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CapitalPress.com
June 8, 2018
Apple Club delivers diverse varieties, taste
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
A cool breeze blows between
the rows of heirloom apple trees
at Queener Farm in Scio, Ore.,
where Jeannie Berg plucks a
small, unripened Almata apple
to show its bright red flesh.
Almatas are just one of
roughly 80 apple varieties that
Berg expects to pick from the
orchard this year. Some, like
Honeycrisp, are well known and
popular. Others, like Calville
Blanc d’hiver and Dumelow’s
Seedling, are a bit more adven-
turous.
With such a diverse selec-
tion, Berg launched the Queen-
er Farm Heirloom Apple Club
in 2015, delivering boxes of
unique, organically grown ap-
ples to members looking to
broaden their palate.
“There are people who had
no idea apples could taste this
different,” Berg said.
For example, Berg described
the Whitney crabapple, which
she said is sweet with a distinct-
George Plaven/Capital Press
Jeannie Berg holds up a red flesh apple variety known as Almata,
which typically ripens in August.
Geroge Plaven/Capital Press
Jeannie Berg, of Queener Farm
in Scio, Ore., thins one of 2,000
heirloom apple trees at the 40-
acre property. The farm started
an heirloom apple club in 2015.
Members can taste as many as
80 different varieties.
ly vanilla flavor. On the other
hand, there is the Alkmene ap-
ple, a juicy variety that Berg
said tastes (and even sparkles)
like lime soda.
The Heirloom Apple Club
works on a community sup-
ported agriculture, or CSA,
model. Members pay for apple
boxes delivered every other
week during the heart of the
season, from roughly mid-July
through October.
In turn, Berg said members
are supporting the biodiversity
of apples at Queener Farms,
which has 2,000 heirloom
trees — most of which are
more than 20 and 30 years old.
“It is much more interesting
and fun to both farm and mar-
ket a wide variety of apples,”
Berg said.
That biodiversity also pos-
es an intellectual challenge on
the farm, Berg said. Different
varieties bloom and ripen at
different times throughout the
season, which means there is
no one-size-fits-all treatment
for pests, such as codling
moths, and fungal diseases
prevalent across the Mid-Wil-
lamette Valley.
“We have all these vari-
ables in the orchard that are
incredibly educational,” Berg
said. “But the thing about
them from a farm perspective
is there is nothing about this
farm that’s efficient.”
Berg, who took over farm-
ing at the 40-acre property in
2014, said she is also begin-
ning to grow 700-800 new
trees that will eventually be
planted in the orchard.
“We feel that continuing
to plant more orchard block
is important,” Berg said.
“Eventually as these trees get
older, they’re not going to be
as productive. ... It’s sort of
renewing over time.”
Along with the Heirloom
Apple Club, Queener Farm
offers U-pick days at the or-
chard and a Hard Cider Club
featuring workshops taught
by Zeb Dewar, of Baird &
Dewar Farmhouse Cider.
Berg said the orchard at
Queener Farm is “a laborato-
ry like no other.”
“You may not love every
apple in the box, but it’s nev-
er boring,” she said.
Small garlic grower hit by Okanogan flood
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
OROVILLE, Wash. — It doesn’t
sound like much — a $10,000 to
$25,000 loss — but it’s a fair chunk
in the annual income of Noah and
Heather Burnell.
They’re small-scale growers of
garlic, probably one of the most
unusual crop losses in this spring’s
Okanogan Valley flood. And at
3,500-feet and 3 miles from the
Canadian border they’re also prob-
ably one of the highest elevation
and most northern garlic growers
in the Lower 48 states.
Rapid mountain snowmelt has
caused the worst flooding of the
Okanogan Valley, particularly be-
tween Oroville and Tonasket, since
1972. Damage to houses, struc-
tures, hay fields and orchards along
the Okanogan River will reach into
the millions of dollars.
Snowmelt caused ground water
to rise, flooding the Burnell’s gar-
lic field at Ellemeham Mountain,
10 miles west of Oroville between
Palmer Lake and Nighthawk.
The Burnells haven’t seen any-
thing like it in the 22 years they’ve
owned land on the mountain.
“Last year springs were popping
up in the middle of the county road
and our roads and this year it’s
even more. One of our fields was
completely under water. We dug
ditches to drain it,” said Noah Bur-
nell, 44.
A lot of it was snowmelt on the
mountain but there’s always been
snowmelt so he suspects some larg-
er change in underground water
movement.
The field is about half an acre.
Burnell figures he’s lost a major-
ity of last fall’s planting of two
varieties of garlic. He won’t know
Courtesy Noah Burnell
Noah and Heather Burnell with garlic from their field on Ellemeham Mountain, west of
Oroville, Wash.
Courtesy Noah Burnell
The Burnells’ garlic field on about May 7, partially drained after two to three weeks
under water.
how much can be salvaged un-
til July harvest. If the whole field
is lost, it would be a third of his
annual crop.
It’s a dryland operation, depen-
dent on winter snow and rain.
“Most years we have our fingers
crossed that we’ll have enough
moisture,” he said.
They have no crop insurance
and will try to buy seed from other
growers if they can to keep supply-
ing their customers.
Burnell was a carpenter before
experimenting with garlic sev-
en years ago. They were not sure
it would survive harsh winters at
3,500 feet, but found out it does.
Their production has expanded
to 8,000 to 10,000 pounds of garlic
seed on 1.5 acres on the mountain
and at another field in the lowlands
on the east shore of Lake Osoyoos
east of Oroville.
“We make about $80,000 to
$100,000 a year, which is very
good. We were looking for a crop
we could grow as a family and pay
the bills,” Burnell said.
It’s labor intensive and they do
all the work themselves. Fall plant-
ing by hand, one mechanical weed-
ing, a hand weeding and harvesting
by hand.
Their crop is certified organic.
Bulbs bigger than 2 inches in diam-
eter they sell for seed under their
Great Northern Garlic brand and
bulbs smaller than that are sold as
Okanogan Organic directly to local
grocery stores and through a broker
to Seattle grocery stores.
“The Okanogan Valley is the
Napa Valley of garlic,” Burnell
said, “because we have so many
small, specialized growers and so
many different varieties.”
There are probably 30 to 40
small growers and one of the na-
tion’s largest garlic seed banks,
Filaree Garlic Farm, in Omak, he
said.
“Conditions here are hot, dry
summers and very cold winters
which is what garlic needs,” he said.
Gilroy, Calif., where Heather
Burnell is from, is where most of
the nation’s garlic is grown.
“We had some hail damage one
year, but otherwise this is our first
natural disaster,” Burnell said.
“We’ve never had any winter loss
because of the cold.”
Washington Grain Commission approves $6.33 million budget
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
SPOKANE — Washing-
ton Grain Commission board
members have approved a
$6.33 million budget that’s
close to last year’s spending
plan.
Commission CEO Glen
Squires called the budget
“virtually unchanged” from
last year’s.
The state’s wheat crop
could be comparable to last
year, Squires projected. Pock-
ets of Washington are report-
ing some water shortages,
while others are reporting
good soil moisture.
SAGE Fact #147
Wheat prices appear to
have room for growth in light
of drought in Australia, ques-
tions about dry conditions in
Russia and Ukraine and tight-
ening corn supplies, he said.
Soft white wheat ranged
from $5.80 per bushel to
$5.90 per bushel on the Port-
land market. Hard red winter
wheat ranged from $5.74 per
bushel to $7.14 per bushel,
depending on its protein con-
tent. Dark northern spring
wheat ranged from $7.11 per
bushel to $8.04 per bushel,
depending on protein.
“There could be some up-
ward pressure on price,” he
said. “We’re certainly hoping
the price is up, because pro-
ducers need to have a little
better prices.”
The budget for marketing
was increased by 4 percent,
from $1.24 million to $1.29
million. Commissioners felt
the need to increase trade
teams and handle problems
that may arise during the year,
Squires said. He cited uncer-
tainty in China with the on-
going talk of new tariffs and
in Japan with the U.S. with-
drawal from the Trans-Pacific
Partnership trade deal.
The increase will help
bring South American trade
teams to Washington state or
the Wheat Marketing Center
in Portland.
Funding for research in
the budget decreased by 2.9
percent, from $2.42 million
Each day a cow eats 75-100 pounds of food and
drink 25-50 gallons of water. That is equivalent to
3 large bags of dog food and a bathtub of water.
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to $2.35 million. Squires said
some research projects had
come to an end.
Funding remains available
to address falling number con-
cerns. Squires expects some
of that funding may not have
to be used, with the USDA
Agricultural Research Ser-
vice slated to receive federal
funding to address the starch
damage test.
The commission assesses
three-fourths of 1 percent of
net receipts at the first point of
sale for wheat and 1 percent
of net receipts at the first point
of sale for barley.
Squires expects an income
of $6 million to $6.1 million.
Earlier in the year, the com-
mission expected less income,
but prices are slightly higher,
he said. Income depends on
grain prices and production,
Squires said.
The income doesn’t fully
cover the $6.3 million budget,
so the commission will dip
into reserves, Squires said.
However, the commission
may not end up spending the
entire $6.3 million, he said.
The commission maintains
the equivalent of a year’s in-
come in reserves in case of a
crop failure.
Squires said the com-
mission has $4.6 million in
reserves with $1 million in
reserves designated for mar-
keting in case it’s needed to
address any marketing uncer-
tainties.
Ruling
provides new
rationale for
blocking
Oregon solar
project
\By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
The Oregon Court of Ap-
peals has provided a new
legal rationale for why an
80-acre solar power proj-
ect on farmland in Jackson
County was improperly ap-
proved.
Last year, the county
government granted Origis
Energy, the project’s devel-
oper, an exception to Ore-
gon’s land use goal of pre-
serving farmland, but the
decision was reversed by
the state’s Land Use Board
of Appeals.
According to LUBA,
the solar project didn’t
qualify for the exception
because it’s not dependent
on a “unique resource” that
would require converting
farmland for industrial de-
velopment.
It’s not unusual for
farmland to be “flat, 80
acres in size and exposed
to the sun” and the project’s
proximity to an electrical
substation in Medford also
doesn’t justify the excep-
tion, LUBA’s ruling said.
Approving the project
on this basis would under-
mine the purpose of “ur-
ban growth boundaries”
by allowing development
on farmland near cities, the
ruling said.
The Oregon Court of
Appeals has now disagreed
with this interpretation of
the state’s land use law but
has still reversed the coun-
ty’s approval of the project.
The relevant statute
provides a list of “unique
resources” that would justi-
fy converting farmland, in-
cluding “geothermal wells,
mineral or aggregate depos-
its, water reservoirs, natural
features, or river or ocean
ports.”
However, this list is “not
a description of the entire
group of possible advanta-
geous locales” and the “lo-
cational attractor” does not
have to be found exclusive-
ly on rural land, according
to the Oregon Court of Ap-
peals.
Even so, the appellate
court has concurred with
LUBA that Jackson County
improperly used the excep-
tion because a solar power
project is not an “industrial
development” under land
use rules.
The county evaluated
the project with criteria for
such an “industrial devel-
opment,” but an “energy fa-
cility” doesn’t fall into this
category, according to the
Oregon Court of Appeals.
The county’s other jus-
tification for the project
— conserving energy is
encouraged by another Or-
egon land use goal — did
not fare any better in the
ruling.
The Oregon Court of
Appeals sided with LUBA,
finding that this goal simply
means development should
be “managed and con-
trolled” to conserve energy.
“Neither the text of the
goal nor its guidelines ‘re-
quire’ the county to develop
or facilitate the development
of any particular land use,
much less large solar pow-
er generation facilities,” the
ruling said.
Capital Press was unable
to reach attorneys for Origis
Energy or the Oregon Solar
Energy Industries Associa-
tion.
Though the ruling has
blocked the project for now,
it’s possible the developer
will seek another pathway
under land use law to gain
approval for it, said Meriel
Darzen, attorney for 1,000
Friends of Oregon, a conser-
vation group that opposed
the project.
However, the developer
would need to re-apply to
the county for permission
and begin the process anew,
she said. “They will have to
start over if they want to try
again.”