Almond growers throughout California should be popping corks and toasting their success with the news the 2020 crop is estimated to be the largest on record.
ST. PAUL, Ore. — Ken and June Melcher came to Oregon from Nebraska in 1957 with the express aim of farming hazelnuts.
ONALASKA, Wash. — Diversification has carried Burnt Ridge Nursery and Orchards, including the past year during the pandemic.
MOLALLA, Ore. — Laura and Mike Ellis of Mt. Hope Farms have built a thriving business based on table grapes and unusual berries.
ROSEBURG, Ore. — When part of the family ranch was made available for sale, Jesse and Rachel Nielsen didn’t hesitate to move back to Douglas County.
SHEDD, Ore. — Oak Park Farms dates back to 1850, when Washington L. Coon took out a donation land claim in Linn County, Ore., eight years before the first hazelnut was planted in the state.
ROSEBURG, Ore. — When Andy and Sherrie Alberding finally purchased a country home and property, they also got themselves a new learning opportunity.
KIMBERLY, Ore. — The roots of this operation go back 105 years, when Orrin Kimberly planted a small orchard near the banks of the John Day River in Central Oregon.
KUNA, Idaho — Cabalo’s Orchard was first planted in 1986.
GRANGER, Wash. — When you consider where Jones Farms Inc. is today compared to when the business started 75 years ago, it’s hard to overstate how much things have changed.
Tom Coleman says he is tired of the bad rap pistachios get.
WILDER, Idaho — Garrett Ranches is a fifth generation family business. It was started by H.W. Garrett in Walla Walla, Wash., as a fruit orchard after he arrived from the Midwest in the early 1900s.
The family-owned, vertically integrated company in Yakima, Wash. — which traces its roots back to 10 acres of rented orchard land in 1914 — has been making steady improvements to its business …
YAKIMA, Wash. — Mark and Cheryl Barrett each come from a long line of orchard families, but that doesn’t mean they wanted to do things the way they’ve always been done.
Steve Butler is on a mission to collect apples, and lots of them.
JUNCTION CITY, Ore. — Dwayne Bush has been playing and working in and around hazelnut orchards since he was a toddler.
Ten years ago, after being in the nursery business all his life, Gil Schieber established Skipley Farm near Snohomish, Wash.
SILVERTON, Ore. — Three members of the Silverton-area King Family Farms say the value-added slice of their hazelnut farming operation has taken up more and more of their nut tonnage each year.
Rich Birkemeier calls his family’s Birkemeier Farms an enterprise with a “multi-generational legacy.”
Henggeler family orchards are in their fourth generation. This fruit enterprise began in 1907 when Charles Henggeler purchased a farm near Fruitland, Idaho, and planted fruit trees.
Northwest cider production increased by double digits in 2018 and 2019, according to Emily Ritchie, executive director of the nonprofit Northwest Cider Association.
The Williamson family has been in the orchard business nearly 90 years, and in 1998 added a vineyard.
Avocado growers spend a lot of money on irrigation, but there is wide variation in performance and efficiency among systems available in the market, something the average grower may not realize.
Thanks to conducive weather conditions and state restrictions on how citrus is transported within the state, California still has the upper hand in controlling huanglongbing, or HLB, the citru…
Mike Braga’s family has been growing nuts for three generations, since around 1950 when his grandfather began with almonds in Caruthers, in Fresno County, Calif.
A Navy veteran, a San Diego cop and then security with the U.S. Foreign Service, and later private security for the CEO of the Walt Disney Co., to now being an olive grower — Scott Farquar has…
CRESWELL, Ore. — A lot of brotherly love is going into these two organic hazelnut orchards.
Many folks who grow up on a farm can’t wait to move away. Others, like Graham Gamache, couldn’t wait to get back.
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — Don Norton likes to think outside the box. Along with growing organic hops, Norton and his wife, Tina, also add value to the plants by selling vines and making wreaths, and…
HARRISBURG, Ore. — If brothers John and Tony Langdon could back up in time, they would have planted hazelnut trees on their Willamette Valley land 10 years earlier.
The Sohnreys have been farming the land since 1875, starting in Kansas before moving west to Northern California in 1918. Today, the fifth generation continues the family tradition in Durham, …
BONNERS FERRY, Idaho — Countless types of hops, giving beers their distinct, intriguing, and complex flavors — whether bitter, spicy, floral or citrusy — thrive in northern Idaho at Elk Mounta…
Ever since Allan Brothers Inc. was founded in the 1920s, the company has kept a close eye on the future.
Al Parsley grew up with orchards. His parents worked for large orchards in the Chelan, Wash., area for 35 years, then purchased orchards of their own in 1968.
On 400 acres in the Borrego Springs area in California’s low desert, in the southeastern part of the state, Seley Ranches is a family-run citrus orchard.
Kent Reinke’s orchard 7 miles northeast of Buhl, Idaho, has been in his family six decades.
The decision Kirk, Devin and Allison Cooper made in 1992 to purchase Arneson Rootstock has proved to be a good one.
KENO, Ore. — A hobby has turned into a business for Debra and Roy Harris.
COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. — The Oregon Organic Hazelnut Cooperative has doubled in size in its first year and now has 16 members.
Before 2009, Jay Thompson and his father, Tim, farmed only grass seed.
While this year’s pricing was a disappointment, the growth and yield of Willamette Valley hazelnuts was not.
Robison Orchards is a small family operation near Chelan, Wash., where four generations of the family have worked.
LORANE, Ore. — Ken Corricello of Trufflebert Farm said he “didn’t know we were doing it wrong” when he first planted his hazelnut trees on a hill and decided to grow them organically.
Cherry Hill Farms of Orem, Utah, now has orchards in Idaho, where they grow apples, peaches and a few tart cherries.
