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CapitalPress.com
June 1, 2018
People & Places
From Saudi Arabia to California
John Carlon
uses Middle East
experience to grow
organic blueberries
Western
Innovator
By JULIA HOLLISTER
For the Capital Press
F0REST RANCH, Calif.
— John Carlon grew up in
Northern California and al-
ways had an interest in agri-
culture.
But to realize the dream of
having his own farm he would
first have to go to Saudi Ara-
bia.
“I managed the college
farm when I attended Chicago
State, graduated from Chico
State with a degree in agrono-
my and horticulture,” he said.
He also has a master’s degree
in international agriculture
development.
“But I always wanted a
farm of my own,” he said.
He heard of a well-paying
opportunity in Saudi Arabia
and decided to go for it.
He farmed 8,000 acres of
wheat in the Middle East for
five years.
“By this time, I had saved
enough to come back to the
states,” he said.
In 1989 most of the blue-
berries on the West Coast
were grown in Oregon.
“We settled in the foothills
and today we have nine acres
in blueberries,” Carlon said of
their location in Butte County.
Carlon and his wife, Ar-
men, believe their operation
John and Armen
Carlon
Address: Forest Ranch,
Calif.
Occupation: Owners, Sierra
Cascade Blueberry Farm
Website: www.sierracas-
cadeblueberries.com
CUESA
John Carlon owns and manages Sierra Cascade Blueberries in Northern California. Blueberries are
seasonal — from the first of June to the first week in July. The farm sells 80 percent of its blueberries
to retail chains and 20 percent to farmers’ markets.
is one of only a few organic
blueberry farms in the state. It
was certified organic in 1993.
“Blueberries are hard to
plant but easy to grow,” he
said. “The soil has to be exact-
ly right because of the acidity.
We just gambled and picked
some good plants.” They
grow eight varieties from
Michigan and New Jersey.
The farm is nearly self-suf-
ficient.
“With the exceptions of
electricity to pump water,
fuel to power our tractor
and trucks and containers to
package the fruit, our farm
has become self-sustaining,”
he said on the farm’s website.
“We have replaced off-farm
inputs with ecosystem ser-
vices.”
For example, birds are a
pest on the farm, but Coo-
per’s Hawks make short
work of them. The hawks eat
the other birds as their main
food source and have saved
the farm hundreds of dollars.
Blueberries are harvested
from June 1 through the first
week in July. The farm sells
80 percent of its blueberries
to retail chains and 20 per-
cent at farmers’ markets.
“We are grateful to have
Sierra Cascade Blueber-
ry Farm in the Ferry Plaza
Farmers’ Market community
and eagerly await their re-
turn every spring,” said Brie
Mazurek, communications
director of CUESA — the
Center for Urban Education
about Sustainable Agricul-
ture — which runs the farm-
ers’ market. “The Carlons
truly embody ecologically
holistic farming, caring for
wildlife, waterways and the
land, while providing deli-
cious organic berries for us
to eat.”
Carlon also serves on
CUESA’s board of directors.
He said the demand for
blueberries has increased
since information came out
about their health benefits.
Studies have found that they
help maintain healthy bones,
promote skin health, reduce
blood pressure, help manage
diabetes and promote heart
health, among other benefits.
Carlon is also the co-found-
er of River Partners, an envi-
ronmental nonprofit that has
planted over a million native
trees and restored thousands
of acres of natural habitat.
He is justifiably proud of
the family farm.
“With a combination of
good soil, water, organic and
sustainable growing practices,
and careful selection of vari-
eties that would grow in the
local climate, the blueberries
harvested from Sierra Cas-
cade Farm have been consis-
tently outstanding in quality
and flavor,” he said.
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Don Kruse, well-known Oregon farmer, dies at age 87
By CRAIG REED
For the Capital Press
ROSEBURG, Ore. — Don
Kruse, a long-time area farm-
er who was instrumental in
the expansion of his family’s
farm to 500 acres of row crops
and orchards, died May 13.
Kruse was 87.
Due to his health, he had
been forced off his tractor
and into retirement about
5 years ago. After a recent
hospital stay, the ambulance
that was giving him a ride
back to his assisted living
facility apartment detoured
to Kruse Farms Market,
Bakery & Gift Shop that is
a mile west of Roseburg. He
was able to look out over
the crops one more time
and family members said
the visit “perked him up.”
He died six days later of
heart-related issues.
As a youth, Kruse helped
his father, Bert Kruse, on the
farm that was originally a
20-acre parcel purchased in
1923. After graduating from
Roseburg High School and
spending one term at Ore-
gon State University in Cor-
vallis, Kruse returned home
to farm full-time. He became
a partner in the business with
his father and then when
Bert Kruse semi-retired ear-
ly in the 1970s Don Kruse
became partners with his
Calendar
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 or emailed to newsroom@
capitalpress.com. Write “Calendar”
in the subject line.
Saturday, June 2
81st Annual Marion County
Lamb & Wool Show. 8 a.m.-3 p.m.
Turner Elementary School, 7800
School St., Turner, Ore. The show
is a day of fun with 4-H & FFA
events, wool animals and market
lambs. The show also includes craft
vendors, an ice cream vendor, a
local spinning club and plants for
sale. Again this year we will start
the day with the children’s class-
es: Most Beautiful Lamb, Young
Herdsman and Young Market Lamb
classes for children under the age
of 10. Website: http://marioncoun-
tylambandwoolshow.yolasite.com/
Farm to Table Dinner and Soil
Health Field Walk. 2:30-8 p.m.
Springs Ranch, 51801 County
Road 1, Fort Bidwell, Calif. There
will be live music from Huckleber-
Craig Reed/For the Capital Press
Don Kruse, a long-time farmer in the Roseburg, Ore., area, is seen
at his produce stand in this file photo. His business, Kruse Farms,
still grows about 60 different crops on 500 acres west of Roseburg.
own two sons, Denny and
Jeff. His daughter Karen and
his grandson Evan also work
in the family business.
“I think you’re born with
some of that ability,” Denny
Kruse said of his father be-
ing a successful farmer. “He
had the intuition to do things
right. He wasn’t one of those
people who used science to
figure everything out. He
used his gut reaction to re-
spond to whatever the situa-
tion was.
“Farming was his life and
I think in his later years when
he wasn’t working anymore,
he could look back and see
what he had accomplished,”
Denny Kruse added.
Kruse Farms originally
specialized in growing about
a half dozen crops for the
wholesale market. Truck-
loads of produce were hauled
to distribution warehouses
throughout Oregon.
Larry Geraci, a produce
salesman and manager in
Portland and later in Med-
ford, Ore., did business with
Don Kruse and his farm for
almost 60 years.
ry Road, a meal featuring Surprise
Valley and Modoc grown products
as well as regionally sourced adult
beverages and a tour of Springs
Ranch. All proceeds from the event
will go to Modoc Harvest to improve
local food access and education in
Modoc County. Cost: $75/person,
kids under 12 free. Website: https://
bit.ly/2ImyUCd
islative issues, reports on ODA’s
Natural Resource and Internal Ser-
vice and Consumer Protection Pro-
grams, project updates from groups
receiving Specialty Crop Block
Grant funding. A panel presentation
on Northwest fruit moving from the
grower to the marketplace will fol-
low. The afternoon agenda includes
tours of H-2A worker housing and a
fruit packing operation. At 8:45 a.m.
June 7, board members will receive
an update on the recent trade mis-
sion to China and hear a presen-
tation from the Cultivating Change
Foundation. Website: https://bit.
ly/2cKsbhX
Tuesday, June 5
Pre-Harvest Cherry Tour. 7:45
a.m. Tour Dahle Farms on Cherry
Heights Road and Omeg Family
Farms, 3157 Knob Hill Road, near
The Dalles, Ore., for presentations
on rootstock selections, New Pearl
series cherries, little cherry dis-
ease, cover crops for orchards and
to meet WSU’s new cherry breeder,
Per McCord. Website: extension.
oregonstate.edu/wasco
Tuesday-Thursday
June 5-7
Oregon Board of Agriculture
Meeting. Best Western Hood River
Inn, 1108 East Marina Way, Hood
River, Ore. The board meets at 5
p.m. June 5 for board resolutions
and subcommittee meetings. At
8:30 a.m. June 6, the agenda in-
cludes an update on the Oregon
Department of Agriculture’s leg-
Wednesday, June 6
Our Valley, Our Future Break-
fast. 7:15-8:45 a.m. Emmanuel
Baptist Church, 1515 College Way,
Mount Vernon, Wash. Join us for
our fourth annual celebration of
past, present and future Skagit
Valley agricultural leaders over a
hearty breakfast. This year our key-
note speaker will be Ciscoe Morris
of King 5 TV. Awards will also be
presented to honor the Skagito-
nians that shape our industry. This
event is a great way to connect with
regional businesses and farmers,
celebrate successes, and start the
day feeling informed and inspired.
Cost: Free; donations requested
“Don was one of the better
growers out of a lot of good
growers in that area,” Geraci
said. “When you would give
him an order, you could de-
pend on him to make it good.
He grew quality products.
When you would tell peo-
ple it was Kruse corn, Kruse
peaches, Kruse cantaloupes,
they would know it was a
quality product.”
In the mid-1980s, Kruse
Farms purchased a produce
stand and expanded its busi-
ness to the retail market that
soon added a bakery and gift
shop. The farm went from
growing a few crops on a
large scale to about 60 crops,
each on a smaller scale.
In an interview with this
reporter in 2009, Don Kruse
said he wouldn’t make any
changes, even if he could, in
his life.
“We had some bad years
on the farm,” he said in that
interview. “But in those
tough years, we kept saying
the year of the farmer was
coming. It did get here. If
I was going to do life over
again, I wouldn’t change my
life at all.”
Although busy on the
farm, Don Kruse also found
time for community service.
He was a member and a
strong advocate of the Farm
Bureau. He was a member of
the Roseburg School Board
for 17 years and of the state
Board of Education for 10
years. He was also a mem-
ber of the Douglas County
Fairgrounds board, repre-
senting agriculture, for 12
years, was a board member
of South Umpqua Bank, now
Umpqua Bank, was a board
member of the Douglas
County Farmers Co-op and
was a member of the Voca-
tional Agriculture Advisory
Committee for Roseburg
High School. His farm made
many food donations to the
local food bank.
The
Roseburg Area
Chamber of Commerce
named Kruse its 1982 First
Citizen of the Year.
“When somebody would
ask him to contribute, to serve
on a board, he would always
rise to the occasion,” Denny
Kruse said of his father. “He
would take time out of work
to do those things. Commu-
nity service was in his per-
sonality. He always wanted
to help people. If there was a
need, he would help.”
Family members said a
celebration of life for Don
Kruse has been scheduled for
1 p.m. June 21 at Redeemers
Church in Roseburg.
“Don was a good one,”
Geraci said. “His name and
the Kruse Farms name is
known throughout agricul-
ture in the state of Oregon.”
Website: http://www.skagitonians.
org/events/valley-future-breakfast/
8:40 a.m.-noon. Sherman County
Station, 66365 Lone Rock Road,
Moro, Ore. Topics include wheat
breeding and variety testing, weed
control, disease control and agron-
omy. Website: http://cbarc.aes.ore-
gonstate.edu
Monday-Tuesday
June 11-12
Water Law & Resource Issues
Seminar. Sun Valley Resort, 1 Sun
Valley Road, Sun Valley, Idaho.
Brenda Burman, the Bureau of Rec-
lamation commissioner, will provide
updates on the agency including
the ongoing discussions about in-
frastructure and title transfer. A va-
riety of other presentations is also
planned by the sponsoring Idaho
Water Users Association. Website:
www.iwua.org
Tuesday-Friday
June 12-15
Agriculture Transportation Co-
alition Annual Meeting. Greater
Tacoma Convention Center, 1500
Commerce St., Tacoma, Wash. The
meeting will be the largest annual
gathering of ag shippers sourcing
and delivering to foreign markets.
The agenda includes an off-the-
record best practices session for
members, a port tour and sessions
on other topics. Website: www.ag-
trans.org/events
Wednesday, June 13
Sherman County Field Day.
Forestry Shortcourse. 9 a.m.-
noon. Sandpoint Orchard, 10881
N. Boyer Road, Sandpoint, Idaho.
This is the first session of a six-ses-
sion course on forest ecology, silvi-
culture, wildlife habitat, and other
forestry topics. Cost: $38 Email:
cschnepf@uidaho.edu
Saturday-Sunday
June 16-17
84th
Annual
Glenwood
“Ketchum Kalf” Rodeo. 12:30-10
p.m. The Glenwood, Wash., Rodeo
Association is a nonprofit, all-volun-
teer organization that sponsors this
rodeo. Cost: $10 for adults, $3 for
ages 4 to 12.
Wednesday, June 20
Forestry Shortcourse. 9 a.m.-
noon. Sandpoint Orchard, 10881 N.
Boyer Road, Sandpoint, Idaho. This
is the second session of a six-ses-
sion course on forest ecology, silvi-
culture, wildlife habitat, and other
forestry topics. Cost: $38 Email:
cschnepf@uidaho.edu
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Index
Fieldwork report ..................... 3
Opinion .................................. 6
Markets ............................... 13
Clarification
A page 4 story in last week’s
Capital Press needs to be
clarified. Norcal Nursery LLC
of Anderson, Calif., is entirely
unrelated to Norcal Nursery
Inc. of Red Bluff, Calif., which
is the defendant in a lawsuit
filed by an Oregon company
over supplying strawberry
plants.
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
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