When you pick fruit at the peak of ripeness there’s no denying it’s appealing to the senses. Schedeen Farms focuses on fresh for same day sales in their own retail location and in a small Vancouver retail chain. All produce is grown and hand harvested in Oregon. Two of Julie Schedeen’s favorites are the Malwina heirloom variety strawberry and the Mara De Bois heirloom French strawberry. “It's intensely sweet. Almost floral,” she says. They’re also currently picking about 20 crates of Malwina a day. “We could sell 100, but we’re picking 20. Not the kind of volumes we used to do but still certainly satisfying.” The farm grows over 30 varieties of berries.
Challenging winter
Oregon experienced a challenging winter, some areas worse than others. “We had some record-low temperatures,” she said. The farm is located in a milder region, however – close enough to the gorge so the wind effect is about 10 – 15 degrees warmer than some of the nearby cold pockets. “We escaped cold damage but had some record setting rain. We’re seeing some of the effects of root rot on raspberries, and on some strawberries.”
Nice window of availability
Later season Octavia raspberries are now available when most other growers have completed their raspberry season. Octavia produces the majority of its yield through August. “All of the berries have their niche appeal,” she says. “The Octavia’s real appeal is that they’re late when everything else is done.” Situated at 850 above sea level, Schedeen says they run later than other farms. “We’re always happy to have a later fruit when the rest are done.” Raspberries are the farm’s biggest crop in terms of overall volume.
Small buyers
They have their own retail location and a small two-chain grocery store in Vancouver, which buys direct from farmers as much as possible. “They’ll carry all of our berries in season in a grocery store setting. They’re bypassing that two-day turnaround.” Fresh same-day sales is something that Schedeen urges. “We want them (sold) vine ripe. We like our relationships with the smaller buyers. I like when people are interested in the diversity of what we grow because I’m pretty enthusiastic about it.”
Schedeen has also moved into corn and pumpkins for retail, even though she says corn is every produce stand’s loss leader. However, she also says it’s an exceptional cover crop.
For more information:
Julie Schedeen
Schedeen Farm
Ph: (503)-658-4730