I’m probably not the only person wishing the farmer’s market wasn’t still more than a month off despite unseasonably warm weather.
There’s one face that will be missing, though, when this year’s Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Market opens in Medford March 18, in Ashland March 16. “Pasta” Dave Deichler died a couple weeks ago, shocking family, friends and market fans.
Just 59 years old, Dave died of natural causes, peacefully in his sleep, a friend said. The state medical examiner’s office declined to conduct an autopsy after reviewing Dave’s medical records with Veterans Affairs. His obituary appeared Thursday in the Mail Tribune.
Like many market customers, I imagine, I didn’t know Dave well, but spying his smiling face next to Fry Family Farm’s stall was usually the highlight of my trip to Medford’s Armory. And, of course, that pasta was worth coming back for every week. He’d even save a package for me if I had to run to the bank for a little extra cash.
But with its cost of $4.50 for a 1-pound package, Dave’s pasta, I felt, was always fairly priced, particularly when one considers that he used organic flour and eggs from cage-free, vegetarian hens. The package easily would feed four people, and I often made several pasta variations from it through the week.
The former head chef for Wild River Brewing and Pizza Co., Dave was never short on enthusiasm for talking over customers’ plans for his pasta. One of my chief joys, as Dave knew, was cutting his lasagna sheets into my own paperdelle or using them to make ravioli with my own garden-fresh ingredients.
Dave also was the only local source I’d ever found for fresh pasta made from spelt, a wheat alternative. And although spelt flour is many times more expensive than wheat, Dave never charged more for it. He simply spread the cost among his other pastas — angel hair, linguini, fettucini, rotelli and lasagna — and designated one style for spelt weekly from the small batches he personally produced at the Wolf Creek Community Center kitchen, where reporter Sanne Specht interviewed him for a story more than two years ago.
Dave made hundreds of pounds of pasta every week for about a decade, but it’s unlikely his death could be blamed on working too much. It was obvious even from our brief conversations that Dave knew how to enjoy life and where to draw the line.
His wholesale accounts included just a handful; he wasn’t making pasta for grocery stores, although several local restaurants relied on it. Dave never joined the new farmers market at Hillcrest Orchard, nor the Saturday growers market in Ashland. It wasn’t unusual for him to skip a week of markets during the height of summer and make for the coast. While Dave’s customers missed him, we could hardly blame him.
A celebration of Dave’s life is planned for Feb. 20 in Wolf Creek. If I get the go-ahead from organizers, I will post additional details. Hull & Hull Funeral Directors of Grants Pass is handling arrangements and has posted a more detailed obituary.
