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CapitalPress.com
March 13, 2015
Farm grows to include variety of crops
By CRAIG REED
For the Capital Press
ROSEBURG, Ore. —
What started out as a raspber-
ry farm on 1 acre back in 1975
has evolved over the past 40
years into a variety of berries
and vegetables on about 88
acres.
Harmon and Noreane
Walker have been the owners
and operators of The Berry
Patch since that small start
on a plot of land alongside
the South Umpqua River near
Myrtle Creek, Oregon. The
couple has increased their
ownership on that plot of
land to 15 acres and it now
mainly grows tomatoes. The
Walkers also farm four oth-
er properties, leasing 7- and
6-acre plots in the Myrtle
Creek area and 30 acres in
the Canyonville, Oregon,
area. They own and farm
another 30 acres in Garden
Valley a couple miles west
of Roseburg. The couple
moved to the latter property
from Myrtle Creek in 1991.
In addition to increasing
their production, the Walk-
ers went through the pro-
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cess with Oregon Tilth and
became organically certified
in 1996. Pride of the Umpqua
was added as the farm’s or-
ganic label that same year.
The fields and crops have
been inspected every year
since and continue to earn the
organic seal.
“I wouldn’t raise conven-
tional, only organic,” Harmon
Walker said. “You get enough
more for your product to
make it worthwhile.”
Noreane Walker added
she doesn’t like the thought
of possibly eating pesticides
that are used in conventional
farming so the couple practic-
es what they grow by eating
mainly organic foods.
“I look for where products
come from,” she said of her
grocery shopping. “I will pay
extra to get organic apples. I
buy organic meat and fish.”
“More and more people
are into eating organic, or nat-
ural,” Harmon Walker, who
turned 80 in March, said.
The Berry Patch raises a
variety of berries, a variety
of cherry and bigger toma-
toes, and also zucchini, cab-
bage, Brussels sprouts and
table grapes. The Pride of the
Umpqua produce is sold to
Organically Grown Co., an
employee- and grower-owned
cooperative that was founded
in 1978 in Eugene, Oregon,
Craig Reed/For the Capital Press
Noreane Walker works on the sorting belt during the 2014 harvest at The Berry Patch near Roseburg,
Ore. Harmon and Noreane Walker have been farming since 1975 and their operation has been organ-
ic certified since 1996.
and to Charlie’s Produce, a
company based in Seattle.
Those operations distribute
produce to retail outlets and
restaurants.
“They take as much as we
can grow,” Harmon Walker
said of the two companies.
“From what I hear through
those companies, our product
is very much prized by the
consumer,” Noreane Walker
said.
In 2014, The Berry Patch
sold close to 30,000 10- to
20-pound boxes of produce.
About 12,000 of the boxes
were filled with zucchini,
6,500 boxes were tomatoes
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and a variety of other produce
filled the remainder of the
boxes.
“One thing about this area
is that we have better weather
than they do up north and that
makes our growing season
longer,” Harmon Walker said.
All of the berry varieties,
including raspberry, black-
berry and strawberry, are sold
to U-pickers only. The Walk-
ers said exact conditions are
needed to harvest and ship
those organic products so they
have been U-pick crops for
many years.
“The U-pickers take them
all anyway,” Harmon Walker
said.
The Berry Patch’s 2 acres
of strawberries are unique
in that the plants are grown
in pipes that have been cut
in half and are elevated off
the ground at about 4 feet.
It makes the picking much
easier compared to stooping
over or kneeling to pick from
ground plants.
During harvest from July
to October, The Berry Patch
employs up to 75 people,
many of them picking and
sorting.
Before deciding to farm in
1975, Harmon Walker was a
building contractor and No-
reane Walker was a grade
school teacher. When the
building industry hit a slump,
Harmon Walker opted to be-
come a farmer, something
he had considered since his
mother had grown a garden
and raspberries in her back-
yard.
“He has a curiosity for how
things grow, he enjoys watch-
ing things develop on the
farm,” Noreane Walker said
of her husband of 42 years.
“I love farming,” Har-
mon Walker said. “If I have
a choice of going fishing or
working on the farm, I’m go-
ing to step outside the door
and farm.”
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