Tacoma — By mid-June in a year of average weather, South Sound berry farmers would be nearing their final strawberry harvests. In 2022, many haven’t even begun picking, and those that have are reporting smaller fruits and lower yields, according to several farmers who spoke with The News Tribune.
“We just started picking them reliably yesterday,” said Kamal Sidhu of Sidhu Farms on June 8. “Now when we pick, we’ll go through the whole field, and sometimes the next day we don’t have anything.”
His family has been farming in the Puyallup Valley for nearly a quarter-century, and they have never experienced rollercoaster weather like what the Puget Sound has in the past year.
“We’ve never had that amount of heat and this amount of cold in the spring,” he said, referring to last summer’s unprecedented heat wave that sent temperatures soaring above 110 degrees Fahrenheit up and down western Washington and Oregon. Shellfish farmers, dealing with the double-whammy of historically low tides, reported die off while farmers watched plants bolt and shrivel within a matter of hours.
Larger farms like Sidhu were able to bounce back from those losses, but this spring’s cold snap, heavy rains, one random snow day and hail “kind of caught everybody off track,” said Sidhu, who manages the farm with his two brothers and father, Chet Sidhu.
Just a single evening of below-freezing temperatures can spell death for a delicate strawberry or raspberry bush in its infant green stages.
“Once the plant is out of dormancy and fully growing, if a freeze happens — like a water pipe will burst if it freezes overnight — the same thing happens inside the cell membranes inside the plants,” explained Kamal Sidhu. “It will completely destroy the cell tissue and eventually the plant dies.”
Hail is a second-worst enemy: Pellets hit the flowers providing shelter to the baby berry, stunting the fruit’s growth or potentially ruining it entirely.
Dave White, owner of The Rusty Plow Farm in Enumclaw, worries about the possibility of more hailstorms in June.
“We pray for smooth sailing and sunshine from here on out,” White said by email.
The cold weather also prevents pollinators such as honeybees from doing their job, he added. Fortunately, there are several native bumblebees on his farm that can work in less favorable conditions.
Bees are usually gone by the end of May, but some are still making their rounds at the 10-acre Rusty Plow. Just over three acres are dedicated to seven varieties of blueberries, including spartan and pink lemonade. White said that it’s unusual for bees to still be pollinating in June.
“Good pollination makes for a better outcome with the fruit,” he said. “I’m optimistic that we should still have a good season.”
While some farms that grow berries don’t rely on them, such as Chipping Twig Farms in Orting, owner Kevin Johnson acknowledges a slight difference between this spring and previous years.
“This year is abnormally on the cool side,” he said on June 10.
The farm, which he and his wife bought about 10 years ago, is his “semi-retirement project.” They transformed a horse pasture into a 43-acre farm, growing berries, nuts, other produce and plants.
HIGHER COSTS LIMIT WA BERRY SEASON, TOO
Further compounding the problem, farmers said, is the ongoing challenge of finding enough workers.
Picking fruit is a 7-day-a-week job once the season starts, said Jim Johnson, a second-generation berry farmer in Olympia.
In addition to higher wages for the labor they do have, farmers are also dealing with general inflation, grappling with how much is too much for a pint of berries.
“We’ve already raised prices this year,” said Sidhu, “and to go any further…” he paused. “It’s just, we’re almost scared to go any further because, you know, it’s just so out of the ordinary for something that we would normally sell for $17 to $18 to go to $25 and $30. People haven’t complained at all, which is really nice, but at the same time we feel bad. At the same time, there’s not much we can do.”
He estimated that with labor, equipment, gas and whatever else it takes to sell their product, whether on-site in Puyallup or at farmers markets throughout the region, what cost $50 last year is running them $120 today.
A pound of berries at Enumclaw’s Rusty Plow costs $3.50 per pound, and White said he does not anticipate upping his prices more than five or ten cents. He is hesitant to raise prices but might have to because fertilizer costs and wages continue to rise.
THERE WILL BE BERRIES, BUT BE PATIENT
Growing more than 50 varieties of berries on more than 100 acres, Sidhu Farms didn’t start planting raspberries until mid-May this year — so everything is about two weeks behind schedule. Kamal Sidhu estimated they would begin harvesting around June 15, whereas normally they would already be well underway.
Around the Sound in Olympia, Jim Johnson also lamented a two-week delay in harvesting this season. Due to what he described as “our little microclimate,” most produce in this nook of the South Sound hits harvest 10 to 14 days after the Puyallup Valley, he said at the beginning of June.
“The plants look great,” he said. “It’s just gonna be late.”
Similarly, White is expecting about a week delay. The farm usually opens around July 9-10, but this year, it will likely be pushed back to after July 15.
In Orting, Chipping Twig’s Kevin Johnson expects most of his berries to bloom around July 4.
“I’m not worried about any of the weather issues that we have,” he said. “We expect good quality fruit later this summer.”
Due to the downstream effects of the June 2021 heat wave, this year’s harvest will also be considerably smaller than in years past — about half from farms like Jim Johnson’s modest 17 acres.
His land sits on a well-water system, and so when temperatures skyrocketed, he didn’t have the unlimited water supply essential to saving withering plants. Many plants were damaged to the point they weren’t even useful for making jam, a major part of Johnson’s business.
“Last summer was awful,” he admitted. “Because of that, they never came out of it. That’s why — not because I’m late — that’s why I don’t have a whole lot of fruit this year.”
He said he has learned not to fret over what’s out of his control, but regular, loyal customers already have their eyes peeled for opening day at the farm stand. Throughout the summer, he anticipates harvesting strawberries, tayberries and blackberries — but no red or golden raspberries this year because of the 2021 heat damage. Everything he does harvest in that regard will go straight to jam.
“Hopefully it’s a one-year problem,” said Johnson, who encouraged anyone seeking fruit to check the website for updates before driving out.
Rusty Twig farm hasn’t yet listed berry-picking hours, but they will be listed online when they’re ready. The farmstand at Chipping Twig welcomes patrons from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day.
As in any year but especially this one, Sidhu Farms encouraged berry seekers to arrive early for best selection. The first of their berries just landed at the Proctor Farmers Market in Tacoma on June 11.
