January 20, 2017
CapitalPress.com
11
Oregon
Earl Brown
& Sons
sells to
Washington
fruit grower
Family members
remain in place
at business
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO Media Group
MILTON-FREEWATER,
Ore. — Earl Brown & Sons,
Oregon’s largest grower and
packer of fresh apples, has
sold to another family-owned
fruit enterprise in Wenatchee,
Wash.
Members of the Foreman
Fruit Co. purchased Earl
Brown & Sons in October,
though the deal keeps the
Browns in place to manage
local operations on more than
1,000 acres of apples and 115
acres of wine grapes.
Ron Brown, whose father,
Earl, started Earl Brown &
Sons 40 years ago, said the
families worked out a partner-
ship that allows the business
to retain its name and employ-
ees.
“Nobody lost their jobs.
We’re moving along just like
we did before,” Brown said.
The biggest difference,
Brown said, is Foreman Fruit
will provide additional capi-
tal for continued growth. The
company is already planting
60 acres of apples and 10
acres of grapes.
“We’ve already taken on
leasing more ground than we
had,” Brown said.
Financial terms of the
sale were not disclosed. Earl
Brown & Sons has also spun
off several other business-
es, including Blue Mountain
Cider and Watermill Winery
in Milton-Freewater, though
Blue Mountain Cider was not
included as part of the sale.
Earl Brown & Sons em-
ploys about 160 people. Ron
Brown predicts the company
to be able to tap into even
more niche markets with the
backing of Foreman Fruit.
“Both families are real for-
ward-thinkers,” he said.
Alan Groff, president and
CEO of Foreman Fruit, said
they first heard Earl Brown
& Sons was for sale in April
2016. Though it was well off
their radar — Wenatchee is
200 miles from Milton-Free-
water — Groff said they drove
down for a meeting, and the
two families immediately hit
it off.
“They’ve created a num-
ber of businesses, and a num-
ber of very excellent orchards
and vineyards,” Groff said.
“There’s a nice intersection of
our capabilities.”
Foreman Fruit was found-
ed in the early 1980s by Dale
Foreman, a Wenatchee attor-
ney and former chairman of
the Washington Apple Com-
mission. Groff, who is Fore-
man’s son-in-law, said the
business started out primarily
growing pears before branch-
ing out into apples, cherries
and grapes.
Earl Brown & Sons is
Foreman’s first Oregon acqui-
sition. Groff said they were
impressed by the people, and
wanted to keep their current
team together.
“We share a common set
of values and purpose in busi-
ness,” he said.
Earl Brown & Sons was
founded in 1977, and now
packs between 850,000 and 1
million boxes of fresh apples
every year. Varieties include
Honeycrisp, Red Delicious,
Golden Delicious, Granny
Smith, Fuji and Lady Alice.
Watermill Winery has sold
roughly 3,500 cases of wine
in past years. Groff said they
are still in the early phases of
looking at the wine business,
though they are excited to be
working in The Rocks District
of Milton-Freewater and be-
lieve the product has plenty of
upside.
“I think this is really great
wine that is, perhaps, under-
sold,” Groff said.
Brown said the has been
smooth, and will ensure that
Earl Brown & Sons has the
resources to stay competitive.
Timber companies partner to improve water sources
By GAIL OBERST
For the Capital Press
DALLAS, Ore. — A distant
helicopter rises suddenly from
a Coast Range forest above
Dallas. A log dangles beneath
it, hanging from a cable.
“It’s a bonus!” says Lucas
Hunt, project manager for the
Rickreall Watershed Council
and the Polk Soil and Water
Conservation District. “There
are two logs in that load!”
Hunt has reason to be ex-
cited. This project will help
control sediment that is slowly
filling Mercer Reservoir, the
source of the City of Dallas’
drinking water. To accom-
plish improvements to nearly
five miles of upper Rickreall
Creek, Hunt has enlisted help
from nearly a dozen private and
public timber management or-
ganizations, along with a new
partnership of permitting and
granting agencies.
Improving drinking wa-
ter is no small feat, but the
Drinking Water Providers
Partnership formed last year
is bringing landowners and
managers together with funds
that can support projects. The
Gail Oberst/For the Capital Press
Polk Soil and Water Conservation District staff tour a helicopter log placement project on private and
public forest lands that will help improve City of Dallas drinking water.
Rickreall Creek project was re-
cently lauded as a model. Over
the past five years, the project
placed 522 logs in 34 structures
above Mercer Dam, which
holds back Mercer Lake.
Placing logs across or into
the creek aims to slow waters
and create pools that trap silt
and gravel that can muddy
and fill reservoirs, as in Dallas’
case. The log structures serve
a double purpose, providing
spawning beds for native fish.
The projects mimic what might
have occurred if streams had
not been scoured to bedrock
and logged to the banks, the
result of past practices. State
and federal rules adopted in
the 1980s and ’90s now regu-
late logging in watersheds, but
many timberland managers
go beyond requirements, said
Hunt. Looking over a map of
the 12,300-acre Rickreall wa-
tershed, Hancock Forest Man-
agement wildlife biologist Jen-
niffer Bakke pointed to parcels
of about 10 forest landowners
for whom her company man-
ages forestland. To help with
the project, Hancock allowed
access to the creeks flowing
through those lands, contrib-
uted trees to place in streams,
donated money and contributed
time to review plans.
“Our investors expect a
certain level of stewardship in
the management of their as-
sets,” she said. “This project
is an opportunity to show the
public that managed forests are
entirely compatible with clean
drinking water, fish habitat and
stream health.”
The Rickreall project was
one of 11 launched in Oregon
in 2016, the first year of the
unique Drinking Water Provid-
ers Partnership, a public-private
collaboration aimed at funding
municipal water improvements.
Other projects included agricul-
tural fencing, culvert repairs and
riparian improvements to Fiddle
and Billy Moore creeks in Lane
County, and plans to build cattle
fencing to protect Baker City’s
municipal watershed.
All of those projects were
made possible by voluntary co-
operation between private land-
owners, public managers and
nonprofit agencies, according
to Cathy Kellon of the Geos
Institute. Kellon helps coor-
dinate the Partnership, which
includes the U.S. Forest Ser-
vice, U.S. Bureau of Land
Management, Oregon Depart-
ment of Environmental Quali-
ty, Washington Department of
Health, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and Wild-
Earth Guardians.
Onion facilities collapse under weight of snow
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
ONTARIO, Ore. — About
18 onion storage and packing
facilities in southwestern Ida-
ho and Eastern Oregon have
collapsed over the past week
from the weight of snow and
ice, knocking out about 25 per-
cent of the region’s total onion
processing capacity, industry
sources say.
“This is major. There are
a lot of them down,” said
Murakami Produce General
Manager Grant Kitamura.
The price onion shippers
are receiving for the Spanish
bulb onions grown in this re-
gion has risen dramatically as
a result.
Heavy snowstorms since
December were followed by
near-freezing rain last week
and then more snow. That
has caused many structures
throughout the Treasure Valley
area to collapse.
Kitamura, chairman of the
Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion
Committee’s promotion com-
mittee, said several other onion
packing or storage facilities are
on the brink.
“Some are still standing
but they’re not looking too
straight,” he said.
Partners Produce’s main on-
ion packing facility in Payette,
Idaho, collapsed and will be
out of commission for at least
seven months, said co-owner
Eddie Rodriguez.
“I have 25-30 million
pounds of onions that were
destined to run through that
line,” he said.
The company’s empty in-
ventory holding facility also
collapsed.
The roofs of at least four on-
ion packing facilities have col-
lapsed because of the weight of
snow and ice.
“At least three of them will
be out of commission the rest
of the season and several are
wounded,” Kitamura said.
At least 14 onion storage fa-
cilities have collapsed as well.
The disruptions will affect
growers as well, said Oregon
farmer Paul Skeen, president
of the Malheur County Onion
Growers Association.
Submitted photo
This onion storage facility near Ontario, Ore., is one of about 18
onion storage and packing facilities in Southwestern Idaho and
Eastern Oregon that have collapsed under the weight of snow and
ice. That has resulted in major production disruptions and a big
jump in onion prices.
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