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CapitalPress.com
October 23, 2015
People & Places
Quinoa thrives in Northern California
Blake Richard
establishes exotic
crop in state’s cool
coastal climate
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Western
Innovator
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
FERNDALE, Calif. —
Tucked amid the vast cattle
and dairy properties on Cali-
fornia’s north coast are fields
of quinoa planted by Blake
Richard.
An area resident for all
his adult life, the 48-year-old
Richard started growing qui-
noa — a crop that’s become
popular in foodie circles as
a gluten-free alternative to
wheat — 17 years ago.
After years of experi-
menting with different vari-
eties and planting methods,
Richard and his family now
have one-pound bags of their
quinoa being sold in Whole
Foods Markets.
“I just thought this was a
good fit for quinoa,” Richard
said, referring to his rented
fields near Eureka, Calif. “It
needs cooler temperatures so
it can set seed. I knew there
wasn’t much, if any, that was
grown in this country … so
there was a wide-open mar-
ket.”
Now a few of Richard’s
friends and neighbors are
growing it, too.
“I think it’s a good food,”
he said. “I was just interest-
ed in messing around with
growing it and for a long time
we experimented with lots of
ways to grow it.”
Quinoa, a species of goose
foot, produces a gluten-free
seed that can be substituted
for wheat and other grains.
The United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization de-
clared 2013 the International
Year of Quinoa, heralding the
crop’s nutritional value and
adaptability.
The crop is common-
ly grown in parts of South
America but is being adapted
Capital Press
Blake Richard
Age: 48
Residence: Ferndale, Calif.
Capital Press Managers
Mike O’Brien .............................Publisher
Joe Beach ..................................... Editor
Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director
Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
Barbara Nipp ......... Production Manager
Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager
Occupation: Farmer
Family: Father George Rich-
ard, son Tae Richard, 21
Entire contents copyright © 2015
EO Media Group
dba Capital Press
An independent newspaper
published every Friday.
Courtesy of Blake Richard
Grower Blake Richard examines a field near Eureka, Calif. He and his family have been perfecting
ways of growing quinoa, which he sells through a wholesaler to Whole Foods Market.
for cultivation in the Pacific
Northwest and other regions
of the world. About a doz-
en farmers scattered across
Eastern Idaho are experiment-
ing with quinoa as a rotation
option, and the businessman
who is contracting for the
acres has three Idaho-specific
quinoa varieties in develop-
ment.
A group of farmers in Or-
egon’s Wallowa County are
working with Washington
State University to study the
viability of growing quinoa
in the region, and quinoa was
included in a presentation on
alternative crop trials at an
Oregon State University field
day this summer.
Richard bought his first
seeds from White Mountain
Farm in south-central Colo-
rado, one of the pioneers of
growing the crop in the Unit-
ed States. The farm’s owner,
Ernie New, can attest that
growing quinoa isn’t easy;
he advises growers to start by
planting only as much as they
can afford to lose because
it’s not likely to work the
first time, he told the Capital
Press in 2013.
“There’s risk involved;
it’s not that easy to get a
stand,” Richard said. “It can
be hard. And there’s risk at
harvest time with the rains.
… We harvest between late
August and mid-September,
and you can have a perfect
storm of bad weather during
that time.”
Richard only started sell-
ing his quinoa six years ago.
In the early years, he exper-
imented with different vari-
eties, including a “rainbow”
variety, and adopted unique
planting methods. Growing
organically, he plants his qui-
noa in rows, which assists cul-
tivation and weed control, he
said. He dry-farms the crop,
which means it doesn’t de-
pend on irrigation water.
Richard began by selling to
local stores on the north coast,
then last year began selling to
Veritable Vegetables, a San
Francisco-based organic pro-
duce distributor. This year he
is selling quinoa to Lundberg
Family Farms in Richvale,
Calif., which specializes in
bringing sustainably grown
whole grains and whole grain
products to consumers and
has marketed Richard’s prod-
uct to Whole Foods.
Richard is growing quinoa
on some land owned by Lund-
berg, which has also contract-
ed with several farmers in the
area and has a representative
working with growers.
“We are honored to part-
ner with talented farmers
like Blake Richard who are
growing quinoa right here at
home,” company vice pres-
ident of agriculture Bryce
Lundberg said in an email.
“We are excited to be the first
national brand to bring Amer-
ican-grown, organic quinoa to
American consumers.
“The reception to this
product has been very pos-
itive, and we look forward
to continuing our work with
Blake and our other grow-
ers to bring more Ameri-
can-grown, organic quinoa
to consumers in the coming
years,” he said.
Lundberg Family Farms
was recognized in 2011 as one
of California’s top 25 agricul-
tural innovators — a group
that included other business-
es as well as universities and
nonprofit programs. Spon-
sored by the business-promo-
tion group Grow California,
the awards sought to encour-
age investment in agriculture
by Silicon Valley companies.
Richard certainly doesn’t
consider himself an innova-
tor; he says he’s just trying to
grow a crop the best he can.
He started working on farms
as a teenager and stuck with
it, he said, earning a biology
degree from Humboldt State
University.
“I knew I was going to do
something in farming,” he
said.
Today his father, 75-year-
old George Richard, and son,
21-year-old Tae Richard,
work with him on the farming
operation, as does Tae’s moth-
er, Sarah Fredy. The family
also grows vegetables.
Blake Richard believes he
and his friends have demon-
strated that quinoa can be
grown in the north coast’s
cool climate.
“We’re going to contin-
ue experimenting with ways
to grow it,” he said. “We get
excited about developing new
varieties. We’ve made a lot of
selections in our field out of
odd types. … We like exper-
imenting with ways to grow
it. We’re kind of adventurous
that way.”
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Team of sheep shearers has only one speed — fast
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Photos by Jan Jackson/For the Capital Press
Dusty McCord sheared 400 lambs in eight hours to win his team’s
sheep shearing contest.
took 30-minute breaks every
2 hours, took an hour off for
lunch, and sheared until 6
p.m.
“I was excited and nervous
all through it and got tired a
few times but I didn’t slow
down,” he said. “I didn’t let
myself think about the other
guys, just raced the clock.”
McCord, who was born
and raised in Monroe, Ore.,
learned to shear from his fa-
ther and grandfather.
“I watched my dad and
grandpa shear and it looked
like fun to me,” McCord said.
“I got them to show me how
to do it and started shearing
for hire in 2008. I love it. I get
to compete with my friends
every day and have fun trav-
eling on top of it.”
He’s gone to New Zealand
a couple of times but mostly
travels around Oregon, Ida-
ho and Washington shearing
sheep.
Official sheep shearing
contests are held regularly in
Ireland, the United Kingdom,
South Africa, New Zealand
and Australia. While speed
and skill are key, International
Sheep Shearing Association
judges also check the quality
of work and animal welfare.
Cowdrey, a third-gener-
ation shearer who claims an
over-age-55 record of 260
sheep sheared in a day, partic-
ipated in the contest.
“My son shears, and my
dad was still shearing 100
Friday-Saturday
Oct. 30-31
ing a HACCP system in a food
manufacturing facility.
Dusty McCord, top left, is shown with his his shearing team mem-
bers. At the top right is Chuck McBeth; Mike Cowdrey is at the far
left; and sitting are Kenny McBeth, left, and Chris Mayorga. They
sheared 1,296 sheep in a single day.
sheep a day when he was 74,
so I can’t let up,” Cowdrey
said. “After Dusty hit 400
sheep in eight hours, we spent
three days on the Internet try-
ing to see if he broke a record.
New Zealand has the world
records tied up but we think
Dusty holds it for the U.S.”
The team works together
through the season.
“Mike and I both have
shearing trailers and it de-
pends on the job which one
we use,” McCord said. “It also
doesn’t matter which team
member gets the call, we pick
up the phone and call the rest
of them. We get paid by the
head so the harder we work
the more money we make. For
me it is like a drug addiction,
except we’re only addicted to
competing with ourselves. It
is great to get to do this every
day with your friends.”
Tuesday, Nov. 10
Hilton Executive Tower, Portland.
Governor’s Conference on
Agriculture, Culinary Academy
of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas,
Nev. Conference highlights include
local food successes in southern
Nevada, breaking down barriers
within the local food movement and
making important connections in
the local food chain.
Friday-Sunday
Nov. 13-15
Calendar
Montana Farmers Union Conven-
tion, Mansfield Convention Center,
Great Falls, Mont.
Wednesday-Saturday
Oct. 28-31
National FFA Convention & Expo,
Kentucky Exposition Center,
Louisville, Ky.
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Oct. 23-24
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By JAN JACKSON
To submit an event go to the
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items can also be mailed to Capital
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Dusty McCord can
shear a sheep in
1 minute, 20 seconds
JUNCTION CITY, Ore.
— If it takes you longer than
1 minute and 20 seconds to
shear a sheep, your chances of
beating Dusty McCord are nil.
McCord and his fellow
shearing team members de-
cided to stage an impromptu
eight-hour shearing contest
last month as they started on a
flock of 100-pound crossbreed
lambs belonging to Wall 3
Ranch in the southern coastal
Oregon town of Langlois.
The winner hands-down
was 26-year-old McCord,
who sheared 400 sheep in
8 hours. He was followed
by Mike Cowdrey with 260
sheep, Chris Mayorga with
245, Woody Babcock with
206 and Morgan McKenzie
with 185.
It’s not a world record for
McCord, but his team thinks it
might be a U.S. record.
“We just thought it would
be fun so we did it,” McCord
said of the last-minute con-
test. They started at 8 a.m.,
Easy Pay U.S. $3.75/month (direct with-
Northwest Farmers Union Con-
vention, Northern Quest Casino,
Airway Heights, Wash.
Tuesday-Thursday
Nov. 3-5
Practical Food Safety & HACCP
Workshop, Idaho Water Center,
Boise, 208-364-6188. HACCP or
Hazard Analysis Critical Control
Points, is a preventive system
for the control of health-threat-
ening biological, chemical and
physical food hazards during
food processing. This is a com-
prehensive workshop designed
for those individuals responsible
for implementing and manag-
Tuesday-Thursday
Nov. 3-5
UC-Davis Produce Safety Work-
shop, University of California-Davis
campus. This 2½-day workshop is
an integrated approach to building
a foundation of awareness and
improved understanding of the
current scientific basis for produce
microbial safety systems and
preventive controls.
Wednesday-Friday
Nov. 4-6
2015 Weed Conference,
Wenatchee Convention Center,
Wenatchee, Wash.
Wednesday-Saturday
Nov. 11-14
Tri-State Grain Growers Con-
vention, Davenport Grand Hotel,
Spokane, Wash.
Thursday-Friday
Nov. 12-13
Oregon Water Law Conference,
Tilth Producers of Washington
2015 Annual Conference, Spokane
Convention Center, Spokane,
Wash. 206-632-7506.
Monday-Thursday
Nov. 16-19
Washington Farm Bureau 2015 An-
nual Meeting & Tradeshow, Yakima
Convention Center, Yakima.
Friday, Nov. 20
Denim & Diamonds Auction,
Dinner & Awards, 5 p.m. Oregon
Convention Center, Portland, 503-
595-9121.
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comments on agriculture-related public
issues to opinions@capitalpress.com, or
mail your letter to “Opinion,” c/o Capital
Press. Letters should be limited to
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Index
California ................................ 9
Dairy .................................... 15
Idaho ...................................... 9
Livestock ............................. 15
Markets ............................... 14
Opinion .................................. 6
Oregon .................................. 8
Washington ..........................11
Correction policy
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