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CapitalPress.com
June 2, 2017
People & Places
Duck eggs fill market niche
Anthony Bordessa
hatches plan to
sell into high-end
market segment
Western
Innovator
For the Capital Press
Anthony
Bordessa
Occupation: Owner, Wash-
oe Valley Duck Farm
Education: Agricultural
business degree, California
Polytechnic State Universi-
ty-San Luis Obispo.
Quote: “We strive to
produce a product that will
only seamlessly benefit our
customers in their current
healthy eating lifestyles!”
Julia Hollister/For the Capital Press
Anthony Bordessa, owner of Washoe Valley Duck Farm in Sonoma County, Calif., says people who
cannot eat chicken eggs can eat duck eggs. He sells the eggs in the San Francisco Bay Area.
duck egg, around six times
the amount of Omega-3 fat-
ty acids and almost twice the
amount of B12 vitamins.”
Also, people who cannot
eat chicken eggs find that they
can eat duck eggs, he said,
adding that they are highly
valued for their great baking
qualities.
“They add more loft to
cakes, give custards and curds
a more creamy, rich flavor,
and enhance the overall flavor
of any dish in which an egg
yolk is highlighted,” he said.
He noted that because
duck eggs have less water and
more protein, cooking over
low heat is recommended.
They sell for $8 a dozen
and $18 for a flat of 30.
Today, Bordessa has about
2,800 Kakhi Campbell ducks
that are free range on organic
pasture. Currently, there are
about 18 duck egg produc-
ers in California, with opera-
tions of all sizes. He said the
biggest challenge he faces is
educating consumers on why
duck eggs are more nutritious
that other types of eggs.
“Anthony Bordessa is a
prime example of the en-
trepreneurial young and be-
Associated Press
Through Saturday
June 3
Puget Sound Junior Livestock
Show and Sale. Skagit County Fair-
grounds, 479 W. Taylor St., Mount
Vernon, Wash. http://www.puget-
soundjuniorlivestock.org/
Wednesday, June 7
“Our Valley, Our Future” Break-
fast. 7:15-8:45 a.m. Emmanuel
Baptist Church, 1515 E. College
Way, Mount Vernon, Wash. Key-
note speaker Derek Sandison, di-
rector of the Washington State De-
partment of Agriculture, will share
his perspective on the trade and
economic outlook for Washington
and on the Skagit agricultural indus-
try. Reservations are required. Call
360-336-3974 or email LindaT@
skagitonians.org. Website: www.
skagitonians.org
Friday, June 9
Gillian Flaccus/Associated Press
In this April 5 photo, vineyard owner Katherine Bryan discusses the
wines available for tasting at Deer Creek Vineyards in Selma, Ore.
She is launching a marijuana business with her son.
“They’re looking for an ex-
perience of ‘wine and weed.’”
The Steeles leased their
land to grow 30 medical mari-
juana plants last year, and this
year they are growing double
that amount to be branded
with the same label as their
wine. They started with seeds
in plastic cups under incuba-
tors in their laundry room, and
pride themselves on a “seed to
smoke” philosophy.
This year’s crop also is for
medical use, but the Steeles
are seeing the benefits of the
expanding market from legal
recreational pot. Their weed
was reviewed alongside one
of their white wines in Stoner
Magazine, an Oregon canna-
bis publication.
“That conversation is pos-
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capitalpress.com.
Farm Practices to Support
Beneficial Insects. 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
SOREC Teaching Farm, 569 Han-
Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director
Barbara Nipp ......... Production Manager
Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager
Residence: Cotati, Calif.
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Calendar
Capital Press Managers
Joe Beach ..................Editor & Publisher
Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
ginning agriculturalists that
are calling Sonoma County
home,” said Kim Vail, exec-
utive director of the Sonoma
County Farm Bureau. “There
is a rich tradition of agricul-
ture that has long driven the
economy in the county and
operations such as Washoe
Valley Duck Farm will serve
to ensure this tradition contin-
ues into the future.”
Although the duck farm is
only four years old, sales are
growing fast.
“We sell our eggs at the
Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Mar-
ket in San Francisco, high-
end restaurants, bakers,
health-conscious consumers
and foodies,” Bordessa said.
“We are in a select 50 mom-
pop markets and numerous
Safeway stores in the greater
Bay Area.”
He said he enjoys his work.
“The most fun in my day is
caring for the ducks, knowing
that we are producing the best
quality product possible and
then hearing from the con-
sumers how much they love
the eggs,” he said.
Some Oregon vineyards try hand at pot farming
JACKSONVILLE, Ore.
— Bill and Barbara Steele
moved to this sleepy corner of
Oregon to start their own win-
ery after successful, high-pow-
ered business careers.
Now, more than a decade
later and with award-winning
wine to show for their hard
work, they are adding a new
crop: marijuana.
Oregon’s legalization of
recreational pot two years ago
created room for entrepreneur-
ial cross-pollination in this
fertile region abutting Califor-
nia’s so-called Emerald Trian-
gle, a well-known nirvana for
outdoor weed cultivation.
Recreational
marijuana
won’t be legal in California
until next year, but a few miles
north of the border in Ore-
gon, a handful of winemakers
are experimenting with pot in
hopes of increasing their ap-
peal among young consumers
and in niche markets.
“Baby boomers are drink-
ing less. Millennials are com-
ing into their time, economi-
cally, where in 2016 they were
the fastest-growing consumers
of wine, both in dollars and
volume,” said Barbara Steele,
who runs Cowhorn Vineyard
& Garden in rural Jacksonville
with her husband.
Established 1928
Board of directors
Mike Forrester
Steve Forrester
Kathryn Brown
Susan Rana
Mike Omeg
Corporate Officer
John Perry
Chief Operating Officer
By JULIA HOLLISTER
COTATI, Calif. — As a
high school student, Anthony
Bordessa was on his computer
researching ways to improve
his pasture poultry operation
when something intriguing
popped up: an ad for duck
eggs.
“When ‘duck eggs’ popped
up I clicked on it and started
to research,” he said. “I found
that the people who had tried
them loved them, but there
was not a consistent supply of
fresh duck eggs.”
Although he was born and
raised in a Sonoma County
agricultural family, duck eggs
were a leap of faith. In 2013
he look that leap and opened
Washoe Valley Duck Farm.
With the help of his parents,
he kept the enterprise going
while he was in community
college and at Cal Poly-San
Luis Obispo
Duck eggs are different
from chicken eggs in many
respects.
“Duck eggs are valued for
their high nutrient content,”
Bordessa said. “There is close
to 10 grams of protein in one
Capital Press
ley Road, Central Point, Ore. This
is Day 1 of a two-day class to raise
awareness of on-farm beneficial in-
sects and birds and how to identify
them. Learn about the role they play
in farming hand-in-hand with nature
and how to create “farmscaping” to
attract and promote active benefi-
cials. Day 2 is June 30. Cost: $15
one/$25 two from the same farm.
Website: http://bit.ly/JacksonSmall-
FarmDream.
Saturday, June 10
PDX Hempfest Expo. 8 a.m.-8
p.m. Portland Expo Center, 2060 N.
Marine Drive, Portland, Ore. More
than 100 exhibitors and 40 speak-
ers on subjects such as best prac-
tices. Cost: $20. Website: http://
pdxhempfestexpo.com/
Wednesday, June 14
Six-week
Forestry
Short
Course. 9 a.m.-noon. Federal
Building meeting room, Seventh
Street and College Avenue, St.
Maries, Idaho. This course will be
six successive Wednesdays. The
$38 fee includes resource material.
Register by phone at 208-245-2422
before June 7.
Thursday-Friday
June 15-16
2017 Interpera Congress.
Wenatchee Confluence Technolo-
gy Center, 285 Technology Center
sible here because our quality
— the agricultural possibility
— is so high. This is an amaz-
ing growing region,” Barbara
Steele said.
It’s hard to know exactly
how many in the wine indus-
try are looking at pot here,
but there’s plenty of buzz sur-
rounding the subject.
Some vineyards are rip-
ping out portions of grapes in
favor of marijuana plants or
leasing land to private grow-
ers. Others are talking about
wine-and-weed tourism, in-
cluding high-end shuttles that
would stop at local wineries
for tastings and at marijuana
farms for glimpses of how pot
is prepared for market.
“There are a few winer-
ies setting up very large rec-
reational grows right now,”
said Brent Kenyon, of the
marijuana consulting business
Kenyon & Associates, based
in southern Oregon. “The
‘weedery’ and the winery. I
think that’s huge, and we see
it developing.”
But that enthusiasm comes
with a caveat. Marijuana is
still federally illegal, and win-
eries must keep their wine and
weed businesses separate or
risk losing a federal permit
that allows them to bottle and
sell wine.
That means establishing
two distinct lots for tax pur-
poses and keeping two licens-
es with the state, said Chris-
tie Scott, alcohol program
spokeswoman for the Oregon
Liquor Control Commission,
which also licenses recre-
ational marijuana. Vineyards
that grow grapes but don’t
have a liquor license, how-
ever, could get a recreational
marijuana license, she said.
In the nearby Illinois Val-
ley, Katherine Bryan is tack-
ling these challenges as she
launches a marijuana business
with her son.
She owns Deer Creek
Vineyards with her husband,
but her pot operation will be
called Bryan Family Gardens
and will operate on land next
to the vineyard.
“We want to be as trans-
parent as possible because
when you’re under the federal
government umbrella for your
wines, you have to be very,
very careful,” Bryan said.
She plans to grow several
hundred marijuana plants with
a focus on organic cultivation
and an eye toward a high-end
market.
They already have some
buyers lined up and are install-
ing greenhouses and lighting
as they await approval of their
recreational license.
“I get $2,000 a ton for my
Pinot gris grapes, whereas I
can make potentially $2,000
or more per pound of canna-
bis,” Bryan said. “We have
31,000 plants out here for
grapes, so I’m pretty sure I
can handle 300 to 500 canna-
bis plants.”
Mark Wisnovsky, of Valley
View Winery in Jacksonville,
says some vintners are upset
because of the stigma associ-
ated with marijuana. But his
family’s winery was the first in
the Applegate Valley in 1971,
and everyone thought they
were crazy then, too, he said.
The family isn’t cultivating
marijuana now, but Wisnovsky
has been a vocal supporter of
those who want to do so.
Diversifying with weed
could save vineyard owners
who have overplanted grapes
for years, he added.
GASES / WELDING / SAFETY / FIRE
www.oxarc.com
Way, Wenatchee, Wash. The con-
ference features presentations
from world experts on emerg-
ing pear varieties, high-density
planting, root stock, harvest and
packing house mechanization,
integrated pest management suc-
cesses, export trade flows and
successful practices for building
consumer demand. http://ncwctc.
com.
Friday-Sunday
June 16-18
Glenwood Ketchum Kalf Rodeo
and Bull Bash. Glenwood Rodeo
Grounds, Trout Lake Highway,
Glenwood, Wash. The Bull Bash
starts at 7 p.m. June 16, followed
by the rodeo, which starts at
12:30 p.m. June 17-18. Website:
http://business.gorge.net/
glenwoodrodeo.
Saturday, June 17
Forest Thinning and Pruning
Field Day. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. University
of Idaho Extension office, 1808 N.
Third St., Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Whether you have problems with
insects, disease or concerns about
fire, the response from foresters is
nearly universal: Thin your forest.
Presentations about thinning and
financial assistance will be followed
by a field trip to a thinned stand. A
$20 fee includes a field notebook or
publications. Register by June 9.
20 Northwest Locations
Tuesday, June 20
Trees and Taxes workshop.
5-7:30 p.m. Coos County Extension
Office, 631 Alder St., Myrtle Point,
Ore. This class is for anyone with
forest management expenses, re-
cent forest income or planning for
future income from their forestland.
Tammy Cushing, Extension special-
ist in forest economics, manage-
ment and policy, will explain topics
many landowners are unaware of
and the special provisions in the
Internal Revenue Code that per-
tain to forestland and income gen-
erated from the land. This session
will help improve the records you
keep on your forestland as well
as minimize the taxes that you
pay for income generated by your
forest. Pre-registration is required
by June 16. For questions, call
Shawna at 541-572-5263. Web-
site: http://extension.oregonstate.
edu/coos/.
Tuesday-Wednesday
June 20-21
Center for Produce Safety Re-
search Symposium. Hyatt Regency
Denver Tech Center, 7800 E. Tufts
Ave., Denver, Colo. Agricultural wa-
ter will kick off the program agen-
da. This session will focus on four
CPS-funded research programs
that will help stakeholders better
understand the factors involved
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in sourcing, sampling, testing and
treating specific types of agricultur-
al water.
Thursday, June 22
Oregon Angus Field Day. 4-10
p.m. Quail Valley Ranch, Prineville,
Ore. Cattle on display, contests
with prizes, a meal and a time to
visit. For more information, con-
tact Becky Tekansik, Quail Valley
Ranch, 541-699-8562, or Dick
Hubman, president of the Oregon
Angus Association, 541-601-5495.
Tuesday, June 27
Range Field Day. 8:30 a.m.-4
p.m. Northern Great Basin Ex-
perimental Range, 100 Placidea
Butte Road, Riley, Ore. Presenta-
tions will include managing wild-
fires, livestock grazing for fuels
management, safe sites and res-
toration of sagebrush rangeland.
For more information, contact
Chad Boyd, office: 541-573-8939,
cell: 541-589-4990, email: chad.
boyd@oregonstate.edu. To RSVP
for lunch, call Petrina White at 541-
573-4085.
Wednesday-Saturday
June 28-July 1
128th Annual Washington State
Grange Convention. Ocean Shores
Convention Center, 120 W. Chance
a La Mer NW, Ocean Shores,
Wash.
Letters to the Editor: Send your
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issues to opinions@capitalpress.com, or
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Index
Markets ............................... 13
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