September 11, 2015
CapitalPress.com
5
Quinoa undergoing testing in Northeast Oregon
By KATY NESBITT
For the Capital Press
Katy Nesbitt/For the Capital Press
Ted Golder checks on quinoa he and his partner Jerome Goertzen are growing next to a conventional
quinoa field in the Wallowa Valley of northeastern Oregon.
are working with farmers all
over the Northwest to grow dif-
ferent varieties of quinoa.
Last year Golder and Goertz-
en grew test crops at local farms.
Using seed from last year’s crop
and a variety from Colorado,
this year they have 300 quinoa
plants growing in seven rows
near a conventional wheat field
that Golder said are doing quite
well.
In contrast, they have 16
rows of quinoa growing at Pat-
rick Thiel’s Prairie Creek Farm
outside of Joseph overseen by
Washington State University re-
searchers.
“Quinoa is a good fit with
what I do,” Thiel said. “We’ve
always grown specialized
crops.”
Thiel’s farm is organic,
which is more along the lines of
what the researchers at Wash-
ington State have in mind,
Golder said.
“It’s a good fit with WSU
— they wanted their test plots
grown organically,” Golder said.
“Water is getting tighter ev-
ery day,” Golder said.
Thiel said in South Ameri-
ca quinoa is planted in a field
and left until harvest.
“One of the things they
liked about that crop is you
leave it in an environment
where it is doing well by it-
self,” Thiel said.
Golder said working with
Washington State is important
to help determine what traits
farmers will want in their qui-
noa crop.
“Do they want it to be eas-
ily spotted from other similar
plants like lamb’s quarter?
Faster maturity?” he said.
“The techniques we are using
to grow quinoa will be repeat-
ed next year with a strategy.
We are only half way there.”
Thiel said he couldn’t em-
phasize enough how important
it is that Washington State is
involved.
“They’ve worked with po-
tatoes for more than 100 years.
I see the same with the qui-
noa. They know how to do it,”
Thiel said.
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JOSEPH, Ore. — A group
of farmers and Washington
State University researchers
are studying whether quinoa,
a grain traditionally grown in
the South American Andes,
can be a viable cash crop in the
Northwest.
In 2014 Ted Golder of Seal
Rock, Ore., came to Eastern
Oregon on an exploratory mis-
sion. He thought the climate
would be similar enough to the
Andes to grow quinoa. In a lo-
cal coffee shop he met Jerome
Geortzen of Joseph, who was
also on the same mission. Last
summer the two started quinoa
test plots in fields around the
Wallowa Valley.
Golder said he first became
interested in quinoa when it
became popular in health food
markets a few years ago.
“A nutritionist friend of
mine in Eugene told me the
climate and altitude in Wal-
lowa County is not that dif-
ferent than some areas in
South America. Then I learned
through Washington State Uni-
versity we really do have one
of the most optimum areas to
potentially to grow it.”
Golder and Goertzen dis-
covered Washington State had
a team of researchers led by
professor Kevin Murphy who
Thiel said he was impressed
with Washington State’s re-
searchers when they came to
lay out the test plots and out-
lined a uniform regiment for
watering and weeding.
“They saw a value in doing
a trial here. They get great re-
search information while we
keep it organic and grow it in
a unique enough area,” Thiel
said.
Farming is always a gam-
ble. Golder said last year the
weather was more consistent
as was the crop.
This year a wet May stunted
the growth of the newly plant-
ed starts. Thiel said quinoa is
physiologically designed to
come out of its seed in five
days and puts down a taproot.
“If it’s overwatered they
will stress and not survive,”
Thiel said.
Rows were replanted,
pushing out the harvest well
into September, Golder said.
Not needing much water
may be a major plus consid-
ering the extended drought in
the West.
Weather
curtails
El Niño
expectations
Climatologist says
precipitation ‘not a
certain outcome’
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — State
Climatologist Michael Ander-
son is working with the Na-
tional Weather Service to urge
continued water conservation
amid weather conditions that
could bring a wet winter.
Anderson and Michelle
Mead, the weather service’s
warning coordinator in Sac-
ramento, have put out a short
video explaining what the El
Niño weather pattern is and
how it could affect the four-
year drought.
El Niño is a warming of
the ocean at the equator which
interacts with the atmosphere,
changing the jet stream that
drives the winter storm track,
Mead explained in the video
posted on YouTube.
There have been six El
Nino periods since 1950, An-
derson told viewers, and all
six have produced above-av-
erage precipitation in South-
ern California.
“There’s no reason to
believe this year won’t be a
seventh,” he said. However,
there’s far from a guaran-
tee the El Niño will produce
more rainfall or snow in
Northern California, where
the state’s key reservoirs are,
he said.
“Remember it has taken
us four winters to get into this
drought, and most of the state
has lost an entire year of rain-
fall and some areas have lost
two,” Anderson said. “While
we could see some signifi-
cant rain and snow develop
this winter, it is not a certain
outcome.”
The message continues
a push by state and feder-
al weather experts to tamp
down expectations amid
media hype over El Niño
conditions that are expect-
ed to be the strongest in de-
cades. El Niño years typi-
cally producer higher levels
of precipitation in the U.S.
Southwest and drier condi-
tions in the Pacific North-
west, with Northern Califor-
nia having 50-50 chances of
either.
“We all know that El Niño
is all over the news late-
ly,” Mead said in an email.
“We’ve been working with
(the state Department of
Water Resources) on getting
consistent messaging about
El Niño and what it could
mean for California.”
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