January 26, 2018
CapitalPress.com
7
Long crowned 2018 cherry
king for work in NW industry
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Cory Sharp, founder of HempLogic, checks his phone during the planting of hemp June 6 in Moses
Lake, Wash. Sharp bought a license from the state Department of Agriculture to import hemp seeds, but
can’t because the program has been shut down pending a decision by lawmakers on whether to fund it.
Washington shuts down hemp seed supply
Licenses current,
but program halted
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — A Washing-
ton businessman is pushing
the state Department of Agri-
culture to revive its dormant
hemp program so he can get
seeds for spring plantings.
The department has de-
clined to forward to the Drug
Enforcement Administration
an application from Cory
Sharp, founder of Hemp-
Logic, to import hemp seeds,
a federally controlled sub-
stance. The department says
the program will be gone by
spring anyway if lawmakers
don’t fund it.
Sharp, whose state license
to distribute seeds is good un-
til June 1, said he’s willing to
bet lawmakers will save the
program. He also said he’s
confident he can line up 500
acres for hemp this year, if he
has government support.
Without it, he said he will
resort to hauling seeds from
Oregon, where the supply
is less regulated, and plant
5 acres in protest. “I don’t
want to be an activist. But, by
gawd, I have too much time
and money invested in this,”
Sharp said. “I want my DEA
permit.”
Washington issued seven
one-year hemp permits before
shutting down the program
last fall after five months. Li-
cense holders paid thousands
of dollars in fees. The cost of
overseeing the cultivation of
a regulated crop, however, is
far more, according to the de-
partment.
The department said it
needed $287,000 in the next
spending plan to continue the
program. Lawmakers proba-
bly won’t pass a budget until
at least mid-March.
“Things are on hold un-
til we see what happens,”
WSDA spokesman Hector
Castro said. “We simply have
to work with the situation we
have.”
Two tribes and two Wash-
ington State University re-
searchers have licenses. Sharp
is involved in two of the other
three licenses. Regardless of
what happens in Washington,
Sharp said he plans to develop
a national company.
He announced Monday a
partnership with a Colorado
manufacturer,
PowerZone
Agriculture, to build a mobile
decorticater to process hemp
at farms throughout the U.S.
“To put it lightly, we’re
very excited, Sharp said. “No
matter what Washington does,
the future of HempLogic is
pretty darn bright.”
In Washington, viable
hemp seeds are only legal if
brought into the state with
the permission of the DEA
and first delivered to a WSDA
locker in Spokane. Under
federal law, growing hemp is
only legal under the auspices
of a state-run program.
To attract farmers for a
large-scale planting, Sharp
said he needs the blessing of
the state.
“Let’s say they don’t give
it. It puts me up against the
state. Yet, they don’t have
rules that say I can’t grow
hemp, so they’re in a weird
spot,” he said. “I’ll plant 5
acres just to prove a point.”
WSDA maintains unli-
censed hemp farming is il-
legal. Yet state lawmakers,
apparently confused about
hemp’s federal status, re-
moved hemp from the state’s
controlled substance list. In
the wake of that move, law-
makers instructed WSDA to
write a rule to make clear the
state has the authority to pe-
nalize unlicensed hemp farm-
ing.
Castro said the department
plans to write the rule, no mat-
ter what happens to the hemp
program.
YAKIMA, Wash. —
Lynn Long, a retired Oregon
State University Extension
specialist instrumental in
transforming Pacific North-
west cherries 20 years ago,
is the industry’s 74th cherry
king.
Chosen by past kings,
Long was crowned at the
annual Cherry Institute of
Northwest Cherry Growers
at the Yakima Convention
Center on Jan. 12.
Long was hired by OSU
Extension as its Mid-Colum-
bia stone fruit agent in The
Dalles, Ore., in 1988 and in
1994 was sent to observe and
study the cherry industries in
Italy, France, Spain and Ger-
many.
“What he learned there
was the beginning of the
transformation of the Pacific
Northwest cherry industry,”
Bob Bailey, the 73rd cher-
ry king, said in introducing
Long.
Bailey is co-owner of
Orchard View Farms in The
Dalles. It is the largest cherry
operation in Oregon.
“Although we had tested
dwarfing cherry rootstocks
in Oregon and Washington
no one was talking about
moving them into commer-
cial production,” Bailey
said. “We were an industry
producing one variety, on
Mazzard rootstock, grown
to a tall, steep leader or open
Courtesy of Northwest Cherry Growers
Lynn Long, a retired Oregon State University Extension special-
ist, wears a crown as the 2018 Cherry King and is congratulated
by 2017 King Bob Bailey in Yakima, Wash., on Jan. 12.
vase tree.”
Europe was growing mul-
tiple varieties in high-den-
sity orchards on dwarfing
Gisela 5 and 6 rootstocks.
The Europeans were talking
about scarcity and expense
of agricultural labor and
were developing pedestrian
orchards, trees that could be
picked from the ground.
Long helped the Pacific
Northwest industry move in
that direction.
Long also worked on
cherry fruit fly, obliqueband-
ed leafroller control, replant
disease and compost and
mulch options to improve
orchard soils. He researched
new varieties, rootstocks and
training systems.
“To date our king has
evaluated nearly 100 variet-
ies and selections for poten-
tial adoption by the sweet
cherry industry in the Pacific
Northwest,” Bailey said.
Long spoke about North-
west cherries in 16 countries
during his career.
Long was born in Port-
land, raised outside the city
and spent his childhood in
the Willamette Valley and
Columbia Gorge. He devel-
oped an interest in agricul-
ture picking strawberries and
as a youngster and by visit-
ing his grandfather’s farm in
Alberta, Canada.
He graduated from Cen-
tennial High School in
Gresham, Ore., in 1971 and
from Lewis and Clark Col-
lege, Portland, in 1975. He
studied plant pathology at
Washington State University.
Verne Gingerich wins Nut Grower of the Year
Gingerich credited
with experience as
farmer, processor
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Having worked as both a
grower and processor, Verne
Gingerich has a fully integrat-
ed view of Northwest hazel-
nut production.
The industry’s relatively
small size allows for effective
communication, which has al-
lowed it to thrive, Gingerich
said upon accepting the 2017
Nut Grower of the Year award
during the Nut Growers Soci-
ety’s Jan. 18 annual meeting
in Corvallis, Ore.
“We’re in a good indus-
try and I hope we keep it that
way,” said Gingerich, who
farms
near
Canby, Ore.
Gingerich
credited his fa-
ther, Richard,
with the fore-
sight to begin
Verne
cultivating ha-
Gingerich
zelnuts, which
have bestowed
many bless-
ings on the family.
Aside from growing hazel-
nuts, Gingerich also worked
for the Northwest Hazelnut
Co. and eventually became a
partner in the processing com-
pany in the 1990s.
Though he’s since sold his
interest to the George Pack-
ing Co., Gingerich continues
to run a receiving station for
hazelnuts.
While operating the pro-
cessing company, Gingerich
had a keen sense of where
the markets were heading and
how the industry should posi-
tion itself, said Lisa Pascoe,
office manager for Northwest
Hazelnut Co., who presented
him with the award.
As a farmer, Gingerich
is always eager to share his
knowledge with others, Pas-
coe said. “He is always a huge
asset for those he helps.”
In the past, Gingerich
served five years on the Nut
Growers Society’s board, in-
cluding a stint as president
in 1990, in addition to his
involvement with the Or-
egon Hazelnut Marketing
Board.
Gingerich also sits on a
committee that advises the
Oregon Department of Agri-
culture about shipping point
inspections and is involved
with local firefighting agen-
cies.
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