Country Willows Bed and Breakfast Inn

Harry and David Factory Tour

by Rixie

Harry and David, the gourmet food basket company, has a main branch in Medford, about 10 miles away from Ashland, and they give free tours of their factory.

I had often ordered gifts from them, but I never thought I would actually get to see what went on behind the scenes. It was fascinating - like following Willie Wonka.

We saw them mixing up a batch of their trademark snack, Moose Munch: mixing popcorn into a huge vat of chocolate via a machine that looked like a small Ferris wheel, and adding big slabs of butter to the mix. No calories there! (It's something I conveniently block out when eating their addictive holiday Moose Munch - dark chocolate, popcorn, and bits of peppermint stick.)

I was impressed by how meticulous they were. If an item containing peanuts is being made, anyone working on it wears gloves that are a certain color. When that batch is finished, the machinery is taken apart, and all of the parts are washed individually - a two-day process. As someone who suffers from peanut allergies, I appreciate the care they take.

Much of Harry and David's packing and gift wrapping is still done by hand, which was very cool to watch. A worker stacked boxes to make a gift tower, and the tower rolled on a conveyor belt onto a machine where ribbon was zipped around it. Another worker stuck a bow on top and took it off the belt.

My husband went along on the tour only as a favor to me, but he ended up enjoying it as much as I did!

1314 Center Drive, Medford, OR 97501. Open 7 days a week. Call for tour times.

A Bit of Theater in the Mountains

by typhoidmary

"A town with a little bit of everything"

Ashland is the home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Some of the festival plays are performed in the outdoor Elizabethan Theater, but if the Bard is not to your taste, there are also various other theater groups offering a wide range of fare from musicals to experimental theater. If you are not a theater type of person, there are also a wide range of musical offerings and art galleries. There is also a wide array of excellent restaurants.

If you are more of an outdoor type, Ashland is is a short drive from Crater Lake National Park, located at the headwaters of the Rogue River. There is also skiing at Mt. Ashland where there are 23 ski runs, 80 miles of cross country trails. In the center of town, you can find the Bear Creek Bike and Nature Trail. The trail runs along Bear Creek, then down the valley to Medford. You can also go river rafting on the Rogue and Klamath Rivers or fishing for steelhead, salmon and trout in many of the nearby lakes.

All of my trips to Ashland have been for the Western Regional Epidemiology Network (WREN) annual meeting (an event you might want to avoid, unless you like environmental epidemiology geeks like me), but I have never been able to resist staying a few extra days.