Thistledown Farm
From Lane Co Oregon
Good Fruit, Really
By Joe Mosley
The Register-Guard
Published: Saturday, August 11, 2007
Most of the large-scale blackberry production in Oregon - about 7,000 acres total, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture - occurs in the northern Willamette Valley, from Corvallis to the Portland suburbs. Smaller commercial patches are grown in the Eugene area and points south.
"I've got about a half-acre," says Randy Henderson, owner of Thistledown Farm, on River Road north of Eugene. "That doesn't sound like much, until you try picking them."
Henderson says blackberries sell well, but are still not as popular as blueberries because they "are a little messier to eat - they're not finger food." And he sympathizes with landowners who see blackberries and their obstinate, meandering brambles as more nuisance than resource.
"They're everywhere - they're like thistles," Henderson says. "If I walked away from this place for about three years, you'd never be able to find it again."
Not quite the same varieties he farms in neat rows, but you get the idea.
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Randy Henderson, a fruit and vegetable farmer from Junction City
When I first had the notion to farm, I knew I wanted to locate on the best soil possible. I also knew that I wanted to be in the fresh market retail business. After a considerable length of time, I purchased Thistledown Farm.
The EFU designation of the farm and surrounding property assured me that I was secure from the many annoyances that can bedevil a farmer. I was sorely mistaken. A gravel company applied for a Plan Amendment [PAPA] and filed a Goal 5 application to extract gravel on the adjacent property.
After a prolonged, expensive, and extremely stressful ordeal, we are back where we were before the application was filed. We still have water in our wells, can harvest our fresh market crops free from gravel dust, and our customers can still access our fruit stand without fear of being confronted by gravel trucks every ninety seconds.
What we lost in the battle was our innocence. We are continually cognizant of the fact that another gravel application could occur at any time. If not gravel, then urban growth expansion or a Measure 37 claim that would jeopardize our ability to continue our livelihood.
I have three boys who want to farm, but I fear the opportunities for them to do so are in question. Short-term thinking, with little thought for future Oregonians, will erode our agricultural opportunities, our quality soil base, and our food security.
