2
CapitalPress.com
August 26, 2016
People & Places
Oficer becomes partner in wine
Greg Bergersen
finds parallels
in winemaking,
corrections
Western
Innovator
For the Capital Press
Greg bergersen
Hometown: Chowchilla, Calif.
Occupation: Retired as a cor-
rectional lieutenant after 25
years, founder of Solitary Cel-
lars Wine Co.
Personal mission statement:
“Our customers make the ex-
perience happen, and the ex-
perience is what they will leave
with. It is my job to make sure
that experience is positive and
memorable.”
Courtesy of Solitary Cellars
Greg Bergerson, co-owner of Solitary Cellars wines in Madera, Calif., is a retired California corrections
oficer. The tasting room is decorated in a “jail” motif.
a commercial scale and from
there Solitary Cellars began.”
He buys fruit from Monte-
rey, Lake and Amador coun-
ties and the Lodi region.
“We love our relationships
with our growers,” he said.
“When we take our custom-
ers on the journey of Solitary
Cellars wines, the irst stop is
in the vineyard.”
Bergersen said experience
in the prison system helped in
his winemaking.
“Working in a correctional
setting you are keenly aware
of small things that look un-
usual,” he said. “This atten-
tion to detail has helped me
immensely; there are no short
cuts.”
Bergersen’s partner in
Solitary is Rick Quesada,
who lives in Fresno with his
By JANAE SARGENT
Capital Press
wife and three children.
He experiences daily
life “behind the wall” as the
personnel assignment lieu-
tenant at Valley State Prison
in Madera County. The men
met when they were correc-
tions oficers at the facility.
“The partnership works
well because we both bring
different elements to the Sol-
itary Cellars experience,”
Quesada said.
Their tasting room is dec-
orated in a “prison motif,”
and customers can get their
mug shot taken and enjoy the
playful atmosphere.
“I am a natural people per-
son and love to interact with
our customers. Greg is more
into the technical aspects of
our wines and winemaking.
Together we offer our cus-
tomers a complete experience
that is both fun and inviting
as well as educational.”
The winery produces
about 1,400 cases a year.
Most wine sales are direct
to consumer and through the
“Chain Gang” wine club.
Several former inmates
have visited the North Block
Tasting Room.
“I am a irm believer in
redemption, and my ap-
proach has always been to
not judge on the past,” Berg-
ersen said. “I take the person
for who they are at that time
without being judgmental. I
learned that lesson working
at Corcoran.”
He said one of the most
respected sergeants he ever
worked for had a brother do-
ing a life sentence.
“Sometimes things just
happen,” he said. “I remem-
ber having a discussion in the
tasting room with a guy who
did 14 years for attempted
murder. He is a business own-
er now and is respected within
the community.”
He said he and Quesada
tell their customers that their
growers have the dustiest
boots in the world because
of the time spent in the vine-
yards.
“That love for farming can
be enjoyed in each glass of
Solitary Cellars wines,” Berg-
ersen said. “We cannot stress
enough our admiration and
respect for the farmers and
ield workers who bring the
world’s inest wine grapes to
market.”
As a part of the agricultur-
al exhibits, FFA constructed a
new greenhouse for horticul-
ture displays with the help of
sponsor GK Machinery.
In 2015, fair management
was shifted from the Oregon
State Parks Department to a
public corporation. Cox said
this gave the fair more lexi-
bility and allowed it to operate
more eficiently.
The restructured manage-
ment increased fair atten-
dance by 18.9 percent in 2015
and Cox expects that number
to grow again in 2016.
“As a quasi-public corpo-
ration, we are able to func-
tion more like a business with
more lexibility and nimble-
ness,” Cox said.
The biggest addition to
the fair will be Machine Ma-
nia, which offers a variety of
motorsport competitions each
day. It will feature tuff trucks,
a demolition derby, freestyle
motorcycles, truck and trac-
tor pulls, lat track motorcy-
cle racing, outlaw kart racing,
professional speedway kart
racing and monster trucks.
Admission is free with paid
admission to the fair.
Portland-based
Rainier
Amusements will provide
carnival rides and attractions
to the fair. Rainier will bring
Bobsled, a full roller coaster,
to the carnival.
Cox said while the fair is
adding alot, it is holding onto
all of its popular recurring
programs.
In 2015 the Oregon State
Fair drew 268,000 attendees,
not including employees or
vendors.
The fair will be the irst in
the nation to host a cannabis
exhibit in 2016. The Oregon
Cannabis Business Council
Oregon State Fair
Admission: $8 for adults,
$5 for children and $1
for seniors. Admission is
cheaper if bought in advance
online. Military veterans, irst
responders and immediate
families get free admission on
Labor Day, Sept. 5.
Dates: Aug. 26-Sept. 5
Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) —
Stacks of leafy greens are
sprouting inside an old indus-
trial building in New Jersey.
“What we do is we trick
it,” said David Rosenberg,
co-founder and chief exec-
utive oficer of AeroFarms.
“We get it thinking that, if
plants could think: ‘All right,
this is a good environment,
it’s time to grow now.”’
AeroFarms is one of sev-
eral companies creating new
ways to grow vegetables in-
doors year-round to solve
problems like the drought out
Calendar
West, frost in the South or
other unfavorable conditions
affecting farmers.
The company is in the
process of building what an
industry group says is the
world’s largest commercial
vertical farm at the site of an
old steel mill in New Jersey’s
largest city.
It will contain 12 layers of
growth on 3½ acres, produc-
ing 2 million pounds of food
per year. Production is set to
begin next month.
“We want to help allevi-
ate food deserts, which is a
real problem in the United
States and around the world,”
Rosenberg said. “So here,
Sponsored by:
there are areas of Newark that
are underprivileged, there is
not enough economic devel-
opment, aren’t enough super-
markets. We put this farm in
one of those areas.”
The farm will be open to
community members who
want to buy the produce. It
also plans to sell the food at
local grocery stores.
Critics say the artiicial
lighting in vertical farms
takes up a signiicant amount
of energy that in turn creates
carbon emissions.
“If we did decide we were
going to grow all of our na-
tion’s vegetable crop in the
vertical farming systems, the
Location: 2330 17th St. NE,
Salem
Website: http://oregonstate-
fair.org/
will exhibit nine non-budding
plants in a secure greenhouse
for attendees 21 and over.
www.oxarc.com
duction Ceremony, 11 a.m. Oregon
State Fairgrounds, 2330 17th St. NE
Salem, Ore. oregonstatefair.org/
p.m., Oregon State Fairgrounds,
2330 17th St. NE, Salem, 971-701-
6573, http://oregonstatefair.org/
Western Idaho Fair, 5610 Glen-
wood, Boise, 208-287-5650, http://
sharemyfair.com/
Tuesday, Aug. 30
Friday, Aug. 26
Sunday, Aug. 28
Oregon State Fair, 10 a.m.-11
p.m., Oregon State Fairgrounds,
2330 17th St. NE, Salem, 971-701-
6573, http://oregonstatefair.org/
Western Idaho Fair, 5610 Glen-
wood, Boise, 208-287-5650, http://
sharemyfair.com/
Young Farmers and Ranchers
FFA Tractor Driving Contest, Ore-
gon State Fairgrounds, 2330 17th
St. NE, Salem, Ore. oregonfb.org
Saturday, Aug. 27
Western Idaho Fair, 5610 Glen-
wood, Boise, 208-287-5650, http://
sharemyfair.com/
Oregon State Fair, 10 a.m.-11
p.m., Oregon State Fairgrounds,
2330 17th St. NE, Salem, 971-701-
6573, http://oregonstatefair.org/
Century Farm and Ranch In-
Monday, Aug. 29
Oregon State Fair, 10 a.m.-10
lion acres of farmland need to
be made more sustainable.
But some growers feel ag-
riculture must change to meet
the future.
“We are at a major cri-
sis here for our global food
system,” said Marc Oshima,
a co-founder and chief mar-
keting oficer for AeroFarms.
“We have an increasing pop-
ulation that by the year 2050
we need to feed 9 billion peo-
ple. We have increasing ur-
banization.”
Rosenberg also pointed out
the speeded-up process.
“We grow a plant in about
16 days, what otherwise takes
30 days in the ield,” he said.
GASES / WELDING / SAFETY / FIRE
To submit an event go to the
Community Events calendar on the
home page of our website at www.
capitalpress.com and click on “Sub-
mit an Event.” Calendar items can
also be mailed to Capital Press, 1400
Broadway St. NE, Salem, OR 97301.
Oregon State Fair, 10 a.m.-10
p.m., Oregon State Fairgrounds,
2330 17th St. NE, Salem, 971-701-
6573, http://oregonstatefair.org/
amount of space required, by
my calculation, would be tens
of thousands of Empire State
Buildings,” said Stan Cox, the
research coordinator at The
Land Institute, a nonproit
group that advocates sustain-
able agriculture.
“Instead of using free sun-
light as we’ve always done to
produce food, vertical farms
are using light that has to be
generated by a power plant
somewhere, which is an un-
necessary use of fuel and gen-
eration of carbon emissions,”
he said.
Cox says that instead of
moving food production into
cities, the country’s 350 mil-
Oregon State Fair, 10 a.m.-10
p.m., Oregon State Fairgrounds,
2330 17th St. NE, Salem, 971-701-
6573, http://oregonstatefair.org/
Wednesday, Aug. 31
Rice Field Day, 7:30 a.m.-noon.
Rice Experiment Station, Biggs,
Calif.
Oregon State Fair, 10 a.m.-10
p.m., Oregon State Fairgrounds,
2330 17th St. NE, Salem, 971-701-
6573, http://oregonstatefair.org/
Thursday, Sept. 1
Oregon State Fair, 10 a.m.-10
p.m., Oregon State Fairgrounds,
2330 17th St. NE, Salem, 971-701-
20 Northwest Locations
6573, http://oregonstatefair.org/
Friday, Sept. 2
Washington State Fair, 10 a.m.-
9 p.m., 110 Ninth Ave. SW, Puyal-
lup. (253) 845-1771, http://www.
thefair.com/
Oregon State Fair, 10 a.m.-11
p.m., Oregon State Fairgrounds,
2330 17th St. NE, Salem, 971-701-
6573, http://oregonstatefair.org/
Saturday, Sept. 3
Washington State Fair, 10 a.m.-
10 p.m., 110 Ninth Ave. SW, Puy-
allup. (253) 845-1771, http://www.
thefair.com/
Oregon State Fair, 10 a.m.-11
p.m., Oregon State Fairgrounds,
2330 17th St. NE, Salem, 971-701-
6573, http://oregonstatefair.org/
Eastern Idaho State Fair, 97
Entire contents copyright © 2016
EO Media Group
dba Capital Press
An independent newspaper
published every Friday.
Capital Press (ISSN 0740-3704) is
published weekly by EO Media Group,
1400 Broadway St. NE, Salem OR 97301.
Periodicals postage paid at Portland, OR,
and at additional mailing ofices.
POSTMASTER: send address changes to
Capital Press, P.O. Box 2048 Salem, OR
97308-2048.
To Reach Us
Toll free ............................. 800-882-6789
Main line ........................... 503-364-4431
Fax ................................... 503-370-4383
Advertising Fax ................ 503-364-2692
News Staff
N. California
Tim Hearden .................... 530-605-3072
E Idaho
John O’Connell ................. 208-421-4347
Idaho
Carol Ryan Dumas .......... 208-860-3898
Boise
Sean Ellis .......................... 208-914-8264
Central Washington
Dan Wheat ........................ 509-699-9099
E Washington
Matthew Weaver .............. 509-688-9923
Oregon
Eric Mortenson ................ 503-412-8846
Mateusz Perkowski .......... 800-882-6789
Graphic artist
Alan Kenaga ..................... 800-882-6789
To Place Classiied Ads
Ad fax .............................. 503-364-2692
or ...................................... 503-370-4383
Telephone (toll free) .......... 866-435-2965
Online ......www.capitalpress.com/classiieds
Subscriptions
Mail rates paid in advance
Easy Pay U.S. $3.75/month (direct with-
drawal from bank or credit card account)
Parking: $5
Old steel mill will soon be world’s largest vertical farm
By TED SHAFFREY
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
Education: Fresno City College
Oregon State Fair offers new attractions
SALEM — The 151st Or-
egon State Fair will feature
new attractions, including an
FFA greenhouse, a motorsports
competition and a new carnival.
The fair runs from Aug. 26
through Sept. 5.
Fair spokesman Dan Cox
said management this year is
focusing on increasing atten-
dance and drawing new audi-
ences to the fair.
Fair management has also
restructured several programs
for eficiency. Managers com-
bined the 4-H and FFA horse
competitions and several oth-
er programs.
Established 1928
Board of directors
Mike Forrester ..........................President
Steve Forrester
Kathryn Brown
Sid Freeman .................. Outside director
Mike Omeg .................... Outside director
Corporate oficer
John Perry
Chief operating oficer
By JULIA HOLLISTER
MADERA, Calif. — Greg
Bergersen, co-owner of Sol-
itary Cellars and a former
corrections oficer at one of
California’s most notorious
prisons, developed a respect
for agriculture at an early
age.
“I grew up in Fresno and
my introduction to ag came
from my friends who grew
up on farms and ranches,”
he said. “Although I was a
‘city slicker,’ like other kids
my age we spent some time
in the ields picking beans
and grapes. It was during that
time my respect for farm-
workers was developed.”
He applied to become a
corrections ofice in 1989
and began work at California
State Prison-Corcoran later
that year. Convicted murder-
er Charles Manson is serving
time there.
“I began making wine at
my home in 2008 as a pet
project,” he said. “I started
with kits and worked my way
to fruits and juices.”
As he got better, he got the
attention of a local winery.
“I was a member of a lo-
cal winery’s wine club, and
they would let me bring my
homemade wine in to be test-
ed in their lab,” he said. “The
winemaker offered me the
opportunity to make wine on
Capital Press
1-800-765-9055
Park St., Blackfoot. 208-785-2480,
https://funatthefair.com/
Sunday, Sept. 4
Washington State Fair, 10 a.m.-
10 p.m., 110 Ninth Ave. SW, Puy-
allup. (253) 845-1771, http://www.
thefair.com/
Oregon State Fair, 10 a.m.-11
p.m., Oregon State Fairgrounds,
2330 17th St. NE, Salem, 971-
701-6573, http://oregonstatefair.
org/
Eastern Idaho State Fair, 97
Park St., Blackfoot. 208-785-2480,
https://funatthefair.com/
Monday, Sept. 5
Washington State Fair, 10 a.m.-
9 p.m., 110 Ninth Ave. SW, Puyal-
lup. (253) 845-1771, http://www.
thefair.com/
1 year U.S. ...................................$49.99
2 years U.S. .................................$89.99
1 year Canada .................................$275
1 year other countries ......... call for quote
1 year Internet only .......................$49.99
1 year 4-H, FFA students and teachers ....$30
9 months 4-H, FFA students & teachers .....$25
Visa and Mastercard accepted
To get information published
Mailing address:
Capital Press
P.O. Box 2048
Salem, OR 97308-2048
News: Contact the main ofice or news
staff member closest to you, send the in-
formation to newsroom@capitalpress.com
or mail it to “Newsroom,” c/o Capital Press.
Include a contact telephone number.
Letters to the Editor: Send your
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
300 words. Deadline: Noon Monday.
Capital Press ag media
www.capitalpress.com
www.FarmSeller.com
www.AgDirectoryWest.com
marketplace.capitalpress.com
www.facebook.com/capitalpress
www.facebook.com/farmseller
www.facebook.com/onlyAGdotcom
twitter.com/capitalpress
www.youtube.com/capitalpressvideo
www.blogriculture.com
Index
Wheat ..................................... 4
Opinion .................................. 6
Dairy .................................... 10
Livestock ............................. 10
Markets ............................... 13
Correction policy
Accuracy is important to Capital
Press staff and to our readers.
If you see a misstatement,
omission or factual error in a
headline, story or photo caption,
please call the Capital Press
news department at
503-364-4431, or send email to
newsroom@capitalpress.com.
We want to publish corrections to
set the record straight.