Taste of home

Challenging the reign of that other Oregon product gift store, Oregon Maiden Outpost sets up shop in St. Helens

By Stover E. Harger III

The South County Spotlight, Mar 3, 2010, Updated Mar 3, 2010

Stover E. Harger III / The South County Spotlight

WALL OF FRUIT — Megan Blaser, 16, stocks the shelves of Oregon Maiden in preparation for the grand opening of her mother’s store this Friday.

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With hundreds of farms, craftspeople and artisans in the Pacific Northwest, even Dorene Kirkingburg – while setting up her locally- made gift store in Olde Towne St. Helens – is learning of new regional products everyday.

Kirkingburg, 50, is what you might call an expert on Northwest wares.

Since 2001, after being laid off from construction work, the

Warren resident started up a gift basket Web site (www.oregonmaidengiftbaskets.com) to supplement her income. It took off quickly, becoming so successful that she began shipping off basket after basket across the country.

Oregon-made products, she learned, are not just popular here. Even those cheeseheads in Wisconsin, for example, have a taste for Tillamook-brand cheese.

Now Kirkingburg is set to open up Oregon Maiden’s first real life store.

The shelves are half full now, but starting Friday they will be bursting with local products: smoked salmon, jam, hazelnuts, cheese, microbrews, chocolates and pieces of art. All the items will be marked with information on who made them and where they are from.

At first Kirkingburg, and her daughter Megan Blaser, 16, who will be helping out at the store part time, were worried there wouldn’t be enough inventory to fill the space. Now they realize they are having trouble fitting it all in. Oregon is rich with unique, and tasty, products, Kirkingburg said.

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