houses, presumably an office of some sort, and the barn of the small, actual-working spread known as Rossi Farms (Since 1880, boasts the sign). It's adjacent to Parkrose High School,and generally speaking clings to the south side of NE Shaver Street between the Parkrose Middle School campus and part the way into the 12600 block, its 24.5 acres (approximately my estimate) riven into asymmetrical halves by the superduperblacktop of NE 122nd Avenue.
The bigger half, that east of 122nd, is where all the growing occurs. I've seen a variety of things grown there in my going to and fro over the years. The smaller part, west of 122nd, holds the farm's offices and barn and various venues for holding events (there was at one time a small line of Western-style storefronts). Today I saw grape vines and a goat meandering amongst them.
It's always in immaculate shape. And it seems out of place now, but there was a time, about a century ago, and less than that, when the entire landscape between what was then the eastern edge of the city of Portland and whatever there was at the time of Gresham, Fairview, and Troutdale was a patchwork quilt of similar farms.
Rossi Farms. The last farm standing, and an echo of a time when Multnomah County was rife with farmers, just like the rest of the Willamette Valley.
So it goes.
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