Friday, December 21, 2018
CapitalPress.com
5
NRCS invites farmers to ‘soil your undies’
Burying underwear
can help determine
soil health
Four steps to
healthy soil
The USDA Natural Resourc-
es Conservation Service
recommends four steps to
maintaining soil microbes
and health:
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
George Plaven/Capital Press
From left, Erik Andersson, president of SEDCOR; Chris
Sarles, CEO of Oregon Fruit Products; Ed Maletis; and
Salem Mayor Chuck Bennett cut the ribbon on the new
Oregon Fruit Products headquarters and processing plant
Dec. 11 in southeast Salem.
Oregon Fruit
Products expands
into new building
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
SALEM, Ore. — When
Chris Sarles joined Ore-
gon Fruit Products as CEO
five years ago, the long-
time West Salem, Ore.,
company was already
looking to leave its origi-
nal facility and move into
a new home where the
business could grow and
thrive.
“It wasn’t optimal for
food
manufacturing,”
Sarles said of the original
plant, which was cobbled
together by necessity over
the decades and limited by
space.
Oregon Fruit Products
officially moved into its
new building — the for-
mer NORPAC Foods veg-
etable cannery in south-
east Salem — in October.
Approximately 200 peo-
ple attended a ribbon-cut-
ting ceremony Dec. 11 to
celebrate the 83-year-old
food processor’s fresh
start in spacious new digs.
“It allows us to shape
and diversify our business
so we can continue for
another 80 years,” Sarles
said.
Oregon Fruit Prod-
ucts operates four pro-
cessing lines and makes a
wide variety of products
for consumer retail and
the food service indus-
try, such as canned fruit
and purees. The company
has also expanded in more
recent years to provide fla-
voring and ingredients for
craft beverages, including
beer and soft drinks.
Sarles
said
the
165,000-square-foot
building is better equipped
to serve their needs, and
will allow them to keep
growing while complying
with more rigorous food
safety requirements.
“We continue to lis-
ten to our customers
about what their needs
are, and innovate to meet
those needs,” Sarles said.
“We’re consistently look-
ing to attract new folks to
the team.”
Oregon Fruit Products
was founded in 1935 by
Max Gehlar after working
on his family’s cherry and
plum orchard in the Eola
Hills area outside Salem.
The Gehlar family ran the
business for three genera-
tions before selling to Ed
and Cindy Maletis in 2011.
At the time, Ed Maletis, a
third-generation Orego-
nian, had just sold his own
beer and wine distribu-
tion company, Columbia
Distributing.
Both Sarles and Male-
tis said their goal was to
keep the company and its
85 year-round employees
in Salem. They looked at
sites elsewhere, including
in neighboring Clacka-
mas County, before Sarles
stumbled upon the NOR-
PAC cannery last year.
In July 2017, NORPAC
Foods, a local food pro-
cessing co-op, announced
it was selling its can-
ning business to Seneca
Foods Corp. Sarles said
he reached out to Shawn
Campbell, NORPAC pres-
ident and CEO, and the
two began discussing
plans for the old plant on
Southeast 22nd Street.
“Our goal was we
wanted to stay here and
retain jobs,” Sarles said.
“It’s pretty darn cool to be
able to do that.”
City and economic
development
officials
are equally excited about
the opportunity to keep
a company like Oregon
Fruit Products. The Salem
Urban Renewal Agency
chipped in a $300,000
grant to help Oregon
Fruit Products with the
$13 million move. Salem
Mayor Chuck Bennett
spoke during the ribbon
cutting, calling the com-
pany a legacy business
that helped to put Salem
on the map as a food pro-
cessing and agricultural
powerhouse.
“This is such an import-
ant business here,” Ben-
nett said. “The city con-
tinues and will continue to
value your contribution.”
Talk about a strange
harvest.
Earlier this year, six East-
ern Oregon farmers and
ranchers agreed to bury pairs
of cotton underwear in their
fields and dig them back up
later in the season as part
of the “Soil Your Undies”
challenge, organized by the
USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service.
Not much remained of the
tattered, torn and threadbare
britches — and that’s pre-
cisely the point. The “Soil
Your Undies” challenge was
devised to illustrate the pres-
ence of tiny microorganisms
like mites, bacteria, fungi
and protozoa that make
up healthy soil, and which
devour the organic cotton
fibers in underpants.
NRCS Oregon is now
ready to roll out the chal-
lenge statewide, inviting any
and all growers to partici-
pate in 2019.
“This challenge is no sub-
stitute for lab testing,” said
Cory Owens, NRCS Ore-
gon state soil scientist. “But
it’s a fun way to start think-
ing about what’s going on in
the soil.”
According to the NRCS,
one teaspoon of healthy soil
contains more microbes than
1. Avoid soil disturbance
wherever and whenever
possible.
2. Maximize soil cover with
living plants and residue.
3. Maximize biodiversity by
growing a variety of plants
and managed integration of
livestock.
4. Maximize living roots in
the soil throughout the year.
NRCS
Joe McElligott, who farms dryland wheat in Morrow County,
Ore., participated in the “Soil Your Undies” challenge through
NRCS Oregon, burying 100 percent cotton underwear in his
field to test the presence of microbes in healthy soil.
the entire human population
on Earth. Working in con-
cert, the bitty organisms are
a critically important feature
in soil, cycling nutrients for
plants, storing moisture and
helping to resist erosion.
Robert Hathorne, a
spokesman for NRCS Ore-
gon, said the more microbes
break down undies, the
stronger the indication of
healthy soil.
“It’s a way to start think-
ing about what’s happen-
ing that causes soil health,”
Hathorne said.
Six Oregon producers
Evans Fruit
seeks $3.7M
Strong Since 1959
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By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A Washington apple farm
is seeking about $3.7 million
from an Oregon juice com-
pany for allegedly breaching
contracts to pay for apples.
The Evans Fruit Co. of
Cowiche, Wash., has filed
a complaint seeking a judg-
ment against the Hood River
Juice Co., and its owner,
David Ryan, in the U.S. Dis-
trict Court of Oregon.
The lawsuit alleges that
between August 2013 and
the end of 2014, Evans Fruit
delivered $3.5 million worth
of apples to the Hood River
Juice Co., which sells prod-
ucts under the Ryan’s brand.
In 2015, Evans agreed
to accept a promissory note
from Hood River Juice Co.,
under which it would be
repaid in 36 monthly install-
ments followed by a $2 mil-
lion balloon payment, the
complaint said.
The terms of the promis-
sory note were renegotiated
in early 2018 to allow Hood
River Juice Co. to repay the
balloon payment in install-
ments, but the company
has since breached the con-
tract and owes more than
$1.8 million in principal and
$20,800 in interest, the com-
plaint said.
took the challenge in 2018,
including Joe McElligott
and Corey Miller, of Mor-
row County, and Woody
Wolfe, Joe Dawson, Alan
Klages and Mark Butter-
field, of Wallowa County.
“They thought it was
all pretty funny,” Hathorne
said. “All of them had really
strong results from what we
found.”
The only exception
was Butterfield, who was
unable to find his underwear
after sneaky cows stole the
marker flag he had used to
mark the spot.
Even McElligott and
Miller, who farm dry-
land wheat in an area that
receives just 9-12 inches of
rain every year, found their
undies were eaten down to
just the elastic. Both grow-
ers use a no-till or reduced
tillage system, leaving crop
residue in the field to replen-
ish soil organic matter.
Hathorne said the NRCS
is hoping the results lead to
more interest in the “Soil
Your Undies” challenge in
2019. To participate, farm-
ers should “plant” a pair of
100 percent cotton under-
wear at the beginning of
the normal growing season,
and leave them for at least
60 days. Send “before” and
“after” photos, along with
information about the farm
and growing practices, to
orinfo@nrcs.usda.gov, or to
any local NRCS office.
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Thank you
for reading the Capital Press
Earlier this month the Capital Press moved to a new suite of offices a
mile and a half down the road from the building we occupied in Salem
for 55 years.
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order to prepare for the move. What to keep, what to
throw away? I quickly found myself engrossed in
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bygone day.
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