By Jan Jackson
Slow to ripen but sweet and juicy as ever, Oregon strawberries are the best and the Oregon Department of Agriculture and the Oregon Strawberry Commission have stepped up efforts to market them to processors and fresh market consumers.
Strawberries have been in the Willamette Valley since 1846 when Henderson Luelling loaded up two extra wagonloads of fruit and nut trees and berry plants and came to Oregon. In 1850, he opened a nursery in Milwaukee and began advertising the Wilson variety of strawberry, which was the variety that helped establish the emerging strawberry industry in the Northwest. Strawberries originally were a stop-gap measure until the larger fruit trees planted in the Hood River area could come to maturity, but by the 1950s Oregon growers had cultivated more than 17,000 acres.
Last year Oregon farmers harvested only about 1,900 acres, due to high production costs and competition from California and Mexico which can produce differnet varieties cheaper.
Mike Christensen, strawberry grower and chairman of the Oregon Strawberry Commission, believes Oregon will stay about the same on acreage but that fresh market production will continue to grow.
Reagan and Robert Purdy, Mt. Angel farmers who grow strawberries for the cannery and fresh market, are optimistic about this year’s crop.
“The berries are about a week and a half late but they are beautiful and business is good,” Reagan said from her Purdy’s Produce Stand. “We grow table corn, beans cauliflower, sugar beets for seed, corn for silage as well as about 30 acres of strawberries, so we are protected from bad years. We also sell gift baskets with our own processed jams, syrups and preserves year round and those sales are good as well.
“Our regular crews harvest the berries for the cannery and we keep a few acres for u-pick and fresh market sales. I deliver fresh berries to Roth’s IGA stores in Silverton, Stayton, Salem and Keizer and they sell out quickly and call for more. Hopefully, we will get three more good weeks before the season is over.”
Both the Oregon Department of Agriculture and the Oregon Strawberry Commission have made saving Oregon’s strawberry industry a top priority.
“We want to see more ‘made with Oregon strawberries’ on processed products and more people like Burgerville buying fresh Oregon berries to use in their shakes smoothies and shortcake,” Christensen said. “Tillamook Cheese Co. ice cream is made with Oregon strawberries and we want other companies who cater to markets that want quality products to do the same. We know they are out there, we just have to find them.”
For more information on Purdy Enterprises, visit their website or email [email protected]. For information on Oregon Strawberries and the Oregon Strawberry Commission, visit their website.
